Press
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E-Newsletter September 30, 2009
- Posted: September 30, 2009
- Categories: FairVote Reformer E-Newsletters, FairVote
Features:
- A Big Month for IRV
- A World of Fair Representation
- Advances for Voting Rights in DC and NC
- National Recognition for Transparent Elections
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Special Edition: The Many Faces of Reform
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Blagojevich "Tell-All" Book Shows You Can't Play Appointment Games in U.S. House Elections
- Posted: September 1, 2009
- Categories: FairVote
In previews of a new tell-all book by Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced former Illinois governor explains his version of the political machinations behind the filling of the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Obama. Blagojevich claims that his original intent for filling the Senate seat blatantly revolved around pursuing "pet projects" favored by the governor--appointing someone who would best represent the people of Illinois was nowhere in the calculation. Blagojevich also alleges that current White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel asked him to appoint a temporary "placeholder" U.S. Representative to his congressional seat, according to an August 31 Associated Press story by Deanna Bellandi.
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Motion Picture Academy Adopts Instant Runoff Voting for Best Picture
- Posted: September 1, 2009
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, FairVote
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science announced this week that it will use instant runoff voting to choose its honoree for Best Picture, ensuring that the most celebrated movie of the year is one with strong support among Academy members. Used by the Academy in Best Picture voting before 1945, which was the last time ten pictures were nominated,instant runoff voting (IRV) is a system in which voters rank their preferences in order of choice. The nominee with the fewest votes is eliminated, and ballots cast for that film are moved to voter's next choice among the remaining films. The process continues until one film has more than half the votes and is declared Best Picture of the Year.
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E-Newsletter August 31, 2009
- Posted: August 31, 2009
- Categories: FairVote Reformer E-Newsletters, FairVote
Features:
- Democracy in Senatorial Succession
- Better Voting on the Ballot
- FairVote Reports and Testimony: Fixing the Primaries, Audited Elections
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If You Proportionally Allocate, They Will Come
- Posted: August 27, 2009
- Categories: FairVote, Presidential Nominations Reform
Turnout between the major parties for the 2008 presidential nomination cycle was disparate, to say the least. Democratic turnout nearly doubled those of the Republicans over all, and nearly tripled the Republicans’ turnout post-Super Tuesday, February 5th.
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Major Editorials: Let Voters Choose Massachusetts' Senators
- Posted: August 25, 2009
- Categories: FairVote
Prominent publications and political leaders in Massachusetts and across the country have joined FairVote in opposing a proposed change to Massachusetts law that would allow for the appointment of U.S. Senators in the case of a vacancy. Massachusetts is one of five states that requires a special election to fill vacancies in the U.S. Senate, but last week Sen. Edward Kennedy asked the governor and legislature of Massachusetts to amend that law so that if Sen. Kennedy should need to vacate his seat, a gubernatorial appointment could be made to immediately replace him.
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FairVote: Massachusetts Should Not Move to Appointed Senators
- Posted: August 21, 2009
- Categories: FairVote
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy requested yesterday that the governor and state legislature of Massachusetts change the law to allow the governor to appoint a new U.S. senator should the senator need to vacate his seat. FairVote, a nonpartisan election reform organization, opposes such a change, and today reiterated its call for all U.S. Senators to be elected by the people they represent, as is true of every Member who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Report: Widely Used Voting Machine Missed 0.4% of Ballots
- Posted: August 18, 2009
- Categories: Research & Analysis, FairVote
Proving the value of transparency and redundancy in ballot-counting, an independent rescanning of ballots cast in the May 5, 2009 elections in Aspen (CO) showed that the voting machines used for the initial vote count entirely missed 11 (0.4%) out of the 2,544 ballots cast. The ballots were initially counted with Pitkin County's Premier (formerly Diebold) AccuVote optical scan voting machines, one of the most widely used optical scanning systems in the country. The error was discovered when TrueBallot, Inc., employed under contract with the city of Aspen to re-tally the elections at a central location, rescanned all ballots using a commercial off-the-shelf scanner and discovered the erroneously disregarded 11 ballots.
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Martinez Resignation Highlights Need for Elections to Fill Senate Vacancies
- Posted: August 7, 2009
- Categories: FairVote
Florida U.S. Senator Mel Martinez has announced that he will resign this fall, more than a year before the end of this term. Gov. Charlie Crist, a leading candidate for the seat, is now in the position to decide who will fill the office in the interim, with the expectation of a placeholder candidate who likely will be a weak representative for one of our largest states.