FairVote Blog
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Mitigating the Pernicious Effects of Gerrymandering in North Carolina: The Super-District Alternative
North Carolina lawmakers have approved one of the nation’s most extreme partisan gerrymanders this year. Four of the state’s seven Democratic incumbents are clearly targeted for defeat. The new map reduces the number of the state’s 13 congressional districts carried by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race from eight to only three, with the remaining 10 district all ones where John McCain won at least 55% of the vote. But FairVote's proportional voting plan in super districts would create a level playing field for people of all parties and races.
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Dawning Digital Democracy
by Krist Novoselic // August 12, 2011 //If we see the new forms of association as a movement itself, then we are at the beginning of that rare moment of change.
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Evolution of voting rights from 1789 to today must continue
by Jo McKeegan, Right to Vote Blog // August 14, 2011 //Often we sanctify the Founding Fathers and the Constitution that is the bedrock of our republic. But when it comes to voting rights, most of the founders were far off the mark from how we see the right to vote today. Consider the realities of the election of 1789, the first election of the new Congress. The overall number of people who were allowed to, and actually voted, was miniscule in state after state.
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Why Approval Voting is Unworkable in Contested Elections
by The Non-Majority Rule Desk // July 30, 2011 //Approval voting is a method of voting to elect single winners that has adherents among some voting theorists, but it is unworkable in contested elections in which voters have a stake in the outcome. Once aware of how approval voting works, strategic voters will always earn a significant advantage over less informed voters. This problem with strategic voting far outweighs any other factor when evaluating the potential use of approval voting in governmental elections - and is also true of range voting, score voting, the Borda Count and Bucklin voting.
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Voting Rights Constitutional Amendment Gathers Steam
Nothing is more fundamental to democracy that a fully protected right to vote. That’s why it belongs in the U.S. Constitution.
That's why we so pleased to share good news. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. has introduced HJR 28, the Right to Vote amendment. If you want to support HJR 28, you can take action today. Without such a right specifically enumerated in our Constitution, our fundamental voting rights are at risk.
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South Carolina: The Super District Alternative
by Super Districts, Jais Mehaji // July 22, 2011 //Redistricting ensures that political district lines reflect population changes in the U.S. Census every ten years so that each district has the same number of voters per seat in a district. South Carolina is in the midst of redistricting and, as with most states, it’s become complicated and increasingly controversial and partisan. As explained in our recent post on Michigan, FairVote proposes an alternative to the winner-take-all system that has plagued the redistricting process, and opened it up to gerrymandering, partisan bickering, and opportunism.
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California: A Simulated Attempt at Super-Districts
by Super Districts, Jais Mehaji // July 22, 2011 //Michael S. Latner and Kyle Roach from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo have written a thoughtful article on adopting proportional representation in California, based on a simulation-type analysis.
Their simulation deals with use of a proportional voting system to elect California’s 80 seat Assembly , echoing many of the points we have been making in our series of analyses of the value of the potential use of proportional voting in congressional elections in states such as Michigan and Louisiana. -
Ranked Choice Absentee Ballots: Preventing the Disenfranchisement of Military and Overseas Voters
by Cynthia Okechukwu // July 21, 2011 //American citizens living abroad, including men and women in uniform, often face difficulties in voting in elections at home. Military and overseas voters continue to point to short ballot turnaround times as an obstacle to voting in federal, state, and local elections. Ranked choice absentee ballots provide a legal and practical solution to this problem.
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Gerrymandering in Michigan and the Super District Remedy
Controversies over redistricting in Michigan provide the latest evidence of the failure of winner-take-all, single member district rules. Winner-take-all elections inevitably represent many voters poorly and tempt partisans to gerrymander outcomes. The 1967 law mandating that states use them should be repealed so that states like Michigan can explore “super district” form of proportional voting to increase voter choice and fair outcomes.
FairVote's example of how super districts would work in Michigan show that every district easily can be made to be competitive and guarantee fair representation.
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Lebanon Discusses Adopting Proportional Representation
by Jais Mehaji, Arab Spring Series // July 19, 2011 //Though not undergoing the same kind of upheaval as in Tunisia, Egypt, or Syria, Lebanon has been experiencing some change from the Arab Spring movement. As true in all countries moving toward real elections, adoption of proportional representation voting systems is seen as a key goal.