FairVote Blog
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Open General Elections Deserve Support in Colorado
by Drew Spencer // May 6, 2014 //On Tuesday, April 29th, a group of Colorado activists called The Coalition for a New Colorado Election System held a press conference to announce that it has begun collecting signatures for a new approach to election reform. This approach will both open the primaries to independent voters while simultaneously opening the general election to real electoral competition.
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A Better Approach to Voting Rights Act Cases
by Rais Akbar // May 5, 2014 //The Voting Rights Act has been critical for protecting voting rights since its passage in 1965. But as a recent case in Texas shows, preconditions that assume the use of single-member districts prevent the VRA from being used to its full effect.
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Oregon State University Boosts Turnout With Ranked Choice Voting
by Ben Petit // May 2, 2014 //Earlier this year Oregon State University decided to switch to ranked choice voting in hopes to boost turnout, increase participation, and ensure the winning candidate has support from a broad base of voters. The result was a doubling of voter turnout in comparison to last year's general election, more inclusive campaigns, and a widely supported president-elect. It's clear Oregon State reached, and even surpassed, its goals for RCV.
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FairVote and Elderhostel
by Drew Spencer // April 30, 2014 //This past Tuesday, FairVote had the opportunity to present on FairVote’s key reforms to a group of Elderhostelers (now called “Road Scholars”), on winner-take-all, polarization, partisan bias, and the fair voting solution.
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Arkansas Voter ID Law Struck Down
by Matthew Bugajski // April 29, 2014 //An explicit right to vote in the U.S. Constitution would prevent future debates over voter ID law.
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Elections in India and Indonesia Highlight Differences Between Electoral Systems
India and Indonesia both held major elections this month. One country uses winner-take-all, the other proportional representation. That choice makes a difference.
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Humboldt State University Holds First Ranked Choice Voting Election
by Ben Petit // April 28, 2014 //Humboldt State University adopted ranked choice voting for student elections in 2013. Last week ranked choice voting was used for the first time to elect a new student body president.
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Behind the Scenes of Muriel Bowser’s Primary Victory: The Good, the Bad, and the Ranked Choice Voting Solution in Washington, D.C.
by , Dania N. Korkor // April 23, 2014 //As the returns poured in from precincts around the District of Columbia on April 1st, it became increasingly clear that the Democratic mayoral primary had evolved from a fractured field to a race primarily between two candidates. If D.C. adopted ranked choice voting (RCV), its elections would not force voters to pick between two “viable” candidates and instead would let them vote their consciences.
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Monopoly Politics Blog Series: Hardening Partisanship in State Legislatures
by Matthew Bugajski, Devin McCarthy // April 23, 2014 //State legislatures around the country face the same growing problems of partisanship and polarization as the House of Representatives.
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A Response to Deceptive Claims About Draft Academic Paper on Ranked Choice Voting and Turnout
by Drew Spencer, Drew Spencer // August 5, 2014 //Why one anti-ranked choice voting agitator's mischaracterization of a withdrawn draft paper purporting to show that RCV leads to declining turnout should not be taken seriously.