FairVote Blog
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True The Vote Fudges the Numbers in New Turnout Study
by Andrea Levien // February 28, 2013 //True the Vote, an organization dedicated to eradicating voter fraud through controversial methods, issued a report on February 27 concluding that new voter ID laws not only did not have an adverse impact on turnout in the 2012 elections, but may have increased turnout. But it turns out the report’s authors made a huge methodological mistake.
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Italian Elections Expose Non-Proportional and Ineffective Voting System
by Sara Helmi, Devin McCarthy // February 28, 2013 //In the aftermath of Italy's general election on February 25-26, outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti asserted that "no country has such a bad electoral law as Italy." That may be an exaggeration, but there was plenty to be dissatisfied with in the election results.
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Gender Parity: A Case for Fair Voting and Party Rules
by Patricia Hart // February 28, 2013 //The United States trails behind ninety-one countries for women's representation in its national legislature . Ranking behind most industrialized democracies, women fill a mere eighteen percent of U.S. Congressional seats. Many factors contribute to the level of descriptive representation (representation that reflects the electorate) present in a state's government. Two striking influences on representation are structural and institutional: the electoral system in place and the party rules employed.
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FairVote Agrees: Preserve the Voting Rights Act
by Mollie Hailey // February 27, 2013 //The right to vote is essential for a truly representative democracy, and legislation implemented with widespread support in Congress to enhance this right, such as Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, should be upheld.
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The Role of Fair Voting Systems in the Shelby County Case
by Rob Richie, Drew Spencer // February 21, 2013 //On February 27, the U.S. Supreme Court will hold oral arguments in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, reviewing the constitutionality of Section 5 "preclearance" provisions of the Voting Rights Act. A largely overlooked part of the case is the fact that Section 5 was the reason that Calera, a growing city in Alabama's Shelby County just south of Birmingham, adopted one of the fair voting systems we recommend to uphold voting rights.
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FairVote's Top Three Electoral College Stories of the Week, February 12 to February 19, 2013
by Andrea Levien // February 19, 2013 //Tune in every week for FairVote's favorite news items on the Electoral College and National Popular Vote.
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California and the Limits of Independent Redistricting Commissions with Winner-Take-All
by Devin McCarthy, Rob Richie // February 15, 2013 //Independent redistricting continues to gain attention as the panacea for American congressional elections. But as the independent redistricting's performance in California shows, on its own it cannot resolve the most serious problems with our congressional elections. We need to combine independent redistricting with adoption of fair voting plans.
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Geography as a Failed Unit of Representation: Why Fifty States of Equal Population Is No Solution for Presidential Elections
The idea of electing the president with a creative alternative map of the United States in which every state has equal population has drawn sympathetic support from Atlantic writer Jim Fallows. But uneven population of states has little to do with what's broken in presidential elections, just as equal population congressional districts leave us with broken U.S. House elections. We must free ourselves from geographic boundaries and go to the real meaning of one-person, one-vote with the National Popular Vote plan for president and fair voting for Congress.
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FairVote's Top Three Electoral College Stories of the Week, February 6 to February 12, 2013
by Andrea Levien // February 12, 2013 //Tune in every week for FairVote's favorite news items on the Electoral College and National Popular Vote.
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Dubious Democracy: Updated FairVote Report Shows Dysfunctional House Elections
by Devin McCarthy // February 11, 2013 //Since 1994, FairVote has released a biannual report on American congressional elections called "Dubious Democracy." FairVote now presents its updated evaluations of the 2012 congressional elections.