FairVote Blog
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How the Electoral College Became Winner-Take-All
by Devin McCarthy // August 22, 2012 //Electoral College electors weren't always chosen based on statewide winner-take-all rules. The first 13 U.S. presidential elections were messy and confusing, as each state used its own method for holding--or not holding--presidential elections.
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Swing States of America: Candidate Tracker and News, August 17
by Devin McCarthy // August 17, 2012 //Mitt Romney's choice of Paul Ryan could improve his chances in Ryan's home state of Wisconsin, but by how much? Will the overperforming economies of many swing states give President Obama victory in November?
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Swing States of America: Candidate Tracker and News, August 6
by Devin McCarthy, Presidential Tracker // August 6, 2012 //Nationwide polls remain close, but recent swing state polling suggests that President Barack Obama is beginning to pull away from Mitt Romney in the few states that will decide the 2012 presidential election. Obama attempts to further increase this lead with another week of swing state campaigning.
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Electing Lords: A Unique Opportunity for Electoral Reform in the British Upper House
by Devin McCarthy // July 31, 2012 //A lordship, by its very definition, has historically not been an elected office. But there is a strong movement in the British House of Commons to transform the upper house of the British parliament, the House of Lords, into a largely elected body based on proportional representation. This reform is long overdue.
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North Carolina's Miniscule Runoff Turnout Undercuts Legitimacy
by Devin McCarthy // July 24, 2012 //A higher percentage of Americans believe in vampires than voted in North Carolina's July 17th primary runoff for nominations for Congress and key statewide offices. Unless North Carolina wants to risk a vampire or a similarly extreme candidate winning an election, it needs to change its runoff system. Instant runoff voting is the solution.
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Instant Runoff Voting in Action in Takoma Park
by Jared Gay, Rob Richie // July 18, 2012 //Our analysis of the July 18 thinstant runoff election in Takoma Park, Maryland. We include information from an exit survey regarding opinions of instant runoff voting.
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Swing States of America: Candidate Tracker and News, July 10
by Erin Ellis, Jared Gay // July 10, 2012 //President Obama campaigns in swing state Iowa and Romney in swing state Colorado; mobilizing black female voters could be a tiebreaker for Obama; Missouri, now a red-leaning state, is becoming "irrelevant."
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Libya's 'Hybrid' Election Rules and Why They Are Less Than Ideal
by Erin Ellis, Arab Spring Series // July 5, 2012 //On July 7, Libya will hold its first democratic elections since 1964. FairVote explains Libya's hybrid election system for the 200-seat General National Congress and how it could be better if all seats were elected by a form of proportional representation.
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The Current Electoral College is Like the World Series (Which is Why We Need to Change It)
by Devin McCarthy // July 2, 2012 //If you've followed the debate over the Electoral College, you may have heard the argument that the College's structural similarity to baseball's World Series is a good argument for keeping its current winner-take-all rules. That argument is flawed.
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Mexico's Divisive Presidential Election System
by Warren Hays // June 19, 2012 //With Mexican voters set to go to the polls on July 1, the country's three-party system combined with its winner-take-all presidential elections create a recipe for popular discontent with no end in sight.