Content Authored by Nate Crippes
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What if the Right to Vote Started at Birth?
- Posted: June 17, 2011
- Author(s): Nate Crippes
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment, Home
Journalist Jonathan Bernstein has raised an interesting question: at what age should we be allowed to begin voting? More specifically, should citizens be given the right to vote at birth, with our parents voting for us before we're capable (Bernstein suggests the ripe old age of 15 for voting on one's own)? It's certainly an interesting theory. FairVote is not endorsing such a position, but we do think it would be interesting to look at both sides of the issue, grounded in the fact that if we treat voting as a right, we should only limit rights for very good reasons.
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The End of the Election Assistance Commission?
- Posted: May 31, 2011
- Author(s): Nate Crippes, Dean Searcy
- Categories: Research & Analysis, Home, FairVote
The future of the Election Assistance Commission, an independent bipartisan government agency tasked with making elections fair and accessible, is in question. Amid the intense debate in Washington over government spending, this small agency could be terminated, some of its tasks being relegated to the Federal Elections Commission, in order to save the taxpayers $14 million a year. In the United State House of Representatives, H.R. 672, a bill introduced by Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), seeks to terminate the EAC. The bill has made it through the Committee on House Administration along party lines, and will now move to the House for a vote.