Content Categorized with "Congressional Elections"
31 - 40 of 59 results
-
FairVote's Top Ten List: The Breakdown of Winner-Take-All Elections
- Posted: April 26, 2013
- Author(s): Andrea Levien, Devin McCarthy, Rob Richie
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Presidential Elections, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Home
These are the top ten indicators that winner-take-all has led to the breakdown of the American electoral system in both presidential and legislative elections.
-
Taking on American Political Dysfunction without Changing the Constitution
- Posted: April 23, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy, Rob Richie
- Categories: Congressional Elections, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Home
In his draft paper on Political Dysfunction and Constitutional Change, University of California-Irvine professor Rick Hasen makes a powerful case for the need for out-of-the-box thinking on American political reform. But he also makes a curious omission: fair voting.
-
Scholars like Nathaniel Persily Shouldn't Count Out Fair Voting
- Posted: March 5, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Home
Many election experts ignore fair voting reform solutions because they believe them to be politically infeasible. But the only way for fair voting to become achievable is for those who know about it to start talking about the positive impact it could have on American politics.
-
California and the Limits of Independent Redistricting Commissions with Winner-Take-All
- Posted: February 15, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy, Rob Richie
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Home, Redistricting
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.
-
Geography as a Failed Unit of Representation: Why Fifty States of Equal Population Is No Solution for Presidential Elections
- Posted: February 15, 2013
- Author(s): Andrea Levien, Devin McCarthy, Rob Richie
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Presidential Elections, Congressional Elections, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Home
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.
-
Dubious Democracy: Updated FairVote Report Shows Dysfunctional House Elections
- Posted: February 11, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Congressional Elections, FairVote
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.
-
NRCC Targets Foreshadow Power of Partisanship in 2014 Elections
- Posted: January 18, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Congressional Elections, Home
The power of partisanship in governing outcomes had led Republicans to make their top seven targets the only Democrats representing a district were Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election trailed his national average by more than four percentage points.
-
Democrats' Edge in House Popular Vote Would Have Increased if All Seats Had Been Contested
- Posted: January 9, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Congressional Elections, Home
A new FairVote analysis suggests that if both parties had run candidates in all 435 districts in the U.S. House elections in 2012, the Democratic margin of victory in the popular vote would have been even greater than its edge in the raw vote - a further indication of the partisan skew existing in current congressional elections.
-
When Barack Obama Was a Leader in Seeking Fair Voting Systems
- Posted: December 20, 2012
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Drew Spencer
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Home, FairVote
President Barack Obama has a lot on his mind these days, but the state of our democracy remains critical. Fortunately, judging by Obama's record in the Illinois Senate --where he was the prime sponsor of legislation to advance cumulative voting and instant runoff voting - we haven't had a president as informed about good ideas for taking on electoral reform since James Madison and the founding generation.
-
It's Not Just Gerrymandering: Fixing House Elections Demands End of Winner-Take-All Rules
- Posted: December 16, 2012
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy, Rob Richie
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Home, Redistricting
This year's elections put a spotlight on the troubled nature of how we elect the House of Representatives, the alleged "people's house." But some of our smartest election experts don't seem to understand the root of the problems with House elections.