Content Categorized with "All Reports"
1 - 10 of 52 results
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Ranked Choice Voting and Racial Group Turnout
- Posted: November 2, 2015
- Author(s): Andrew Douglas
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, Ranked Choice Voting in Bay Area Elections, FairVote Research on Local Elections, Research & Analysis, Home, FairVote, Voter Turnout, All Reports
A recent study on the impact of RCV in San Francisco presents some surprising findings on differences in turnout between racial groups that contradict previous research on the subject. In this report, we take a closer look at the study and find serious methodological flaws that cast doubt on its findings.
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Comparative Structural Reform
- Posted: August 31, 2015
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, National Popular Vote, Presidential Elections, Reforms, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Research & Analysis, Home, Redistricting, Voter Turnout, All Reports, Districts Plus
Comparative Structural Reform presents an extensive assessment of the potential impact of 37 structural reforms to election laws and legislative structures in collaboration with 14 prominent political scholars. Scholars participating in the project are authorities on electoral reform and legislative functionality, with extensive collective expertise and mastery of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of American legislatures, elections and electoral rules. Each of the participating scholars was asked to assess each reform’s impact on 16 different criteria fitting within four topline categories: legislative functionality, electoral accountability, voter engagement, and openness of process. Scholars were compensated for their participation. All scholars responded to all eleven surveys and provided a wealth of insightful comments, new sources, and useful information in addition to their well-considered ratings of each reform.
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Fuzzy Math: Wrong Way Reforms for Allocating Electoral Votes
- Posted: January 28, 2015
- Author(s): Claire Daviss, Rob Richie
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Presidential Elections, Home, All Reports
States have a constitutional obligation to decide how they will allocate their electoral votes during presidential elections. Almost all states currently use statewide, winner-take-all rules, which gives all of the state's votes to the winner of the statewide popular vote. But some states have considered alternative methods, such as the whole number proportional system and the congressional district system. We look at the effect these systems would have on presidential elections. Neither system promotes majority rule, increases competitiveness nationwide, or ensures voter equality.
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Federal Primary Runoff Elections and Voter Turnout Declines, 1994 - 2014
- Posted: November 17, 2014
- Author(s): Robert Fekete, Rob Richie
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, All Reports
Many states currently use runoff election systems during primaries for statewide federal posts. However, the two-election runoff system leads to high turnout declines and a less representative second election, particularly if there is along time delay between the two elections.
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Winners and Losers among Women House Candidates in 2014 Midterm Elections
- Posted: October 22, 2014
- Author(s): Claire Daviss
- Categories: Congressional Elections, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Research & Analysis, Home, All Reports
The 2014 midterm elections are upon us. How will women candidates fair? Using Monopoly Politics 2014 projections, we find that the U.S. House will not move much closer to gender parity in 2014. If this election is indicative of a trend (and it seems to be), Representation 2020 reforms offer a faster path to gender parity. -
Fair Voting in California - Will Santa Barbara Join Santa Clarita?
- Posted: August 8, 2014
- Author(s): Drew Spencer
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Cumulative Voting, Home, FairVote, All Reports
In July, the city of Santa Barbara became the most recent in a string of California cities being sued under the California Voting Rights Act for diluting the votes of their Latino population. By electing candidates at-large with fair voting, Santa Barbara could remedy any alleged vote dilution in a race neutral way, avoid the pitfalls of redistricting, and encourage the equitable election of women.
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The Role of Cities in National Popular Vote Elections
- Posted: June 13, 2014
- Author(s): , Andrea Levien, Rob Richie
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Presidential Elections, All Reports
In debating options for reforming presidential elections in the United States, the most promising alternative to the status quo is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPV). But even though we use popular vote elections to select every member of Congress and all 50 governors, some NPV skeptics warn that its adoption would have a partisan impact on presidential elections. They fear that Democrats could increase their national vote totals by focusing resources on major metropolitan areas, while Republicans could achieve similar gains only by spreading their resources across more geographically dispersed, non-urban areas. This report challenges this argument in three ways.
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The Effect of Fair Representation Voting on 2013 Cambridge, Massachusetts Municipal Elections
- Posted: February 20, 2014
- Author(s): Andrew Douglas
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Research & Analysis, Home, All Reports
Cambridge, Massachusetts is the only municipality in the United States to elect its city council through the at-large form of ranked choice voting, a form of fair representation voting. This report examines the effects of this system on the city’s 2013 city council and school committee elections, with a particular focus on comparing the outcome of the city council contest with the results of a simulated election using an alternative system: winner-take-all block voting.
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Top Two in Washington State
- Posted: July 18, 2013
- Author(s): Drew Spencer
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, Home, All Reports
Update: This report has now been updated to include additional analysis from the results of the 2012 general election, more details on FairVote's proposed solution: Top Four with ranked choice voting, and analysis based on comparison to California's use of Top Two in 2012.
The Top Two primary system has drawn increasing attention as a way to reform our elections. Rather than have parties nominate candidates who then face off in a general election, it establishes two rounds of voting: the first a "preliminary" to reduce the field to two candidates and the second a final runoff between the top two finishers. Candidates pick their own party label, and that label has no impact on which candidates advance.
Louisiana for years was the only state using a form of the system for both state and federal elections. Washington State started using the system in 2008. California implemented it in 2012, and Arizona voters may adopt it in a November 2012 ballot measure. This report looks at the impact of the Top Two primary in Washington State in the two and a half election cycles in which it has been used. The report focuses on state legislative elections, but also summarizes results to date in congressional and statewide elections.
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A Constitutional Right to Vote
- Posted: June 24, 2013
- Author(s): Mollie Hailey
- Categories: Research & Analysis, Voting Rights, All Reports
It is widely believed that “the right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected.” Many are surprised to learn, then, that the right to vote is not explicitly protected in the U.S. Constitution. Amending the Constitution to include an explicit right to vote would make it clear that this right is in fact fundamental. It would ensure that voter challenges to election rules would force governments to justify practices that curtail access to the ballot.