FairVote is pleased to be a participant in the Strengthening our Nation’s Democracy (SOND) coalition that has brought together a remarkable gathering of the ‘democracy reform and civic engagement’ community: deliberative democracy practitioners, community problem solvers and organizers, election reformers, transparency advocates, e-democracy activists, national service advocates, media reformers, educators, and others. The August 2009 SOND conference led to a draft statement of principles and goals that in its electoral reform section includes many of FairVote's priorities, calling for: a right to vote in the U.S. Constitution; the National Popular vote plan for president; universal voter registration and immediate steps toward it such as youth voter pre-registration and the removal of barriers for states to use proportional voting and instant runoff voting in federal elections.

Leading scholars also continue to embrace our vision of election reform. In the 2009 Good Society journal of the Committee on the Political Economy of the Good Society, scholars Sanford Levinson, Carol Nackenoff and Leslie Friedman Goldstein all tout achieving a national popular vote for president, with Professors Levinson and Goldstein also supporting instant runoff voting for presidential elections and Professor Nackenoff supporting a constitutional right to vote. Blogger Matthew Yglesias, meanwhile, continues to tout the potential of proportional representation.

Links:

• Strengthening our Nation's Democracy Report 
• Committee on the Political Economy of the Good Society article
• Matthew Yglesias blog on multi-party politics