FairVote Blog
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Happy 200th Birthday to the “Gerry-mander”
by Tyler Sadonis // February 17, 2012 // 0 commentsSaturday February 11, 2012 marked the 200th birthday of the "Gerry-mander." With 2012 redistricting plans taking shape, gerrymandering continues to be prevalent. FairVote advocates for an alternative reform to fundamentally change the way we draw district boundaries.
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Let’s Get Voter Registration Right – and Make it Universal
Our broken voter registration system is a direct barrier to participation. In fact, if every single registered voter participated this November, we still would trail many nations in turnout. It won't take rocket science to ensure that every eligible voter is registered to vote and that all ineligible voters are not. It's time to make a national commitment to voting in the United States; doing so must include modernizing voter registration.
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Romney vs. Romney
by Sheahan Virgin // February 13, 2012 // 1 commentsMedia attention in the Republican nomination contest is focused on this year's results for Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum. It's also informative to compare Romney to another candidate: himself, circa 2008.
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Paul vs. Paul
by Sheahan Virgin // February 13, 2012 // 0 commentsMedia attention in the 2012 Republican nomination contest is focused on the ace among Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, but it's also instructive to compare Paul to another candidate: himself, circa 2008.
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Egyptian Parliamentary Elections, Part 1: The Rules
by Hüseyin Koyuncu // February 13, 2012 // 0 commentsEgypt recently held important parllamentary elections. We explain how some seats were elected with proportional voting and others with winner-take-all and the impact of these voting rules on representation.
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Rule Breaker: The Florida Republican Primary, Winner-Take-All Allocation, and the Undoing of American Democracy
by Sheahan Virgin // February 2, 2012 // 1 commentsWhen it comes to presidential elections, Florida has a penchant for controversy. The latest example comes via the 2012 GOP nomination battle: the Sunshine State has caused waves by violating RNC rules barring the use of winner-take-all allocation of delegates in pre-April contests. Winner-take-all is a highly undemocratic, broken system that marginalizes voters and shortchanges the primary process, and the GOP must prevent other states from following Florida's example.
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Presidential Tracker: New Evidence of our Shrinking Battleground
President Obama's travel patterns over the past months have been leaning toward battleground and fundraising states. How does the whole of 2011 shape up? We summarize the past year and look at what is to come as the 2012 presidential election year comes into full swing.
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The Supply Side: Alternative Reform Approaches to Campaign Finance
Last Saturday marked the two-year anniversary of the controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Citizens United overturned decades of campaign finance law by extending First Amendment protection to political expenditures by corporations and unions. Most reformers focus on how to affect the supply of money in politics, whereas FairVote focuses on electoral reforms that will reduce the demand for money in politics by reducing the impact of money.
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South Carolina voters better enjoy it while it lasts
With the South Carolina primary just around the corner on Saturday, the preferences of South Carolina voters are of intense interest to the nation -and of course to the candidates swarming the states. Events, polls, debates and the media are all focused on South Carolina voters. But after Saturday? Forget it.
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RCV for the GOP: Mitt Romney, Fractured Conservatives, and the Importance of Rules in Determining Election Outcomes
by Sheahan Virgin // January 20, 2012 // 0 commentsSome conservatives wonder how Mitt Romney has become the favorite for the nomination in a Republican party moving rightward. Others embrace Romney. One problem for believers of both views is the plurality voting rule that means winners don't have to secure a majority. Plurality voting arguably has been negative for all parties involved in the nomination race—whether Romney or his more conservative challengers. The solution, FairVote argues, lies in the adoption of an alternative framework: ranked choice voting.