Election Reformers Network has launched an intensive evaluation into the issue of conflicts of interest for state chief election officers. The project will assess the extent to which chief election officers competing for public office or publicly supporting a competing candidate or party threaten voter confidence in the election process. If the assessment concludes that…
Published in Electoral Reform Mar 14, 2019 Perhaps it is not surprising that Friday’s vote on HR1, the omnibus election reform bill, broke strictly along partisan lines … And yet, just last year, many of the reforms featured in HR1 won backing from Republican majorities in several states. Reforms like independent redistricting, automatic voter registration, campaign…
Ever since we started Election Reformers Network, I’ve been using the email tagline: “Fundamentally, we are not a divided people, but we do need to fix our rules.” So I was very pleased to see a New York Times Opinion piece today by law professor Tim Wu pointing out how much Americans agree on key policy questions….
By Kevin Johnson and Rob Richie Published in CommonWealth Magazine March 3, 2019 MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS care about presidential elections. Many knock on doors in New Hampshire or phone bank to voters in Florida and Ohio. Of course, they may also vote for president, but they do so knowing that what really matters will happen somewhere else….
Abuse of power stopped by citizens, that’s a good sign of the health of our democracy, and it happened in New Jersey this past weekend when state legislative leaders were forced off a plan to permanently gerrymander Democratic control. It’s an even better sign that the citizens groups doing the stopping were on the side that would…
by Kevin Johnson in Opinion Dec 11, 2018 Among the many moments of President Bush’s life celebrated last week, I have a particular reason to focus on November 3, 1992, when Bush delivered what to me were the most important words of his presidency: “The people have spoken, and we respect the majesty of the democratic system.” When I…
Here’s a perspective on the midterm elections that hasn’t been talked about much: Trump country voted “yes” on election reform. The vast majority of counties that Trump won convincingly in 2016 joined the reform wave that swept much of the country on election day, enacting the largest number of pro-voter ballot initiatives in a half…
What are the main take-aways from the 2018 primary season from an election reform perspective? In summary, some good news, some problems, and some emerging solutions. The good news is that competition and participation both increased significantly in 2018, as more people ran, more people voted, and more primaries actually offered choice to voters… But…
When the Pew Research Center polled Americans about gerrymandering in 2006, 89% of respondents had never heard the term or knew little about it. Fast forward twelve years and gerrymandering is a cause célèbre, a focal point for widespread concern over the state of our democracy. This year, five states vote on constitutional amendments to…
Research we conducted this week provides further evidence for the core argument of Election Reformers Network: that our rules themselves are a source of political dysfunction and partisanship. Political scientists measure partisanship with a tool call the NOMINATE score, which ranks Representatives and Senators based on their roll call votes (with +1 being extremely conservative, and -1…
