Originally published on The Dispatch, by Harvest Prude MANSFIELD, Ohio—A crowd of around 200 mingled in a spacious ballroom for Richland County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner earlier this month. Guests sporting red dresses or red ties chatted about the contentious GOP Senate primary in the state and local party politics at tables draped in…
This post by ERN Fellow Al Vanderklipp originally appeared on The Fulcrum. Only hours after the riot of Jan. 6, 2021, with the calls to “stop the steal” still reverberating under the Capitol Rotunda, 139 Republican members of the House of Representatives voted to oppose the valid electoral votes sent from Arizona and Pennsylvania, in…
This post by Kevin Johnson and Al Vanderklipp originally appeared on The Fulcrum. Johnson and Vanderklipp are, respectively, the executive director and research fellow for the Election Reformers Network and the co-authors of “Nonpartisanship Works: How Lessons from Canada Can Reestablish Trust in U.S. Election Administration.” Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has repeated the call for his state’s legislature to seize…
This post by Kevin Johnson originally appeared on The Fulcrum. Absent a remarkable change of heart from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, the For the People Act seems headed for defeat. Democratic congressional leaders insist on binding the bill’s many elements as one package, but they should now shift focus to the individual components with at…
By Kevin Johnson, Larry Garber, and Edward McMahon Since Ronald Reagan launched the National Endowment for Democracy in 1982, the U.S. government has regularly funded American organizations working to support democracy overseas. In scores of countries around the world, Americans have advised on the design of new election systems, nurtured emerging civil society, funded voter…
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….
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…
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…
GUARDING THE HENHOUSE: WHO SHOULD DRAW CREDIBLE ELECTION BOUNDARIES? Edward R. McMahon, Ed.D Adjunct Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Vermont Vice Chair, Election Reformers Network A hot item on the current political reform agenda in this country concerns the redrawing of the boundaries that define congressional districts. This constitutionally-mandated process typically occurs every…
