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.
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FairVote has developed and backed electoral reforms based on our
vision of a democracy grounded in respect for every vote and every voice,
including requiring all Members of Congress to be elected, ensuring all
American jurisdictions have an option to purchase publicly owned voting
equipment and establishing fair presidential nomination rules. The New
York Times cited FairVote's leadership and research in editorials on
September 10th on voting equipment and on August 25th on vacancy
elections. Other national media citing FairVote's analysis include
the Associated Press, while FairVote's analyses on voting rights have
been published and distributed widely this month. FairVote's testimony on
comprehensive reforms of the presidential nomination process have been
submitted to special task forces convened by the Republican and
Democratic parties.