What Was New 2001

What was new in 2000
What was new in 1999
What was new in 1998

Instant Runoff Voting Gains Momentum in Vermont: Read front-page story about efforts supported by the League of Women Voters and the Vermont Secretary of State to promote instant runoff voting for statewide elections. (December 31)

Year-End Message from John Anderson: CVD�s chair reports on the past year and on plans for 2002. (December 21)

U.-Illinois Students Adopt PR and IRV: After winning among students withmore than 75% of the vote, the University of Illinois' student government will switch to proportional representation for the legislature and instant runoff voting for the executive. Find out how it happened. (December 21)

Election 2000 triggered a leap in Media Coverageof electoral system reform. (updated December 19)

Double Your Donation: $15,000 Matching Grant to Open Up Elections to Better Choices! Thanks to an anonymous donor, all gifts made specifically targeted for the FairVote Campaign, before January 31 and up to a total of $15,000, will be matched. (December 17)

The San Francisco Examiner editorializes in favor instant runoff voting for city elections, and both the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner publish articles on the low turnout and high cost of the recent runoff elections. (December 14)

We've updated our extensive analysis of the frequency of candidates winning state and federal elections with less than 50% of the vote: Rule by the Non-Majority? Plurality Winners in American Elections. (December 14)

Voting Rights has a new page on Ex-Offender Voting Rights, with links to resources and websites. (December 14)

Two members of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors express their support for IRV in the San Francisco Chronicle. (November 23)

Press Release: Today Cambridge, Massachusetts Elects City Council Using Ranked Ballots, While Jesse Jackson Jr. Introduces New Electoral Reform Bills, Including an Instant Runoff Voting Constitutional Amendment for Election of President. Press release also available in.rtf format.(November 14)

High-Profile New Books Tout Instant Runoff Voting and Full Representation: See sample excerpts from The Radical Center by Michael Lind and Ted Halstead and A More Perfect Union by Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.(October 31)

A new Update from the Field from National Field Director Dan Johnson-Weinberger. (October 31)

CVD in Science Magazineon Instant Runoff Voting and Approval Voting: CVD staffers Rob Richie and Terry Bouricius joined with professor emeritus Philip Macklin for a letter making the case for instant runoff voting over another positive reform, approval voting.(October)

CVD's Rob Richie on Better Voting Equipment to Really Tackle Wasted Votes: CVD executive director Rob Richie comments on Stephen Ansolabehere's essay in the Boston Review. He argues that to address wasted votes, we need new equipment and standards to allow for instant runoff voting and full representation. (September)

IRV Touted by House Minority Leader & Major Newspaper in Florida: TheSt. Petersburg Timesurges Florida to adopt instant runoff voting for the 2002 primary season. House Minority Leader Lois Frankel backs the plan. Also, September 27th Forum Planned in Palm Beach : CVD Chair John Anderson and National Field Director Dan Johnson-Weinberger will speak at Sept. 27th event. (September 21)

The acquisition of modern voting equipment in the aftermath of the Florida election creates a critical opportunity for reformers to ensure that new voting equipment accommodates all voting systems that a jurisdiction might wish to adopt. The Center has prepared Guidelines for this advocacy. Make sure voting equipment doesn't create an obstacle to reform in your area. Please contact us for assistance.(September 21)

Study Shows Potential for Minority Rule in congressional Elections: Even with 100% voter turnout, the U.S. Congress could pass policies that lack majority support due to winner-take-all elections. See how.(September 21)

CVD Letters in New York Times: CVD Chair John Anderson on voter participation, CVD Executive Director Rob Richie on full voting rights. (September 21)

Eugene, Oregon voters reject instant runoff voting. (September 19)

The Center has updated their IRV Demonstration, where you can vote for your favorite CVD corny joke for the month of September.(September 16)

The latest Update from the Field  from National Field Director Dan Johnson-Weinberger is now online. (September 12)

Read Piet Hein's poem "Majority Rule" in our new Poetry and Literature section. (September 11)

TheAmendment Language and Petition from the 1974 Ann Arbor, Michigan implementation of IRV are now available. (August 30)

CVD has put together a Guide to Using Instant Runoff Voting in Student Council Elections. It includes instructions for counting ballots, sample ballots, and a tally sheet for counting votes.

Also see our page on Colleges and Universities That Use Alternative Systems for student elections. (August 30)

Eugene, Oregon is set to vote on Preference Voting/IRV in a September 18 Special City Election. Visit the Easy-As-1-2-3 Committee's website for local information and see CVD's IRV Update for the Language of the Charter Amendment. (August 28)

Alameda County, California will purchase new touch-screen voting machines. See the Press Release from Global Election Systems and article in The Oakland Tribune for more information. (August 24)

CVD's August 2001 Newsletter is now online in rich text format. It includes information about the effort to revive cumulative voting in Illinois, the National Commission on Election Reform, a note from Executive Director Rob Richie, and an update about recent IRV developments. (August 21)

Over the summer, a number of major commissions and task forces created to study and make recommendations on electoral reform produced their final reports. A summary of these reports as well asa full summary of recent election administration activity is available in the August 15 edition of Democracy Dispatches(also available as a PDF), Demos' bi-weekly publication that tracks and analyzes legislative and political developments on democracy issues in the states. (August 17)

Student Governments using Alternative Voting Methods: CVD has compiled a list of Student Governments known to use alternative voting methods, including PR and IRV. (August 3)

LWV Study of Voting Systems: The League of Women Voters Santa Monicarecently published a study of voting systems for electing legislative bodies at the municipal level. The study includes comparisons and evaluations of different voting systems, including plurality/majority, semi-proportional and proportional systems. Also includes an extensive Bibliography. (August 2)

MLB 2001 All-Star Game Voting: The Center reports on the results of the All Star vote and possible outreach options. (August 1)

E-News Update: The latest newsletter from Executive DirectorRobert Richie includes information about an IRV amendment on the ballot in San Francisco, CVD's new "redistricting central", the movement to return to cumulative voting in Illinois and more! (July 27)

Letter to the FEC: CVD comments on Federal Elections Commission's Proposed New Voting System Standards. (July 25)

Instant Runoff Voting Update: Big Advances in California, Oregon and Utah and Much More: Instant runoff voting for all major elections will go before San Francisco voters next March. This fall, Eugene (OR) voters will decide whether to amend their charter to allow IRV. In Utah, the Republican Party plans to use IRV at is convention for electing officers. A New Jersey state senator now running for governor backs IRV for all New Jersey elections. Public Campaign and Common Cause now suggest IRV as a complement to campaign finance reform. See the latest IRV news.. (July 25)

Bi-Partisan Report Recommends Reviving Cumulative Voting in Illinois: Former Republican Governor Jim Edgar and former Democratic Congressman Abner Mikva headed a task force that has recommended restoring cumulative voting and representation of political minorities in elections to the house of representatives in Illinois. See excellent news coverage and report by the Institute for Government and Public Affairs.(July 25)

British Electoral Reform: Tom Lundberg analyses the prospects for adopting proportional representation for electing the House of Commons in the wake of the June 2001 general elections. (July 19)

Organizations Requested to Help Map Reform Landscape: Demos, a two-year old organization based in New York working to enhance democracy in America through research and advocacy, is undertaking the Mapping Project as a critical step in advancing a national pro-democracy movement. Take 10 minutes and put yourself on the map so others can find you, and you can find others! (July 19)

Vote for Your FAvorite Ice Cream Flavor Using IRV! This page shows two different ways of voting in an instant runoff voting election. Cast your ballot and check this page for updates with the results. (July 10)

The Related Links and Links pages have been updated with new links to reform organizations. (July 10)

New Survey: Are Your County and State Democracy-Ready? Does your county/state make elections as fair and democratic as possible? What aspects of the process should be improved to make it more so? CVD, Voices of the Electorate, and the Alliance for Democracy have joined together to produce this survey that will help you diagnose the state of democracy in your county and state. (July 6)

The Center has just set up a new system for Ordering Materials and Supporting CVD. (July 6)

Eugene, Oregon's City Council recently put instant runoff voting for local elections on the ballot. Read an op-ed that outlines the benefits instant runoffs could bring. (June 29)

British Election Analysis Makes Case for Proportional Representation: The Electoral Reform Society of the United Kingdom has issued a new report on the recent general election to the House of Commons, where the Labor Party won a sweeping majority of seats with barely two out of every five votes. See "Election 2001: Unfair and Unrepresentative." (June 20)

Web Links has been updated with some new websites. (June 20)

Voting Rights has new commentaries on alternative voting systems by Rob Richie and others that appeared in publications by the Southern Regional Council, the Poverty Race Research Action Council, and the Asian American Policy Review. (June 19)

CVD Library: has been updated with a section listing New Books recommended by the CVD. There have been several important books recently released on proportional representation and electoral reform. For those with slower internet connections there is also a Text Only Version. (June 18)

New Zealand Parliament Okays Choice Voting: News Release from Member of Parliament about law in New Zealand enacting choice voting (also called "single transferable vote") for some local elections and making it an option for all city council elections. (June 4)

�Dear Colleague� Letter by Rep. Hastings on HR 506: On May 21, Rep. Alcee Hastings asked other Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to co-sponsor his legislation to establish a commission to look at issues of representation, including proportional representation. (June 4)

National Commission on Federal Election Reform: CVD President John B. Anderson will testify on May 24th in Austin, Texas before the new commission organized to recommend ways to improve the accuracy and fairness of federal elections. (Co-chaired by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.) His TESTIMON y is available online. (May 9)

Pro-Democracy Convention: Shaping the Future of Democracy in America. June 29-July 1, 2001. A major conference on electoral reform featuring panel discussions and in-depth workshops on proportional representation, instant runoff voting, and other elements of the Voters� Bill of Rights, led by CVD Staff and Board members. (May 11)

NOW Advocates for More Diverse Representation in U.S. Government in the National NOW Times, Winter 2001. (May 11)

CVD encourages young people to participate in the Democracy Summer program, which includes workshops on proportional representation and instant runoff voting led by CVD staff. (May 9)

Proportional Representation in New York City: Looking Back, Looking Forward. A forum on the history and promise of PR in New York City. Friday, May 4, 2001. (April 25)

Updates about voting rights legislation, litigation and theory fromMarch 23, March 27, andApril 18 . (April 24)

April 6, 2001 E-News Update , with information on legislation, events, the upcoming Pro-Democracy conference, and more. (April 24)

Information about use of Election Systems Around the World. (April 24)

CVD releases updated reports -- with results from the 2000 elections -- on Electoral Competition (Dubious Democracy 2001) and Redistricting (Public Interest Guide to Redistricting, State by State). These reports are also accessible from CVD's map . (April 5, 2001)

CVD Predictions: In Monopoly Politics, CVD predicted 235 U.S. House seats to be won by "landslide" margins in November 2000 based only on incumbency past partisan results in the districts. Only one of these 235 seats was won in November 2000 by less than a landslide. (April 5, 2001)

Congressional and State Legislation: Legislation allowing states to use Proportional Representation has been introduced in Congress and bills on instant runoff voting have been introduced in a dozen states, a bipartisan bill is in the Illinois House of Representatives to revive cumulative voting in three-member districts for that body and Congress is considering legislation to establish commissions to study modernization of our antiquated voting practices, including proportional representation and instant runoff voting. (April 5, 2001)

Los Angeles Conference Come to our March 24th conference in Los Angeles on electoral reform, with John Anderson, L.A. County Registrar Conny McCormack, L.A. City Council member Mark Ridley-Thomas and State Assembly Member Richard Pacheco. (March 8, 2001)

In March and April, states and localities around the nation will receive new data from the U.S. Census and commence the often-painful process of redistricting -- redrawing single-member districts so that they are of equal population. Please see a collection revealing quotes aboutRedistricting and a recentNew York Times Article. See our state-by-stateRedistricting Report for additional information about the laws and history in your state. (March 8, 2001 )

IRV in Actual Elections: Take a look out at Australia's 1996 elections for the House of Representatives . (February 22, 2001)

Guidelines for becoming a DemocracyActivist. Form a Local Group; Become Involved in Commissions and Studies; Write to Public Officials; Promote advanced voting methods in organizational elections; and more.

Academy Awards Nominations: The Center provides a briefing to understand the proportional voting system used to pick the nominees for the Oscars.(February 5, 2001)

USA Today, the highest circulation newspaper in the country, editorializes in favor of instant runoff voting. (February 5, 2001)

Data onVoter Turnout  and votes cast in the 2000 presidential election. (February 1, 2001)

Data on the Representation of Women and Racial Minorities . (January 31, 2001)

A Sample of Instant Runoff Voting in the News . A wide variety of quotes from newspapers and journals across the country. (January 2001)

AnAction Agenda on Electoral Reform  sponsored by members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus including Barbara Lee, Bernie Sanders, Earl Hilliard, the Institute for Policy Studies, the Center for Voting and Democracy, the Nation Institute, and the member groups of the Progressive Challenge Network, Hart Senate Office Building. (January 19, 2001)

The Department of Justice  issues guidance on redistricting and retrogression based on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Acts. This explains how DOJ will interpret and enforce the Shaw v. Reno decision on racial gerrymandering. (January 19, 2001)

Testimony of Eric Olson before the Maryland Special Committee on Voting Systems and Procedure. (January 4, 2001)

Bi-partisan Congressional Legislation  introduced to establish well-funded commission to study how to modernize our antiquated voting practices -- from old ballot machines to proportional representation and instant runoff voting (Nov 15). (January 3 ,2001)

The Center to hold workshops on voting system reform in Washington (DC) and Chicago (January 3, 2001)

What Was New 1998-2000