What Was New 2001-2003

What was new in 2003
What was new in 2002
What was new in 2001
What was new in 1998-2000

Year-end letter from CVD chairman John Anderson: The Center's long-time chairman reports on the Center's activities in 2003 and plans for 2004. (December 22, 2003)

President Roh of South Korea presents a plan for electoral reform to the Assembly.  The plan encourages implementing full representation on a national level. (December 18, 2003)

All New Zealand voters to use choice voting in 2004: New Zealand voters will elect their District Health Boards by choice voting (also called "single transferable vote") in 2004 elections. (December 17, 2003)

Successful first IRV election in Papua New Guinea: Papua New Guinea, a nation of five million people near Australia, has re-instituted instant runoff voting after a perception that plurality voting was polarizing the nation's politics. In the first use of IRV in a special election, voter error rate was lower than in American presidential elections. (December 17, 2003)

Former Nirvana bass player plans statewide campaign that will highlight full representation: Krist Novoselic, one of the three band members of Nirvana, may run for lieutentant governor of Washington State. His support for full representation and fair elections is featured in Seattle Times and Vancouver Columbian articles. More on Novoselic's support for full representation is posted at www.fixour.us. Full representation also was touted recently by the Sacramento Bee's deputy editorial page editor and in a Los Angeles Times letter.  (December 16, 2003)

California election plan encourages election machines to be ready to implement IRV and full representation: California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has released  "My Vote Counts: A California Plan for Voting in the 21st Century." Like a growing number of states, California promotes machines' capacity to implement instant runoff voting and full representation voting methods. (December 16, 2003)

IRV in Utah: The Republican Party of Utah will again use instant runoff voting at its state party convention in May 2004 to elect officers and nominate candidates for high office. (December 11, 2003)

Gerrymandering's media moment: Political gerrymandering is getting the serious attention it deserves, with new articles by CVD's Rob Richie and Steven Hill in TomPaine.com, by Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker and by Frank Askin in Legal Times. Many more articles are posted in CVD's public interest guide to redistricting. On December 10, 2003 the Supreme Court heard the Vieth v. Jubelirer case about political gerrymandering in Pennsylvania.  (December 11, 2003)

High-profile elections highlight full representation: Recent articles describe outcome of November-December elections in Northern Ireland's Assembly and the Duma in Russia. (December 9, 2003)

Fair and secure voting equipment: The New York Times called for a voter-verified paper trail in a December 7 editorial -- an influential voice in a growing national movement. CVD's Rob Richie and Steven Hill say the best solution is a national commitment to elections. CVD also applauds several states for moving toward requiring equipment to be ready to run ranked-choice elections. (December 7, 2003)

Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. proposes amendment to ensure right to vote: Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) has introduced HJR 28 to ensure the right to vote in the U.S. Constitution -- and also require IRV (or another majority system) for allocating electoral votes in states. The amendment has 13 co-sponsors, as of Dec. 3, 2003. On Nov. 22, Rep. Jackson gave a stirring keynote speech at CVD's "Claim Democracy" conference. See a summary of his key points and listen to his speech. (December 4, 2003)

Presidential candidate Howard Dean touts IRV on CNN and NPR: Former Vermont governor Howard Dean expressed support for instant runoff voting on CNN and National Public Radio. See the transcript, hear the audio and read how his campaign backs a high-level national commission to study reforms like IRV.  (December 3, 2003)

Berkeley (CA) to vote on IRV option in March 2004: The Berkeley city council has voted to place a measure on the March 2004 ballot that would allow the council to adopt instant runoff voting for city elections. San Francisco State University professor Richard DeLeon wrote a letter to councilmembers. (December 3, 2003)

Claim Democracy: Our thanks to the more than five hundred people--representing more than 30 states, the District of Columbia and several nations--who took part in the Center's "Claim Democracy" conference on November 21-23 in Washington, D.C. More than 100 presenters covered a full range of issues to secure, enhance and exercise the vote. Read reports from CVD's Rob Richie and Asian Week's Phil Nash and listen to a WPFW report by Avishay Artsy and Selina Musuta. Consider joining  the Claim Democracy listserv. (December 2, 2003)

Innovative classes introduce students to redistricting and drawing legislative maps: Washington and Lee University professors Mark Rush and John Blackburn taught two classes in 2002 that allowed students to use GIS software to create alternative one-seat and multi-seat district maps for Virginia state legislative elections. A website describes the class and shows student-drawn maps. (December 1, 2003)

2003 law advances full representation in Illinois and new bill seeks to revive full representation for the state House of Representatives. (November 6, 2003)

CVD and Voting Solutions release voting software under open license: Voting Solutions, LLC, in association with the Center for Voting and Democracy , is releasing its ChoicePlus Pro(TM) under an open source license and development agreement. ChoicePlus Pro is used to process ballot data for instant runoff voting and choice voting. (November 3, 2003)

Lessons from the California recall :  CVD commentary on recent events in California that illustrate a need for electoral reform. (October 17, 2003)

Texas Redistricting :  View CVD commentary and past Texas columns by William Raspberry and CVD in the Washington Post and Houston Chronicle . (October 15, 2003)

Rule by the non-majority :  A recent CVD report Highlights governors who were elected with less than 50% of the vote. (October 1, 2003)

Amicus briefs in Supreme Court case call for reform of redistricting: Several strong briefs from the Center for Voting and Democracy, Public Citizen, DKT Liberty Project, Brennan Center, ACLU, Common Cause and more in a potentially historic case about political gerrymandering to be argued before the Supreme Court in the 2003-2004 term. (September 4, 2003)

California recall election debate features call for reforming winner-take-all elections: The September 3rd debate in California's gubernatorial recall election featured a clarion call from Peter Camejo to open up elections. (September 4, 2003)

Resources about debate over security of new touchscreen voting equipment: Electionline.org has collected a range of web resources about the debate over whether new "touchscreen"-style voting equipment should have a voter-verified paper trail. NY PIRG leads a coalition of New York groups that recently issued a statement about standards for new equipment.  (September 2, 2003)

Utah Republicans elect state officers by IRV: For the second state convention, Utah Republicans used instant runoff voting for important convention elections, including a hotly contested race for Vice-Chair of the Party. Voter error was remarkably small. (August 27, 2003)

Judge rules that San Francisco can postpone IRV: Despite agreeing with much of the argument made by our Center and leading civic groups, a judge has ruled that the Director of Elections has the authority to postpone instant runoff voting until 2004.  (August 20, 2003)

PR movement in the United Kingdom and Canada: A top columnist in the Guardian eloquently makes the case for full representation, while Fair Vote Canada shows impressive strength. (August 14, 2003)

Seattle and Cincinnati Debate Choice Voting Method of Full Representation, while Cambridge prepares for choice voting election this fall: Four members of a Seattle task force recommend choice voting. A citizen panel in Cincinnati will debate restoring choice voting. Cambridge is gearing up for choice voting elections this November. (August 14, 2003)

Puerto Rico generates high turnout with full representation: Most elected bodies in American government are elected according to winner-take-all rules (some by plurality, some by majority). The largest exception is Puerto Rico, an American territory with 3.8 million American citizens. Puerto Rico uses an unusual form of full representation to elects some legislators that contributes to generating higher voter turnout than any American state. (August 14, 2003)

Full representation in congressional elections in Mexico: Mexico uses a form of full representation for congressional elections where some deputies are elected from one-seat districts, and some according to principles of full representation. Read about Mexico's full representation system and its July 2003 elections.(August 14, 2003)

National Journal article suggests combination of full representation and IRV for Electoral College: Alan Morrison of the Public Citizen Litigation Group wrote a version of this article for the National Journal magazine in January 2003. (July 28, 2003)

California recall reveals American democracy's breaking point: CVD's Rob Richie and Steven Hill argue for reform in a new commentary highlighting San Francisco's adoption of instant runoff voting. (July 23, 2003)

Democrat Dennis Kucinich issues statement in favor of IRV and full representation: Ohio Congressman becomes second major presidential candidate (joining Vermont Governor Howard Dean) to endorse instant runoff voting in policy statement on campaign reform. (July 18, 2003)

Results and analysis of the straw poll taken at the June 26th, 2003 Democracy Rising conference can now be viewed. Thank you to all who participated in this instant runoff vote. (July 9, 2003)

Redistricting and winner-take-all exposed as power grab: Efforts to draw new map in Texas reveals the fundamentally anti-democratic nature of legislative redistricting amidst winner-take-all elections in the United States. Read new column by William Raspberry, new commentaries from the Houston Chronicle and the Washington Post from Steve Hill and Rob Richie, and a Washington Post news article quoting Richie and catch the latest news in our 50-state guide to redistricting. (July 7, 2003)

Uncontested state legislative races again high: Nearly 37% of state legislative races in 2002 were not contested by both of the major parties.  More than half of seats were uncontested in many states. (July 1, 2003)

CVD tips for redistricting reformers: Practical suggestions for people interested in fairer redistricting in the states. (March 3, 2003) 

Edperience CVD's Steven Hill on the "Cambridge Forum" and read a collection of his writings: CVD senior analyst Steven Hill, whose book Fixing Elections has received rave reviews, was a lecturer at the Cambridge Forum on Feb. 5, 2003. Hill's lecture can be downloaded and his writings have been collected in a special website. (February 28, 2003)

Wins for fair elections at Duke and UC Davis:  Starting in 2004, the Duke Student Government will elect their six executive committee members through instant runoff voting. Also, the student body at UC Davis has overwhelmingly adopted choice voting for electing its student leadership, and has also elected the slate of candidates that sponsored fair elections. (February 25, 2003)

Fair elections legislation introduced in Congress and many states: A bill in Congress would create a commission to look at fuill representation and U.S. House size, while numerous states are considering instant runoff voting. (February 4, 2003)

IRV in Vermont: Interest in instant runoff voting has grown in Vermont. (February 3, 2003)

Full representation is still the dominant system among established democracies: Mark Jones' annual chart on full-fledged democracies shows that only four coutries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Mongolia) do not use full representation for at least one national election. (January 25, 2003)

Another League of Women Voters adopts a position in favor of instant runoff voting. League of Women Voters chapters nationwide have formed positions on  fair representation and majority rule. (January 15, 2003)

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (R) endorses instant runoff voting (December 20, 2002)

CVD partner efforts in Vermont generate a flurry of press from WCAX-TV Burlington, Rutland Herald and Associated Press. (December 17, 2002).

New Editorial Endorsements for IRV: USA Today, Palm Beach Post , the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and the St. Petersburg Times have all recently published editorials in favor of IRV. (December 3, 2002)

New Zealand's Capital City Adopts Choice Voting: Wellington voters support full representation ballot measure. (November 30, 2002)

Growing Editorial Consensus Against Safe-Seat Gerrymandering: The November 2002 elections have inspired a new surge of editorial attention to the problem of gerrymandering to avoid two-party competition. Read leading examples from the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Times on both November 3 and November 13. (November 15, 2002)

Ballot Measure Wins in Massachusetts Propel IRV: Voters in two Massachusetts legislative districts strongly endorsed instant runoff voting on November 5, 2002. (November 11, 2002)

100% Accuracy of Projections: On Sept 30, CVD released the report Monopoly Politics 2002 containing projections in more than 330 House races based only on past results in federal elections and the incumbent's number of terms. The projections proved 100% accurate. We've already posted projections for 2004 in more than 350 races, and you can download all of the data and methodology used to make projections from 1996-2004.  (November 8, 2002)

Candidates Discuss Proportional Representation: Read a representative sample of articles on candidates who are raising fair representation issues. (November 5, 2002)

Read CVD's Latest Newsletter: The Fall 2002 Voting and Democracy Review includes an analysis of "No-Choice Elections," a Voting Systems Reform Update, and more. (November 4, 2002)

New Federal Election Reform Law: George Bush has signed the Help America Act designed to provide nearly four billion dollars toward modernizing elections. For links to a range of reactions to the law, visit the websites of electionline.org and the Constitution Project . Also read a news story and a Christian Science Monitor article about the bill. (October 29, 2002)

Vermont Candidates Strongly Back IRV: The League of Women Voters of Vermont has released survey results of candidates running in the 2002 elections that revealed strong support for instant runoff voting. (October 28, 2002)

New Website Touts Irish Choice Voting System: For decades Ireland has elected its legislature by a candidate-based system of full representation and its president by instant runoff voting. Read the details at the link above and at The Irish Times' report on Election 2002. (October 16, 2002)

Center for Public Justice Newsletter Promotes Voting System Reform: The Center for Public Justice's latest newsletter has a special series on democracy, featuring articles in favor of proportional representation and instant runoff voting. (October 16, 2002)

Minnesota Report Highlights No-Choice Elections for Legislature: FairVote Minnesota, which works for better democracy through a unique focus on the voting system, has a new report on "no-contest" elections in Minnesota. (October 16, 2002)

CVD Submits Brief on IRV to Texas Attorney General: The Center has submitted a brief to the Attorney General of Texas in response to the Secretary of State's ruling that cities could not legally use IRV. (October 11, 2002)

It's hard to promote voter turnout when voters are so turned off by today's choices.  Here is a provocative public service announcement by Insidious Films designed to increase voter turnout.  It is also available in Spanish. (October 9, 2002)

Robert's Rules Supports IRV: Well-known guide supports instant runoff voting over plurality elections. (October 7, 2002)

British Advances for PR in Scotland: The Labour Party continues to waffle on its pledge of a national referendum on proportional representation for the House of Commons, but advances are made in Scotland.  (October 3, 2002)

Canada Campaign for PR Grows: The Canadian Labour Congress (Canadian version of AFL-CIO) backs proportional representation and Fair Vote Canada; British Columbia addresses reform.  (October 3, 2002)

Minnesota Governor's Race Builds Interest in IRV: Read Commentary from former Publisher of Minneapolis Star Tribune. (October 3, 2002)

Monopoly Politics 2002: CVD releases projections in over 330 House races based only on past results in federal elections and the incumbent's number of terms. Our news conference in the US Capitol was broadcast live on CSPAN-1. Our report contains downloadable spreadsheets with the data and methodology used to make our 2002 projections and to test the accuracy of projections from 1996-2000. (September 30, 2002)

New Zealand Localities Move Toward Choice Voting : At least eight local councils in New Zealand will use choice voting (aka "STV") for their next elections. Wellington voters will decide the issue. (September 20, 2002)

Douglas Amy Updates 'Real Choices, New Voices' : A new edition of this classic book in favor of proportional representation is available. It includes a new chapter. (September 20, 2002)

Vermont AFL-CIO Supports IRV: The Vermont State Labor Council AFL-CIO gave a big vote of approval to IRV for statewide elections. (September 15, 2002)

New Resource Section on the Electoral College: CVD's new resource pages include historical information on controversial elections, reform options, Frequently Asked Questions, links and more. (September 13, 2002)

Cato Institute Report Highlights Non-Competitiveness: The Washington, DC-based thinktank's new reprot on "Election 2002 and the Problems of American Democracy" features important information on the problem of lack of competitiveness in U.S. House elections. (September 10, 2002)

Vassar Latest College to Adopt IRV and Choice Voting: On Sept. 9, Vassar College's student government voted nearly unananimously to adopt instant runoff voting and choice voting for future student elections. (September 10, 2002)

New Brochure Contrasting IRV and Delayed Runoffs : Available here in .pdf format. (August 29, 2002)

CVD Co-Sponsors American Political Science Association Forum on Instant Runoff Voting and Choice Voting: The Center co-sponsored a session on "Ranking the Vote" at annual conference of political scientists. (August 28, 2002)

IRV Falls Short in Alaska: Alaskan voters defeated the first statewide ballot measure to adopt instant runoff voting. Hear Senator John McCain's message prepared for voters in Alaska. (August 28, 2002)

California Voting Rights Act of 2001 takes effect. This bill adds to the protections provided by the federal Voting Rights Act for racial, ethnic and language minorities and could lead to more use of full representation systems. (August 20, 2002)

PowerPoint IRV Presentation  for National Association of Secretaries of State:  In July 2002, Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz gave a presentation at the NASS meeting in Rhode Island. The presentation is now available for viewing and download. (August 15, 2002)

Young People and Voting: Find out more about CVD's youth work. (August 14, 2002)

"Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics": CVD staffer Steven Hill's new, highly praised book is in bookstores now. Visit the website to read an excerpt, reviews, table of contents, author appearances (including details on a reading in Washington, DC on July 21) and more. Stay tuned for a book presentation broadcast by CSPAN. (July 22, 2002)

Nationally Known Secretary of State Recommends IRV: Arkansas Secretary of State Sharon Priest, chair of the Arkansas State Election Improvement Study Commission and former president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, recommends instant runoff voting for judicial elections. (July 22, 2002)

In a unanimous vote on June 12, the Stephenson County Board adopted a Resolution In Support of Returning to Cumulative Voting for members of the Illinois House of Representatives. (July 22, 2002)

Libertarian Party Adds IRV and PR to its Platform: After years of growing support, the Libertarian Party added proportional representation and instant runoff voting to its platform. (July 22, 2002)

Steven Hill and Rob Richie on Redistricting and Reform: Versions of this commentary appeared on CommonDreams.org as well as in Roll Call Daily, the San Francisco Examiner and other publications.  (July 22, 2002)

Britain and Former Colonies Keep Moving Away from Plurality: New Zealand has its third proportional representation election this month, and Canada and Britain movements show strength. (July 22, 2002)

Campus Interest in IRV Keeps Growing: Two major state universities adopted instant runoff voting in the past year.  Now the United Council of University of Wisconsin Students, representing 140,000 students, has adopted IRV. News and articles also from Stanford and other universities. (July 22, 2002)

John Anderson Birthday Celebration: The Center's President John B. Anderson belatedly celebrated his 80th birthday in his Washington D.C. home July 16th. More than 80 friends, family and admirers came to his home, including Senator Jim Jeffords (I-Vermont), Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory, Ralph Nader and former Minnesota Congressman Tim Penny. See AP photo and article about the event. (July 22, 2002)

New Report Reveals Record-Low Voter Turnout in 2002: The report, released today by the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, includes analysis of the spring 2002 primary turnout; an analysis of Census 2000 election survey findings; a revision of 1990-2000 turnout figures, based on the 2000 Census; and a projection of factors which may influence turnout in the 2002 general election. The press release and report are available here in .rtf format. (July 2, 2002)

Los Angeles Studies San Francisco's Instant Runoff Voting: The Los Angeles City Council votes to study the instant runoff voting.  Read the report from the Los Angeles Daily News and the resolution. (June 14, 2002)

Santa Rosa, California's Charter Review Committee recommends the city begin using cumulative voting.  Read May and June articles from the Press Democrat. (June 14, 2002)

Revised FEC Voting System Standards Increase Attention to Alternative Voting Systems: This month the Federal Election Commission released new Voting Systems Standards. They require voting equipment companies to report on whether they support instant runoff and cumulative voting elections.(May 21, 2002)

The League of Women Voters of Washington State Supports IRV and PR: On May 10, 2002 the League of Women Voters of the state of Washington supported new positions in favor of election system reform. After a three-year study and a consensus process, the state League joined several other Leagues with positions in favor of majority rule and instant runoff voting , and other Leagues with positions in favor of proportional representation . (May 21, 2002)

Alaskan IRV Ballot Measure Gets Boost: The Republican Party of Alaska is the latest party to endorse the August 27 ballot measure on instant runoff voting. See its resolution .  Also, the  Anchorage Daily News writes a thoughtful editorial about IRV in Alaska. (May 21, 2002)

"Short Course" at APSA Convention on Instant Runoff Voting and PR: The Section on Representation and Electoral Systems and the Center for Voting and Democracy are co-sponsoring a "short course" at the American Political Science Association national convention in Boston on August 28 that will focus in particular on ranked-choice voting methods.(May 21, 2002)

Irish Elections Mark Latest Success for Choice Voting: On May 17, the Republic of Ireland used choice voting to elect its national parliament. See an Irish Times editorial on the "eloquent" nature of the results and general information  on the elections, including an excellent background analysis of choice voting.(May 21, 2002)

Democracy Summer 2002  is almost here! Youth from all over the country are coming to Washington, DC from June 25-July 2 to learn about PR, IRV andother burning democracy issues and master the skills needed to take action in their communities. (May 15, 2002)

Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics  (Routledge Press: 2002) Steven Hill, CVD's west coast director and campaign manager for the Prop A campaign in San Francisco, has written a highly-praised book that critiques the American election system and analyzes its impact on politics and policymaking. (May 10, 2002)

Second Successful Cumulative Voting Election in Amarillo: On May 4, voters in Amarillo, Texas elected their school board with cumulative voting. Under winner-take-all, the school board was all-white. Now it has four whites, two Latinos and one black--a fair reflection of the city's diversity. (May 7, 2002)

Utah GOP used instant runoff voting to nominate US Representatives at their statewide convention with 3,500 delegates. (May 11, 2002)

Curing France's Electoral Problem -- and Ours: Extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen benefited from split votes to reach France's presidential runoff, but had no chance of winning power because of France's majority requirement. Read two published commentaries by CVD about lessons from the French elections from CVD and a Washington Timesnews analysis. (May 7, 2002)

Analysis Shows Strong Support for IRV in San FranciscoFrom All Racial Groups: A new analysis by San Francisco State University's Richard DeLeon shows that Proposition A had majority support from all racial groups in the city, including about 70% of Latinos and more than 60% of black voters. (May 7, 2002)

Mayors in Seven British Cities were elected on May 2 using the supplementary vote, a modified form of instant runoff voting.The supplementary vote was also used to elect the mayor of London in May 2000 and will be used in other cities in the United Kingdom that choose to elect their mayor directly. This use of IRV was referenced in the Washington Post . Of the seven mayoral elections, only two were decided on the first count. See our Summary of Results . The results demonstrate how the supplementary vote is inferior to instant runoff voting (IRV) in two key aspects. (May 3, 2002)

Overseas Voters Use IRV in Major Elections in Louisiana: The state of Louisiana already uses instant runoff voting for some overseas absentee ballots. Here's How IRV solved an administrative problem and a Sample Ballot . (May 2, 2002)

Redistricting Cases: the 2000's Legislative redistricting has once again sparked a growing number of expensive lawsuits. The Minnesota state legislature provides a thoroughRundown of Litigation around the nation and what happened in the courts in the 1990's. (May 2, 2002)

Boston Vote Report Highlights PR and IRV Among Reforms: Boston Vote has issued a strong report about electoral reform in Boston. Among other reforms, it recommends instant runoff voting and proportional representation. (May 2, 2002)

Senate Backs Modernization of Voting & Sen. Dodd Discusses IRV on Floor : On April 11, the Senate joined the House in voting overwhelming to provide billions to states to modernize voting equipment. Lead sponsor, Sen. Chris Dodd, discussed instant runoff voting on the Senate floor. See how you can help. (April 30, 2002)

Currently there are 41 well-established democracies with at least two million inhabitants and high ratings from the human rights organization Freedom House, and of these 41 nations only two (the United States and Canada) do not use a form of proportional or semi-proportional voting systems to elect one of their national legislatures. See the complete updated table of Lower/Single House Elections in the World's Democracies . (April 30, 2002)

Would you support the use of IRV in your city? That's the question the California League of Women Voters is asking 11th- and 12th-graders in itsIRV Essay Contest . The deadline for submissions is June 1, so start writing!(April 18, 2002)

Using Instant Runoff Voting in School Elections : Student government elections are a perfect place to use instant runoff voting and full representation systems. Read about their growing success and how to make the case at your school. (April 15, 2002)

CVD recently completed its Survey of Voting Equipment Vendors and the results of the survey are now available. (April 15, 2002)

IRV Keeps Drawing Major Media Attention: Read new articles from Time Magazine and Electionline.org. (April 9, 2002)

State Voting System Reform Groups Increasingly Active: Groups in California, Illinois, Minnesota, Washington and elsewhere working for better voting systems. (April 9, 2002)

Two More Campus Wins: Whitman College and University of Maryland College Park to use IRV for student government elections. Read an Editorial from Maryland's student newspaper. (April 9, 2002)

"So Far, So Good" on Cumulative Voting in Amarillo: Amarillo, Texas is gearing up for its second school board election with cumulative voting. See recent supportive Editorial and news from the First Election in 2000 . CVD has hired Joleen Garcia to help make cumulative voting in Texas. (April 9, 2002)

Making Multi-Seat Districts Fair in North Carolina : A legal action in North Carolina has made full representation systems all the more sensible. See sample maps and analysis. (March 28, 2002)

Utah GOP to nominate congressional candidates by instant runoff voting. Oakland voters authorize use of instant runoff voting to fill vacancies for mayor. (March 20, 2002)

San Francisco Adopts Instant Runoff Voting; Vermonters Endorse : On March 5, 2002, San Franciscans voted 55%-45% to adopt instant runoff voting for electing its most powerful elected leaders. On the same day in Vermont, a proposal to use instant runoff voting for statewide elections was approved in 51 out of 54 towns. See CVD's recent E-News Update for all the details and Media Coverage for complete press coverage. (March 14, 2002)

California Counties Ordered to Replace Old Voting Machines : This ruling will push forward the issue of voting equipment modernization in many states, particularly with Congress moving towards providing billions in federal funds for upgrading the mechanics of our voting system. But in that modernization, we believe it critically important to accommodate potential reforms to improve our democracy. Please see our Voting Equipment Flexibility Statement  signed by many civic organizations.(February 19, 2002)

University of Maryland, College Park  Considers Using IRV for Student Government Elections: Read about the University's proposition to use instant runoff voting for its Student Government Association elections. (February 14, 2002)

Instant Runoff and Cumulative Voting in the News : Our Media Coverage page has been updated with recent articles on IRV in the San Francisco Chronicle  and American Prospect and a Seattle Times commentary on cumulative voting. (February 14, 2002)

New Web Links for Instant Runoff Voting : "Preferential voting" is the name for instant runoff voting in Australia (where it is used for its most important elections) and in Robert's Rules of Order (which recommends it as an option for non-governmental elections). See examples of links to sites detailing its use and value where it is used. (February 7, 2002)

Musician Krist Novoselic Makes the Case for Reform: Krist Novoselic, former bass player with the band Nirvana, recently made a speech promoting proportional representation, instant runoff voting and political reform on the Spitfire Tour. Read It and check out his new reform website, Inclusive Democracy? (January 25, 2002)

New Articles by CVD's Rob Richie : Read letters and commentaries from the Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, New York Times, TomPaine.Com, more. (January 18, 2002)

On January 3, 2002, CVD Chair and former presidential candidate John Anderson was a guest on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" program. Watch the Video of his appearance and discussion of campaign finance reform, proportional representation, redistricting, and instant runoff voting. (January 3, 2002)

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, 2001)

Year-End Message from John Anderson: CVD�s chair reports on the past year and on plans for 2002. (December 21, 2001)

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, 2001)

Election 2000 triggered a leap in Media Coverageof electoral system reform. (updated December 19, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

Voting Rights has a new page on Ex-Offender Voting Rights, with links to resources and websites. (December 14, 2001)

Two members of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors express their support for IRV in the San Francisco Chronicle. (November 23, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

A new Update from the Field from National Field Director Dan Johnson-Weinberger. (October 31, 2001)

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 2001)

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 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

CVD Letters in New York Times: CVD Chair John Anderson on voter participation, CVD Executive Director Rob Richie on full voting rights. (September 21, 2001)

Eugene, Oregon voters reject instant runoff voting. (September 19, 2001)

The Center has updated their IRV Demonstration, where you can vote for your favorite CVD corny joke for the month of September.(September 16, 2001)

The latest Update from the Field  from National Field Director Dan Johnson-Weinberger is now online. (September 12, 2001)

Read Piet Hein's poem "Majority Rule" in our new Poetry and Literature section. (September 11, 2001)

TheAmendment Language and Petition from the 1974 Ann Arbor, Michigan implementation of IRV are now available. (August 30, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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

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, 2001)

Letter to the FEC: CVD comments on Federal Elections Commission's Proposed New Voting System Standards. (July 25, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

The Related Links and Links pages have been updated with new links to reform organizations. (July 10, 2001)

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, 2001)

The Center has just set up a new system for Ordering Materials and Supporting CVD. (July 6, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

Web Links has been updated with some new websites. (June 20, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

�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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

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

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, 2001)

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, 2001)

Updates about voting rights legislation, litigation and theory fromMarch 23, March 27, andApril 18 . (April 24, 2001)

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

Information about use of Election Systems Around the World. (April 24, 2001)

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