Less than two years after its official launch, the National Popular Vote campaign is still moving along steadily.

So far the bill has racked up more than 390 legislative sponsors nationwide, and has passed 12 chambers. On Thursday, December 13, the NPV bill passed the New Jersey Assembly.

Supporters are hopeful that many more states will join Maryland in 2009 to move America toward a national popular vote.

2008 Election Update! Signature gatherers for a plan to divide California's electoral votes by congressional district have reported the proposal will not appear on the ballot this June. FairVote issued a scathing report of the plan, Fuzzy Math, discrediting the congressional district method even if used in all fifty states.

[ Associated Press Story on NPV ]
[ More on National Popular Vote ]
[ Wrong Way Reforms for Fixing the Electoral College ]
[ Columnist Frank Askin on NPV ]

With the first contests of the 2008 presidential primary less than a month away, FairVote has launched two of its famous Innovative Analysis reports on both the Democratic and Republican candidates.

We run the numbers on "Caucus Math," studying the peculiar effects and complex strategies that flow from the Democratic method of picking delegates in Iowa. We also examine the differences in the Republican primaries, with winner-take-all delegate selection, and the unusual tactics of 2008 spawned by a frontloaded primary calendar.

Attention Press! Join FairVote, The Century Foundation and the Advancement Project on Thursday, December 13 at 11:00am for a special press briefing on how to cover the 2008 primaries. Click below for full details.

[ Telephone Press Briefing on the Primaries ]
[ The Democrats ]
[ The Republicans ]

Former FairVote board member turned Maryland state Senator Jamie Raskin was just profiled on CNN for his work on the National Popular Vote bill. In April 2007, Maryland became the first state in the country to pass legislation to help us get a national popular vote for president, largely as a result of FairVote's lobbying efforts.

[ Watch the Video ]
[ New Commentary by Steven Hill on NPV ]
[ National Popular Vote ]

At FairVote's 2007 Claim Democracy Conference, an expert panel got together for a good old fashioned "smoke filled room" discussion of the future of presidential primaries reform.

Joining the distinguished panel was Libby Benton, Legislative Aide to Rep. Sander Levin, Pamela Prah of Stateline.org, Kate Nilan, Senior Advisor to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Kay Stimson, Director of Communications and Special Projects for National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS). The discussion was moderated by FairVote's Ryan O'Donnell.

Most panelists came with differing ideas about how to fix the primaries, but all expressed the need to act. Check out some resources below.

[ FairVote's Ryan O'Donnell in The National Journal ]
[ FixThePrimaries.com ]
[ Claim Democracy 2007 ]