What's New

2003

Recent media coverage : Full representation, instant runoff voting and competitive elections continue to be featured in major media around the nation.Fair elections legislation introduced in Congress and many states.

Philadelphia Inquirer: "Pa. redistricting case may set path for U.S. on role of politics." Supreme Court decision will decide upon the role of party politics in redistricting (December 10).

Christian Science Monitor:
"Rigging election boundaries: When does it go too far?" CVD's Rob Richie among those quoted in article on the Pennsylvania case on political gerrymandering (December 10).

Associated Press:
"Justices to Hear Pennsylvania Redistricting Case." Discussion of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing concerning the legality of the redrawn Pennsylvania congressional map (December 9).

Tompaine.com: "The Gerrymander Moment." CVD's Rob Richie and Steven Hill explain the importance of redistricting and the Vieth v. Juelirer Supreme Court case (December 8).

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Two new CVD fact sheets:Selected quotes on fair elections from Hendrik Hertzberg, New Yorker writer and long-time CVD Board member and the History of full representation in Illinois(June 30)
 
New Center study shows dramatic voter turnout decline in federal primary runoffs: From 1994 to 2002, 82 of 84 federal primary runoffs experienced a voter turnout decline. (June 25)
 
NYS Instant Runoff Voting establishes online IRV preference poll for the 2004 Presidential elections -- link to http://www.POTUSpoll.com under "preference poll" (June 26)
 
Breakthroughs in states requiring voting equipment to support fair election methods: California and Vermont lead the way, with progress in New York and New Jersey and examples of effective activism by FairVote Minnesota and the Michigan NAACP (June 24)
 
Growing support in San Francisco to fend off attacks on IRV law: The San Francisco Ethics Commission and five leading elected officials are the latest to support implementing instant runoff voting in this year's mayoral race. See the Ethics Commission resolution stressing campaign finance value of IRV and recent commentaries from Asian Week and the San Francisco Chronicle. Read the latest news about IRV in San Francsico  (June 23)
 
New York City's Mark Green endorses IRV for City Elections: Mark Green, who has run strong races for U.S. Senate and mayor in New York City and was Public Advocate of New York City for eight years, here makes a good pitch for instant runoff voting in the midst of a commentary on New York City's proposed charter revision process. (June 16)
 
Study of Cities Touts Potential of IRV: Major new study on "People and Politics in America's Big Cities" proposes instant runoff voting  (June 16)
 
Utah Republicans Nominate Senate Candidate by IRV: The Utah Republican Party and several of its county arms have enacted bylaws to allow for the use of IRV to nominate candidates at their conventions. Read bylaws and news coverage of this month's use of IRV to nominate a state senate candidate(June)
 
IRV straw poll results at the Institute for America's Future's Take Back America Conference. (June)
 
IRV in Action Agenda of Massachusetts Democratic Party: The Massachusetts Democratic Party on June 7, 2003 adopted its Action Agenda with a direct reference to how instant runoff voting could engage more youth in politics. (June)
 
Center's "Dubious Democracy" report highlights record lack of competition: The Center has released the latest edition of its analysis of U.S. House elections from 1982 to the present, comparing states on several measures of electoral health.  (June 9)
 
Pro-full representation commentary  from former opponent in the United Kingdom; former senior Labour Party leader Roy Hattersley says the UK now needs proportional representation. (June 2)
 
Democracy USA: The Centerís Board of Directors has approved a resolution in support of a new Democracy USA initiative. (May)
 
League of Women Voters-California Supports instant runoff voting for Executive Elections: At its May 2003 state convention, the California State League of Women Voters took a position favoring instant runoff voting over both plurality elections and traditional runoffs for executive offices.(May 22)
 
As states scramble for position, the 2004 Democratic Presidential Primary schedule is starting to take shape. (May 12)
 
Big win for full representation in Illinois: The Illinois Senate has adopted HB138 to allow counties the choice to use full representation. In February HB 138 passed the General Assembly. (May 9) 
 
The State of Democracy in California: Steven Hill Makes Case for Full Representation in California Testimony: Steven Hill provided this testimony to Califronia's commission on implementing the Help America Vote Act. (May 8)
 
American Prospect: "Ballot Boxing: Round 1 of election reform took place in Washington. Now, Round 2 is playing out in the states." Demos president Miles Rapoport explains electoral reform needs and opportunities as states implement the Help America Vote Act, including making voting equipment ready to run instant runoff voting elections. (May 2)
 
Excerpts on full representation and instant runoff voting from Jamin Raskin's book, Overrulling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. The American People.  In it, Raskin describes the transgressions of the Supreme Court against the Constitution and the people, the faulty reasoning behind the Court's decisions in these cases and lays out a plan to back a more democratic system. (April 29)
 
Arkansas nearly adopts instant runoff voting for overseas voters: First-year bill passes house, falls just short on senate floor. (April 24)
 
Quebec elections likely to lead to adoption of full representation: Read Fair Vote Canada's news release about Quebec's elections and the new ruling party's pledge to adopt full representation. (April 24)
 
Newsweek editor declares "Winner-take-all is a loser" for post-war Iraq: Prominent Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria urges full representation instead of American-style winner-take-all. (April 21) 

League of Women Voters in Phoenix endorses instant runoff voting and full representation: At its April 12 convention the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Phoenix adopted a new position in favor of fair elections. (April 12)
 
CVD testimony makes the case for requiring ranked-choice capacity: CVD's Rob Richie explains the importance of ensuring new voting equipment can implement ranked-choice ballot systems. Rob Richie has also been invited to write a letter to the Ohio HAVA Committee.  (April 1)
 
Win for fair elections at UC San Diego: The UC San Diego Associated Students has announced that it will adopt instant runoff voting for upcoming AS elections. (March 31)
 
Fair Vote Canada holds annual meeting April 25-26: Canada's vibrant new pro-full representation organization will hold its second Annual Meeting in Ottawa.
 
London Telegraph: "Patten's delight as he wins race to be Oxford's new chancellor."  The University of Oxford recently elected Chris Patten Lord Chancellor using instant runoff voting. IRV was the electoral system most preferred by the former Lord Chancellor, the late Lord Jenkins. IRV also was used for the first time to fill a vacancy this month in the British House of Lords. (March 28)
 
News website's on-line instant runoff voting election results posted:  Alternet's online IRV poll. Some movies won initial majorities, but several winners were determined by instant runoffs.(March 26)
 
South Dakota school district adopts full representation: The Associated Press reports that in a settlement with the ACLU on behalf of Native American voters, Wagner, South Dakota has adopted cumulative voting for school board elections. The Center for Voting and Democracy will assist with community education this spring.

Citizens for Instant Runoff Voting in New York State are supporting the instant runoff voting bills pending in the NY state legislature.NYSIRV has a press release on its latest activities in New York.
 (March 20)

The Washington state House of Representatives has passed a bill allowing certain local municipalities to use instant runoff voting. The story is followed by the Vancouver Columbian (March 14, 2003), the Oregonian (March 14, 2003), and Tacoma News Tribune (February 25, 2003).  

Appeal to San Francisco  instant runoff voting campaign supporters: Rob Richie requests supporters of last year's instant runoff voting campaign in San Francisco to help secure that victory. Here's how you can help. (March 7)

Women and full representation: New studies indicate that women in countries from around the world enjoy greater political representation in national legislatures than do women in the US Congress, state legislatures and state governorships.  (March 7)

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

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)

Big advances for cumulative voting in Illinois. Read CVD general counsel Dan Johnson Weinberger's report on a legislative win and ballot measure win for cumulative voting.  HB (138) is one of the bills feauring fair voting reform currently pending in the Illinois General Assembly. (February 26)

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)

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)

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

Absentee voting with IRV:  In an effort to expand on Louisiana's use of instant runoff voting for overseas ballots, CVD is working to promote the idea in state legislatures. Read more about this new campaign. (February 1)

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)

Howard Dean Backs IRV: Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean advocated for instant runoff voting on the campaign trail in Iowa speech. (January 18)

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)

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, the Rutland Herald and the 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)

What Was New 2001-2002

What Was New 1998-2000


Return to top of page


______________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2003     The Center for Voting and Democracy
6930 Carroll Ave, Suite 610, Takoma Park, MD 20912
(301) 270-4616        [email protected]