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)
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)
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.
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
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