In the news
ValueWalk: Tulsi Gabbard Announces Fixing Democracy As First Act As President
Lawyerist: Law in Context, with Larry Lessig
Take Care: No, Presidential Elector Litigation Will Not Lead To Chaos
Los Angeles Times: If you want the president to be elected by popular vote, support this litigation
A federal appeals court recently found that the Constitution requires presidential electors to be free to vote their conscience. Under this decision, states can ask its electoral-college members to publicly promise to vote for a particular candidate — for example,...
New York Times: Fix the Electoral College — Or Scrap It
If you were looking for the perfect distillation of how dysfunctional the American system of electing the president is, it would be hard to top last week’s federal appeals court ruling allowing “electors” — the members of the Electoral College — to vote for whomever...
Law & Crime: SCOTUS May Get Chance to Dismantle Electoral College in Time for 2020 Election
Religion & Story: Lester Land and the Most Important Political Issue (Maybe)
New York Times: Electoral College Members Can Defy Voters’ Wishes, Court Rules
In a ruling that kicks at the foundation of how America chooses presidents, a federal appeals court on Tuesday said members of the Electoral College, who cast the actual votes for president, may choose whomever they please regardless of a state’s popular vote. The...
Common Dreams: Electoral College Abolitionists Say Court Ruling Shows Why Current System ‘Terrible Way of Picking the President’
ABA Journal: ‘Faithless electors’ have right to vote for presidential candidates of their choice, 10th Circuit says
NBC News: Faithless elector: A court ruling just changed how we pick our president
The Denver Channel: Federal appeals court rules Colorado’s electors don’t have to vote for winner of state popular vote
Fox 31 Denver: Federal appeals court rules Colorado Electoral College electors don’t have to vote for winner
Bloomberg Law: Bans on Rogue Presidential Electors Heading to Supreme Court
Denver Post: Court finds Colorado electors were wrongly forced to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016
Colorado Sun: Colorado’s presidential electors don’t have to vote for candidate who wins the state, federal appeals court rules
The Hill: Appeals court says Colorado electors don’t have to vote for winner of state’s popular vote
WND: Court throws monkey wrench into U.S. presidential elections
The Hill: The magic of majority rule in elections
Those who pay close attention to the Democratic presidential horse race are salivating over recent polls showing that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) is “surging” and has now hit 20 percent support, with Biden holding a slim lead at 21 percent. But the real news is...
GlobePost: The US Can’t Fight Climate Change Until It Fixes Its Broken Democracy
Last month, record-breaking temperatures set off hundreds of heat advisories across the United States. Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the country, and it’s getting worse. Consider that in 1999, the year I was born, my hometown of Chapel...
The Kyle Thiermann Show: Money in Politics with Jason Harrow
Medium: What Role Can Citizenship Data Play in the Apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives?
Newsweek: The Border Crisis Is Not Just About Racism. Follow The Money.
Medium: We Need Your Help Again
Medium: An Open Letter to Democratic Presidential Candidates: Discuss Democracy Reform at the Debates
Medium: Equal Citizens July 2019 Update
We’re now smack dab in the middle of summer, but, in case you missed it, we’ve still been up to lots of energizing, important work to spread the word about why our democracy needs fixin’. Better yet, we want to make sure people know there are real solutions that will...
Medium: Reform The Vote: The Case for Ranked Choice Voting
USA Today: 2020 hopefuls should work with Devin Nunes to end gerrymandering
Recently, the Supreme Court closed the door on the idea that the federal courts would stop state legislators from gerrymandering districts. Many citizens hate the idea that their own legislators get to draw lines that protect incumbents and advantage one party over...
Medium: So You Want to Enforce Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Washington Post: Why John Roberts may be right about gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is obviously democratically obnoxious. With modern technologies, it’s also increasingly democratically dangerous. It is inconsistent with the principles of equality and free association. Without doubt, it should be excised from our republic. Yet the...
Public News Service: NH Weekend March, Town Hall Focus on Need for Election Reforms
A march for public funding of political campaigns and a presidential town hall focusing on similar election reform issues capped off the Independence weekend in New Hampshire. The march Sunday was inspired by Granite State native Doris "Granny D" Haddock, who at the...
Seacoast Online: Group makes walk to rid big money from politics
A 20th anniversary walk from Kittery to Market Square by members and supporters of NH Rebellion aimed to bring awareness to the need to remove big money from politics. The group was joined in the walk by Democratic presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand, who later in...
Medium: Fourth of July Reading
The Hill: Democracy reform subtly defines the presidential primary
Less noticed, but potentially even more significant, is the race to develop the boldest democracy reform platform. Though it largely did not come up during the debates, many Democrats are now noticeably campaigning as democracy reformers, promising to tackle issues...
Medium: Why We Are Launching POTUS1
Medium: Today The Supreme Court Ruled on Democracy
Medium: Trapped in a Gerrymander: Growing up in North Carolina Congressional District 4
WMUR: Gillibrand packs schedule for 7-day NH swing
Medium: Kirsten Gillibrand Headlines Equal Citizens Town Hall
Medium: “Representation is Demanded”: The Case for Felon Voting Rights
Medium: Debate Moderators Must Ask About Democracy Reform
Next week, 20 Democrats will take the stage in the first 2020 presidential primary debates. Though we can’t be sure about much regarding the debates, there is one thing about which we are absolutely certain: The moderators must ask the candidates about their plans to...
NBC News: Activist Lawrence Lessig was once a presidential candidate, now he’s interviewing them
Lawrence Lessig has a twinge of regret about not joining the massive field of candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, so he’s doing the next best thing — starting a podcast to interview and cajole them to support his agenda of political reforms. The...
Medium: RCV-ing the Democratic Primary
We ran an experiment to see how “ranked-choice voting” would work on the current field of Democratic candidates for President. I’m not sure we’ve done it correctly, but I wanted to describe what we’ve done here, and make the data available to others. RCV gives voters...
CapeCod.com: Brewster Community Network to Host ‘Bridging the Divide’ Forum Next Week
FiveThirtyEight: Everyone Knows Money Influences Politics … Except Scientists
Medium: Fundamental reform must be on the Democrats’ Debate Stage
The Ezra Klein Show: Why good people are easily corrupted
Pineal Express: Lawrence Lessig on Fixing the Broken Government
Joining us today to talk about the pressing need to solve these fundamental problems of representation in the US government is Harvard Law Professor, Lawrence Lessig. Professor Lessig has argued that the United States has become “ungovernable” and that new,...
Grey Mirror: Larry Lessig, Harvard: #POTUS1 to “Fix Democracy First”
In today’s episode, I interview Larry Lessig, a Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, a co-founder of Creative Commons, and an advocate for “Fixing Democracy First”. We chat about #POTUS1 (an anti-corruption initiative that Larry is leading), updates...
Crosscut: Fight to stop ‘faithless’ presidential electors may not be over in WA
Bret Chiafalo thinks the Electoral College, which the United States uses to elect the president and vice president, is inherently undemocratic. But as long as the institution exists, says the former presidential elector, it should at least serve a purpose: as a final...
Law To Fact: Prof. Lawrence Lessig Discusses His Book, Fidelity and Constraint
WBUR: Biden In N.H., Trade War Escalates, Lawrence Lessig
WBUR: What The Supreme Court’s History Can Tell Us About Its Future
Fortune: What Is Ranked-Choice Voting? An Exercise in Representative Democracy, Reformists Say
Moving forward, ranked-choice voting could be one way of ensuring that every vote counts in the upcoming 2020 Democratic primaries. As it stands, the rules of the Democratic National Convention on delegate allocation in the primaries would make it so that thousands of...
The Guardian: American democracy is broken. We must demand 2020 candidates commit to a fix
Vox: Kirsten Gillibrand’s plan to get more small donors into politics: give every voter $600
Washington Free Beacon: Gillibrand’s First Major 2020 Proposal: Give Voters $600 Worth of ‘Democracy Dollars’
NBC News: ‘Democracy Dollars’: Gillibrand’s plan to give every voter $600 to donate to campaigns
Arsenal for Democracy: The RCV proposal for New Hampshire presidential primaries
The Hill: Four questions on the Electoral College
Talk of abolishing the Electoral College has reached a fever pitch—and, as usual in these polarized times, it has become a fierce partisan battle. Democrats have begun to align themselves against the Electoral College. Several senators introduced a bill to abolish it,...
EU Reporter: Anti-corruption bill #HR1 can fix the US’ broken democracy
Recently, the House of Representatives passed the most significant democracy reform bill in generations: The For The People Act (HR 1). This omnibus bill tackles virtually all aspects of our broken democracy—from the corrosive influence of money in politics to...
The Progressive: Behind the Electoral College Debate, a Flourishing Effort to Advance Democracy
Bloomberg: Why U.S. Keeps Debating How It Elects Its President
Americans have the longest, most expensive and arguably most complex system of electing a head of state in the world. After all the debates, caucuses, primaries and conventions, the person who gets the most votes can still lose -- as happened most recently in 2016,...
Public News Service: NH Town Halls to Grill Candidates about Reforming Democracy
NH Labor News: Tired Of An Economy That Works Only For The 1%?
NH Labor News: Announcing Equal Citizens’ Democracy Town Halls
Medium: Here’s Our Plan to Make Democracy Reform Central to the 2020 Presidential Election
In These Times: The Case for Using Ranked Choice Voting in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primaries
Washington Monthly: The First Amendment vs. Democracy
These new-generation proposals are examples of so-called “level-up” campaign finance reform. They are designed to counter the power of big money not by pushing down on the super-rich, but by boosting everyone else. In 2018, for example, only 0.47 percent of Americans...
Medium: Equal Citizens March 2019 Update
There could be only one subject for this monthly update: HR1. As I’m sure many of you saw, the House of Representatives passed the most important (small d-) democratic reform package in fifty years — with public funding for congressional campaigns, gerrymandering...
Ozy: Will the ‘Live Free or Die’ State Usher in Ranked-Choice Voting?
Medium: Improving Democracy: Ranked Choice Voting
Consider It: The Corrupting Influence of Money in American Politics
The Lamron: Legal scholar Lawrence Lessig gives lecture urging open access to scholarly works
TechDirt: A Book Review Of Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace
Real Change: ‘Republic Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It’
The Hill: We need ranked-choice voting in the presidential primaries
If the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary were held today, the results would be disastrous. That is, at least as far as representative democracy is concerned. A new YouGov poll released by the University of Massachusetts Amherst shows that New Hampshire...
WXXI: Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig on the power of money in politics
Livingston County News: Creative Commons founder to give address at SUNY Geneseo
Lancaster Online: The Advantages of Ranked Choice Voting
FairVote: Larry Lessig and Adam Eichen talk ranked choice voting in New Hampshire presidential primary
Concord Monitor: New Hampshire Dems silencing New Hampshire Dems
The New Hampshire Legislature, now controlled by the Democratic Party, had an extraordinary opportunity to allow voters in New Hampshire to speak more clearly in the upcoming 2020 presidential primary. Last week, the House Election Law Committee decided to keep the...
Who What Why: Is Ranked Choice Voting the Fix for a Broken Primary System?
The number of candidates vying for the Democratic nomination next year could smash all records. But such a large field also means that most voters will likely end up disappointed because their preferred candidate is eliminated. Is an election where most people’s...
IVN: We Offer A Path to More Choice in Elections; Only The Duopoly Stands In Our Way
This column was supposed to be a victory lap of sorts. The NH House Election Law Committee met on February 13, to deliberate about and vote on HB 728, a bill to implement ranked choice voting (“RCV”) in New Hampshire. It offers staggered implementation, starting in...
FairVote: Why New Hampshire doesn’t spell the end for RCV in presidential nominations
Ranked choice voting for New Hampshire’s presidential primary could have been a godsend for a crowded field of Democratic candidates. But the bill has landed in legislative purgatory after the state Election Law Committee decided Wednesday to delay further...
San Antonio Express-News: San Antonio judge weighs legality of Electoral College process in choosing a president
Lawyers for the state on Wednesday asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging Texas’ Electoral College process as plaintiffs dug in to their claims that the winner-take-all method is unconstitutional, discriminatory and leads to the dilution of the...
IVN: Less Bruising, More Choice: New Hampshire Considers Less Destructive Primaries
FairVote: Ranked ballots could debut in 2020 presidential primaries
First it was 20, then 30, and now, predictions for the Democratic presidential nomination have become less about how many candidates will run than just few will not. And with each exploratory committee announcement, a new wave of worry washes over the upcoming...
Washington Post: The Trailer
Will ranked-choice voting take over the primaries? On Saturday, Iowa's central Democratic committee met to discuss ways that voters who cannot physically appear at the state's 2020 caucuses might be able to participate — perhaps with ballots that allow them to rank a...
Concord Monitor: Proponents say ranked-choice voting could keep NH primary from fading
Harvard law professor Larry Lessig has been in New Hampshire often enough for political advocacy that he knows what will get lawmakers’ attention here, and he got right to the point Tuesday: He thinks our presidential primary is in danger. Lessig was testifying in...
Harvard Law Today: A Precarious State
Mother Jones: To Fight Democrats’ First Bill, GOP Calls in Discredited Advocates of Voter Suppression
FairVote: Ranked Choice Voting: A solution to crowded 2020 primary
In a joint editorial published in The Hill, U.S.Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland), FairVote President Rob Richie, and Equal Citizens’ Adam Eichen frame ranked choice voting (RCV) as a potential remedy for the Democratic Party’s anticipated problems in the 2020 nomination...
Medium: Electors Freedom Update January 2019
Last week, Equal Citizens founder Larry Lessig and I made a two-hop trip to Olympia, Washington and then Denver, Colorado to present argument in two appeals presenting the same important, unresolved question: can states require that presidential electors vote for the...
Hyperallergic: How the Re-Opening of the Public Domain “Has Allowed Us to Have Our Culture Back”
Boing Boing: Lawrence Lessig on designing a corruption-resistant democracy for a virtual world
USA Today: Trump holds US hostage to border wall it doesn’t support. That’s extortion, not leadership.
The Hill: A crowded 2020 presidential primary field calls for ranked choice voting
With dozens of Democrats lining up to run for President in 2020, now is the time to adopt ranked choice voting in early states to guarantee that primary winners have clear majority support. Greater choices for voters is welcome, but crowded primaries can produce...
USA Today: Trump holds US hostage to border wall it doesn’t support. That’s extortion, not leadership.
Seven percent of America believes that Congress should fund President Donald Trump’s wall on the U.S.-Mexico border in order to end the government shutdown. That fact is an enormous opportunity to change the dynamic between this Congress and this president. House...
Denver Post: “Faithless electors’” challenge to Colorado electoral college law to be heard in Denver appeals court
Three Colorado electoral college voters who argued that their constitutional rights were violated when they were forced to vote against their conscience in the 2016 presidential election will get their day in a federal appeals court Thursday. The U.S. Court of Appeals...
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