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January 07, 2009
Things are warming up in North America
A colleague from ERS is about to go to Canada to learn about campaigning there ahead of a referendum in British Columbia later this year. We'll get an update from her when she returns.
My attention still lies with Canada's southern neighbour. Here's the main news from FairVote's new year e-bulletin:
FairVote's executive director Rob Richie will be debating the Electoral College on Thursday morning (January 8th) for a half-hour debate at roughly 9 am Eastern time on CSPAN's Washington Journal. The program likely will be available later in the day here.
FairVote is a strong backer of the National Popular Vote plan for president. We are impressed by the strength and breadth of support for a national popular vote as reflected by a series of state polls since the November elections, with nearly ever poll in a wide range of states showing more than 70% support - see www.nationalpopularvote.com for more on the polls and on the terrific opportunities to advance the proposal in states in 2009.
FairVote in general is off to a fast start in 2009. Instant runoff voting received a great plug on the Washington Post editorial page just today [see Steve Shier's commentary] and there will be IRV bills in several states. FairVote policy proposals for advanced voter registration for young people and automatic voter registration, both in the service of full and accurate voter rolls, will move in several states, while our strong call in 2007 for states to provide for popular election of U.S. Senate vacancies has been joined by the Washington Post and many more in the wake of the debacle in Illinois in filling its vacancy.
The New America Foundation has just published two important new reports on proportional representation and instant runoff voting. See:
* instant runoff voting in Los Angeles
* proportional representation in California
Posted by malcolmclark on January 07, 2009
