Readers of these Election Reform Q&As may recall that I interviewed the R Street Institute’s Matt Germer about the importance of loser’s consent for our democratic system. In short, our democratic republic exists by the consent of the governed, and that consent is renewed when we hold elections and accept the results. But the gripe “We wuz […]
Discussion of primary elections and thei...
Remarks on elections and federalism as a...
Arizona State University’s Center for Constitutional Design invited me to speak on a panel on this topic. I riffed on Prof. Rick Hasen’s remarks, which argued that federalism was increasing the perils of electoral mischief by politicos, and discussed my essay, “Elections, federalism, and the peril of a partisan race to the bottom.”
Panel discussion on the Electoral Count ...
The Cato Institute’s Sphere Initiative invited me to join a Zoom panel discussion on November 1, 2022. It was fun—the audience was civics and social studies teachers. You may watch the video at https://www.cato.org/sphere/election-reform-midterm-election.
Election reform: Is history repeating? A...
Many Americans are unhappy with the quality of governance and the two major parties. Last month, 43 percent of Americans surveyed by Gallup declared themselves independents. Unsurprisingly, public dissatisfaction has coincided with calls to reform elections, including nonpartisan primaries, ranked-choice voting, and other systems. We have been here before. Dr. Jack Santucci’s new book, More Parties or No […]
Elections, federalism, and the peril of ...
These remarks were written for a conference on elections and federalism at the Center for Constitutional Design at Arizona State University. The two-day event was held in partnership with the University of Wisconsin’s State Democracy Research Initiative.