FairVote acts to transform our elections to achieve universal access to participation, a full spectrum of meaningful ballot choices and majority rule with fair representation for all. As a catalyst for change, we build support for innovative strategies to win a constitutionally protected right to vote, universal voter registration, a national popular vote for president, instant runoff voting and proportional voting.

  • Reform News

    Oscar Blog Focuses on New Instant Runoff Voting System

     

    Hollywood meets election reform as FairVote launches a new blog focused on the Academy Awards' new instant runoff voting system for Best Picture. "Oscar Votes 1-2-3" (http://oscarvotes123.com) is the nation's primary website to analyze the Oscars from the perspective of its newly-adopted preferential voting system for Best Picture. The site will also have information about the similar "choice voting" system of preferential voting used for decades for most Oscar nominations.

     

    Latest E-Newsletter: January 28, 2010

    Features:

    • Award-worthy Reform: IRV in California, Utah and Overseas 
    • Wave of Victories in the Ocean State 
    • Dubious Democracy is the Diagnosis / Port Chester Gets Proportional 
    • Lessons from Nebraska: That Pesky Electoral Vote

    Portland Charter Commission Recommends IRV

    // January 29, 2010

    This November, the voters of Portland (ME) will get the chance to decide if they would like to use instant runoff voting to elect their mayor, after a special Charter Commission recommended IRV by an overwhelming margin of 9 to 1. Eight elections since 2004 have yielded only plurality winners who have taken office with less than 48% of the vote. If Portland enacts IRV, the voters of Portland will begin ensuring majority-supported winners beginning in 2012.

  • Research Highlights

    FairVote Facts

    • Number of U.S. Senators appointed without election since the ratification of 17th Amendment: 182 
    • Number of U.S. House members ever to serve without election: 0 
    • Number of states that always fill U.S. Senate vacancies by election: 4 
    • Number of states that always fill U.S. House vacancies by election: 50

    Featured Research

    In this eighth edition, Dubious Democracy 2008 provides a comprehensive assessment of the level of competition and accuracy of representation in U.S. House elections in all 50 states from 1982 to 2008.

  • Our Media

    Featured Podcasts

    Howard Dean on IRV--Howard Dean Discusses instant runoff voting on Radio Vermont's Mark Johnson Show.

    John Anderson and the Redistricting Game--FairVote's former chairman helps unveil a new gerrymandering computer game, with an introduction from Rep. John Tanner.

    The Slow Motion Stampede--FairVote's Rob Richie and Kentucky Secretary of State Tray Grayson talk about solutions to the broken presidential primary system on NPR's "All Things Considered."


     

    Featured Video

    A New Era of Electoral Reform - The 2010s and the 50-Year Cycle

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