Katie Fahey, founding executive director of The People, which forms statewide networks to promote government accountability, interviews Estevan Muñoz-Howard, Senior Director at Ktisis Capital, Treasurer for the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation, and Executive Board member of Voices for Progress on democracy vouchers and voting reform.
As American politics polarizes ever further, voters across the political spectrum agree that our current system is not delivering for the American people. But what if there were tools to change that?
RCV was formerly known as instant runoff voting, and its primary purpose is to ensure that the winning candidate has a majority (over 50%) of the votes. RCV is very similar to traditional runoff elections; it just occurs at the time of the initial election instead of being spread out over multiple weeks, requiring a … Read more
January 21, 2025 marked the 15th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, a decision that opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in elections. In response to Citizens United, Seattle introduced the Democracy Voucher Program—an innovative effort to empower everyday voters and reduce the dominance of big-money donors.
Voter support for ranked choice voting transfers into support for proportional representation in ways that support for other reforms do not. They need not be seen as in conflict.
At the end of a bitter and closely divided election season, there’s a genuine bright spot for democracy from our 49th state: Alaskans decided to keep the state’s system of open primaries and ranked choice voting because it is working.