The Huffington Post

This article comes to us courtesy of California Watch.

Ranked-choice voting was the cure for what ails American politics, boosters said.

Now in use in four California cities, this new voting system was supposed to increase voter turnout, stanch the flow of special interest money and encourage high-minded, positive campaigns.

But it didn't play out that way in the biggest ranked-choice election yet - the 2011 San Francisco mayoral race.read more >>

The right to vote is at the heart of representative democracy. Upholding that right requires that every eligible voter should have easy access to voting, every vote should be tallied accurately and no ineligible vote should be cast. Both limiting access to voting and allowing fraudulent votes undercut determination of the "consent of the governed."read more >>

Tuesday was a disaster for Democrats, of course, but it was perhaps the best day ever for a cause that many progressives hold dear: redistricting reform. In California, Proposition 20 passed with over 60 percent of the vote, giving the citizen commission established in 2008 responsibility for Congressional redistricting as well as state legislative redistricting. Proposition 27, which would have dismantled the commission and returned redistricting to the legislature, was soundly defeated.read more >>

I admit it. I am a Voting Rights Act baby. I was born 45 years ago and so was the Voting Rights Act. Just like me, the Voting Rights Act must adapt to and acknowledge a changing society, but we are far from over the hill and it should not be discarded as a relic of the past. At the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, President Johnson called the passage of the VRA a "triumph for freedom" and linked the need for the VRA to the history of African Americans in America.read more >>

The DISCLOSE Act, the core legislative reaction to the overwhelmingly unpopular Citizens United decision, comes in the nick of time. If it passes, it and other legislative solutions will help protect the 2010 election from a flood of corporate spending. read more >>

The Democratic Party is poised to launch a historically expensive campaign to keep control of state legislatures in anticipation that lawmakers in those chambers will play a crucial role in redrawing the federal electoral map in 2011.

In a memo sent to Democratic leaders and activists on Monday, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee's Executive Director Michael Sargeant highlighted 15 key battlegrounds for the 2010 election and called for the establishment of a $20 million "Redistricting Fund" to help the party win those races.read more >>

On Sunday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a voter registration bill that allows 17 year olds to pre-register to vote. With the governor's signature, California becomes the eighth state to allow 16 or 17 year olds to pre-register, with registrations automatically becoming active when they reach voting age. Such a uniform advance vote registration age makes it much easier to initiate comprehensive voter registration and education programs in high schools and at the DMV.read more >>

Posted July 10, 2008 | 06:20 PM (EST), Huffingtonpost.com

ALBUQUERQUE -- Native American voters, often treated as an afterthought in presidential elections, are receiving an unprecedented amount of attention from both presidential candidates this year in the battleground state of New Mexico.

It's a development nearly two decades in the making in which a handful of Albuquerque-based activists have been working to create a well-organized and powerful Native American voice.read more >>