All posts by Richard Pildes

Bad Ballot Design in London Mayor’s Race Leads 1 out of 30 Votes Cast to be Rejected

May 9, 2021, 1:49 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

For this race, Londoners used an RCV system, in which they were permitted to rank their first and second choices. But a terrible, confusing ballot design led a significant number of voters to cast a first choice for two different… Continue reading

“After Facing Numerous Recall Attempts, Democratic Lawmakers Want To Change Rules”

May 9, 2021, 8:53 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

This story is out of Colorado, from the CPR News. Proponents assert that there are good government reasons for these changes. But the story notes that the vote in committee to report out this bill was on a straight… Continue reading

Why Puerto Rican House Members Are Divided Over Puerto Rican Statehood

May 8, 2021, 7:57 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Given the intense politics within Puerto Rico over statehood v. commonwealth status, it is rare to find journalistic stories that capture well the positions in this debate. This long essay from Ben Jacobs at the DC Examiner is one of… Continue reading

“The modern primary system makes a loser of reason”

May 6, 2021, 12:29 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

That’s an arresting line from this Matt Bai piece on the Republican Party. I consider changing the structure of primaries one of the more important political reform agenda items. See this good report from Unite America on the topic also.… Continue reading

The 2022 Liz Cheney Primary And National Small Donors

May 6, 2021, 12:05 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

From the Washington Post: The contest is quickly becoming a free-for-all. Following Cheney’s impeachment vote, the state party censured her, and several Wyoming politicians filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to challenge her. The most credible among them… Continue reading

“Participation” in the Disinformation Age

May 6, 2021, 10:47 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

This story caught my eye: “NY AG finds nearly 82% of net neutrality comments to the FCC were fake”: “The OAG found that millions of fake comments were submitted through a secret campaign, funded by the country’s largest broadband companies,… Continue reading

Create More Competitive Districts II: A Response to Lee Drutman

May 5, 2021, 10:34 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

In my recent Real Clear Politics essay, I argued that putting more weight on competitive districts in the redistricting process would be one means of mitigating the forces of political extremism. As I said when I first put forward… Continue reading

“Create More Competitive Seats to Limit Extremism” Part I

May 2, 2021, 1:33 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

In Real Clear Politics, I published a longish essay arguing that one direction political reform should take to limit the forces of extremism in our politics is the creation of more competitive election districts. I will blog about the analysis… Continue reading

Texas Uses Top-Two Primary in Special Election to Fill House Seat for TX CD6

May 2, 2021, 8:09 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

For its special election to fill a vacant House seat, Texas used the top-two primary structure currently used more generally in CA and WA. There were 23 candidates who ran, and since no one is going to win an outright… Continue reading

VA Republican Convention Using RCV to Choose Nominee

May 1, 2021, 9:07 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

From the Washington Post: The race for second place is on.The seven Republicans running for Virginia governor are making their final appeals to the record 53,000 delegates who’ve signed up to vote in their party’s May 8 nominating convention.Because… Continue reading

“Why Utah’s conservatism is better”

May 1, 2021, 5:25 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

From The Economist, subtitle: “The Mormon right has not followed white evangelicals’ descent into grievance politics” ONE OF THE few uplifting notes of last year’s election season was struck by the candidates for Utah’s governorship. “Win or lose, in… Continue reading

“Language of Polling Questions Impacts Support For A $15 Minimum Wage”

May 1, 2021, 5:04 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Polling questions about the minimum wage perform better when using language similar to the Florida minimum wage ballot measureFraming the Raise The Wage Act as a $9.50 an hour wage that increases by $1.50 each year, as opposed to simply… Continue reading

Issue Gerrymandering?

May 1, 2021, 4:53 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

In the state of Washington, the legislature just passed a capital-gains tax, which the Governor is expected to sign. Washington also has a voter referendum process. But according to this story, the legislation includes a provision that prevents a… Continue reading

A Debate over Race-Blind Redistricting

April 30, 2021, 6:54 amVoting Rights Act, vra renewal guest bloggingRichard Pildes

In an important earlier piece, Jowei Chen and Nick Stephanopoulus took advantage of modern technology to explore what a system of race-blind districting would generate in terms of the number of minority-opportunity election districts. Moon Duchin and Doug Spencer have… Continue reading