Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim
04.07.13
There is a corruption at the heart of American politics, caused by the dependence of Congressional candidates on funding from the tiniest percentage of citizens. That’s the argument at the core of this blistering talk by legal scholar Lawrence Lessig. With rapid-fire visuals, he shows how the funding process weakens the Republic in the most …
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Social Media – Good or Bad? What your state government thinks (and is doing)
03.14.13
I personally am a huge fan of some social media (Twitter, Tumblr) less so of others (Facebook). I certainly do think tools like these are going to be a significant communication tool for a long time to come. Apparently state legislatures agree, and have been introducing an ever growing number of bills involving social media …
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Voting map by voter, instead of by state
11.13.12
I find this presentation of how people voted across the country to be quite arresting. A wonderful example of political eye candy. Kudos to IDV Solutions and our friends at The Timoney Group on this well conceived and well executed map. Here’s a link to a bunch of versions, or check out IDV Solutions’ blog for …
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My Fair Election – first general results
11.12.12
So the dust has settled. We know the election results. But how did the election itself go? Tracking and quantifying good and bad experiences around the country was the goal of our www.MyFairElection.com project. With a great team and a little luck, we were able to gather over 1000 reviews of polling places on election …
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Wondering where you can get new 2013 legislative maps?
10.16.12
At State Political Maps, we LOVE maps and we LOVE politics, so what better to do but design political maps and make them available to you? We offer gorgeous, full-color, high quality wall maps of Congressional, State House, and State Senate districts. Wall maps have always been useful for lobbyists, legislators, legislative staff, reporters, and …
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Introducing My Fair Election for Election Day Transparency
10.13.12
MyFairElection.com is a crowd sourced election monitoring platform created by faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School with support from LegiNation, Inc. and a group of dedicated citizens. It enables voters to take an active role in monitoring their polling places and in improving the quality of elections and ballot access in the United States. To …
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Too Much Spending on Political Ads?
09.13.12
The onslaught of advertisements for the upcoming elections has changed in scope and tact in the sake of the means justifying the ends. Advertisements regarding the November elections have infiltrated much of the available advertising spots across a spectrum of platforms. It has now become an aberration to be unaware of the tides in the …
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The National Debt Relief Amendment – A Powerful Idea Whose Time Has Come
09.02.12
The National Debt Relief Amendment (NDRA) is a nationwide effort invoking states’ rights under Article V of the United States Constitution to propose an amendment to our Constitution. The proposed amendment is, “An increase in the federal debt requires approval from a majority of the legislatures of the separate states.” This idea was first formulated by …
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Comparing state legislatures by counting bills
08.28.12
On our home page we have a heat map of bills introduced in each state for 2011-2012, which is updated every night. It looks like this: Which is interesting. Hawaii for example, has a surprisingly high number of bills. As does Texas, when you factor in that they only meet every other year, as opposed to …
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Article V – The Powerful Tool We Never Use
08.12.12
For the last year, it has been my privilege to serve as the National Spokesman for the National Debt Relief Amendment (NDRA). The NDRA is a state-initiated, non-partisan effort invoking the rights of state legislatures to propose and ratify amendments to the United States Constitution using the process our Founding Fathers wisely provided in Article …
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Does the 2nd Amendment Work?
07.30.12
“If you live in America, you are four times more likely to be murdered than if you live in Britain, almost six times more likely than in Germany, and 13 times more likely than in Japan” The tragedy of the mass shootings in Aurora has brought out a new cycle of discussion over gun control …
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The Future of Unions
06.08.12
Governor Scott Walker’s victory in the Wisconsin recall elections has not only cemented his place in the forefront of the Republican Party but has also has shined a light on the state of labor unions. Groups on opposing ends of the spectrum have either been quick to draw conclusions or dismiss the results as a …
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Affirmative Action in Education
05.28.12
After the monumental Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954 to desegregate schools, the country has seen a radical shift in the racial make-up of the educational system. The days of the Little Rock 9 may not seem prevalent in our discussion of the demographics in public education. However, as a generational …
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Greetings from www.FollowTheMoney.org!
05.24.12
Hello Bill Track 50 users, My name is Kevin McNellis and I am a researcher at the National Institute on Money in State Politics—the only organization that tracks campaign contributions to state-level candidates, political parties, and ballot measure campaigns in all 50 states. After running into the Bill Track 50 team at the Sunlight Foundation’s …
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Photo Identification at the Polls
04.26.12
The conundrum of how to solve voter identification discrepancies without a blanket exclusion of downtrodden but eligible voters has spread across the United States. The threat of voter fraud has caused over 30 states to enact new voter identification requirements since 2004. The requirements vary by state and in strictness, with six states currently and …
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