Shawn is an election reform expert and National Editor of IVN.us. He studied history and philosophy at the University of North Texas. He joined the IVN team in 2012.
Election Reform
The Denver City Council voted 7-6 Monday to reject a measure that would add ranked choice voting to city elections. The decision means that voters will not have a chance to weigh in on the proposed reform.
Opinion
IVN recognizes that being independent means something different to different people. It isn’t an ideology. It doesn’t require people to fall “in the center.” Being independent-minded is a mindset, and these voters can exist across the political spectrum.
Election Reform
The nation’s attention is currently on the ongoing redistricting fight between Republicans and Democrats. The conversation is being framed: “Donald Trump is doing this.” “Gavin Newsom is doing that.” However, what voters are missing is the context of how we got here.
Campaigns
Texas is an open partisan primary state, which means it does not have to register voters by party affiliation. When voters go to the polls in the primary, they can freely choose between a Republican and a Democratic ballot.
Election Reform
It seems like the standoff in Texas over redistricting continues to escalate, as Governor Greg Abbott and other top Republicans want to see Texas Dems who have fled the state arrested and brought back so that they can redraw congressional lines.
Campaigns
Americans have spoken, again and again — and the message is crystal clear: members of Congress should not be allowed to trade stocks while in office. Yet, despite bipartisan legislative proposals and national scrutiny, Congress continues to stall.
Election Reform
Texas Republicans have threatened to redraw their maps to protect their party’s majority in Congress. California Democrats have, in turn, threatened to respond with their own mid-decade redistricting to “fight fire with fire.”
Campaigns
One week after hosting its inaugural event in DC, the founders of The Independent Center announced the formation of the Independent PAC, a hybrid political action committee designed to do one thing: deny the two major parties a majority in Congress.
Election Reform
Louisiana is making the switch to closed partisan primaries for some elections in 2026, using a system that will no doubt confuse many of the state’s registered No Party voters, who are about to add approximately 151,000 people to their numbers.
Election Reform
The DC City Council had one final opportunity to fund a provision approved by 73% of city voters in November that would open primary elections to 83,000+ independent voters – and the Democratic-controlled body elected instead not to honor the will of voters.
Campaigns
The rise of an independent majority has long been dismissed by the press as a myth, which is why few people heard about an event in the nation’s capital on July 23 that gathered prominent and rising independent voices.
Election Reform
CNN host Michael Smerconish is a Pennsylvania voter who is denied access to taxpayer-funded primaries because he is a registered non-party affiliate (independent). He is also one of the plaintiffs in a new lawsuit challenging his state’s use of closed primaries.