Skip to content
Election Overtime Project
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
White House with "stop" barrier in front

If Trump wins, should Democrats turn over the keys to the White House?

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs on stage

Luke Combs, politics and healing our nation's divide

Mark Esper sitting next to Donald Trump

What would really happen if Trump wins?

Ducks

The 12 worst House districts: Experts label gerrymandering's dirty dozen

Meet the change leaders: Eric Bronner, veteran and political reformer

Eric Bronner
Courtesy Veterans for All Vets
David L. Nevins
By David L. NevinsFeb 20, 2024
David L. Nevins
David L. Nevins serves as co-publisher of The Fulcrum. Additionally, Nevins serves as co-founder and Board Chairman of the Bridge Alliance. Nevins brings business acumen, vision and a tireless this-must-and-can-be-done zeal to the burgeoning movement to bridge divides to transform the political process. As a business leader, Nevins excels at building bridges between people and organizations from the right, left and center for civilized conversation and then action. He co-founded the Bridge Alliance because, as he says, “No matter how well managed and how well funded anyone organization is, significant political reform will not happen without an alliance to further collaborative interactions. Together we can and will raise the collective impact of all.” He is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on the Aspen Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership, he established and continues to work with The Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State in 1969 and received an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
See More Writings by author

Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Eric Bronner on Jan. 18 for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series.

Bronner is the founder and chief operating officer of Veterans for All Voters – a veteran-led, cross-partisan community that is mobilizing military veterans to be advocates for election innovations that unlock competition, make our politics less toxic and encourage the government to be more responsible.

Bronner graduated with honors from the United States Naval Academy in 1997 and served on active duty for eight years as a naval flight officer. Before discovering his passion for election reforms, Bronner was a successful real estate broker and attorney in St. Louis, Mo. For three years, Bronner was a board leader with Show Me Integrity, a cross-partisan democracy reform organization that in 2020 helped bring an innovative, nonpartisan approval voting system to St. Louis.

After the 2020 election, a fellow veteran saw Bronner’s passion for political reforms and recommended getting more veterans involved. Early in 2021, he put together an informal advisory board of veterans from across the country and political spectrum to investigate this opportunity. They discovered a true “white space” between the 40,000-plus veteran service organizations and thousands of civic health, bridge building and reform organizations.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

As such, Veterans for All Voters launched publicly, in Wisconsin, in October 2021. Since then, VAV has mobilized over 3,200 veterans and supporters in all 50 states. In 2022, VAV was a coalition partner with the successful “Yes on 3!” ballot amendment campaign to bring “final-five voting” to Nevada. Now, in 2024, VAV’s 300-plus veteran leaders are supporting over 20 different active reform campaigns in cities and states across the country. These efforts are opposed by both major political parties.

Watch the interview to learn the full extent of Bronner’s remarkable work and perhaps you’ll become more civically engaged as well.

Eric Bronner- Veterans for All Votersyoutu.be

Latest news

Read More

People holiding "Yes on 1" signs

People urge support for Question 1 in Maine.

Kyle Bailey

The Fahey Q&A: Kyle Bailey discusses Maine’s Question 1

Since organizing the Voters Not Politicians2018 ballot initiative that put citizens in charge ofdrawing Michigan's legislative maps, Fahey has been the founding executive director of The PeoplePeople, which is forming statewide networks to promote government accountability. Sheregularly interviews colleagues in the world of democracy reform for The Fulcrum.

Kyle Bailey is a former Maine state representative who managed the landmark ballot measure campaigns to win and protect ranked choice voting. He serves as campaign manager for Citizens to End SuperPACs and the Yes On 1 campaign to pass Question 1, a statewide ballot initiative that would place a limit of $5,000 on contributions to political action committees.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ballot envelopes moving through a sorting machine

Mailed ballots are sorted by a machine at the Denver Elections Division.

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

GOP targets fine print of voting by mail in battleground state suits

Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

In 2020’s presidential election, 17 million more Americans voted than in 2016’s election. That record-setting turnout was historic and even more remarkable because it came in the midst of a deadly pandemic. A key reason for the increase was most states simplified and expanded voting with mailed-out ballots — which 43 percent of voters used.

Some battleground states saw dramatic expansions. Michigan went from 26 percent of its electorate voting with mailed-out ballots in 2016 to 59 percent in 2020. Pennsylvania went from 4 percent to 40 percent. The following spring, academics found that mailing ballots to voters had lifted 2020’s voter turnout across the political spectrum and had benefited Republican candidates — especially in states that previously had limited the option.

Keep ReadingShow less
Members of Congress in the House of Representatives

Every four years, Congress gathers to count electoral votes.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

No country still uses an electoral college − except the U.S.

Holzer is an associate professor of political science at Westminster College.

The United States is the only democracy in the world where a presidential candidate can get the most popular votes and still lose the election. Thanks to the Electoral College, that has happened five times in the country’s history. The most recent examples are from 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush won the Electoral College after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and 2016, when Hillary Clinton got more votes nationwide than Donald Trump but lost in the Electoral College.

The Founding Fathers did not invent the idea of an electoral college. Rather, they borrowed the concept from Europe, where it had been used to pick emperors for hundreds of years.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nebraska Capitol

Nebraska's Capitol houses a unicameral legislature, unique in American politics.

Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

100 years ago, a Nebraska Republican fought for democracy reform

Gruber is senior vice president of Open Primaries.

With Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s announcement on Sept. 24 that he doesn't have enough votes to call a special session of the Legislature to change the way the state allocates electoral votes, an effort led by former President Donald Trump to pressure the Legislature officially failed.

Nebraska is one of only two states that award a single Electoral College vote to the winner in each congressional district, plus two votes to the statewide winner of the presidential popular vote. Much has been made — justifiably — of Republican state Sen. Mike McDonnell’s heroic decision to buck enormous political pressure from his party to fall in line, and choosing instead to single-handedly defeat the measure. The origins of the senator's independence, though, began in a 100-old experiment in democracy reform.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2024