Skip to content
Election Overtime Project
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
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?

Woman holding a sign that reads "This is a time to roll up our sleeves."

Dems blame everything but themselves for losing

Department of Veterans Affairs building

Project 2025: The Department of Veterans Affairs

White House with "stop" barrier in front

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

Meet the change leaders: John Palmer

John Palmer
Courtesy John Palmer
David L. Nevins
By David L. NevinsMay 15, 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

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

John Palmer is long-time electoral reform advocate supportive of a more level playing field for candidates outside the two major parties. He sits on the board of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, an umbrella organization for democracy reform, and currently chairs the board of Rank the Vote, an organization promoting the adoption of ranked-choice voting nationally.

Palmer and his wife, Mary, were significant financial supporters of the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting, the Maine-based organization that led the 2016 campaign resulting in passage of the first statewide use of RCV.

Palmer has supported various other democracy reform organizations and efforts, including American Promise, FairVote, the ProRep Coalition, RepresentUs and UniteAmerica.

Professionally, Palmer is co-founder of Hanover Partners, a San Francisco private equity firm. He currently serves on the boards of two companies in Hanover’s portfolio and has served on the boards of 12 previous Hanover companies.

The Palmers live in San Francisco with three children, and they spend significant time in Maine during the summer.

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Palmer in April for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of his democracy reform work:

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The Fulcrum interviews John Palmer, Chairman of Rank the Votewww.youtube.com

Latest news

Read More

a hand holding a red button that says i vote
Parker Johnson/Unsplash

Yes, elections have consequences – primary elections to be specific

Can you imagine a Republican winning in an electoral district in which Democrats make up 41 percent of the registered electorate? Seems farfetched in much of the country. As farfetched as a Democrat winning in a R+10 district.

It might be in most places in the U.S. – but not in California.

Republican Rep. David Valadao won re-election in California's 22nd congressional district, where registered Republicans make up just shy of 28 percent of the voting population. But how did he do it?

Keep ReadingShow less
A better direction for democracy reform

Denver election judge Eric Cobb carefully looks over ballots as counting continued on Nov. 6. Voters in Colorado rejected a ranked choice voting and open primaries measure.

Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

A better direction for democracy reform

Drutman is a senior fellow at New America and author "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America."

This is the conclusion of a two-part, post-election series addressing the questions of what happened, why, what does it mean and what did we learn? Read part one.

I think there is a better direction for reform than the ranked choice voting and open primary proposals that were defeated on Election Day: combining fusion voting for single-winner elections with party-list proportional representation for multi-winner elections. This straightforward solution addresses the core problems voters care about: lack of choices, gerrymandering, lack of competition, etc., with a single transformative sweep.

Keep ReadingShow less
To-party doom loop
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America

Let’s make sense of the election results

Drutman is a senior fellow at New America and author of "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America."

Well, here are some of my takeaways from Election Day, and some other thoughts.

1. The two-party doom loop keeps getting doomier and loopier.

Keep ReadingShow less
Person voting in Denver

A proposal to institute ranked choice voting in Colorado was rejected by voters.

RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Despite setbacks, ranked choice voting will continue to grow

Mantell is director of communications for FairVote.

More than 3 million people across the nation voted for better elections through ranked choice voting on Election Day, as of current returns. Ranked choice voting is poised to win majority support in all five cities where it was on the ballot, most notably with an overwhelming win in Washington, D.C. – 73 percent to 27 percent.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2024