Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Nevada’s new plan to avoid repeating Iowa’s caucus chaos

Troy Price

As Chairman of the Democratic Party, Troy Price was in charge of running the Iowa Caucuses, which ended in disaster.

Steve Pope/Getty Images

Fearing a repeat of the disastrous Iowa caucuses, Nevada Democrats scrapped their plans to use similar apps to tabulate results. Instead, party officials will use a mix of old and new tech: paper ballots and Google Forms.

The Nevada State Democratic Party announced new procedures on Tuesday, just four days before early caucusing begins. Officials will check in early birds using an online Google Form that they say will track participants and streamline the process. Then early voters will fill out paper ballots ranking their top three presidential candidates, which will be scanned, organized by precinct and counted on Caucus Day.

Although Nevada is pivoting away from the apps that caused chaos in Iowa, these new procedures will hardly guarantee smooth sailing in the Silver State. Many concerns have been raised over the security of using Google Forms and whether the early caucus ballots will be accurately counted.


More than half of the predicted 90,000 caucus-goers in Nevada are expected to cast their ballots early at over 80 locations between Feb. 15-18. Early participants will be given voter cards with state-issued ID numbers and pre-generated PINs. They will then use iPads to verify their identity via Google Forms. (Paper sign-in sheets will also be available as a backup.) Party officials say this process will ensure accurate ballot counting and protect against voter fraud.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

After choosing their preferred presidential candidates, voters will insert their paper ballots and voter cards into designated boxes. At the end of each early caucus day, state party officials will scan and securely store the counted paper ballots at designated processing hubs.

While candidate campaigns will be updated on how many people have cast ballots, the full election results will not be made public until Caucus Day. On Feb. 22, all eyes will be on Nevada to see if state party officials can handle the voter data from more than 1,800 caucus sites and avoid another election pitfall.

Read More

Rear view diverse voters waiting for polling place to open
SDI Productions/Getty Images

Open primary advocates must embrace the historic principles of change

This was a big year for the open primaries movement. Seven state-level campaigns and one municipal. Millions of voters declaring their support for open primaries. New leaders emerging across the country. Primary elections for the first time at the center of the national reform debate.

But with six out of eight campaigns failing at the ballot box, it’s also an important moment of reflection.

Keep ReadingShow less
"Vote Here" sign
Grace Cary/Getty Images

The path forward for electoral reform

The National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers hosted its post-election gathering Dec. 2-4 in San Diego. More than 120 leaders from across the country convened to reflect on the November elections, where reform campaigns achieved mixed results with multiple state losses, and to chart a path forward for nonpartisan electoral reforms. As the Bridge Alliance Education Fund is a founding member of NANR and I currently serve on the board, I attended the gathering in hopes of getting some insight on how we can best serve the collective needs of the electoral reform community in the coming year.

Keep ReadingShow less
Peopel waiting in line near a sign that reads "Vote Here: Polling Place"

People wait to vote in the 2024 election at city hall in Anchorage, Alaska.

Hasan Akbas/Anadolu via Getty Images

How Alaska is making government work again

At the end of a bitter and closely divided election season, there’s a genuine bright spot for democracy from our 49th state: Alaskans decided to keep the state’s system of open primaries and ranked choice voting because it is working.

This is good news not only for Alaska, but for all of us ready for a government that works together to get things done for voters.

Keep ReadingShow less
people voting
Getty Images

How to reform the political system to fight polarization and extremism

On Dec. 19, at 6 p.m., Elections Reform Now will present a webinar on “How to Reform the Political System to Combat Polarization and Extremism.”

In 2021, a group of the leading academics in the United States formed a task force to study the polarization of the American electorate and arrive at solutions to the dysfunction of our electoral system. They have now written a book, "Electoral Reform in the United States: Proposals for Combating Polarization and Extremism," published just this month.

Keep ReadingShow less