Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
Two containers, one with a U.S. flag and another with Canada's flag.

Just the Facts: U.S.–Canada Tariff War Escalates As Trump Raises Stakes

What Texans need to know about Prop 16, the ballot question on citizenship and voting

What Texans need to know about Prop 16, the ballot question on citizenship and voting

A woman typing on her laptop.

When Federal Websites Get Political: The Hatch Act in the Digital Age

Who’s Pulling Trump’s Strings? Inside Project 2025 and the 7 Think Tanks Reshaping America

Who’s Pulling Trump’s Strings? Inside Project 2025 and the 7 Think Tanks Reshaping America

Close up of U.S. Army and American flag patches on a uniform

Veterans Day Betrayal: ICE Detains U.S. Military Veterans Under Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Democracy Madness final pits ranked-choice vs. presidential voting

Final bracket
Tristiaña Hinton/The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumJun 03, 2020
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
See More Writings by author

There are officially no No. 1 seeds left in Democracy Madness, our reader-driven contest to pick the fan favorite proposal for fixing what's broken in our political system.

The Cinderella story of the 64-idea tournament, the eleventh seeded National Popular Vote Compact, takes on a second seed, ranked-choice voting, in the championship round.


The idea of getting states to pledge their electoral votes to the national (not their own) winner of the presidential popular vote defeated one of the top seeds in the tournament, conducting all elections with paper ballots. To this point, it had already knocked out ideas like creating independent commissions to draw legislative districts, which had been the biggest upset of the tournament — until now.

RCV, where voters list candidates in order of preference and instant runoffs produce the consensus choice, has continued its coast to the championship round, most recently besting the repeal of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. That is the second No. 1 seed RCV has taken down, after toppling the call for a new Voting Rights Act to win the banner in the Voting region.

Now it's time for you to decide which idea will be the champion of Democracy Madness. Can the National Popular Vote Compact continue its Cinderella story and become the belle of the ball? Or will RCV knock it out without a fight like all its other competitors?

Cast your vote now. The winner will be crowned Monday.

Latest news

Rethinking Drug Policy: From Punishment to Empowerment
Governance & Legislation

Rethinking Drug Policy: From Punishment to Empowerment

Lady of Justice in front of a U.S. flag.
Rule of Law

Retired Federal Judge Warns of Threats to Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law

Don’t Be a Working Class Hero — Just Imagine!
Pop Culture

Don’t Be a Working Class Hero — Just Imagine!

From Gerrymandering to Threats Faith in Democracy and Constitutional Erosion
Governance & Legislation

From Gerrymandering to Threats Faith in Democracy and Constitutional Erosion

Read More

People walking through the airport.

Passengers walk through the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Nov. 7, 2025.

Getty Images, Anna Moneymaker

What To Know As Hundreds of Flights Are Grounded Across the U.S. – an Air Travel Expert Explains

Major airports across the United States were subject to a 4% reduction in flights on Nov. 7, 2025, as the government shutdown began to affect travelers.

The move by the Federal Aviation Administration is intended to ease pressure on air traffic controllers, many of whom have been working for weeks without pay after the government shut down on Oct. 1. While nonessential employees were furloughed, workers deemed essential, such as air traffic controllers, have continued to do their jobs.

Keep ReadingShow less
A child looks into an empty fridge-freezer in a domestic kitchen.

Ronald L. Hirsch writes how America’s founding ideals demand government action to ensure equality in food, housing, education, and health care for all citizens.

Getty Images, Catherine Falls Commercial

Food Should Be a Fundamental Right; Extreme Wealth Is Not

There is no argument between Democrats and Republicans—even of the MAGA variety—that we live in a country of great inequality regarding a number of essential aspects of life: money, education, health care, and housing.

The difference between the two is that Republicans feel that if you don't have money, or an education, or good health care, or housing, it's your own fault; government has no responsibility. Democrats feel that it is the government's responsibility to provide each person with the opportunity to pursue their right to life, liberty, and happiness. This dispute is central to the current controversy over SNAP funding during the shutdown.

Keep ReadingShow less
People voting at booths.

AI is reshaping politics like social media did for Obama. From relational organizing to deepfakes, explore how technology will define the 2026 elections.

Getty Images, adamkaz

Who Will Be the First American Candidate To Harness AI

Social media has been a familiar, even mundane, part of life for nearly two decades. It can be easy to forget it was not always that way.

In 2008, social media was just emerging into the mainstream. Facebook reached 100 million users that summer. And a singular candidate was integrating social media into his political campaign: Barack Obama. His campaign’s use of social media was so bracingly innovative, so impactful, that it was viewed by journalist David Talbot and others as the strategy that enabled the first term Senator to win the White House.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025