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FairVote (formerly the Citizens for Proportional Representation and the Center for Voting and Democracy) is a 501(c)(3) organization that advocates electoral reform in the United States. Founded in 1992 as the Citizens for Proportional Representation (CPR) to support the implementation of proportional representation in local elections, the organization has since changed its name to FairVote to emphasize its support of such platforms as instant-runoff voting for single-winner elections, a national popular vote for president, a right to vote amendment to the Constitution, and universal voter registration. FairVote also releases regular publications including Dubious Democracy and Monopoly Politics that report on the state of the U.S. electoral system. Other such projects as Representation 2020 aim for voter outreach and increased voter participation. The organization influences and supports similar groups including FairVote Minnesota and FairVote Canada advocating for alternative electoral practices.

Founding
FairVote was originally founded in 1992 in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the Citizens for Proportional Representation by a diverse group of scholars, grassroots activists, civic leaders, and politicians. The result of a merge of several smaller groups all promoting proportional representation reform into a single, nationalized advocacy group, it originally consisted of Robert Richie as executive director, Matthew Cossolotto as president, and former Congressman and presidential candidate John Anderson head of its national advisory board. The CPR ended its founding year operating in Alexandria, Virginia with around 200 members.

History and Timeline
Since its founding, FairVote has expanded its reach and expressed their platforms to both the public and all levels of government through blogs, newsletters, lobbying, interviews, amicus curiae briefs, and other media outlets. Noted events include:

As of 2014, FairVote is headquartered in Takoma Park, Maryland.
 * 1992: Ted Berry, the first African-American mayor of Cincinnati, conducts a welcoming speech at the opening convention of the CPR. Berry was a firm supporter of proportional representation and fought in the 1980s and 1990s to reinstate the practice in Cincinnati after its repeal in 1957.
 * 1993: The Citizens for Proportional Representation changes its name to the Center for Voting and Democracy to reflect support of other such reforms as instant runoff voting and universal voter registration. The Center for Voting and Democracy relocates to Washington, D.C.
 * 1994: Robert Richie appears on national radio to explain a federal judge's ruling of using cumulative voting to settle a voting rights case in Cane vs. Worcester County, M.D. The Center for Voting and Democracy releases the first Dubious Democracy, its biannual report on the state of democracy in congressional elections.
 * 1997: The Center releases Monopoly Politics, a report on the undemocratic elements of the single winner plurality system. The Center's news conference is filmed on C-SPAN, and Rob Richie's opinion appears in the New York Times.
 * 1999: Instant runoff voting for statewide elections passes in the New Mexico State Senate.
 * 2002: San Francisco becomes the first major city to adopt instant runoff voting for certain city-wide elections
 * 2005: Arkansas institutes instant runoff voting for overseas military voters
 * 2006: South Carolina institutes instant runoff voting for military and overseas voters
 * 2012: Robert Richie writes for The Huffington Post supporting a national popular vote for president
 * 2013: Robert Richie coauthors the fourth edition of Every Vote Equal, a book explaining and supporting the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
 * 2014: New York lawmakers pass a national popular vote bill that will award the state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the majority of the popular vote

Mission
FairVote seeks to form a more representative democracy "in which most Americans can elect representatives and hold them accountable, in which city voters are as important as suburban voters, in which people of color and women are as likely to win representation as white men and in which campaigns provide opportunities for substantive debate about a full range of policy ideas." FairVote concentrates its efforts on electoral reform in the United States through research, education, outreach, and support of policies that foster equal representation and greater transparency within the electoral administration. The organization's agenda falls into three broad categories: fair access to participation, fair elections, and fair representation. To that end, it sponsors programs like the Democracy Secretary of State (SoS) Project which scrutinizes practices obstructing the voting process while proposing solutions to hold electoral officials accountable for their actions. The Engaging Millennials project extends outreach to young voters. Members of FairVote regularly write blogs, provide commentary in interviews, and offer internships for interested youth.

Public Perception
General Coverage

FairVote has been covered by many major news outlets--including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NPR. When referenced, FairVote tends to be cited as a non-partisan, voting rights advocacy group . Other commonly used terms include: "voting rights organization," "election reform advocacy group," "national reform organization," and "election participation and reform group." The Denver Post referred to the group as "election-protection campaigners."

Alleged Liberal Bias

FairVote has been accused of having a liberal bias. Scott James of the New York Times referred to FairVote as a "left-wing group" who "have relentlessly berated people who have raised concerns." Other writers claim that many FairVote policies, such as instant runoff voting, are popular in "liberal enclaves" and supported by "populist groups" such as Common Cause, a liberal advocacy organization, and thus give the group a liberal tilt. Louis Jacobson, a writer for Roll Call, argues that any group supporting the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will be perceived as liberal leaning because of Democratic anger with the Electoral College after the 2000 Presidential Election. . However, Rob Richie, FairVote's executive director, said "[FairVote] is definitely not a Democratic stalking horse."

Electoral Procedure
FairVote advocates the use of instant-runoff voting (IRV) in elections. Under this system, voters rank candidates in order of preference, in contrast to the more widely used plurality voting system.

In 2002, FairVote backed a San Francisco ballot initiative amending Section 13.102 of the city charter to allow instant-runoff voting in local elections. The city began using IRV to elect local officials on November 2, 2004. Subsequent ballot initiatives supported by FairVote have allowed the use of IRV in the following cities (listed with first year of use) :


 * Takoma Park, Maryland (2007)
 * Minneapolis, Minnesota (2009)
 * Oakland, California (2010)
 * Portland, Maine (2010)
 * San Leandro, California (2010)
 * St. Paul, Minnesota (2011)
 * Springfield, Illinois (2011)
 * Telluride, Colorado (2011)
 * Memphis, Tennessee (Not in use, scheduled for use in 2015)
 * Santa Fe, New Mexico (Not in use, scheduled for use in 2016)

FairVote supports the replacement of the Electoral College with a national popular vote in the United States presidential election. FairVote advocates the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement between several states and the District of Columbia to award their electoral votes to the candidate with the highest popular vote total. FairVote has played an active role in lobbying state officials to join the compact. In New York, assemblyman Fred Thiele claimed to have first proposed New York's entrance into the compact after being approached by FairVote.

FairVote advocates the use of proportional representation in multi-seat assembly and council elections throughout the United States. In this system, each candidate or party controls a share of the seats equal to its share of the vote. The organization has proposed combining several congressional districts into one to allow for proportional representation in the United States Congress, as well as in the California and Michigan state assemblies.

Voting Rights
FairVote has backed the proposed Right to Vote Amendment (House Joint Resolution 44), sponsored by congressmen Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) under which citizens would be guaranteed a constitutional right to vote. FairVote filed a policy brief in support of the legislation, stating that "We believe that the right to vote is a cornerstone of representative democracy that depends upon broadly defined voter eligibility, universal voter access to the polls, and election integrity." Additionally, FairVote has advocated universal voter registration, a system in which all citizens of legal voting age would be registered to vote automatically.

Presidential Elections
Presidential Tracker

Most of FairVote's Presidential Election research focuses on the effects of the Electoral College on campaigning. In their 2012 Presidential Election analysis, FairVote documented the large disparity in both time and money spent in swing states (i.e. Florida) versus safe states (i.e. Maryland). In addition, FairVote has begun publishing data on how much time sitting Presidents spend in swing states--ostensibly campaigning while still in office.

Congressional Elections
Monopoly Politics

Every Congressional election cycle, FairVote releases Monopoly Politics, a document that contains predictions and analysis for each race. FairVote first categorizes each seat according to its competitiveness; seats are labeled "Safe Democratic, Likely Democratic, Lean Democratic, Toss Up, Lean Republican, Likely Republican, or Safe Republican." Relatedly, FairVote looks at past elections in each district and then gives the district a partisanship ranking. Then, using this data, FairVote predicts what percentage of the vote the candidates will receive. Lastly, the research tries to predict incumbent winning percentages for the election cycle. For example, FairVote expects incumbents to do 4.5% better in 2014 than they did in 2012.

Dubious Democracy

Every two years, FairVote publishes Dubious Democracy, an assessment of the fairness of Congressional elections. By aggregating Congressional race data since 1982, the research attempts to highlight several elements of Congressional elections--the ratio of competitive to noncompetitive districts, the effects of gerrymandering, and voter turnout--that FairVote believes hurts the democratic process. In the report, every Congressional race is placed on a scale of competitiveness, from Tight (<5% margin of victory) to No Contest (>40% margin of victory), and the percentage of races within each category is tracked over time. In addition, the research tracks voter turnout and wasted votes over time. Lastly, the report follows the success of incumbents in winning re-election over time.

Spoiler Candidates

After the 2010 midterm elections, FairVote released data with respect to the effect of third party and spoiler candidates. The report found that there were many districts in which the winning candidate did not receive a majority of the vote--an issue the group finds problematic. In addition, the research highlighted races in which Independents garnered a sizeable percentage of the vote.

Voting Rights
Promote Our Vote

Promote Our Vote was created by FairVote in order to provide support and resources for groups focused on expanding voting rights. The group provides electoral research, legal analysis, and communications assistance. In addition, Promote Our Vote creates support for a constitutional right to vote amendment by building up support at the local level--focusing mainly on college campuses.

Democracy SoS

Democracy SoS is a FairVote project that aims to familiarize voters with the important role of state-level Secretary of State officials. To that extent, the project has issued reports on state election preparedness, interviewed state election officials, and published voter guides that focus on election reform policies. The project also hopes to popularize its candidate surveys, which include questions about election planning and election integrity.

Equal Gender Representation
Representation 2020

Representation 2020 is a project that hopes to achieve parity between the number of men and women serving in elected office. The project consists of three main goals: institutionalizing changes in party rules to recruit and train more women to run for office, creating family friendly legislative schedules, and replacing single member districts with multi-member districts with proportional representation.

Reform 2020
Released in 2013, Reform 2020 is a set of four goals that the group hopes to reach by 2020. The goals are:
 * Fair Representation Voting
 * Ranked Choice Voting
 * Constitutional Right to Vote
 * National Popular Vote

Involvement in Court Cases
FairVote has participated in a number of recent court cases as amici curiae to advance fair representation voting, particularly under the California and federal Voting Rights Act. Notable recent cases in which they have been involved include:

Sanchez v. City of Modesto (2007)
Sanchez v. City of Modesto (2007) dealt with the constitutionality of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA). After the California Superior Court of Stanislaus County declared the CVRA unconstitutional in favor of the City of Modesto, plaintiffs Enrique Sanchez, Emma Pinedo and Salvador Vera appealed to the Fifth Appellate District of the Court of Appeal of California. Along with Kathay Feng from the organization California Common Cause, FairVote submitted an amici curiae brief in favor of the plaintiffs. FairVote argued that winner-take-all at-large voting systems caused "vote dilutions in jurisdictions affected by racially polarized voting, even where minority voters cannot form a majority in a single member district." Supporting the CVRA, FairVote viewed the law requiring courts to "fashion effective remedies to cure vote dilution affecting smaller and dispersed minority populations." Asserting that the CVRA allows California to become more representative of the people, FairVote concluded that the CVRA was an important and constitutional piece of government reform. The Court of Appeal applied rational basis review to CVRA and declared the law constitutional, reversing the lower court's decision.

United States v. Village of Port Chester (2008)
In December 2006, the United States Department of Justice alleged that Port Chester's at-large system of electing its board of trustees violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The US government claimed that the at-large electoral system denied the Hispanic population "an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice." In United States v. Village of Port Chester (2008), US District Judge Stephen Robinson of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a decision that the Village's election system violated the Voting Rights Act and ordered remedial plans from all parties. The Defendants of the case, the Village of Port Chester, proposed cumulative voting as a remedy, which "allows citizens to cast multiple votes for a given candidate for a given seat." In 2007, the Brennan Center, representing FairVote as amicus curiae, submitted a brief supporting cumulative voting as a remedy, but also proposing another system known as "choice voting", a process of ranking candidates. FairVote argued that "cumulative and choice voting avoid the necessity for deliberately drawing districts along racial lines" and that a winner-take-all system would not allow the Hispanic minority population to gain representation. FairVote also argued that cumulative voting is appropriate under the Voting Rights Act, as it "ensures the equal principle of "one-person, one vote"", is race-neutral, and that it is supported by case law and history. On November 6, 2009, the Court did not accept choice voting but accepted Port Chester's remedy of cumulative voting. On June 16, 2010, Port Chester elected its first Latino to the Board of Trustees.

Minnesota Voters Alliance v. City of Minneapolis (2009)
Fairvote Minnesota is a cousin and ally of Fairvote. FairVote Minnesota, siding with the City of Minneapolis, served as intervenor-respondent in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. City of Minneapolis, a case that was attested at the Minnesota Supreme Court. Minnesota Voters Alliance v. City of Minneapolis dealt with the constitutionality of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), which was adopted by the City of Minneapolis for its municipal elections. Minnesota Voters Alliance, a non-profit organization who served as the appellants, argued that the "IRV method violates their right to vote, to associate for political purposes, and to equal protection under both the United States and the Minnesota Constitutions". Siding with the city, FairVote Minnesota stated that IRV is a form of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) that allowed voters to rank multiple candidates on a single ballot. They argued that this form of voting had legitimate policy reasons such as simplifying the election process, saving money, increasing voter turn-out, ensuring more diverse representation, and promoting civil election campaigns. In their defense of the City of Minneapolis, FairVote argued that the appellants bore a ""heavy burden of persuasion" because they brought a facial challenge to the constitutionality of IRV" and that "Minneapolis IRV is constitutional because it is supported by legitimate interests, imposes no burden on the right to vote, and applies to all voters". The Court affirmed the lower district court's ruling that IRV did not infringe on the appellants' constitutional rights, thus rejecting the Minnesota Voters Alliance's challenge to IRV. After the result, Jeanne Massey, executive director of FairVote Minnesota, applauded the Minnesota Supreme Court decision and stated that the Court "blazed a path that every community in our state can follow toward better elections and a stronger democracy" and that the decision was "a resounding endorsement of ranked choice voting".

Jauregi v. City of Palmdale (2014)
Juan Jauregui, the plaintiff, filed a complaint in April 2012 alleging that Palmdale's at-large method of electing members to its City Council resulted in vote dilution for Latino and African American residents. The lawsuit claimed that Palmdale's at-large method denied minority residents effective political participation and thus violated the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). The case was brought up to Judge Mooney of the Superior Court of the State of California in the County of Los Angeles. In July 2013, Judge Mooney declared that the CVRA vested the court in implementing appropriate remedies in favor of the plaintiffs. The City of Palmdale immediately appealed the decision, reasoning that in 2001 Palmdale residents voted for an at-large election system. The case reached the California Court of Appeal in the Second Appellate District. On January 2014, FairVote submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of the plaintiffs. FairVote argued that fair representation voting, unlike at-large systems, enhanced minority groups to elect at least one candidate of their choice. FairVote argued that fair representation voting, unlike at-large systems, enhanced minority groups to elect at least one candidate of their choice. FairVote advocated for a number of alternative methods, such as ranked choice voting, single voting, and cumulative voting. However, the City of Palmdale opposed FairVote's participation, arguing that the amicus brief "threatens significant prejudice to the City" as it would continue to delay the certification of the City's November 2013 election. The California Court of Appeal has denied FairVote's application to file as amicus curiae.