Fairvote

“The spouse of the executive director is a board member and employee of the organization.”

“Management was provided a copy of the return for review prior to submission to the taxing authorities.”

“All governing documents of the organization are available upon request or at the organization's headquarters in takoma park, md.”

“Form 990, 2013: attachment 1 (page 1 of 6) filing by fairvote (id#: 54-1635649) mission: fairvote educates americans on how best to remove the structural barriers to a representative democracy that respects every voice and every vote in every election. Grounded in its unique networks, analysis, strategic insight and body of research, fairvote acts as a catalyst for electoral reform and voting rights policies designed to increase voter participation, meaningful ballot choices and fair representation. We study elections and electoral rules, develop educational resources, convene strategic conferences, write extensively about our proposals, and engage with reformers, thought leaders and journalists.”

“Statement of program service accomplishments fairvote's program work in 2013 had a valuable impact on public understanding of the effect of electoral rules on our core value of promoting respect for every vote and every voice. This review of our program activities is organized within our three areas of focus, and compares our specific goals and projected indicators of success with actual outcomes: fair elections, featuring our work on approaches to reforming presidential elections and traditional plurality voting and runoff systems; fair representation, featuring our research and education about the contrast between winner-take-all election systems and fair representation voting system that better represent our diversity of people and opinion; fair access to participation, featuring our promote our vote project that seeks community dialogue on protecting, promote and expanding the right to vote. Within these three areas of focus we engage in research, analysis, communications, education and advocacy. Examples of our work in these areas in 2013 include: authorship by staff of two major articles published in scholarly journals (presidential studies quarterly and the university of richmond law review); our series of four "democracy next" forums on electoral reform presented at new york university's auditorium at its washington, d.c. Campus; commentary about our analysis that in 2013 included full-length opeds in publications such as the newsday, salon and washington post; major reports with separate profiles of all 50 states and detailed analysis: the first edition of our state of women's representation report 2013-2014 and our monopoly politics 2014 and the fair voting solution. We regularly update our analysis and educational materials online, primarily at our website fairvote.org that presents research, analysis and basic information about elections and electoral reform and is a worldwide leader in search engines for several basic terms about democracy. In 2013 we also expanded our websites featuring our projects on voter participation (promoteourvote.com) and representation of women (representation2020.com).”

“Fair representation: national, state and local legislatures ideally should fully reflect our nation's diversity, grounded in like-minded voters earning representation in proportion to their share of the vote. Our 2013 work in this area included: publishing a major scholar article in the university of richmond law review entitled "the right choice for elections: how choice voting will end gerrymandering and expand minority voting rights, from city councils to congress: producing monopoly politics 2014 and the fair voting solution, a major new report on congressional elections as they are and as they could be that includes an interactive flash map, profiles of all 50 states and more than 80 pages of detailed analyses - see fairvoting.us; discussing our monopoly politics report in the media, including in a featured segment on chuck todd's msnbc program, and published a number of commentaries about our analysis and state and national publications, including the washington post; engaging with community leaders and organizations to explain the multi-seat form of ranked choice voting and other alternative voting methods as remedies for voting rights act and california voting rights act cases, including several communities in california holding well-attended and live-streamed events at new york university that featured discussion of fair representation voting, including one with current and formers members of congress keith ellison, john porter and james clyburn and another that was aired multiples times on cspan- see democracynext.com producing a high-quality six-minute video on fair representation voting and how it could be used by statute for congressional elections and three-minute video on the issue of representation of women producing our first annual state of women's representation report that included detailed information on all 50 states in one- and two-pages profiles and building an excellent website on this project at representation2020.com helping students consider fair representation systems for elections on campus;”

“Fair elections: americans should have elections that: accommodate meaningful voter choice; create incentives for higher voter participation by making every vote equally meaningful; and enable voters to hold their elected officials more accountable by upholding majority rule. In 2013, our projects in this area of focus included: engaging in extensive public education through research, communications and education seminars about the impact of states' current electoral college rules on the treatment of americans in political campaigns and about potential alternative state policies, including the national popular vote plan for president; establishing, through research, education, advocacy and implementation assistance, ranked choice voting (rcv, or "instant runoff voting") as a policy alternative to traditional plurality voting and runoff elections in order to broaden voter choice and uphold majority rule; researching forms of top two primary proposal recently in washington state and california, including issuing detailed analyses of california's first top two elections in 2012 and washington state's top two elections in 2008, 2010 and 2012. We also study potential means to reform the presidential nomination process. Spotlight: research and education on presidential elections: one of our era's most notable electoral reform movements is the effort led by the national popular vote organization to have states join together in the national popular vote plan for president (npv) in order to guarantee election of the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote in all 50 states and the district of columbia. By the end of 2013, the proposal had been backed by more than 2,100 legislators and been signed into law in states representing nearly half of the 270 electoral votes necessary to enact it in the next election. In 2004-2006, fairvote helped develop the npv plan and over the years has played a key role in introducing it to civic leaders, policymakers, and journalists through addressing its particulars and contrasting it with current and prospective rules used in states.. Its director was co-author of every vote equal, a book detailing the proposal and addressing questions about it. In 2013 we were effective in explaining the proposal and researching problems with states' current laws to allocate electoral votes. In 2013, two fairvote staff members had a 7,000-word scholarly article on the state of presidential elections and the potential of the national popular vote plan in presidential studies quarterly. We drew attention to our research that in the general election, more than 99% of major party candidate campaign events and campaign spending were targeted to voters in only 12 states. We also wrote shorter analyses about the rules governing presidential elections, including the following pieces on our blog, some of which were adapted for commentary in other publications and on websites: "battleground texas" still many years away, by andrea levien; following the money: campaign donations and spending in the 2012 presidential race, by andrea levien; and new york times perpetuates myth that current electoral college rules help small states, by andrea levien and rob richie. Among events, we had a seminar on presidential elections at our democracy next series at new york university. The forum, entitled "impact of new presidential election rules on the 2016 election," featured two board members of fairvote and two staffers reviewing the current system and potential changes in primary and general election rules. It was live-streamed and archived on nyu's website. We also had a series of educational seminars about the history of the electoral college and reform options available to states, convening civic leader and policymakers from a number of states for in-depth conversation and learning. Spotlight: assistance with implementation and consideration of ranked choice voting: fairvote is widely recognized as the leading national a”

“Fair access to participation: we believe that all eligible voters in the united states should have fair access to voting, grounded in policies that anticipate and encourage participation and an explicit constitutional guarantee of the right to vote. We have developed policy proposals that would move us toward full and accurate voter rolls and secure, transparent and accountable election administration. Our 2013 projects in this area included: researching voter turnout and updating our widely-used website resources on turnout in the united states and other nations; researching and providing information on youth voter pre-registration, our increasingly common proposal that young adults be allowed to pre-register upon turning sixteen and be automatically added to the rolls upon reaching voting age - with our resources used both by policymakers considering the proposal and states implementing it for the first time, with colorado the latest state to adopt it in 2013; holding a well-attended and live-streamed forum on the proposal of a right to vote in the u.s. Constitution at new york university's washington. D.c campus, with speakers including congressman mark pocan; developed our promote our vote project (promoteourvote.com) with model resolutions for communities and campuses to pass that support a strongly protected right to vote and commit to exploring means to encourage greater voter participation; worked with both our hometown of takoma park (md) and our home county of montgomery county (md) as they passed versions of our promoteourvote.com resolutions and created task forces, with our menu of policy ideas helping both task forces with their work and with one of our staffers volunteering as a member of the task force; helped takoma park (md) discuss changes by providing background research in a way that ultimately led the city government to make takoma park the second city in maryland to have same-day voter registration, the first city in maryland to extend voting rights to all residents upon release from incarceration, the first city outside minnesota to establish that candidates have the right to meet with residents inside apartment building; and the first city in the united states to extend voting rights to all residents upon turning 16; studied takoma park's suffrage changes, including determining that more 16-and 17- year-olds voted in the november 2013 city elections than all 18-to-30-yearolds; adding our learning democracy curriculum on voting and democracy, with 2013 additions including new material on how schools can conduct mock elections and encourage visits to state capitols to interact with elected officials; publishing new blogs and commentaries, such as the following on our website: o takoma park promotes the vote: will more cities, campuses and organizations take action?, by rob richie; o organizers work to expand suffrage in nyc, by patricia hart; and o historic expansion of suffrage: 16- and 17-year-olds vote in city election, by patricia hart. General activities - opportunities for young people to work with fairvote staff: one of the ongoing values of fairvote is to provide a place for young people to learn more about their democracy and ideas for improving it. Our popular fellows program draws dozens of strong applicants every year; we had five 2012-2013 fellows stay on as staff, and brought in three new fellows to work with us for 2013-2014. We also have a vital intern program throughout the year. In 2013, more than 20 volunteer interns engaged in substantive projects in our office and had regular opportunities to hear from speakers who come to fairvote.”

“Consulting: program service expenses 77571. Management and general expenses 7146. Fundraising expenses 1726. Total expenses 86443.”