Fall 2023: “Political Reforms: Ranked Choice, Nonpartisan Redistricting, and Open Primaries” with FixUS
For the Fall 2023 semester, CPF POSC 395 Policy Research Internship students examined political reforms that have the greatest chance of passage and reducing political polarization in the United States. They explored nonpartisan redistricting, partisan primaries, ranked-choice voting, and other lesser-known measures such as “sore loser laws,” aligning state and local election dates to federal election dates, and implementing recommendations from the US House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.
Students examined which states passed which reforms and whether they successfully reduced political polarization and increased civic engagement. They also explored failed reform efforts to understand whether reforms failed on merit or because of poor execution or overwhelming minority opposition. They presented their extensive research to our partner, FixUS, an initiative of the national Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Project: Political Reforms: Ranked Choice, Nonpartisan Redistricting, and Open Primaries
USC Students: Ysabelle Buenavista, Samantha Chacko, Eleanor Love, Andrew Lutz, and Shwetha Rajmohan
Research Question: Which political reforms have the greatest chance of passage and reducing political polarization in the United States?
Read the group’s full research presentation.
Watch the video presentation on “Political Reforms: Ranked Choice, Nonpartisan Redistricting, and Open Primaries.”