Take It From a Poll Worker, the System Isn’t Rigged

The People Who Staff Voting Precincts Put Aside Their Opinions So That You Can Express Yours

Recently, Donald Trump issued a typically bombastic call for supporters to go to polling stations and watch for voter fraud, strongly suggesting that the only way he would lose the presidential election would be through Election Day “cheating.” Compared to his other highly publicized campaign trail comments—about women, immigrants, Muslims, and Hillary Clinton—this sentiment appeared relatively unremarkable. Observing polling places is already a pretty common practice.

Though seemingly innocuous, in many ways this suggestion is one of Trump’s most dangerous because its intent is not to preserve the …

In Attacking Immigrants, Republicans Repeat a Century-Old Mistake

The GOP's Nativist Politics in the 1910s and ‘20s Made the Democratic Party Great Again

Much like today, the 1910s and 1920s were a time when the fear of immigrants convulsed American society.

At the time, the world was reeling from geopolitical instability and economic …

Make the Supreme Court’s 4-4 Split Permanent

An Equal Number of Conservative and Liberal Justices Would Promote Compromise, Not Stalemate

Since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia earlier this year, the U.S. has obsessed over how and when to fill his sizable void on the Supreme Court. Much is at …

Imagine a Democracy Built on Lotteries, Not Elections

We Already Randomly Select Our Juries. Why Not Do the Same With Congress?

Legislatures, and the elections that populate them, have so many flaws that we might be better off picking our representatives at random.

Before you chuckle, first consider how far we’ve …