A proposition on the ballot to change the way voting works in Idaho failed in last week's election.

Proposition One would have opened up primaries to create a top-four system and ranked-choice voting in general elections. The measure received 30% approval.

Al Vanderklipp - senior research associate with the Northwest-based think tank Sightline Institute - said even when people dislike the status quo for elections, they are suspicious of proposals to change the way they vote.

"The default stance of most voters is 'no' for these ballot measures," said Vanderklipp, "and so there's a really high bar to educate voters on the potential benefit of why they might want to vote 'yes,' and in this case it appears that bar was not cleared."

Many top Republicans came out in opposition to the measure.

Like many states across the country, state Republicans saw success on Election Day, adding three more seats in the state Legislature to the supermajority they already possessed.

A ranked-choice measure in Oregon also failed.

However, Vanderklipp noted that candidates could win without receiving a majority of the votes.

"Let's say the independent candidate wins 33% of the vote, and the Republican wins 33% of the vote, and the Democrat wins 34%," said Vanderklipp. "That would elect a Democrat in a state that really doesn't elect Democratic candidates - and that would not be representative, probably, of the population as a whole."

Vanderklipp noted that a ranked-choice system could solve this by counting people's second choice in elections.

But with an unpopular result for Proposition One, he said other changes could be possible in the future.

"There are more incremental reforms like top-two primaries, rather than top four," said Vanderklipp. "California and Washington use those. They're pretty popular. They're effective in electing more moderate and more representative candidates."

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.




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A new poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris' support for Israel's war in Gaza may have cost her the 2024 presidential election.

Nearly 30% of the 19 million voters who backed President Joe Biden in 2020, but chose to stay home in 2024, said Palestine was the reason.

University of New Hampshire PhD student Stephanie Black said she couldn't support Harris' complacency in genocide, so she voted third party.

"We are exhausted of a government that is not listening to student protesters," said Black, "that is not listening to international activism groups - the evidence that they are presenting."

Harris won New Hampshire, but in states that swung from blue to red in 2024, 20% of Biden supporters did not vote due to Gaza.

Black called the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas "a step in the right direction," but said it's important that enough aid now reaches the Palestinian people to recover and rebuild.

Prior to Biden withdrawing from the race, several progressive groups warned he could lose millions of young voters unless he cut off U.S. military support for Israel.

Harris made it clear she would not break from Biden's policies.

UNH PhD candidate Sebastian Rowan said the protest vote should not be blamed for Harris' loss, but rather the Democrats' failure to deliver for working people.

"The Democratic Party, in addition to continuing to send billions of dollars to Israel, wasn't offering anything meaningful for the working class," said Rowan. "Many people felt that we were being gaslighted into believing that the economy is actually great."

Twenty-four percent of non-voters who previously backed Biden cited the economy as the reason they chose not to vote last year.

Rowan said his protest vote was in no way a sign of support for President-elect Donald Trump.

He said students will continue to organize on campus and press school officials to divest from companies, which profit from the war in Gaza.

Support for this reporting was provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York.





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A group of University of Pennsylvania students got up close and personal with Keystone State voters recently as they studied solutions to bridging the ideological divide.

Students with Penn's Political Empathy Lab traveled across the state last summer and talked with people at parks, libraries and county fairs. The goal was to listen to Pennsylvanians as they discussed the issues in the 2024 campaign.

Lia Howard, professor of political science at the university and director of the lab, said the students emphasized using critical listening skills to understand the voters better.

"Democratic listening is one of the most important and undervalued things that are happening right now," Howard contended. "Because we're just so inundated by talk, expression, and we don't get enough time to practice listening to another human being."

Howard pointed out the students recorded 45 hours of audio during their sessions, producing a podcast series and presenting what they learned on and off campus. Another statewide tour is scheduled for this spring, and Howard added she will eventually publish the students' findings.

Howard noted the lab was formed to put into direct practice some of the theoretical concepts her students study and apply them to Pennsylvania during the 2024 election.

"We weren't trying to do polling or necessarily canvassing, though both are really important and I'm all for both," Howard explained. "That wasn't our role. It was really to think about what we were bringing and how we could connect."

The students traveled more than 2,500 miles across the state and learned about each city or town before engaging the voters. Howard emphasized the students found showing empathy as they listened often drew a higher degree of candor and openness in the responses they received.

"Empathy is something that you just practice. You have to do it to get it," Howard stressed. "I think it's worth working those muscles out, especially under times of duress. I think our country needs a lot more of that working out and building those muscles because we're a democracy, and that's what we need to do."

Penn has put together a program to extend the Political Empathy Lab's concept to other locations nationwide.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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As the second week of the Texas legislative session gets underway, advocates want women and young girls to pay attention to bills that could impact their lives.

The state already has one of the most restrictive abortion bans across the country - and diversity, equity, and inclusion offices are banned on college campuses.

The PoliChic Engagement fund teaches women about the political process and how to get the representation they want.

Founder Christina Sanders said voters can hold lawmakers accountable, regardless of party affiliation.

"Anybody who represents is not representing just their district, it's a collective," said Sanders. "And people still have to represent you regardless of what political party, regardless of what affiliation. The engagement part comes in at this point."

Legislators have filed more than 2,000 bills. Sanders said lawmakers want to be reelected, and if your representative isn't doing what you want, you can vote them out of office.

PoliChic volunteers create civic clubs in neighborhoods across the state that focus on voter registration, election protection, and education.

On this national MLK Jr. holiday, Sanders said women should remember all the power still resides in the hands of the American people.

"Democracy is something you fight for," said Sanders. "You get up and fight for it every day. Get to that city council meeting, get to your representative. Legislators write laws, but they write laws based on ideas brought to them. And the fact that special interests bring them laws, and not people, is something that people should evaluate."

The legislative session runs through June 2.