Welcome to the latest edition of The Expand Democracy 3. We typically release every two weeks and highlight promising pro-democracy ideas and local, national, and global news. And don’t miss our complimentary Democracy Lab podcast with a string of strong guests.
The date-mandering point deserves attention. A 332-day gap between Sylvester Turner's death and his district having a voice in Congress isn't neutral, it's a choice made possible by the absence of any federal floor on how fast a vacancy election has to happen.
The contrast with the same governor moving in under three months for a different district makes that clear.
The South Carolina detail is underappreciated: the state already runs RCV for overseas ballots and gets a runoff done in two weeks instead of Texas's ten. That's not a hypothetical about ranked choice at scale, it's already happening inside a state that wouldn't call itself an RCV state.
Worth flagging as genuinely open rather than settled: House vacancies get a constitutional guardrail requiring elections precisely because the founders didn't trust appointment, but that guardrail is what produces the multi-month representation gaps this piece documents.
Fixing the timeline without touching the guardrail is harder than it looks, and the piece is honest about that.
The date-mandering point deserves attention. A 332-day gap between Sylvester Turner's death and his district having a voice in Congress isn't neutral, it's a choice made possible by the absence of any federal floor on how fast a vacancy election has to happen.
The contrast with the same governor moving in under three months for a different district makes that clear.
The South Carolina detail is underappreciated: the state already runs RCV for overseas ballots and gets a runoff done in two weeks instead of Texas's ten. That's not a hypothetical about ranked choice at scale, it's already happening inside a state that wouldn't call itself an RCV state.
Worth flagging as genuinely open rather than settled: House vacancies get a constitutional guardrail requiring elections precisely because the founders didn't trust appointment, but that guardrail is what produces the multi-month representation gaps this piece documents.
Fixing the timeline without touching the guardrail is harder than it looks, and the piece is honest about that.