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Trump administration concedes that it canceled research grants in blue states
The Trump administration conceded that 284 research grants were canceled because they were in states that voted against President Donald Trump in 2024.
Bronin campaign, Iran war votes, TPS holders: CT politics news
Plus: Work stacks up for Congress post-recess, a report condemns "extorded compliance," and CT puts $10M towards rural infrastructure.
Democrats select South Carolina for their first 2028 presidential nominating contest
South Carolina has long been the first Southern contest and has served as a key test of candidates’ support among Black voters.
Judge dismisses DOJ's Kentucky voter data lawsuit
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Kentucky election officials, ruling they don’t have to hand over voter data to the DOJ.
Ballot measure to restrict political donations by utilities gains approval
The measure will go to the Legislature and, if they decline to take it up, it will be on ballots in November for voters to decide.
2026 SEC Media Poll Sends a Clear Message
The SEC media has spoken, and there appears to be a clear favorite entering the 2026 college football season. Georgia was picked to finish first in the conference’s preseason media poll, collecting 88 SEC Championship Game votes—well ahead of second-place Texas, which received 57. The gap between the Bulldogs and the rest of the conference…
Opposing Defense Bill, Democrats Shift Their Tactics
Crossing what was once seen as a political red line, Democrats voted against the usually bipartisan measure, registering dissent about the war in Iran.
Primary voters rejected big money in politics
While we’re in an election campaign lull between now and Labor Day, we have time to consider the impact of $102 million in campaign contributions in the primary. In the general election, more money will fill candidate campaign coffers, and from the looks of things, ballot initiatives will get plenty of attention as well. The […]
Registered nurses at Adventist Health St. Helena vote overwhelmingly to join California Nurses Association
Registered nurses at Adventist Health St. Helena in St. Helena, Calif. voted overwhelmingly this week to join California Nurses Association (CNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing registered nurse (RN) union. In an overwhelming landslide vote, 250 nurses elected to join CNA.
DNC committee sets up South Carolina to vote first in Democrats’ 2028 presidential primaries
Key Democrats had pushed for the state as a signal of Black voters’ importance, especially after the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act.
South Carolina picked by DNC panel to lead off Democrats’ 2028 presidential primary
South Carolina is poised to remain the first Democratic presidential primary state after securing a key panel’s recommendation, a move that will maintain Black voters’ prominent position on the calendar.
Colorado Commission prioritizes feelings over science
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted Thursday and prioritized feelings over science-based management. Meanwhile, Rancher X is the beneficiary of those feelings-driven decisions. Well played, governor. The newest appointees to the CPW Commission are...
Wisconsin voters sue to allow for vote to count if absentee ballot is late
A new lawsuit argues that voters in swing state Wisconsin whose absentee ballots haven’t arrived by Election Day should be allowed to cast provisional ballots at the polls to ensure their vote is counted
Fast-tracked, but falling short? Mamdani’s efficiency measures head to NYC voters
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s government-efficiency panel unanimously approved five proposed City Charter changes for the November ballot Thursday evening, setting
Voters Think All Politicians Are a Little Corrupt, but Trump Might Be Pushing It
There’s a difference between ordinary influence peddling and the first family’s outright self-enrichment.
‘The Clock Is Ticking’: Why the Political Center Is Running Out of Time
An intensive research project in France finds the far right on the march, with voters viewing the political center as vapid and discredited.
Dan Bongino calls socialism ‘bumper sticker politics’ as it surges in popularity among youth
Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino critiques the appeal of socialist ideologies among younger voters on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’
Trump to travel to Michigan ahead of swing state's primary election
President Donald Trump is set to rally in Michigan next week as early in-person voting begins in the battleground state’s primary, where voters will choose nominees for open Senate and governor’s races.
Nearly 150,000 mail ballots rejected in California' primary despite efforts to count every vote
Nearly 150,000 voters have had their mail-in ballots rejected for California’s June primary election, a sharp spike from previous primaries
FDA panel votes to loosen restrictions for controversial peptides
The vote marks a win for Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy who has said he's a big fan of the drugs, which haven't been well studied for human use.
US health panel recommends easing restrictions on controversial peptides
Vote from advisory group – whose members include people linked to peptides industry – likely to embolden RFK Jr
Protect College Sports Act unlikely to be voted on before summer recess
The bill has drawn support from the NCAA and many Division I conferences, but not the Big Ten and SEC, which are recommending changes.
Source: No vote on college sports bill expected before August
The Protect College Sports Act is not expected to be put to a full vote in the U.S. Senate before Congress takes its August recess, a Congressional source told ESPN Thursday.
New cost for local businesses? Winter Garden weighs 5% tax increase
Winter Garden commissioners are expected to vote Thursday on a proposal to increase the city’s local business tax by 5%, a move city leaders say is needed to keep pace with inflation but one that comes as some downtown businesses continue recovering from months of disruption.
Democratic Voters Keep Defying the Party Establishment
The House Democratic campaign arm has stepped up its interventions in high-profile contested primaries. But this week, it suffered its third primary defeat in two months.
Oil prices surge as Congress splits on Iran war votes: From the Politics Desk
Plus, South Carolina Republicans are still getting to know their new senator.
Rep. Smucker again supports passage of SAVE America voter ID requirements
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker on Wednesday joined House Republicans to push forward a package of GOP priorities including a nationwide mandate for voter identification at the polls backed by President
Trump’s Approval Ratings Are Plummeting. The Last Group of People You’d Expect Is Behind the Shift.
The same reasons they voted for him are the reasons they're changing their minds.
Trump's patience 'running out' as Thune fires back over stalled election security bill
Karoline Leavitt says Trump's patience is running thin with John Thune over the SAVE America Act as Senate Republicans face a 50-vote math problem.
25 states, DC sue Trump administration over FEMA funding conditions
The suit argues that the administration is requiring states to transmit lists of registered voters to DHS and help it with immigration enforcement
Wisconsin absentee voters seek court ruling allowing them to cast new ballots
Three voters supported by the Wisconsin Democratic Party have filed a lawsuit against the state elections commission, seeking a ruling that would allow for voters who have already returned their absentee ballots to void those and request a new one
In Israel, a strong challenger for political change
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing a major political test this fall. After three years of war and growing public frustration, a former military chief is emerging as an unlikely challenger, offering voters a different vision for the country’s leadership. We look at how an outsider with deep security credentials is tapping into a desire for change — and what his rise could mean for Netanyahu’s political future.
Vote on CDC nominee clinched with change to CDC’s website on vaccines and autism
The Senate’s health committee pushed back a vote to advance two top health care nominations but indicated that one, the pick to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would win the necessary votes.
House votes to end Iran war, but Senate Republicans vote to let Trump continue waging it
Democrats forced both votes, hoping to tie Republicans to the unpopular U.S. war with Iran ahead of November’s elections.
Amish Shah wins Democratic congressional primary in Arizona, a blow to the party establishment
Shah won the Democratic primary Wednesday in a hotly contested congressional district in Arizona, delivering another defeat to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which backed a rival, as more voters reject the preferences of party leaders in Washington.
Midterm voting preferences by race and ethnicity, age, and other demographics
This is part of a larger report on Americans and the 2026 midterm elections. Several months ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Democrats hold a 6 percentage point edge over Republicans among registered voters on the generic ballot for Congress (43% vs. 37%). Two-in-ten voters say they are not sure (14%) or support another candidate […]
Senate health panel delays vote on CDC nominee
Too few senators were in attendance to proceed with a vote on the CDC director nominee.
Senate Health Committee delays vote on CDC nominee - Live Updates
With Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski absent for a family emergency, Erica Schwartz would have needed a Democrat’s support to advance.
House votes to restrict Trump’s Iran war powers in latest rebuke over the conflict
The US House voted to halt President Donald Trump’s war in Iran absent congressional approval, the latest repudiation by lawmakers of the president’s handling of the conflict.
Vote on key federal health nominee delayed amid questions over vaccine views
Sean Kaufman, nominated to run ASPR, has a track record of questioning the safety of vaccines.
Vote on health emergency preparedness nominee delayed - Live Updates
Sean Kaufman's history of questioning vaccine safety took center stage at his confirmation hearing last week.
Why Republicans are joining the fight against money in politics
Long assumed to be an issue exclusively of the left, it is a top issue of concern among Republican voters.
National Democratic PAC announces $17M fall ad buy targeting Ashley Hinson
The campaign ad buy, scheduled for fall, will focus on U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson's votes related to tariffs, the Iran war and Medicaid cuts.
Gen Z doesn't want normal politics. It wants results
Young voters on the left and right are drawn to candidates who promise disruption, authenticity and economic change.
New Jersey voter glitch delivers Republicans a gift in elections fightNJ Spotlight News
Trump's House allies renew call to pass legislation that critics say would block millions of people from casting ballots
Senate Health Committee Votes on CDC, HHS, and Labor Nominations
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meets in executive session to vote on Erica Schwartz to be director of the CDC, Sean Kaufman to be Health and Human Services assistant secretary, and Keith Sonderling to be secretary of Labor.
Voters want major change amid economic and political discontent and more top headlines
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
Iran is 'punishing' US allies, hurting the global economy: Political analyst
An ‘All-Star’ panel joins ‘Special Report’ to discuss the U.S.-Iran conflict, threats to the Strait of Hormuz and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's plan to revive a war powers vote.
House votes to adopt Department of War renaming as part of annual defense bill
The House on Wednesday passed a defense policy bill that incorporates President Donald Trump's request for a historic $1.15 trillion in spending for national security and that would designate the Department of Defense as the Department of War.
Trump touts children’s investment accounts as he searches for a political win
The president promoted his “Trump accounts” program on a visit to Georgia, hoping to give Republicans an economic message that will connect with voters before the midterms.
House votes to limit stock trading by members of Congress
Lawmakers in both parties have longed championed the ethics proposal
Hong leads latest Marquette Poll, large percentage of voters still undecided
A new poll reflecting the rapid changes in the Democratic primary will be released next week.
House passes temporary government funding bill months early
The deadline for action is more than two months away, but House GOP leaders are not leaving to chance another possible shutdown souring the mood of voters shortly before they go to the polls.
Fox News Poll: Voters want major change amid economic and political discontent
Trump approval holds at 39% as Democrats lead the generic ballot by 7 points, the highest for either party in Fox News polling since 1996.
What New Jersey’s disclosure says – and doesn’t say
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s disclosure Wednesday that a software glitch caused her state to mistakenly add 6,600 non-citizens to its voter rolls — and that about 400 of them improperly voted in recent years — has given Republicans something to grab onto in their long-running campaign against non-citizen voting.
Halo composer says Washington needs fewer career politicians
Marty O'Donnell says independent voters are embracing 'common sense' after years of what he calls left-wing 'nonsense'
Daylight Saving Time bill faces strong headwinds in the Senate
The US House voted last week in strong bipartisan fashion to enact year-round Daylight Saving Time across the country. But it faces strong headwinds in the Senate, with one key Republican senator warning the bill won’t “see the light of day.”
Fond du Lac County votes to close inpatient mental health center, effective Jan. 1
The 15-9 vote Tuesday confirmed the closure of the facility, effective Jan. 1.
Dozens of House Democrats reject bill fusing congressional stock ban with federal voter ID
The House voted on a legislative package that includes a partial ban on lawmakers trading stocks and a federal voter ID requirement.
House Dems hand GOP a win on trans sports as party unity cracks
Five House Democrats broke with their party to vote with Republicans on a transgender sports amendment to the NDAA targeting military schools.
New Jersey Dem gov's blame game backfires after tech company pins noncitizen voter registration on state
Gov. Mikie Sherrill says about 400 noncitizens cast ballots due to a Motor Vehicle Commission software glitch, sparking a political backlash.
Sports, more staff could be on chopping block
Sports could be on the chopping block, along with additional staff members, if voters reject the Jackson County Central School District’s tax levy referendum again this fall. Members of the JCC Board of Education discussed the upcoming referendum — and what might have to happen if it doesn’t pass — at a work session last
Model the Transformation You Expect Employees to Deliver
Leaders must model the transformation they expect others to deliver. Yet many leadership teams undermine their own ambitions by promoting agility, experimentation, and innovation while continuing to govern through legacy processes that reward predictability and risk avoidance. Employees notice the disconnect and follow what leaders do, not what they say. The most successful transformations occur when senior leaders personally sponsor the organization’s most uncertain initiatives, devote meaningful time to change, embrace learning, and demonstrate a willingness to change course when evidence demands it. Executives can test whether they are truly modeling the by examining how they spend their time (the calendar test), how they manage ambiguity as an executive team (the uncertainty test as a team, and whether they openly retire initiatives that no longer create value (the cancellation test).
Vote yes on Ingham tourism and entertainment ballot proposal
Ingham County has had a hotel fee for over 50 years, and it should be increased, two county commissioners from opposing parties argue.
2026 Best of Portland Readers’ Poll: Arts & Entertainment
Portland’s best in the arts and entertainment scenes, voted by you.
‘Medical freedom’ takes a back seat in Florida’s midterm fights
Despite numerous pushes from top GOP officials on the libertarian-leaning health efforts, voters have other issues top of mind in 2026.
iPhone 18 rumors: Release date, leaks, more
The iPhone is almost old enough to vote. So, what do we expect from the upcoming iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro Max?
House narrowly passes short-term funding bill to avert government shutdown
The vote sends the stopgap, known as a continuing \u200bresolution, to the \u200bSenate.
Senate panel advances Jay Clayton's nomination for director of national intelligence
The 9-8 vote came after some Democrats had praised Clayton and indicated that they might vote for him. But that shifted after a contentious hearing last week in which Clayton repeatedly refused to say that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
Democrats could take initial vote on 2028 presidential primary calendar this week
Democrats could vote as early as this week on the order of their primary calendar for the 2028 presidential election, although the decision wouldn't be final until the full Democratic National Committee agrees.
US attorney who Trump fired minutes after he got the job sues to get it back
A former US attorney in Washington state is suing the Trump administration for firing him less than one hour after a panel of federal judges unanimously voted to appoint him to the role.
Governor: 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote after error in New Jersey
Gov. Mikie Sherrill says fewer than 400 of those people ended up casting ballots
Governor: 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote after error in New Jersey
Gov. Mikie Sherrill says fewer than 400 of those people ended up casting ballots
6,600 noncitizens registered to vote by New Jersey motor vehicle system error, Gov. Sherill says
The Democratic governor, who took office this year, blamed a Motor Vehicle Commission system software error but said a preliminary analysis showed that fewer than 400 of the people registered that way went on to cast ballots.
Nearly 400 noncitizens voted in New Jersey elections, governor says
Mikie Sherrill (D) said she learned of the problem, which she attributed to a software error, last week and ordered the removal of ineligible voters from the rolls.
Mobile City Council revokes All Weather Roofing and Construction’s city business license
The Mobile City Council voted unanimously to remove All Weather Roofing and Construction LLC’s business license.
How Republicans Made Olive Garden Into a Voter ID Talking Point
Republicans claim that Olive Garden polices its Never-Ending Pasta Bowl more tightly than the United States does its elections. It’s not that simple.
Why Newcastle are changing club badge
Newcastle United supporters are set to vote on a new crest as the club look to change their badge for the first time since 1988.
Election live updates: Arizona Governor Hobbs’ GOP challenger on the ballot as voters hit the polls
Follow live coverage as Arizona voters pick their favorite candidates for midterms. Get the latest as primaries underway for governor, House districts, secretary of state and more.
Tuesday letters: Voter outreach, farewell, Roan Plateau drilling and national politics
Get out the vote As the November elections approach, we are reminded that democracy depends on active participation. Voting is one of the most important ways citizens can make their voices heard and help shape...
Democrats drive voter opposition to data centers, POLITICO Poll finds
A new POLITICO Poll found that Americans’ attitudes toward data centers have grown increasingly sour and politically polarized in the past six months.
Johnson's strategy to bypass Democrats' SAVE Act blockade survives key vote, handing GOP big win
Speaker Johnson's plan to put key SAVE America Act provisions into a budget reconciliation bill cleared the House Rules Committee on Monday.
Proposed changes to Protect College Sports Act would allow conference expansion -- with a catch
As negotiations on the college sports bill intensify ahead of a possible floor vote on the Senate floor later this month, sources tell CBS Sports that Power Four leagues would still have a pathway to expand
House Momentum, Senate Headwinds, and the Return of Shutdown Politics
With the House finally beginning to break its floor paralysis, appropriations may be back in motion. However, the path to funding the government for FY27, and keeping the lights on past September 30, remains complex. Last week, the House passed the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs (NSRP) appropriations bill, which included a closely watched vote on Rep. Thomas Massie's amendment targeting aid to Israel.
Vote for the top Gaylord area sports photo of 2025-26
Check out the top photos of the 2025-26 high school sports seasons around Gaylord, vote for your top pick and let us know what we missed.
Shaky political "science": breakdown of the peer review process
[This article is the latest in our “Shaky Political Science” series. In our 38 page report, “Shaky political ‘science’ misses mark on ranked choice voting,” released in December 2025, we examined over 40 studies focused on ranked choice voting (RCV). Many of these studies suffered from puzzling research methodologies, poorly constructed surveys, unrealistic simulated elections, cherry picked data and faulty analyses that often were contradicted by results from real-world elections (a link to our full paper is here). Here are links to the first four articles in our series: the first one summarizing the overall results of our report; the second one analyzed a study co-authored by University of Minnesota academic Larry Jacobs, which was one of the most error-prone of all the research we reviewed in our report; a third article showing an admirable example of two political scientists holding two other political scientists accountable for their flawed, sloppy research; and a fourth article that analyzed seven studies sponsored by New America’s political reform program that deployed flawed methodology based on “simulated” elections instead of real-world elections, which when combined with some basic misunderstandings of RCV, produced odd and misleading results]. In this fifth article in our “Shaky Political Science” series, we examine two flawed studies on the impact of RCV on voter turnout authored by San Francisco State University professor Jason McDaniel. McDaniel’s research in these two papers stands out for its puzzling methodology, inadequate and cherry-picked data, and faulty analyses that not only misunderstands ranked choice voting but reflects a basic misunderstanding of politics in general. The first of the McDaniel studies actually passed through a peer review process and then was subsequently published by the Journal of Urban Affairs, despite its obvious errors. It is perplexing that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the errors and send it back to McDaniel for a rewrite or outright rejection. This calls into question the credibility of the peer review process itself. The peer review process is supposed to represent the intellectual pinnacle of the profession – a way for academics to certify the quality of each other’s work, and to act as a check against sloppy research. In the case of the McDaniel study, the peer review process failed. Yet his flawed study has been cited dozens of times by other political scientists in their own flawed works — an unvirtuous circle of academic research. Here is the first Jason McDaniel study that we analyzed: “Writing the Rules to Rank the Candidates: Examining the Impact of Instant-Runoff Voting on Racial Group Turnout in San Francisco Mayoral Elections,” by Jason McDaniel, 2016, Journal of Urban Affairs. This study covered San Francisco’s use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in mayoral elections, purporting to show that RCV reduces voter turnout overall, increases voter errors, and has a negative impact on “marginal populations,” i.e. racial minorities, mainly as the result of the alleged complexity of RCV asking voters to rank candidates and having to be familiar with multiple candidates and related dynamics. McDaniel reached these conclusions by examining five San Francisco mayoral elections taking place in odd years (i.e. where there are no federal or state races on the ballot) from 1995 to 2011, comparing three earlier non-RCV races (in 1995, 1999 and 2003) with the later two RCV races (in 2007 and 2011). Only two RCV races were studied, and as McDaniel acknowledged, only the contest in 2011 was “competitive” (that contest in 2007 was the first mayoral election using RCV, and incumbent mayor Gavin Newsom won easily in the first round of counting, earning 74% of first choices and far ahead of the second place candidate who had just 6.3% of first choices). Yet even the allegedly competitive contest in 2011was won by an incumbent with a landslide margin of nearly 20 points. No other elections were studied by McDaniel, even though San Francisco elects 17 other offices besides mayor with RCV, including the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors (the name for the city council) in even years, and six other citywide offices in odd years. Previous academic research has found that competitive elections can stimulate greater voter involvement and higher turnout. For unexplained reasons, this study ignored at least 34 other RCV races between the years 2004 to 2011, many of which were very competitive and had high voter turnout. Instead, McDaniel’s analysis based its conclusions on data from only a single, marginally-competitive mayor’s race using RCV. These 2007 and 2011 mayoral elections were the only two RCV elections that McDaniel used as the sole basis for his small data set to determine the impact of RCV on voter turnout. Despite having no meaningful data to inform his study, McDaniel nonetheless concluded that RCV lowered turnout when compared to the previous three mayoral non-RCV elections using two-round runoffs. Then, using the same inadequate database of San Francisco elections, McDaniel also found that “Instant-runoff voting is associated with a significant decline in Black voter turnout and White voter turnout…On average, Black voter turnout decreases by 18 points and White voter turnout decreases by 16 points …” But how could he credibly arrive at that conclusion when his study was based on voter turnout in two RCV contests that were not even remotely competitive? Beyond that, McDaniel tacitly admits that the key determining factor driving Black voter turnout was not RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable Black candidate. McDaniel wrote, “Black voter turnout was about 17 percentage points higher for the two elections that featured an African American candidate compared to the three elections that did not” — but one of those three elections did not use RCV. The same dynamic was present for White voter turnout, in which higher turnout was not correlated with RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable White candidate. Beyond that, McDaniel’s voter turnout results, whether correlated with the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections, showed no clear patterns. In his Figure 1, he shows low Asian voter turnout in the non-RCV elections in 1999 and 2003 when there was no viable Asian candidate running, but in the 2007 mayoral election using RCV, there is still no viable Asian candidate, yet Asian turnout increases dramatically. For Latinos, voter turnout is virtually the same in 1999 (no viable Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2003 (leading Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2007 (no viable Latino candidate, RCV elections) and 2011 (leading Latino candidate, RCV elections). Meanwhile White voter turnout increased dramatically from a low in the 2007 mayoral election, in which the leading candidate was a white incumbent, to the 2011 election in which there were no leading white candidates that finished any higher than sixth place with 5.6% of the vote. Clearly other factors were determining voter turnout than either the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections. Despite these inconsistent findings, McDaniel boldly marches forth to render conclusions about the impact of RCV on different groups of racial voters, even though his conclusions are not remotely supported by his data. This looks like the worst kind of “data cherry picking” to cover up a puzzling conclusion based on a poor data set involving only two RCV elections, neither of which were remotely competitive. McDaniel’s cherry picking didn’t stop there. In calculating voter turnout for the three non-RCV mayoral elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, he failed to mention that in each of these years there was a two-round runoff election, with a first round election in November in which no candidate garnered a winning majority of the vote, followed by the decisive runoff in December. So there were two non-RCV elections in each election year. But McDaniel only decided to include one of the two elections in his data set, apparently the December runoff in each year (which had higher turnout in two out of the three mayor’s races, and lower turnout in the third). So he ignored the November 1995 election, the November 1999 election when turnout was only 45 percent, and the November 2003 election when turnout was only 45.7 percent. This is flawed methodology based on blatant cherry picking, since McDaniel simply omitted three elections worth of data that did not fit within his frame. His study should never have made it through a peer review process, and it is an embarrassment to political science that not only was it approved for publication, but it has been uncritically cited by dozens of other political scientists. Share A “study” without wider context or credible data Lacking a data set that included even a single competitive RCV mayoral race, McDaniel declared that RCV lowered voter turnout in 2011, when turnout was 42.5 percent. But he also ignored -- or did not realize -- that voter turnout in mayoral elections during 2011 had sharply declined in all big cities, including far more steeply in nearby Los Angeles and other cities. In fact, San Francisco’s election in 2011 had the second highest turnout of any mayoral election in the nation’s 22 largest cities from 2008-2011. Was 2011 just a particularly low turnout year all across the country, perhaps because the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the housing market collapse in 2008-2010? McDaniel ignored this factor and did not search for alternative explanations beyond his flawed thesis. Furthermore, while McDaniel suggested that RCV leads to more “overvotes” – which is an invalidated ballot in which a voter, in either a non-RCV or RCV race, makes a mistake and selects two candidates for a single choice – he failed to address that in the June 2012 US Senate primary contest, which used the typical “one-choice” plurality method and did not use RCV, there was more than five times as many overvotes in San Francisco and Oakland than in the RCV mayoral elections in those cities. Additionally, turnout had been significantly higher and more representative in RCV elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors races -- that McDaniel didn’t even bother to study -- as compared to previous “delayed two-round runoffs” for those offices, often higher by as much as 40% in the RCV races. Perhaps the most surprising irony was that an earlier study co-authored by McDaniel (Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco by Francis Neely and Jason McDaniel, 2015, California Journal of Politics and Policy) found that overvotes are often more common in lower-income precincts, but that the pattern of overvoting is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. Wrote Neely and McDaniel: “[Overvote] errors appear to be a function of complexity in general and not IRV per se…. the pattern of overvoting is similar in both IRV and non-IRV contests…Even among votes cast in a top-of-the-ticket race like U.S. Senate, overvoting occurs in an uneven fashion” (IRV, or ‘instant runoff voting,’ is another name for ranked choice voting in single-winner contests). So McDaniel not only contradicted his own conclusion in his earlier study with Neely, but the earlier study had been an important corrective for one of the most frequently made mistakes made by anti-RCV political scientists – a continual failure to provide crucial context by pairing a comparative analysis of real world RCV elections with an analysis of real world plurality or other electoral methods. Unfortunately McDaniel’s earlier study does not get cited much by other researchers, and McDaniel did not even cite it in his own flawed study analyzed above. Incredibly, McDaniel cherrypicked McDaniel, even as his flawed study has been cited dozens of times. Despite being a textbook example of poor political “science,” featuring both inadequate as well as cherrypicked data, the shelf life of McDaniel’s study has been extended endlessly by other political scientists and media outlets who have cited it uncritically. Equally troubling, the Journal of Urban Affairs put this paper through its peer review process and published it despite its numerous flaws. McDaniel gets it wrong, Part II Not content with producing one shoddy, confused paper, McDaniel produced another one a few years later, here is the link: Electoral Rules and Voter Turnout in Mayoral Elections: An Analysis of Ranked-Choice Voting by Jason McDaniel. San Francisco State Univ. (McDaniel, 2019). In this paper, McDaniel extended his previous flawed research focused on San Francisco, about voter turnout and voter impact, to multiple RCV cities through the 2018 elections. In his data set he included San Francisco, Minneapolis, St Paul, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and Santa Fe. He then compared their turnout in mayoral elections to non-RCV cities, and to mayoral elections in those cities held before first RCV usage, and concluded “a significant decrease in voter turnout of approximately 3–5 percentage points in RCV cities after the implementation of RCV.” But he replicated many of the same mistakes as his first study presented above. While in this study McDaniel attempted to distinguish between various factors, such as odd year vs. even year elections, competitive races vs. noncompetitive, contests with open seats and other factors, the analysis is superficial and inadequate. He attempts to incorporate so many often-conflicting variables that his conclusions are once again unsupported by the actual data, and ultimately unconvincing (this second study never underwent a peer review process). For example, McDaniel declared that for RCV cities “in elections that are more competitive than average (margin of victory less than 20%), there is no significant RCV effect on voter turnout.” Yet McDaniel is a professor in a city, San Francisco, in which the 2018 special election using RCV to fill a mayoral vacancy was exceedingly close, decided by a margin of only one percentage point, and resulted in the second highest turnout in San Francisco history for a mayoral election. Illustrating the complexity involved in assessing the critical factors in turnout, that special election was held on the same election day as federal and state offices, which tends to boost turnout. Yet more voters participated in that RCV mayoral election than voted on the same day in the non-RCV primary for governor in which former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was running. Even more puzzling, in this study McDaniel inaccurately cited his own previous study from 2015 with Neely. McDaniel wrote, “Neely and McDaniel (2015) examine individual ballot image files within a natural experiment, and find higher rates of ballot errors in RCV elections compared to non-RCV elections” (emphasis added). However, we quoted from that 2015 study several paragraphs above, and in actual fact Neely and McDaniel actually concluded the opposite -- that the pattern of overvoting – which is the most common form of ballot error – is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. McDaniel also ignored the fact that in Bay Area RCV elections held in even years – at the same time as federal and state elections, when turnout is highest -- the “undervote” (that is, the dropoff in ballots cast for governor or mayor) has declined, which contradicts his thesis that the act of ranking ballots in RCV elections is too complex and presents a barrier for certain demographics of voters. To his credit, McDaniel actually acknowledged another contradiction in his own paper, which found a negative RCV turnout effect in some odd-year elections but not others, admitting that “may present a challenge to the theory that increased complexity [from RCV] will have a marginal negative effect on voter turnout.” But he tried to wallpaper over that contradiction by blaming it on an unlikely source -- bad election administration. McDaniels wrote, “This would suggest that the negative impact of RCV on voter participation may be alleviated by high quality election administration,” without presenting any data or even anecdotes to support such an unfounded theory. While competent election administration of any election, whether RCV or non-RCV, is crucially important, there is no credible research that supports the far-fetched notion that the quality of election administration has much of an impact on voter turnout in US elections, whether using RCV or otherwise. Upgrade to a $5 subscription The unvirtuous circle of academic research It is puzzling how McDaniel’s first study could have survived the peer review process for the Journal of Urban Affairs. The mistakes in McDaniel’s first study above should have been obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of ranked choice voting as well as elections in general, and elections in San Francisco specifically. It undermines faith in the credibility of the peer review process to think that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the egregious errors and reject McDaniel’s sloppy research and paper. And it remains a black mark on political science that this thoroughly discredited study has been cited dozens of times by other researchers. Indeed, in our research paper it became apparent that many political scientists cite each other’s flawed research to pad their list of citations and to legitimize their own flawed research, creating an unvirtuous circle of political science. More broadly, McDaniel’s voter turnout studies, like other studies evaluating RCV’s impact on turnout, lacked a recognition that no credible opinion or research can claim that RCV increases voter turnout merely because so many voters are excited to vote for their favorite candidates instead of “lesser evil” candidates without worrying about spoilers. Instead, with respect to turnout, the advantage of RCV has always been that, in most places where it has been used, it has eliminated a pre-November primary or post-November runoff, which usually saw about half the turnout of the November general election. This is especially true during even years when there are state and federal elections on the ballot which substantially drive turnout more than local contests. Any study that does not adequately account for this non-November primary/runoff vs November general election dynamic, or odd year vs even year election factors, is simply not credible. Both of McDaniel’s studies largely failed on those grounds. Steven Hill and Paul Haughey Share Upgrade to a $5 subscription Thanks for reading DemocracySOS…your digital portal for the pro-democracy movement. Subscribe for only $5 per month to receive full benefits and to support our work. Subscribe
City Council Business Meeting on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 9:00 a.m.
The Palm Coast City Council meets regularly to discuss and vote on official City business. These meetings are open to the public, and Palm Coast residents are strongly encouraged to attend. An increase in public engagement helps to build a stronger sense of community, increase valuable discussions, and decrease division.
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