Shawn is an election reform expert and National Editor of IVN.us. He studied history and philosophy at the University of North Texas. He joined the IVN team in 2012.
Voter ID Laws
Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil says the federal government should not only mandate voter ID in federal elections, but the government should also provide these IDs for free ahead of a House vote on the SAVE America Act (H.R.7296).
Reform Roundup
In the final reform roundup of January, I briefly discussed a new bill in the US House that attempts to overhaul elections in every state called the Make Elections Great Again Act (or MEGA Act for short). This bill touches on everything from:
Campaign Finance
A new poll from American Promise shows most Americans across the political spectrum agree: Money is not speech and unlimited political spending should not be protected as such under the First Amendment.
Gerrymandering
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox will appoint two more justices to the state Supreme Court after he signed a bill into law that increases the size of the court from 5 members to 7. Notably, the change comes as the legislature is trying to restore an all-GOP congressional map.
Reform Roundup
A new bill in the U.S. House called the Make Elections Great Again Act (MEGA) would enact new election rules right before the 2026 midterms. The legislation incorporates key provisions of the SAVE Act, but also targets ranked choice voting and mail-in ballots.
Open Primaries
While much of the U.S. was slammed with severe winter weather over the weekend, volunteers for Oklahoma State Question 836 – which would end the use of taxpayer-funded closed primaries – made a final push to get their campaign to over 200,000 petition signatures.
Reform Roundup
California independent voters are not a monolith. They fall across the political spectrum and hold diverse opinions on a variety of social and political issues. But one thing that unites them is a shared belief that California needs more choice elections.
Reform Roundup
The Republican Party of West Virginia has elected to keep its primary elections closed to party members only, despite these elections being paid for by taxpayers and are the most critical stage of the public elections process.
Gerrymandering
Missouri state officials have pulled out all the stops to prevent a veto referendum from getting on the ballot that would overturn a mid-cycle gerrymander. This includes writing a ballot summary that makes it sound like the veto referendum is trying to protect gerrymandering in the state.
Independent Voters
Gallup released findings Monday that show independent voters make up a new record-high percentage of the U.S. electorate. Its data shows 45% of American voters self-identified as independent in 2025, breaking the 43% record in 2014, 2023 and 2024.
Reform Roundup
While the media has kept people’s focus on the Epstein files, Venezuela, or a potential invasion of Greenland, the United States Postal Service adopted a new rule that will have a broad impact on Americans – especially in an election year in which millions of people will vote by mail.
California 2026
California Assemblymember Carl DeMaio’s Reform California, which has proposed amending the California Constitution with a voter ID ballot measure, says it has crossed a major threshold going into 2026 – and it is not slowing down.