Dan Cantor

This is my first-ever post on @bsky.app. I’m old but not dead, and there’s a democracy to save. 🧵

We're saying no more to these tricks 🪦

Wisconsin’s century-old ban on fusion voting limits political competition and voter choice, argue Anoop Prakash and Tom Florsheim Jr. They say ending the ban could make elected officials more accountable. Read the guest opinion: wisconsinwatch.org/2026/10/wisc...

End Wisconsin’s ban on fusion voting to expand political choice wisconsinwatch.org/2... #wipolitics

I've got a column in the @sfstandard.com today about how a lack of electoral competition leads to substandard outcomes here in California, plus what we can do to fix it.

"Putting it plainly: The two-party duopoly hobbles our democracy but also risks short- and long-term harm to the state’s economy." Learn about fusion voting from Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy @wisconsinwatch.org. buff.ly/3jeCtFv

A Michigan Court of Claims judge could determine whether the state’s ban on fusion voting remains in place, in deciding a set of lawsuits filed earlier this year.

24) United Kansas (1 race) And finally, we have United Kansas. They are a single-issue centrist party that wants Kansas to switch to fusion voting. This system is used in New York and allows multiple parties to endorse the same candidate and lists each party nomination separately on a ballot.

Exactly. Actual fusion voting helps small parties build power.

More Americans are losing faith in both major parties. The growing prevalence of "double haters" is a clear sign voters want more choices—not just the same two options. Fusion voting gives voters a way to support new parties and new ideas without acting as spoilers. www.wsj.com/politics/ele...

On the latest episode of This Old Democracy, Micah Sifry talks with Spencer Overton about what democracy reformers should be doing before the next political opening arrives. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Really enjoyed getting to talk with @spenceroverton.bsky.social, one of democracy’s long distance runners, about the challenges and opportunities of our current moment.

If Americans want an alternative to the two-party doom loop, fusion voting is one of the most promising solutions on the table. @andycraig.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/ripple/2026/...

The essay discusses both and I support both. They fit together very neatly as mutually reenforcing multiparty reforms. PR only works for legislatures where you can have multi-winner races. Fusion allows other parties to meaningfully participate for everything else, all the other single-winner races.

In broad terms, reform ideas in the US break down into anti-party (or party weakening) and pro-party (i.e. multi-party). Anti-party reforms have superficial appeal but frankly don't work. Pro-party reforms aim to produce more coherent and more legible choices on the ballot, which is what does work.

The fix isn't fewer parties. It's better ones—more of them, competing and bargaining through fusion voting and proportional representation. That's the coalition-built system we actually need. Read more on our Substack: centerforballotfreedom.substack.com/p/independen...

BUT while only 22% of Americans think the two parties represent them well enough, 57% want MORE parties, not fewer. 75%+ still say party labels are useful. People aren't anti-party—they want cues for who stands for what. Independents just leave voters guessing. news.gallup.com/poll/329639/...

Problem: independents are structurally alone. No infrastructure, no coalition, no leverage. History shows that they end up caucusing with a major party anyway (see: King, Sanders, likely Kiley).

The most prominent case: Dan Osborn in Nebraska. Running against Sen. Pete Ricketts, dismissing both parties, and polling close enough that NE Democrats left their line blank for him. nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/04/10/n...

Path 1: Shrink parties, go independent. Joe Manchin's new "Independent Leadership Council" is backing no-label candidates in 2026: Kevin Kiley (CA), Seth Bodnar (MT), Todd Achilles (ID), Michael Bridgford (IA). www.cnn.com/2026/07/24/p...

THE LATEST FROM OUR SUBSTACK: People don't actually hate political parties. They hate that the government keeps failing them, and parties make an easy scapegoat. So what's the real fix? Two competing visions are on the table. 🧵

Happy Labor Day! 🇺🇸 Today we celebrate the workers, organizers, and community members who help keep our country running. It's also a reminder that strong communities depend on people having a voice and a seat at the table. 🌟 Enjoy the long weekend and thank the workers who make it all possible.

This is the American Labor Party, not the Democrats, because of fusion voting in New York. As today with the Working Families Party, fusion allowed a party to exert influence and demonstrate support without being a spoiler. The American Labor ballot line that put FDR over the top in New York in 1940

Today, fusion voting remains in only a handful of states—but it continues to spark conversations about voter choice, representation, and how elections work.

Progress isn't always a straight line. @unitedkansas.bsky.social is appealing the latest court decision, keeping alive the fight for a system that gives voters more choices and parties more opportunities to grow.

Many Americans express frustration with the country's two-party system. One proposal receiving renewed attention is fusion voting, a system that allows multiple political parties to endorse the same candidate while appearing on separate ballot lines. Read more: www.theunpopulist.net/p/americans-...

Odyssey this. Odyssey that. We Odyssey fusion voting everywhere.

Are ballot initiatives too expensive? We hear some version of this question a lot. Our new report suggests that the better questions are what citizens get for that money, and compared to what? @maresastrano.bsky.social @oscarp.bsky.social www.newamerica.org/insights/dir...

Banning gerrymandering isn't the simple solution we think it is. @leedrutman.bsky.social dives into why: leedrutman.substack.com/p/why-you-ca...

“The goal of the political system has to be to structure healthy contestation over issues, not just to get you one particular policy outcome.” @mschmitt9.bsky.social dissects healthy party reform in this podcast episode: scholars.org/podcast/can-...

New polling from @newamerica.org and @fixourhouse.bsky.social shows significant voter support for moving away from winner-take-all elections in the U.S.—and openness to new systems like proportional representation: www.npr.org/2026/08/10/n...

it’s why we need fusion voting again

On NYT's Opionions, Jamelle Bouie mentioned fusion voting. What is it? Something that used to be common in the US and could boost democracy again. Fusion voting, explained share.google/Uk7VCc0J9DVQ...

If @sbagen.bsky.social thinks fusion voting is the future of democracy in Michigan, I'd better figure out what it is!

This conversation with @sbagen.bsky.social is well worth your time: substack.com/home/post/p-...

leedrutman.substack.com/p/how-fusion...

Lee Drutman advocates for fusion voting to pave the way for proportional representation. leedrutman.substack.com/p/how-fusion... If CO had fusion voting, then I would be listed under the Forward, Approval Voting, Unity and perhaps other party lines. www.coloradosos.gov/pubs/electio...

Familiarity, however, does seem to produce greater support. Fusion voting, for example, fared best in the Northeast where people are already used to seeing it on ballots (most famously in NY, but also CT and VT, with some limited use in NH).

The endorsements reflect the Working Families Party’s current strategy in Wisconsin, where it is supporting candidates running as Democrats while working to restore fusion voting, an effort it has recently pursued alongside the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin.

"[A] pipeline can be built anywhere there are people willing to do the work. "We’re going to build it across the South, deep enough...to make the big + necessary structural changes of our own, from proportional rep + fusion voting to ending the winner-take-all system that was rigged from the jump."

A noted civil rights lawyer and law professor makes the constitutional case for reviving fusion voting (and fusion parties) — and explains why he thinks the timing is right. @sbagen.bsky.social @msifry.bsky.social Read more: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Fusion voting too, could work here

Winner-take-all voting isn’t the only type of electoral system out there. Let’s talk about fusion voting.