About the Center
The Center for Ballot Freedom is a cross-partisan nonprofit project that seeks to protect and strengthen American democracy by reviving fusion voting, empowering diverse voices from the center, right and left to play a constructive role in the political process.
Our Vision
America’s political system is broken. Our two-party system rewards extremism and discourages coalition and compromise.
Fusion voting would help move America towards a vibrant, functional multi-party democracy in which coalition and compromise are incentivized and rewarded.
In a country of 330 million people, it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to fit into two political or ideological boxes.
We need more voices and more choices in American politics. And that is only possible if we alter our electoral system so that those new voices and new parties can form and thrive.
We believe fusion voting is a solution to America’s polarization problem, and we’re working to reinstate it state-by-state using legislation, litigation, and ballot initiatives.
There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.-- John Adams, October 2, 1780, 2nd President of the United States
Our Advisory Board
The Center’s inaugural board brings together civil society leaders and thinkers from across the American political spectrum: from left, center, and right. We are not united on most public policy goals – indeed we disagree heartily on such – but are committed to one shared, crucial ambition: to live in a healthy democracy.
Our inaugural board is still in formation; members are listed in alphabetical order.
- Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Professor of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law
- Daniella Ballou-Aares, CEO, Leadership Now Project
- Dan Cantor, Co-Founder, Working Families Party; Senior Advisor, Center for Ballot Freedom
- Andy Craig, Director of Election Policy, Rainey Center; adjunct scholar, Cato Institute
- Lee Drutman, Senior Fellow, New America
- Lanae Erickson, Senior VP for Social Policy, Education & Politics, Third Way
- Bill Kristol, Editor-at-large, The Bulwark
- Eli Lehrer, President, R Street Institute
- Maurice Mitchell, National Director, Working Families Party
- Greg Orman, Entrepreneur and Former Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate and Kansas Governor
- Lynn Schmidt, Freelance columnist; Editorial Board Member, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Monthly Contributor, The Fulcrum
- Daniel Stid, Senior Fellow and Advisor, Defending Democracy Together Institute
- Miles Taylor, author; former chief of staff of the Dept. of Homeland Security; co-founder, Forward Party
- Buzz Thomas, Co-Founder, Activate Detroit; former MI State Senator and Minority Leader of the MI House of Representatives
- Jeff Timmer, Chair, Michigan Common Sense Party; former Executive Director, Michigan Republican Party
- Rick Wolfe, New Jersey Moderate Party, a key plaintiff in NJ fusion lawsuit; Republican former Mayor, East Amwell Township, NJ
For more information: Dave Palmer, Director, [email protected]
The Center for Ballot Freedom is a fiscally sponsored project of the Independence Initiative.
The Case for Fusion Voting and a Multiparty Democracy in America: How to Start Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop
Read more from board member Lee Drutman, Senior Fellow at New America.