A Conversation with State Representative Deb Lavender

Our representative democracy fundamentally depends on participation from all citizens. Gerrymandering, along with our primary system of voting, threatens the very core of true representation. Further, our current campaign finance laws allow dark money to enter the fray, distorting our ability to make clear choices when voting on politicians and issues. In this podcast episode, we talk with Missouri state representative Deb Lavender and discuss how our current system disenfranchises people and reduces our true sense of democracy. To mitigate these depressing trends, we discuss new developments, such as ranked choice voting, multi-winner districts and “top two” primary elections. These new ideas are being implemented in other parts of our country and may well put us back on the road to a more perfect union.