#and down ballot races are so so so important

[tidepoolalgae]

.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Forget hush money payments to porn stars hidden as business expenses. Forget showing off classified documents about Iran attack plans to visitors, and then ordering the pool guy to erase the security tapes revealing that he was still holding on to documents that he had promised to return. Forget even corrupt attempts to interfere with election results in Georgia in 2020.

The federal indictment just handed down by special counsel Jack Smith is not only the most important indictment by far of former President Donald Trump. It is perhaps the most important indictment ever handed down to safeguard American democracy and the rule of law in any U.S. court against anyone.

For those who have been closely following Trump’s attempt to subvert the results of the 2020 election, there was little new information contained in the indictment. In straightforward language with mountains of evidence, the 45-page document explains how Trump, acting with six (so far unnamed, but easily recognizable) co-conspirators, engaged in a scheme to repeatedly make false claims that the 2020 election was stolen or rigged, and to use those false claims as a predicate to try to steal the election. The means of election theft were national, not just confined to one state, as in the expected Georgia prosecution. And they were technical—submitting alternative slates of presidential electors to Congress, and arguing that state legislatures had powers under the Constitution and an old federal law, the Electoral Count Act, to ignore the will of the state’s voters.

But Trump’s corrupt intent was clear: He was repeatedly told that the election was not stolen, and he knew that no evidence supported his outrageous claims of ballot tampering. He nonetheless allegedly tried to pressure state legislators, state election officials, Department of Justice officials, and his own vice president to manipulate these arcane, complex election rules to turn himself from an election loser into an election winner. That’s the definition of election subversion.

He’s now charged with a conspiracy to defraud the United States, a conspiracy to willfully deprive citizens the right to vote, a conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and obstructing that official proceeding. If you’re doing the math, that is four new counts on top of the dozens he faces in the classified documents case in Florida and the hush money case in New York.

So far Trump has not been accountable for these actions to try to steal an American election. Although the House impeached Trump for his efforts soon after they occurred, the Senate did not convict. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in voting against conviction in the Senate despite undeniable evidence of attempted election subversion by his fellow Republican, pointed to the criminal justice system as the appropriate place to serve up justice. But the wheels of justice have turned very slowly. Reports say that Attorney General Merrick Garland was at first too cautious about pursuing charges against Trump despite Trump’s unprecedented attack on our democracy. Once Garland appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to handle Trump claims following the release of seemingly irrefutable evidence that Trump broke laws related to the handling of classified documents, the die was cast.

It is hard to overstate the stakes riding on this indictment and prosecution. New polling from the New York Times shows that Trump not only has a commanding lead among those Republicans seeking the party’s presidential nomination in 2024; he remains very competitive in a race against Joe Biden. After nearly a decade of Trump convincing many in the public that all charges against him are politically motivated, he’s virtually inoculated himself against political repercussions for deadly serious criminal counts. He’s miraculously seen a boost in support and fundraising after each indictment (though recent signs are that the indictments are beginning to take a small toll). One should not underestimate the chances that Donald Trump could be elected president in 2024 against Joe Biden—especially if Biden suffers any kind of health setback in the period up to the election—even if Trump is put on trial and convicted of crimes.

A trial is the best chance to educate the American public, as the Jan. 6 House committee hearings did to some extent, about the actions Trump allegedly took to undermine American democracy and the rule of law. Constant publicity from the trial would give the American people in the middle of the election season a close look at the actions Trump took for his own personal benefit while putting lives and the country at risk. It, of course, also serves the goals of justice and of deterring Trump, or any future like-minded would-be authoritarian, from attempting any similar attack on American democracy ever again.

Trump now has two legal strategies he can pursue in fighting these charges, aside from continuing to attack the prosecutions as politically motivated. The first strategy, which he will no doubt pursue, is to run out the clock. It’s going to be tough for this case to go to trial before the next election given that it is much more factually complex than the classified documents or hush money cases. There are potentially hundreds of witnesses and theories of conspiracies that will take much to untangle. Had the indictment come any later, I believe a trial before November 2024 would have been impossible. With D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan—a President Barack Obama appointee who has treated previous Jan. 6 cases before her court with expedition and seriousness—apparently in charge of this case, there is still a chance to avoid a case of justice delayed being justice denied.

If Trump can run out the clock before conviction and be reelected, though, he can get rid of Jack Smith and appoint an attorney general who will do his bidding. He could even try to pardon himself from charges if elected in 2024 (a gambit that may or may not be legal). He could then sic his attorney general on political adversaries with prosecutions not grounded in any evidence, something he has repeatedly promised on the campaign trail.

Trump’s other legal strategy is to argue that prosecutors cannot prove the charges. For example, the government will have to prove that Trump not only intended to interfere with Congress’ fair counting of the electoral college votes in 2020 but also that Trump did so “corruptly.” Trump will put his state of mind at issue, arguing that despite all the evidence, he had an honest belief the election was being stolen from him.

He also will likely assert First Amendment defenses. As the indictment itself notes near the beginning, “the Defendant has a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won.” But Trump did not just state the false claims; he allegedly used the false claims to engage in a conspiracy to steal the election. There is no First Amendment right to use speech to subvert an election, any more than there is a First Amendment right to use speech to bribe, threaten, or intimidate.

Putting Trump before a jury, if the case can get that far before the 2024 elections, is not certain to yield a conviction. It carries risks. But as I wrote last year in the New York Times, the risks to our system of government of not prosecuting Donald Trump are greater than the risks of prosecuting him.

It’s not hyperbole to say that the conduct of this prosecution will greatly influence whether the U.S. remains a thriving democracy after 2024.

[diamondisunmemeable]

With Democratic primaries beginning in just a couple of weeks from the time of writing, now feels like a good time to remind folks that participating in the electoral process does not make you complicit in genocide, nor any of the other shitty things the US is responsible for.

It may not feel like it right now, but your vote can genuinely help make things better.

So what can you do?

1) Register to vote

One of the most important things you can do at this point in time is make sure you're registered to vote, and check for your local polling place and voting times. This post goes over that pretty well.

2) Support progressive candidates during the primaries

The primaries are the time for vote for the candidates you want. It shows the Democratic Party not only that you vote, but which policies you are interested in and which way you want things to be going. For instance, if you're angry over the US' handling of the ongoing genocide and human rights violations in Palestine, support candidates who support a ceasefire and aid to Palestine.

3) Advocate for electoral reform

Goes hand in hand with the previous point. Our current electoral system not only makes it impossible for third party candidates to gain significant traction, but makes it difficult for people to vote at all. Off the top of my head, we need:

Implementation of ranked-choice voting

Abolition of the Electoral College

Automatic voter registration at age 18

Recognition of Election Day as a federal holiday

Support candidates that support these ideas, and continue to advocate for them even after elections are over.

4) Vote local!

As mentioned above, third party candidates are unable to gain significant traction; this is especially true on the national stage. This means barring severe illness or death, the winner of this year's presidential election will be either Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

As difficult as it is to promote Joe Biden right now, letting Trump win would be a thousand times worse, in no small part due to Project 2025, which aims to accelerate America's slide into full-on fascism and make things a hell of a lot worse for trans folks and other minority groups.

This is where my last point comes in: vote in state and local elections! A lot of folks have a habit of only voting for president. Voting is down-ballot races is equally important, if not more so. At these levels of government, it is much easier to make your voice heard, and much easier to effect real change.

Go out and vote when the time comes, and help make this country less shitty!

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Things to Know Before You Vote

Disclaimer: As you can probably tell by my blog name, I'm a right winger. I vote Republican or Libertarian and I've only voted for a Democrat once when I was 18 and I still regret it to this day. But the information I'm providing in this post is an unbiased as I can make it. I want this to be a general guide so people can make as informed a decision as possible when they go to vote. If you don't believe me, read the post for yourself and decide.

Things to Know Before You Vote

First, check out a sample ballot to familiarize yourself with the candidates running and the issues up for consideration. Pay special attention to the names down ballot, and extra special attention to the ones without a party affiliation. Sample ballots can be difficult to find, so it might take a little work. For example, I live in Ohio, so what I do is go to the Ohio Secretary of State website, click on my county, put my name in, and it will give me a downloadable PDF of my ballot. This will be the same ballot you get when you go to vote. I said it before, but it needs to be repeated, pay special attention to the candidates with no party affiliation. These are usually for judge spots, and those are super important. You can't just vote for the one with the name you like. Bad judges can ruin your district. When you see these candidates, you need to look up who they are. You can do that by putting their name, along with the position they're running for, into a search engine. Or you can try a website like Ballotpedia that collects election information, but those sites don't always have every candidate listed. More on Ballotpedia after the break, but for now let's talk about what happens if you can't find a listed party for a candidate. Sometimes you can't, but that's okay. Pretty much every candidate will tell on themselves. Just look up who endorsed them, which they will usually have on their websites, or it can be found through searching. If they're endorsed by a bunch of Democrats, chances are they're a Democrat, and vice versa. They'll also usually state their positions on issues somewhere, or in the case of an active judge, you can find how they ruled on cases with some more searching. Both of those are more important than party affiliation, especially if they were unopposed in the primaries. Once you know who you want to vote for, write their names down and take that paper with you to the polls. It's not illegal to look at a piece of paper while you're voting. It is illegal to campaign within 500 feet of a polling place though, so don't pass that paper around inside the building, or you might be in trouble, depending on how strict they want to be.

Now, I know searching each name on your own is really tedious, so let's talk about aggregates.

I'm going to use Ballotpedia for this post. They seem to be mostly non-biased, and I used them for my last local election and it was a great help. But if you have a preferred alternative, feel free to use that instead.

It's easy to use Ballotpedia to find candidates in your area. On Ballotpedia the "sample ballot" isn't really a sample ballot like the one you get if you followed my advice earlier. It's a list of the issues on your ballot and the candidates running in most of the races, but not all. You can click on the issues and the candidates and find information on who they are, what they support, what they've done previously in and out of politics, who they ran against in the primaries, how many votes they received, etc. You can read brief summaries of the issues, along with the exact text that's up for a vote, and you'll usually see a short summary of what supporters and detractors have to say about it, complete with actual quotes. You can also see a lot of info on how your district voted in the last election, and some other interesting stuff. They try to present both sides of the issues, but as always research further if something seems off to you. Candidate pages are usually decently detailed, with links to each candidates website and social media (if they exist) so you can read what they post for yourself.

I can't stress enough how important it is to know who you're voting for. Don't just blindly vote, or assume you know what a candidate supports. I know it's work, and I know it's boring, but you'll feel great when you show up and know you're making an informed decision. Especially in local elections. Those can be decided by the smallest number of votes between winners and can have lasting consequences not only for your town, but for you directly. Vote wisely.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri:

“It’s the statehouses, stupid.” That quote is by David Pepper and I think about it often. I live in Missouri with a GOP supermajority and 22 years of of the worst sort of governance.

Want to see extremism? There are currently three bills being sent to the Governor’s office for signing: One to defund public schools, another to defund Planned Parenthood, and the last to make sure Missourians can’t sue the Bayer corporation for their Round-Up caused cancer. True story. So, where are the Democrats and voices of dissent? They are nearly silenced with a superminority and a Democratic Party that has been almost non-existent in my district for at least a decade. The proof is in the legislative pudding. The Democratic Party lost the plot when they pulled out of rural America leaving huge swaths of the country to be taken over by the GOP. I should know…I am a rural person, a former teacher, and a former Democratic Nominee for State House. I did not receive funding from the Democratic Party to run my race — not a penny, and this is very common in rural races. We have been left to our own devices and many have just decided to acquiesce to Republican rule rather than fight on our own.

I refuse to give up. What’s the point of running in a district you know will not flip for a few cycles? What’s the point of funding a nominee who will likely lose? Because local candidates do the hard work. They talk to their neighbors and district. They put a Democratic message out in their community. They let voters in their area know that Democrats aren’t gun-grabbing communists, but they do want to fund public schools, pave roads, keep the local rural hospital open, and create jobs for their kids so they don’t abandon the farm or the small town. Progressives have a message that rural folks like if we can just keep the message consistent by having nominees on every ballot every single year. If you have a nominee, you have someone talking to their neighbors. Without a nominee, there is no one knocking doors, or making calls, or attending forums, or spreading the message about progressive polices.

[...] Rural Democratic voters are almost certainly voting at the top of the ticket, and this November, that means a Presidential nominee, maybe a Senate position, and possibly a Governor, but many are stopping there. The research from Sister District indicates that Democratic and women voters are more likely to roll-off than Republicans and men. They don’t feel confident that they know enough about the down-ballot nominees to keep voting. The research concludes that decreasing roll-off by 1-2% would result in massive state legislative gains. It also states that 60% of roll-off voters rank Federal elections as the most important. That stat made me gasp. You and I know that statehouses are where awful and hateful laws originate. We know that GOP-dominated states are doing the bidding of the wealthy and of corporations, but if Democrats aren’t even voting for the state legislative races, we are going to keep losing our states to the extremists. This extremism then bleeds out into the country.

Jess Piper wrote a quality Substack post on why Democrats should NOT abandon Rural America (or anywhere for that matter).

[striving-artist]

Hi!! this is about the "we should still vote for Biden" post

Context: this is in good faith. I agree with the points you made in your addition and the post as a whole, I'm just looking to discuss it a little if that's okay. Another important bit of context— I keep up with news and politics and elections and everything, but next year's presidential election will be the first election I'll be old enough to vote in. So. Coming from a somewhat educated but also young and NOT an expert pov.

Anyways!! Now that that's out of the way.

I agree that the widespread determination not to vote for him again is harmful because if leftists and liberals aren't voting for Biden, conservatives are still going to vote for trump and get him back in office. I don't want that to happen. He is so much worse in so many ways and it especially scares me because he is very vocally transphobic. Voting Biden back in makes sense to me.

But the argument I've been seeing most is that if people vote for Democrats even when they actively assist with genocide, they'll learn that they can keep doing that without alienating their voter base, and they can do it without worrying about losing power. This also makes sense to me.

But I don't. I don't understand what else we can do. Not voting for him won't stop US aid to Israel. Wed just be trading Genocide Joe for Genocide Donald. It's not that I don't care about Palestinians— what's happening is horrible. What's happening Should Not Be Happening. But abstaining from voting to make a point to the democrats is just going to sentence us to four years under a guy who will do the exact same thing, probably worse, overseas, and commit atrocities against POC and immigrants and other minorities in the US too. It's not that I'm valuing American lives over Palestinian lives— its just that neither option will save Palestinian lives. Neither option will stop killing them.

I just don't know what we're supposed to do. I want to change things so bad but there just isn't a way to do that within the current system and in the meantime it's all just harm reduction.

Direct answers to what you asked about first before I go rambling into the bigger scope. Eternal Caveat: I am not an expert either.

Be loud. Be persistent.

Be present. Bring your friends.

Don't expect immediate results.

Here's a nice summary of things.

Contact your reps, do not lie about your residence, and don't give them an excuse to discard real constituents opinions bc you were spam calling from across the country. Contact their field offices, not just DC. Visit if you can.

Accept now that what you say today won't impact what happens today. It builds over time, and will impact months and years from now. The more persistent you are, the bigger and longer that impact will be.

Contact when you're mad, AND contact when you're thrilled. This is cross party. If you have a rep of the opposing party, and they do a thing you support, tell them. If you have a rep you voted for and they fuck up? Tell. Them.

Find advocacy groups. I love Run for Something. I love Leaders We Deserve. They can help amplify your voice. There are many. Find the one that fits you.

Lots more words under the cut.

I'll get into HOW to contact, but, I need to poke a hole in something you said. The election is a year out. There are some primary races, but incumbents rarely lose those. Bluntly? Most politicians don't think that their actions or stance about Gaza will impact elections. Americans have no long term memory for this. Shutdowns will have more impact. Taxes have more impact. A lot of young people will hold onto this, and we should make sure they hear us, but most americans aren't paying enough attention for it to matter to them in eleven months.

Sorry that's depressing af. Lets talk about best way to raise your voice so you can maximize your impact.

I'm sure you've heard all the advice about contacting reps before, Up and Down the Ballot, and I definitely know that it can be exhausting to keep going when it seems like nothing is changing. They don't hear the actual voicemails we leave, they don't read the actual emails or letters, that's their staff, but they and their Chief of Staff get counts at the end of every day with how many calls, and what people were calling about. Occasionally, staff will pass on excerpts or quotes to the elected guy, but its never a guarantee.

At the start of any major event, they get an initial ratio of calls that they translate as the people's gut reaction. Lets say they start out getting around a 50/50 split on a topic. Okay, that tells them to make their choice based on other factors, or to make their argument to their voters. But over time, that split changes, and the people that care more, that are more invested, will skew it. When it changes to 70/30 in favor, and they keep hearing that for weeks or months, that changes their math. It's telling them that the people who are more than flash-pan interested in the topic are strongly in favor. Might not have any impact this time, they may have already voted, but, it goes into their notes as a Thing That Matters to Voters.

So, great, you should contact them as much as possible. You knew that.

But, as you also know, Voicemail fills up. Emails spit back standard form responses. Even if you do reach a live human beings, they have to follow a script. Don't take that as them ignoring you. Sending custom responses to every single email is flat impossible over hot button issues. Staffers cannot randomly change their boss' stance bc you could be recording the call. Trust that they're keeping the tally, and keep calling.

I can get same day delivery from Amazon, I will not get same day change from politicians.

Also, the people who are sending mass faxes? Love that. Write physical letters too. Physical Thing Piling Up in the Office has more impact on a person than a number on a computer. Get your friends, order some pizza, write letters to every person that represents you. You'll get a form letter back. Accept that in advance. Your individual voice likely won't be heard. You are part of a larger crowd, all yelling the same thing. That shifts your rep, and as more reps shift, it puts pressure higher up the chain.

So, where does that leave us if we want them to literally hear Our Words? In person events.

Congress goes back to their districts pretty often, and (most) have public events. The closer to an election, the more they have. Show up. Politely, professionally, show up, and ask questions. Dress business casual if you can. Those events tend to be filled with older, more conservative constituents. Bring your friends, and choose who has the best speaking voice/prepared speech. Practice it, bring notecards. If any of you get handed the mic in a town hall, pass it over to that guy. (staff might be annoyed about this)

And look, I badly want to light things on fire until people listen. But I also know that doesn't help. Same reason we cannot scream or yell or threaten when we call/email/etc. If you start cursing at a staffer or a representative they are (often) allowed to hang up. They will dismiss you. It gets counted differently than if you said your piece in full.

It's a continuation of why protests that turn violent get dismissed so easily. "oh, they weren't there because they cared, they just wanted to steal/loot/burn." Screaming insults takes your message of 'constituent offended and angry about politicians actions' and turns it into 'shouty idiot we should ignore'

Again, it sucks that this is the case, but, to put it into scale with the internet: its the same as blocking someone. If you show up in my inbox with a real question, I am very here for it. If you show up and call me a 'libtard cunt' I just ignore it. Politicians do the same.

Older, but a nice overview on talking to politicians

Politicians want to stay in power. It is rare for someone to take actions in office that they know will see them lose their next election. Liz Cheney did it. Kinzinger did it. McCaskill did it. They're outliers. For most of them, they'll bend their morals to keep their seat. If the whole of their district is screaming for them to support A, even if they personally want B, they're gonna vote for A.

Now. ----------

Broader picture response. I'm sorry that this is your first election. My first was Obama in 08, and its been downhill ever since. But even then, I didn't like McCain's policies, but I respected him. That stayed true btw. You don't get to have that. You're starting with a rematch election that is simply exhausting to live through. My current consolation is that I don't think Biden will make it through four more years, so the VP will matter.

Some things to point out that, honestly, won't make you feel better, but might make things easier to swallow.

Joe Biden is not cackling in the White House and gleefully sending money with the hope that more Palestinian children get murdered. He just isn't. He isn't doing what we want, but that level of comic book evil isn't a thing in reality.

Calling him Genocide Joe is a product of the Trump era. It sounds like a trump insult. 'little marco' 'crooked hillary' 'lying ted cruz' You can hear it, right? It's tabloids and its trump. Don't do that. Don't reduce the opposition, or even your reluctant allies, down to a single trait. It is the start of dehumanizing someone, which becomes dehumanizing a group, which, you guessed it, leads to genocide like we are seeing in Gaza. It's how Trump started, its how he continued, and its how he is escalating.

Same reason you shouldn't say that Israel is doing this, or that Jews are doing this -- that flattens the group down to an action. Plenty of residents of Israel oppose this. Plenty of Jews oppose this. The people of Israel are not attacking Gaza, the Israeli government is. And even then, Bibi is not officially attacking Gaza, only Hamas. It's flagrant bullshit, but they're saying it as a veneer of acceptability.

You can simultaneously hate someone, and understand that they are a person with internal complexity and reasoning. You can hate the actions that a government is taking without assigning the guilt to whole nation.

Again, not to be bitchy or repetitive, but Bibi is taking the actions of Hamas, and laying the blame on all Gazans. Trump takes the actions of a few people and blames every immigrant. Don't do that. It's easy, its comforting, and its a trap.

Can't find a great source or article about how Trump changed political language so Dems use radicalized tone too, but this one is okay.

Next ------

America is not as strong as we pretend we are. It was already a waning power, and the Trump admin took a sledgehammer to it. It's improved with Biden, and a lot of the world is hoping we bounce back, but it's not the universal thing it once was. Lots of countries have nukes. Why would other countries listen to us when we legit look like our government might collapse at any moment? Maybe, maybe, fifty years ago, the US could have bullied in and demanded a stop to things. We can't now. Neither can Russia or China, actually.

We can bribe people, we can undermine countries and governments the way we did in South America, we can push and prod and beg, but we do not have the ability to throw weight around and immediately win.

Its scary and confusing for americans, bc we're raised on this idea that we can kick in any door and force a change. We can't. We shouldn't.

Far more likely than the US supporting Israel with this shit, is that we're telling them to stop and Israel is not listening. Since the remaining global authority of America is built on the idea that we have authority... I don't know, maybe its as simple as that. The US can't stop them, so we're pretending that we're allowing it and trying to fix it in the background. The Biden admin has done similar before. It usually works better than public demands.

It's horrifying because we live in the internet age, and we are watching videos of massacres that we wouldn't have seen fifty years ago. That doesn't mean we let it slide bc we might have before, just that if this feels like its worse? That's because we aren't as separated from it as before.

And, personally, my feelings on this are complex. I don't think America should be walking into other countries and doing whatever we want. We don't get to impose our preferences or our morals on other people. Top to bottom. I don't want american evangelicals showing up in Uganda and pushing to make homosexuality punishable by death (they did this). I don't want american soldiers pushing our agenda in impoverished nations. At the same time, I want someone to step in and stop genocides and land grab wars. I want someone to bring in medicine and aid, even if they have to bribe a corrupt official to get there. I want someone to just go fix it so we don't have child labor mining for cobalt and picking acai and farming quinoa and chocolate.

But if someone showed up in the states, marched soldiers into, lets say Texas, and imposed martial law so women had abortion access, that wouldn't be okay, even though I support the goal.

Geopolitics is complex. It will always be complex. If its overwhelming and you feel guilty, take a breath. That's true for everyone.

Additions ------

I do not believe in non-violent protest as a true solution. A protest is a tacit threat of violence. It is a group showing up to say 'hey, we outnumber you, and we're pissed' That said, participating in a protest is dangerous because it can become violent, and the crowd might outnumber, but the cops has more weapons, and they're trigger happy af.

No group is a monolith. Not even That Group. Treating them like one makes it easier for their leaders to manipulate them. You make them into a tighter group by lumping them together.

Gen Z gives me a lot of hope. Also a lot of fear. There is a ton of access to info that I couldn't easily reach at your age. Then again, the trend to making everything a 30 second snapshot is terrible. Propaganda spreads so so easily online, and our parents did not set you up with the tools you need to check it.

Last. The moral arc bends towards freedom. More rights, more safety, more health, more safety. That doesn't mean it is a linear path. But when I first voted, Gay Marriage was a pipe dream. When my mom first voted, women getting verbally harassed was exciting cause at least it wasn't physical anymore. When my grandma first voted, interracial marriage wasn't legal everywhere.

Things get better. Slowly, with blood under our nails and scars from the fights we lose, things get better.

You are already doing the right thing, you are already helping by paying attention. Keep watching, take breaks so you don't burn out, and get back in the fight when you can.

[fantastic-nonsense]

to my fellow American followers: hi everyone! This is your resident annoying poli sci friend here to remind you that midterm elections are tomorrow (Tuesday, November 8th)! If you're able and haven't done so yet, please remember to go to the polls and vote tomorrow! While all elections are important and have major impacts on our day-to-day lives, this election is particularly important given that it will determine which party controls both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the next 2-4 years; several races across the country up and down the ballot are very close right now, and every vote makes a difference.

Do whatever last-minute research on both the candidates (federal, state, and local) and any state or local referrendums you might be asked to vote on that you need to do, but please go vote. Check this link to see what times the polls close in your state, and remember that as long as you're in line by the time polls close you're legally allowed to cast your vote!

[mariacallous]

A particularly subtle Kabuki theater performance has been unfolding in recent weeks at the United Nations headquarters in New York, which has been gearing up for the annual vote of the U.N. General Assembly, conducted by secret ballot, to choose five countries to sit in rotating nonpermanent seats on the U.N. Security Council. The only contested race: a brawl between Belarus and Slovenia for the slot reserved for Eastern Europe.

Belarus, which has been angling for the seat for years, argued that it deserved it and accused Slovenia of jumping into the race late; Belarus’s U.N. ambassador called the move “extremely politicized.” 

But countries that had earlier pledged their support to Belarus, which declared its candidacy in 2007, were starting to rethink things. Belarus served as a staging ground for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. More recently, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has been president since 1994, said that Russia had begun moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus and claimed that there would be “nuclear weapons for everyone” willing to join the Union State of Belarus and Russia. And Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, one of Lukashenko’s exiled political opponents, who inspired tens of thousands of supporters to take to the streets of Belarus’s capital of Minsk in 2020, was recently sentenced in her absence to 15 years in prison.

“Yes, Slovenia may have disrupted an otherwise straightforward race,” said Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s U.N. director. “But Belarus has been an accomplice to a war of aggression. And in the grand scheme of things, one of those is more important than the other.”

At the heart of the drama, the arcane rules of the U.N. made the election for the Eastern European seat, if not a nail-biter, at the very least a potential bellwether. Even if Belarus failed to win the seat, a strong showing might serve as a propaganda coup for Russia, still reeling from a vote by the General Assembly in February of this year, when 141 countries condemned its invasion of Ukraine, and only seven countries, including Belarus, were in its camp. 

And it’s not symbolic, either. Nonpermanent members of the Security Council don’t have the clout of the five veto-wielding permanent members, but they do chair council meetings and shape the agenda in rotating monthly presidencies. Having Belarus on the council could also help Russia and China round up the votes to block initiatives without having to use their veto power as two of the five permanent council members, which also include France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Resorting to the veto can lead to unwelcome headlines and require explanations in the General Assembly.

After entering the race in December 2021, Slovenia’s diplomats chose to campaign on its perspective as a small state that could relate with the concerns of small states in other regions, rather than emphasizing their country’s support for Ukraine. Tanja Fajon, Slovenia’s foreign affairs minister, repeatedly swatted down questions about Belarus during a campaign swing through New York for the election by saying that she was refraining from a smear campaign.

Running for the Security Council can be a time-consuming and expensive process. Slovenia, an Adriatic country of 2 million that belongs to both NATO and the European Union, is among the smaller countries to have sought this honor. It can’t afford a vast diplomatic network stretching around the globe. So when Slovenia decided to run, its foreign service ramped up its travel to introduce itself at multilateral meetings and countries where it doesn’t have embassies. Even within the U.N. system, “there is always a running joke that people aren’t quite sure whether it’s Slovenia or Slovakia,” Gowan said. For many Americans, Slovenia may only be familiar as the birthplace of Melania Trump.

Slovenia knows firsthand how bruising drawn-out bouts for the Security Council can be. After serving one term in the 1990s, in its second attempt at the brass ring in 2011, Slovenia stepped aside after 16 inconclusive rounds, allowing Azerbaijan to clinch the seat in the 17th round. But in historical terms, you might say they were just warming up. In 1979, the Latin America group went 155 rounds in a stalemate between Colombia and Cuba, before Mexico ultimately stepped in as a compromise candidate.

But if the race for a Security Council seat can be expensive and grueling, it serves as shiny consolation for even more grueling diplomatic grunt work. The Eastern European diplomats send around spreadsheets dividing up seats on various councils, committees, and treaty bodies, often work that is a real grind. That is what makes a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council, even if only for a two-year term, a reward for years of dutifully showing up for meetings in small conference rooms in the basement of the U.N. Secretariat building. 

As the vote drew near, tempers flared at a campaign debate, where the best thing going for it was that both candidates showed up. That hasn’t always been the case, according to debate moderator Aziel-Philippos Goulandris, who said, “I don’t think they would have come if they saw it as a negative.”

Valentin Rybakov, the Belarusian ambassador, began by complaining about the injustice—his word—of having to compete for a seat on the Security Council. Slovenia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bostjan Malovrh, criticized the Belarusian for making “a number of really outlandish claims that are outright offensive.”

Then Russia waded into the fray for its ally. Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia characterized the Slovenian campaign as an “attempt to hijack a seat in the Security Council.” He challenged the Slovenian ambassador to explain what “value add” Slovenia would bring to the table. “The international community knows pretty well the position of Belarus on international and regional issues,” Nebenzia said. “How does the position of Slovenia differ from that of the European Union?” 

Slovenia’s ambassador countered that he was there on behalf of his nation’s capital, Ljubljana, “and not on behalf of Brussels or anybody else, just the same as I hope that Ambassador Rybakov is here on behalf of Minsk, and not on behalf of the Commonwealth of the former Soviet republics or the Union State of Russia and Belarus.” 

The General Assembly gathered to vote on June 6, Russian Language Day at the U.N., even as floodwaters from the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in eastern Ukraine earlier in the day served as a catastrophic endnote to a raucous campaign. In the end, though, it wasn’t even close. Slovenia emerged victorious in the first round, with 153 votes. Belarus received 38 votes, far short of the 64 that it needed to push the balloting to a second round. Belarus’s 15-year wait ended in disappointment, and Russia didn’t score a propaganda coup.

The jubilant Slovenian delegation sprang to their feet, hugging each other and wiping tears from their eyes. Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition candidate, tweeted that Slovenia’s victory sent “a powerful signal of global solidarity with the people of #Belarus.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

This is getting ridiculous!

September 25, 2023

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

          Geez! This is getting ridiculous! Trump calls for the execution of the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and the Washington Post performs a botched poll that is so bad the Post acknowledges it is “an outlier.” Guess which one leads the news on Sunday? Hint: It is not the story that calls for the killing of a perceived political opponent by the leading candidate for the GOP 2024 nomination.

          Let’s get the WaPo/ABC poll out of the way, first. The results were simply implausible. They were so bad that Post included this disclaimer:

[A]lthough the sizable margin of Trump’s lead in this survey is significantly at odds with other public polls that show the general election contest a virtual dead heat. The difference between this poll and others, as well as the unusual makeup of Trump’s and Biden’s coalitions in this survey, suggest it is probably an outlier.

          If you were alarmed by the headlines about the WaPo/ABC poll, the most important thing you can do is read Simon Rosenberg’s post in Hopium Chronicles, The WaPo-ABC Poll Is A Clear Outlier. Dems Are Having A Very Good 2023. As Simon explains, the results are so wacky (my word, not his), the Post should have tossed the poll. But the Post spent the money on the poll, so it published a poll it did not believe. That makes perfect sense because . . . .?

          It doesn’t make sense. If there is anything good to come out of the WaPo/ABC poll, it seals the case that presidential “horse-race” polling is irretrievably broken, counterproductive, and misleading. And yet in the dozen articles I read about the poll on Sunday, all of them treated the poll as a legitimate exercise in polling. It is not. Indeed, the notion that multiple news organizations are conducting presidential horse-race polls more than a year before the election is a sign that they view politics as entertainment—just like sports scores, the daily horoscope, and advice columns. Pathetic.

          Folks, they are trying to mess with our heads. Don’t let them. Reject their infotaintmentization of politics. Ignore the polls. If you can’t ignore the polls, tell irresponsible media outlets what you think by posting comments on offending articles, write letters to the editor, and send emails to the journalists. Ignoring the polls is a reasonable approach to preserving your sanity. But ignoring the polls may give outlets a “free pass” on their irresponsible journalism. The Post’s poll is going to be added to Five-Thirty-Eight.com’s aggregation of polls and will affect the narrative of Biden’s prospects for winning. That is why it is irresponsible and dangerous for news outlets to conduct meaningless and misleading polls.

          The 2024 presidential election features two candidates who are surrogates for different visions of America: Democracy versus autocracy; liberty versus tyranny; dignity versus bigotry; science versus disinformation; personal autonomy versus subservience to Christian nationalism; sustainability versus ecological disaster; safety versus gun violence; global stability versus confrontational isolationism. All of that—and much more—is on the ballot in 2024. The WaPo/ABC “horse-race” poll captures none of that.

          Turning to the real story that should be the only thing any media outlet is discussing is Trump's not-so-veiled threat to execute General Mark Milley. As usual, Trump made the threat on his vanity social media platform and used oblique references to provide deniability that he made the threat. Trump's use of Mafia-style threats is so common that the comparison is becoming stale, but it is the equivalent of mobsters telling a small business owner, “Nice place you got here; it would be a shame if it burned down.”

          In the waning days of the Trump administration, the US intercepted intelligence indicating that the Chinese government believed the US might attack China. In military-to-military talks that are commonplace to avoid accidental conflicts, General Milley assured his counterpart in the Chinese military that the US was not planning to attack China.

Per the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Bob Costa, Milley said the following during the call with his counterpart:

General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable, and everything is going to be okay. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise . . . If there was a war or some kind of kinetic action between the United States and China, there’s going to be a buildup, just like there has been always in history.

          That call was approved in advance by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Trump now claims that effort at “deconfliction amounted to treason. Trump wrote:

This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!

See The Independent, Trump suggests Mark Milley should be executed in possible breach of pre-trial release conditions.

          There are two problems with Trump's statement: It is a veiled threat on the life of General Milley and it violates his pretrial release in the two felony prosecutions in DC and Florida.

          For those who believe I am engaging in hyperbole regarding Trump's threat against the life of General Milley, recall what happened in response to this Tweet:

Big protest in D.C. on January 6th!  Be there, will be wild!

          Trump has a feral instinct for urging his followers to action without directly telling them to do so. As his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified to Congress,

[H]e doesn’t give you orders. He speaks in a code.

          The response of the media—thus far—has been a collective yawn. Their listless response is due in part to Trump's exhaustive, daily threats against foes (real and imagined) that normalize his incendiary rhetoric to the point of background noise. It is not—as his January 6 incitement reminds us. The political press should be talking of nothing else until Republicans condemn and disavow the first major party presidential candidate to threaten a senior military officer with death.

          Recognizing that the media would rather cover a botched poll than a death threat, another avenue of accountability is for either Judge Chutkan or Cannon to revoke Trump's pretrial release or impose a gag order on him. Yes, a gag order. Trump is already the subject of a motion by the prosecution in the January 6 prosecution to refrain from intimidating witnesses. As the government said in its brief:

“The defendant continues these attacks on individuals precisely because he knows that in doing so, he is able to roil the public and marshal and prompt his supporters.”

          Trump obviously doesn’t care; he never has. He has crossed a line—another one. It is time for federal judges charged with the responsibility of protecting witnesses and jurors to act. Before it is too late.

[marvelsmostwanted]

Good News So Far - Midterms 2022

(Not in any particular order of importance, I just wrote them down as I saw them!)

Governorships

- Maura Healey flipped the governorship to become the first woman governor of Massachusetts and first openly lesbian governor in the country.

- Wes Moore will be the first black governor of Maryland and the third black governor in U.S. history.

- Josh Shapiro defeated an election denier and anti-abortion candidate in Pennsylvania.

House

Abby Spanberger (VA) - Won what was considered an indicator race in a swing district

Seth Magaziner (RI) - Could’ve been a lean R but but he kept the seat

Max Frost (FL) - First Gen Z member of Congress

Summer Lee (PA) - First black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania

Senate

- Maggie Hassan will keep her seat in NH!

- John Fetterman defeated Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania!

State Legislatures

- Michigan state Senate has flipped Democratic for the first time in 40 years!

Ballot Measures

- Vermont and California became the first states to codify abortion in their state constitutions!

- Maryland legalized marijuana

- DC passed a bill that will require restaurant workers to get at least full minimum wage plus tips

Other News as of 11-9-22:

- Lauren Boebert might be at risk of losing her seat in the House (!) Twitter is having fun with this, but not sure what the outcome will be yet

- Warnock and Walker too close to call in Georgia. Kemp defeats Abrams in the governor’s race.

- Abbott defeats Beto in Texas, so disappointing but not surprising

- Hobbs and Lake too close to call in Arizona

- Looks like young Democratic voters are driving a lot of the success here. Your voice matters! So much!

[arewelemmings]

If you live in North Carolina, I wrote this for you. Why? Because I care. It's important, so please bear with me.

Here's a look at the North Carolina Senate Race, one week out: Twp candidates are vying for the Senate seat made available by the retiring Republican Senator Richard Burr.

Former Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court of North Carolina, Cheri Beasley, is running as a Democrat for this opening Congressional seat in the Senate, against Trump-endorsed Republican, Ted Budd. This hasn't been getting a lot of national attention, but it's an important race. Let's take a moment to familiarize ourselves with this contest.

Firstly, Ted Budd is somebody you certainly don't want in charge of anything you care about. As early voting began in North Carolina, stumping began in earnest. "People are furious right now about three, three main things," Budd said in an interview with National Public Radio. "It depends on how you divide it: It's inflation, it's crime, and it's education." It's interesting that he cites these three issues as worrisome to Republican voters, and voters who have yet to decide. Inflation is actually controlled by the heads of industry and the financial big wigs at the top of Wall Street, who line the pockets of Republican candidates, knowing these "lawmakers" will open doors of privilege for them at the expense of the working class. Donald Trump's rhetoric and actions have riled the most vile tendencies of the deplorables, encouraging them to be more vile, outrageous and criminal right out in the open. Any rise in crime is directly attributable to the cheating traitor who stole the 2016 presidential election. Our failing educational system is also a direct result of Republican policies, old and new. First, teachers have seen their paychecks decrease over time while the schools they teach in have gone terribly underfunded. Now they ban books and write laws forbidding the teaching of truth to American students in Republican run states, all because they believe it easier to control the ignorant, and therefore, work to keep them ignorant. So, as you can clearly see, all three of these issues are tied to Republican policies and/or social and cultural manipulation. Yet, Ted Budd speaks of them as if Democrats created these problems he alludes to. At best, he is disingenuous, but I would call him a liar, a man not to be trusted in a seat of power.

On the other hand, Cheri Beasley is a champion of Justice, dignity and human rights, honed for leadership in a capacity of lawmaking from her years of practicing law, and her time on the bench in the highest court in North Carolina. She has recently been quoted as saying, "People really are excited about this race. They understand the sense of urgency around it." And she's right; we also need to understand the urgency of this election. Women's rights are on the ballot this November 8th, along with easing the struggles of the working class, strengthening the rights of minorities and the disenfranchised, in fact, the survival of our democracy itself hinges upon the ballots cast during this election. A vote for Beasley is a vote to restore women's reproductive rights, which Republicans have been fighting to steal for decades. A vote for Beasley is a vote against racism, hatred, inequality, injustice, corruption, and all that has been going wrong in America these days. And it's important to note that Beasley and Budd are running nearly neck and neck, so we need to mobilize and get voters to the polls, and early ballots in the hands of voters. A win for Beasley is a win for us all, and another step toward saving democracy and American freedom from the destructive, conservative forces of the Republicans.

If I lived in North Carolina, I would be casting my vote for Cheri Beasley, and voting blue all the way down the ballot.

[beanandbell]

Laura and I (with help from the pookies) voted this morning, and tonight Natalie made a polling place out of magnetiles. We voted for favorite ice cream flavor (chocolate) and color (blue). So important to vote, even in the down-ballot races. 😁

[notjustanyannie]

ACLU

Well, here we are. Election Day.

With so many of our rights on the line in these elections, we know just how many countless hours of hard work that dedicated people like you have put in. Now, it's finally time to vote for a democracy we can believe in and show elected officials what "We the People" means.

And just to make sure you have all the information in one place, we've gone ahead and made you this concise Election Day guide below. Screenshot and save this so you can refer back to it.

Election Day Guide

(Made Special for You by Your Friendly ACLU Email Team)

1. Know Your Rights on Election Day:

If the polls close while you're still in line, stay in line. You have the right to vote.

If you make a mistake on your ballot, ask for a new one.

If the machines are down at your polling place, ask for a paper ballot.

If a poll worker says your name is not on the list of registered voters, you can ask for a provisional ballot. (You're entitled to this provisional ballot, even if you're not in the poll book).

If you run into any problems or have questions on Election Day, call the Election Protection Hotline:

English: 1-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683

Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA / 1-888-839-8682

Arabic: 1-844-YALLA-US / 1-844-925-5287

For Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, or Vietnamese: 1-888-274-8683

For more information on exercising your voting rights, resisting voter intimidation efforts, and accessibility assistance at the polls, check out the ACLU's Know Your Voting Rights resource.

2. Go Over Your Plan Before You Vote:

Double check your state's voter guidelines for your poll site location, materials you might need to bring with you like your state ID, ballot return deadlines, and other details.

Be sure you've researched what's at stake in your local races and ballot measures.

If you have a mail-in ballot that you have not returned yet, use a drop box or return it in person, if your state allows.

If you are voting in person, pack a few essentials in case your line is long: water, food, and entertainment (a book, music, a podcast like ACLU's At Liberty, a quiz to test your knowledge on the Midterms, etc.).

For guidance on where to find more help with voter information, your plan to vote, the issues at stake, and any other last-minute voting questions, visit our Vote Your Values page.

3. Repeat After Us (Especially If You're Stressed):

It's unlikely that the election results in every single state will be clear on Election Night. That's okay and completely normal. Have patience. Remember with absentee ballots, mail-in ballots, and other considerations, it takes time to count every vote – and that is what's most important.

Our legal and advocacy teams are at-the-ready to protect your civil liberties at the polls – and wherever we may be needed on Election Day and beyond. Remember, the ACLU has national reach: We're in all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. We'll be here to defend democracy no matter what. Count on it.

We hope this helps for today. We know this election year has been a long one, and we cannot thank you enough for being with us at every turn protecting voters' rights – and all civil liberties – through it all.

Let's vote our values today – and then, together, we will continue our critical fight for a nation that is truly just and equal for all.

For democracy and the people,

The ACLU Team

American Civil Liberties Union

125 Broad Street, 18th Floor

New York, NY 10004, USA

[camp-counselor-life]

Vote 2022

If you’re American, it’s that time again. Time to vote! If you’re not registered yet, you should do that ASAP, because some deadlines are super early (or may have passed already). There also may be different requirements and dates for different kinds of applications (online vs mail vs in person). Find your voter registration deadlines here, on vote.org.

Next, check out the candidates. While some candidates may have minimal information, Ballotpedia has a lot of info for major races, such as federal legislature. They also allow your to look up your ballot and who will be on it. For example, I have to option to vote out [terrible Republican House person who voted to overthrow the election] and also [terrible Republican Senator]. I do have an unfortunate lack of Democrats, so I get to choose between Libertarian and something, something [state] party.

Another thing you can do is look up the issues, especially local issues and ballot initiatives. These may not be as clear on your ballot as say, a federal senator election. I’d highly recommend researching candidates prior to voting, even if you’re voting down party lines.

Lastly, if you value your campers, family, and friends, please consider voting Democrat. They’re so much better than the Republicans, even if then aren’t public. I will admit, the party is a bit centrist for my taste, but I know that we need to start by moving the needle a little, before we can elect progressives to move the needle a lot.

Remember, if your vote wasn’t important, they wouldn’t be trying to stop it.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are solely mine and do not represent the view of my council or of Girl Scouts of the USA.

[strawberryfemmesapphic]

Why Feminism Is So Important Even

Though ‘We Have The Vote’

White women were first given the right to vote in 1920, yes that’s right,

white women. In 1924, Native American women earned the right to vote but

states still blocked any Native American from voting for years. In 1943,

Chinese women earned the right to vote, but once again like other minority

groups, were stopped for years from casting ballots. In 1965, Black and

Latinx women were allowed to vote, even though today they are still facing

discrimination. Women have had to fight for generations, of every color and

race. White women have it much easier than women apart of minority

groups, even white queer, cis, women have it a bit easier. This is why it is so

important for feminism to be intersectional, the definition of feminism ‘is

the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.’

which means ALL WOMEN: Black, Latinx, Asian, Chinese, Japanese,

disabled, queer, disabled, women with mental illness, trans women. Just

over the last year, violence against women has sky-rocketed, “an estimated

736 million women—almost one in three—have been subjected to physical

and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or

both at least once in their life.” In many countries, child brides are still

continuing, and rape culture, sex trafficking, and violence are getting bigger

and bigger. All women, no matter race or color, have had certain things

shoved down their throats: don’t walk alone at night, don’t dress

provocatively, share your location with your trusted friends, don’t yell ‘help’

if you get taken, don’t give men a reason to harm you. Most men were

taught to not take no as an answer, and most women were taught that they

need to be polite to everyone. Men rape more than a woman would rape,

because he is a man and like power or was taught to not take no for an

answer, or didn’t learn fully what consent is. Now, women share

information with other women to stay alive. If anything, women are

stronger than men in every way; we bleed about once every month, carry

children if we choose to, survive rape, sexual assault, and being cat-called.

Women have the power to give life and take life away, that is why men tried to burn us at the stake. So yes, we must remember and thank all the women

that came before us to carve a path for new generations, but there is still

work to be done. Women have endured so much pain for centuries, all

because they are women. Feminism is not about hating men, it’s about

wanting to be treated equally to men because we are humans too and not

just objects for birthing children or a toy to play with when a man is horny.

“We accept this constant state of fear as just another part of being a girl.”

[morerandomthoughts]

Support Seed The Vote

We all know that the upcoming election cycle will be difficult, both up and down the ballot.

And we all know that the truly critical elections will be fought in a small number of states.

So often people don’t know how they can impact election outcomes in swing states which are often far from their homes.

This is where Seed the Vote comes in: we arrange for volunteers to travel to canvass where there are high stakes races.

We believe in the power of people and of meeting voters (literally) where they live to give them the necessary information and support to get to the polls and vote.

This is why, during the last 2 election cycles I have volunteered with STV and why I am once again.

This is why I am reaching out to ask you to help support this important work.

Specifically, my work with STV involves talking to volunteers, helping make and fund their travel arrangements and being their primary support person from our initial conversation thru their time canvassing on the ground. This work brings me great hope when the outcome seems bleak.  With each call, I am inspired by our volunteer’s generosity and commitment in giving of their time and energy. Each call reinforces my belief that together we can defeat a right wing agenda that pledges to curb our freedoms on multiple fronts.  If you would like to join our amazing canvassers on the ground, I can help you get to the campaigns where your work will have the greatest impact.

But if door knocking isn’t your thing or if you don’t have the time to travel, I am asking you to donate to support this essential work

Because we don’t want cost to be a barrier for anyone who wants to doorknock, STV needs to raise funds to pay for travel & lodging for our canvassers who are often taking time off from work & family. I invite you to be a part of this effort. My initial fundraising goal is to inspire 30 donors. Believe me when I say: just like EVERY vote counts, EVERY donation, no matter the size, helps STV and EVERY donation will feel like a personal high five as I keep going with this work for the next 6 months.

Some stats:

$50 covers mileage & gas for a volunteer driving to the city they’re canvassing in

$100 covers gas for a team of canvassers for a week

$250 buys a flight for a volunteer coming from the same coast/midwest

$600 buys a flight for a volunteer coming from the opposite coast

$1000 covers hotel & flights for a canvasser flying out for a week

In 2022, Seed the Vote volunteers in Nevada talked to nearly 7,500 people at their doors during the Senate race won by only 7,928 votes

In 2024, Seed the Vote is planning to send 3,000 volunteers to doorknock in battleground states!!!

Please consider what portion of our work you might be able to help fund,

a big thank you in advance,

This video, from my amazing team leader Hannah, while geared towards recruiting volunteers, makes a great case for Seed The Vote’s work, just listen to the math!