Don't leave independents hanging!



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Hi Friend,



Today marks the end of a three-year chapter in our nation's history: the
Covid-19 national and public health emergency
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. It's been a long and difficult road to this moment — one which upended our
nation to a magnitude we have not seen in our lifetimes and claimed more than a
million lives. In light of this milestone, we encourage everyone to take a
brief moment to reflect on the challenges we have faced as a country and world;
acknowledging the hardships we have overcome and appreciating the resilience we
fostered while pushing through tremendous difficulties.



As we close this chapter, we are urged to reflect on the lessons we've learned
and assess how we can be better prepared for an unexpected crisis in the
future. The pandemic showed us just how much political polarization and
government dysfunction can hinder our response efforts. We can only hope that
the pandemic has inspired Americans to think critically about the future they
would like for our country — a future where our elected officials are
incentivized to put people over party and politics, especially in times of
crisis. Our work continues, to help bring about such a functional and
representative government.





Nick Troiano speaks on Independent Americans Podcast with Paul Reickhoff
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Did you know that Unite America’s executive director, Nick Troiano, once ran
for U.S. Congress in 2014 as an independent candidate in Pennsylvania? The
experience only fueled his passion for reforming our election systems to give
voters, including independents, more voice, choice, and representation.
Currently, more than 15 million independents are shut out of primary elections
— the elections that effectively decided 83 percent of the U.S. House in 2022 —
in 9 states due to their closed primary systems. And it's not just independents
who are affected — Troiano argues that the parties themselves are suffering
under the current system, in an interview onIndependent Americans with Paul
Reickhoff
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,



“I would like to challenge the premise of [reform threatening the political
parties] to make the case to these political parties that the system itself is
not benefiting them, either. You know, if their goal is to be able to organize
around a political agenda and enact that political agenda, the system itself is
screeching to a halt with gridlock. No one's being served by this system.”



Check out the full podcast to learn more
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. ⬇️
 
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Louisiana bucks the trend: No primaries, no problem?
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Last week, we announced that Unite America democracy fellow Richard Barton, an
assistant professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University,published an
op-ed inGoverning magazine
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, which focused on his findings in the report “Louisiana’s Long-Term Election
Experiment.
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” For the research community this was an exciting moment, as this is the first
time an extensive study has been done on Louisiana's unique primary-less
election system and can be used as a foundation to build further momentum for
nonpartisan primaries across the country. However, for those who don’t live and
breathe in the weeds of the research world — trust us, we know that this all
can be a little bit wonky — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to break down the
highlights from the paper in the most digestible way possible… a Tweet thread.



Check out our latest thread to read about the topline findings from this
report!
 
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Putting an End to Shady Shapes: Let's Kick Gerrymandering to the Curb!
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Gerrymandering has long plagued American democracy, with politicians drawing
district lines to secure their personal power at the expense of fair
representation. Take the latest North Carolina Supreme Court, which cleared the
way for the Republican-controlled state legislature to further gerrymander its
state and congressional districts. Indeed, this is yet another recent example
of how rulings preventing gerrymandering are actively being reversed across the
nation.



Despite public outcry against this latest legal decision allowing parties to
once again draw district lines, gerrymandering doesn’t seem to be going
anywhere anytime soon. However, our partners at Protect Democracy (in
conjunction with Unite America) have proposed a solution that would effectively
eliminate gerrymandering from the equation, in a recent report “Towards
Proportional Representation for the U.S. House: Amending the Uniform
Congressional District Act
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(UCDA).”As the report's co-authors, Protect Democracy’s Grant Tudor and Beau
Tremitiere, reiterate in arecent op-ed
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published inThe Hill, the most effective way to combat gerrymandering is to
replace single-member House districts with proportional multi-member ones.



Check out the report <[link removed]> to learn more!
  


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Regards,



Alana
__
Alana Persson
Unite America

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