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June 19 at 8pm ET
MEET AUSTEN MUSIL
Austen Musil, hailing from the
great state of North Carolina, has been a volunteer with Country First
since 2022. Since joining, Austen has played a key role in our Mending
Divisions Team and our Facebook community.
"Country First has been what keeps me optimistic about our
future as a country -- that I’m not alone, I’m not 'the crazy one,'
and that we haven’t lost the battle for our country because there are
so many of us who refuse to let that happen.
"This
organization has made it possible for us to no longer feel like
individuals up against an impossible fight. We have strength in our
numbers as well and the battle no longer feels impossible. If I could
tell someone who isn’t a volunteer yet, but is thinking about it: Get
involved! I decided to just jump in and have been welcomed by other
volunteers.”
Thank you, Austen, for your
leadership in service to our movement and dedication to promoting and
preserving democracy! If you have an idea for someone who should be
featured in a future Memo, reach out to [email protected].
ELECTION REFORM
AZ
Mirror: Hobbs vetoes bills to bar
ranked-choice voting, criminalize immigrant aid groups
Republican proposals to ban
ranked-choice voting and criminalize immigrant aid organizations were
blocked on Wednesday by Gov. Katie Hobbs, who wielded her veto stamp
to add five more vetoes to her growing tally. House Bill 2552 sought
to outlaw ranked-choice voting in Arizona, despite the fact that it
isn’t used anywhere in the Grand Canyon State. The measure was a
priority for the legislature’s far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, whose
members vehemently oppose an effort by voter organizations to put the
voting style on the 2024 ballot.
Denver
7: Denver’s runoff election could be its
last, as ranked choice voting gains support
As Denver's runoff elections come
to an end, many candidates and voters hope this runoff could be the
last. On the campaign trail, both candidates for mayor – Mike Johnston
and Kelly Brough – said they want to eliminate the process of holding
separate general and runoff elections. Instead, they’re supporting a
switch to ranked choice voting. Most of the candidates running for
Denver City Council agree with that proposal.
Washington
Informer: D.C. Democrats Oppose
Ranked-Choice Voting in City Elections
The D.C. Democratic Party has
rejected the implementation of ranked-choice voting, saying the method
of prioritizing candidates on ballots is not in the city’s best
interest. Party leaders said in a statement Wednesday that they came
to that conclusion after an eight-month deliberation
process.
The
News-Herald: Presidential primaries would
benefit from ranked-choice voting
The 2024 Republican primaries are
underway — six candidates, including former President Donald Trump,
have already announced, and more than a dozen other Republicans have
their eyes on the nomination. The simple truth is that we’d have a
better chance of capturing the presidency if we selected our nominee
using ranked-choice voting (RCV). And a new Citizen Data poll shows
that voters are on board — 61% of Republicans are interested in
ranking candidates in such a crowded
field.
ELECTION DISINFORMATION
CNN: Fulton County
DA seeking information from 2 firms that Trump hired to look at 2020
voter fraud claims – and debunked them
The Fulton County district
attorney’s office is seeking information from two firms that were
hired by the Trump campaign with investigating claims of voter fraud
after the 2020 election, according to sources familiar with the
matter. Investigators in Georgia, who have been probing Donald Trump
and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election
there, have sought information from Berkeley Research Group and
Simpatico Software Systems about their work for the Trump campaign,
the sources said.
NPR: How the Far
Right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter
fraud
On a night in January 2022,
Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin stepped on stage in a former
airbase in Houma, La. With American flags draped from the stage, the
topic of the night was democracy. The state's chief voting official
joked that he was competing with a former LSU Tiger-great playing in
the NFL playoffs the same night. "I want to thank you all for coming
out, competing with Joe Burrow is pretty tough!" Ardoin laughed. But
these were election die-hards. The group hosting the event — We The
People, Bayou Chapter — is one of hundreds of so-called election
integrity groups that have popped up across the country since 2020,
motivated by former President Donald Trump's lies about
voting.
2024 ELECTION
KJZZ:
Arizona Supreme Court rejects Republican push to make early voting
illegal
Arizonans will be able to continue
to vote early despite efforts by the Arizona Republican Party to have
the practice declared illegal. The Arizona Supreme Court on Friday
rejected arguments by state Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) that
allowing people to fill out their ballots at their kitchen tables — or
anywhere else — runs afoul of a constitutional provision that requires
“secrecy in voting shall be preserved.”
CIVICS EDUCATION
KUNC:
Kids are losing ground in civics. A first-ever Colorado civics bee
hopes to turn that around.
Even at 12 years old, Sriram
Yalavarthy sees the unbreakable thread between history and the current
moment, something he’s long loved learning about in social studies
classes going back to the founding of the United States. “Learning
that the past actually happened” is what Sriram said fascinates him
the most. “It’s not just a story we tell every single day, and it
affects us today still.”
Governing:
Boosting Civics Education in Indiana for Democracy’s Sake
Public trust in government is
declining. The reasons are many, but it doesn’t help that only a
shrinking minority of Americans know how American government works.
Less than half of respondents to the 2022 Annenberg Constitution Day
survey could identify the three branches of government, the first drop
in six years. More than two-thirds of U.S. residents who answered the
American Bar Association’s 2023 civic literacy survey said that the
general public is either “not very informed” or “not informed at all”
about how government works. Filling this gap could begin in our
schools, but that’s been neglected for decades.
Actions you can take right now to
help make a difference!
WATCH our latest advertisement, highlighting all
the ways #DefaultDon has defaulted! Share it with your friends!
SIGN the petition demanding that Congressman
Santos resigns in shame!
SHOP our Limited Edition Stand for Truth cap, signed by Adam
Kinzinger!
BRING a friend to one of our events! Your
unique recruiter link:
https://www.country1st.com/sandlot?recruiter_id=29853
Check out our Volunteer
Working Groups!
As a grassroots coalition, Country
First is dedicated to providing each member with the opportunity to
contribute to the success of the movement. National Volunteer Working
Groups are separated by interest and are aligned with one of Country
First’s key pillars.
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