Democracy
The Atlantic: The Two-Time Trump Voters Who Have Had Enough
Sarah Longwell: “The day after former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies, I sat down for a focus group with nine voters from across the country who voted for him twice and don’t want to vote for him again. They are not, however, all committed to voting for President Joe Biden instead.”
The Atlantic: The Failing State Next Door.
Mexico has its first woman president. But progress can be messy, and her big win may be a bigger danger to democracy and security.
Associated Press: The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that voting is not a fundamental right. What’s next for voters?
“A split Kansas Supreme Court ruling last week issued in a lawsuit over a 2021 election law found that voting is not a fundamental right listed in the state Constitution’s Bill of Rights. The finding drew sharp criticism from three dissenting justices on the high court. The Associated Press looks at what the ruling might mean for Kansas residents and future elections.”
NBC News: Election officials in key battleground states say they're prepared for threats to poll workers ahead of 2024 elections
Despite the threats and misinformation circling around the upcoming 2024 election, the Secretaries of State from Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Michigan joined “Meet the Press” to discuss how they’re planning to prepare “a safe and secure presidential election.”
Public News Service: In some rural counties, voting by mail is king
“Despite some political pushback about the option, voters in rural areas seem to embrace it…Shirley Murray, auditor of Sheridan County, oversees elections for a population of roughly 1,200. She said on average, about 70% of voters there use the mail-in option. ‘It seems to work out better for the voter's time, their convenience.’”
Ranked-Choice Voting
Independent Voter News: FairVote's New CEO: Ranked Choice Voting Adds Much Needed Value for Voters
FairVote’s new CEO, Meredith Sumpter, believes that applying principles from the business world to politics could benefit all. “The private sector looks at value creation for markets. Government working is value creation for voters. At a time when you have high levels of government dysfunction, and politically partisan incentivized dysfunction to the detriment of voters, not only is that not competitive, it undermines the health of our democracy and our markets,” she said. Sumpter uses this framework to make the case for ranked-choice voting.
PBS News Hour: How open primaries and ranked-choice voting can help break partisan gridlock.
“How the parties select their candidates is a major factor in the increasing partisanship we've seen in recent years. Recently, Alaska has been trying something different. It's already showing results but facing some resistance.”
Thought Leadership
The Dispatch: Things Have Never Been Worse? Really? –OPINION
“One of the worst things about democracy is the way we talk about it. For instance, politicians love to talk about ‘unity,’ but our constitutional system was set up to keep unity at bay, preferring a more adversarial approach, pitting faction against faction. Checks and balances, separation of powers, and the divided authorities between the federal and state governments: It’s all predicated on the idea that unity will be rare and temporary. The Constitution places our most cherished liberties on a high shelf, hard to reach during moments of unifying populist passion.”
Fast Company: This is the key to ending the negative-thinking pandemic –OPINION
How do we end the “negative-thinking pandemic”? Frank Bruni unpacks the five main points from his new book, The Age of Grievance:
1. We’re fixated on how we’ve been wronged
2. We don’t vote for; we vote against
3. Grievance thrives because of a crisis of confidence in the future
4. Changes in traditional media don’t help
5. We have remedies for grievance
