Because it wasn't just a tourist group
  <[link removed]>  
Hi Friend,

 

In a committee meeting this week, Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said that
to call the January 6th insurrection an insurrection was a “bald-faced lie.”
The mob that breached the Capitol on January 6th — beating Capitol police
officers, threatening congress members, and attempting to stop the count of the
Electoral College — he argued,resembled nothing more than your average tourist
visit
<[link removed]>
. 

 

Of course, photos from the day itself tell a different story; there are photos
of the Congressman barricading himself in the House chamber, attempting to keep
armed rioters out. An average tourist visit it was not.

 

The Congressman knows it wasn’t a tourist group that day. His colleagues know
it wasn’t a tourist group. It was a violent mob. They are attempting to rewrite
history, and we are watching it happen.

 

Americans deserve to — and need to — know the truth about what happened on
January 6th. 

 

Here are three things to think about this week. 

We need a January 6th Commission
<[link removed]>
.
<[link removed]>

On January 6th, our nation was rocked as a violent mob sieged the Capitol, in
an attempt to stop the Electoral College vote count. The attack not only
threatened the safety of our elected officials, their staff, and the police
officers who were defending the Capitol, but also posed an existential threat
to our democratic processes. The count may have proceeded, our norms restored,
but the scars, impacts, and perpetrators are still a very present element in
our democracy today. 

 

We need a congressional commission that can investigate what happened on
January 6th, so that we can ensure that it never happens again.Much like the
9/11 Commission investigated the events that preceded the terrorist attacks on
September 11th, we need to bring to light what led to January 6th. It’s not
about politics — it’s about the health and security of our democracy. 


Luckily, the House took the first step yesterday, passing a bill to establish
such a commission. Now we need the Senate to follow suit.  friends atIssue One
<[link removed]>
have been calling loudly for a commission, as have members of the bipartisan
Problem Solvers caucus
<[link removed]>
. Tell your Senators: we need a January 6th Commission. 



<[link removed]>

<[link removed]>
Election officials are public servants
<[link removed]>
. <[link removed]>

An important fact about our nation’s elections: overwhelmingly, elections are
administered by local officials. The first line of defense in ensuring the
integrity and security of our elections isn’t a group of mysterious bureaucrats
— it’s our friends and neighbors who volunteer at polling places and work as
election administrators. Certainly, we depend on processes like double blind
audits to ensure the security of our elections, but we also depend on the
integrity and trust of our community members.


This is why it’s troubling to see a growing trend across the country of bills
that would seek to punish poll workers and election administrators. “The
default assumption that county election officials are bad actors is problematic,
” says county election administrator Chris Davis in theNew York Times
<[link removed]>
. “There’s so many moving parts and things happening at a given polling place,
and innocent mistakes, though infrequent, can happen. And to assign criminal
liability or civil liability to some of these things is problematic. It’s a
big-time issue that we have.”



<[link removed]>

<[link removed]>
A way to create better representation
<[link removed]>.
<[link removed]>

Our friends at FairVote released a new report last week that examines how
ranked choice voting leads to more diversity on the ballot and improved
representation for people of color and women. Their study, which looked at
1,422 candidates in 398 single-winner RCV elections across 27 jurisdictions
found that both candidates and voters of color benefited from ranked choice
voting elections, as both outcomes and participation improved. 

 

Their report is just the latest data point demonstrating how election reform
can help to create nuance, diversity, and greater conversation in our politics.
Reforms like ranked choice voting help to create a different set of incentives
for elected officials that empower them to put voters first, while allowing
voters to hold deeper, more meaningful opinions about politicians, rather than
just a broad ‘yes-or-no’ opinion. 


Check out their full report here
<[link removed]>
.



<[link removed]>

<[link removed]>
Brett
__
Brett Maney
Senior Communications Manager
Unite America
Support Unite America <[link removed]>


Want to stop receiving our weekly Three Things Thursday emails? Unsubscribe
<[link removed]>
 from Three Things Thursday, or Unsubscribe
<[link removed]>
from all Unite America communications.

Unite America | 1580 Lincoln St Suite #520 Denver, CO 80218
Paid for by Unite America.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
www.uniteamerica.org <[link removed]>