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Hi Friend,
It is a PACKED week at Unite America — and for all of America, it seems. In
DC, Congress is furiously debating key budget bills, while state houses grapple
with new and pending legislative redistricting maps. Here at Unite America,
we’re eagerly working on a very exciting video project that I can’t tell you
too much about yet… so instead, let’s just get into it.
Here are three things to think about this week.
Will we be saying aloha to RCV?
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Hawaii may be hundreds of miles away from mainland US, but that hasn’t kept
them from catching the spark of reform. Over the last few years, reformers in
Hawaii have been working diligently to put voters first, adopting vote at home
statewide in 2019, and using ranked choice voting in their presidential
primaries last year. Now, they may be the next state to adopt ranked choice
voting statewide.
In an in-depth and rousing endorsement, the Editorial Board of Honolulu Civil
Beat calls for Hawaii to join states like Alaska and Maine in adopting ranked
choice voting for their elections — giving Hawaiian voters more choice, voice,
and power in their elections. Traditional winner-takes-all elections have
proved damaging to the representation of Hawaii voters in the past, and RCV
offers a solution.Check out their piece here.
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Our elections are being messed with
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In the aftermath of the Big Lie of the 2020 election, state legislators across
the country have been attempting to insert themselves into our election
process, giving themselves more power, and opening up the door for election
subversion. In a new analysis, our friends at Voting Rights Lab found more than
180 bills that had been introduced across the country that have attempted to
shift power away from election administrators — opening up the possibility of
election interference by disgruntled partisan elected officials.
It’s yet another example of the dangerous politicization of our elections.
These types of bills serve only to create more uncertainty in voters, creating
greater opportunity for an individual to reverse or otherwise negate the will
of the people. Check out theirfull report here
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How to create an election system that represents all New Yorkers
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Finally, how do you create an election system that truly represents all
voters? This week, former New York Democratic mayoral candidateAndrew Yang
writes an appeal for nonpartisan primaries. In a city like New York — a solidly
Democratic stronghold — the only election that matters is effectively the
Democratic primary. Whoever wins the primary will almost certainly win the
general election. Republican and independent voters are left out. Instead of
having a vote that matters in a race that matters, they’re left to wait for the
general election. Instead of being able to add their voice, and get a candidate
who might represent them as well, their voices are forced into a false binary,
meaning that their opinions are all too often left behind. What does Yang
suggest instead? It might sound familiar:
“Instead of having closed party primaries that leave a lot of people out in the
cold," Yang writes, "important elections like the mayoral election should have
an open primary — with all candidates — and then have the five finalists
compete via ranked-choice voting in the general election.”
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We like the sound of that.
Brett
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Brett Maney
Senior Communications Manager
Unite America
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