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** Free, Fair, and Participatory Elections: A Statement from Commission Co-chairs Danielle Allen, Stephen Heintz, and Eric Liu
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The co-chairs of the Academy commission that produced the Our Common Purpose report have issued a statement in advance of the midterm elections. In recognition that free, fair, and participatory elections are essential to self-governance, Danielle Allen, Stephen Heintz, and Eric Liu warn of threats to the election process and advise how to resist them by protecting election workers, countering election denialism, ensuring the professional integrity of election administration, and resisting efforts to make voting harder.

Read the full statement here ([link removed]) .


** Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship Returns to Lexington, KY
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On October 18, the Our Common Purpose team traveled to Lexington, Kentucky for a full day of events to shine a light on the contributions made by Kentucky residents to the Our Common Purpose report ([link removed]) and engage with local leaders on strategies for implementing its recommendations. In 2019, the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship conducted six listening sessions in Lexington. Cochair Stephen Heintz, Commission member Carolyn Lukensmeyer, and Academy staff returned to Lexington to thank the listening session participants, solicit feedback on the report, and share updates on efforts to advance the 31 recommendations. Participants in the day’s programming included Michael Adams, Kentucky’s Secretary of State, and Linda Gorton, the Mayor of Lexington.

Read more about the full day of events in Lexington here ([link removed]) .


** UPCOMING EVENTS
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**
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Reinventing Democracy: How Hometowns Are Strengthening America

December 7-9, 2022, the Academy will host a special event to bring together mayors, city councilors, select board members, city and town managers, county executives, and other local government officials from across the country for a three-day virtual symposium to learn about pragmatic approaches to reforms like ranked-choice voting, participatory governance, clean elections laws, civic education, and more. The event will feature keynote speaker, Judy Woodruff of PBS News, as well as panels of subject-matter experts and elected leaders with practical experience working on these initiatives. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the inspiring work being done by Our Common Purpose champion organizations across the country and build connections with other local leaders working to reinvent American democracy from the ground up. For more information about this event, please email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

DATE: December 7-9, 2022 from 11:30AM – 4:00 PM EST | Register here ([link removed])
We are Facing History: Civics & 21st Century Democracy

Cochair Danielle Allen and Peter Levine of the Tisch College of Public Life at Tufts University discuss the necessity of fostering active civic participation and ways we can work across differences and break down polarization to build a stronger democracy.

DATE: You can watch this event at any time | View Event ([link removed])


** IN THE NEWS
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** CNN: See how your votes aren't equal
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October 25 – A new analysis about inequality in American democracy highlights the 2021 OCP Enlarging the House ([link removed]) report to make the case for increasing the size of the U.S. House of Representatives. The first recommendation ([link removed]) in Our Common Purpose calls for this change, and last year’s follow-up report provided a deeper analysis of how to ensure the people’s House better reflects the nation’s growing population.

Read the full CNN report here ([link removed]) .
Deseret News: Why young people are down on Democracy - and how we can change that

October 20 – Manu Meel, CEO of BridgeUSA, an OCP champion organization, makes the case that to restore trust and drive youth engagement in our democracy, candidates and leaders must fight back against the divisive and anti-democratic politics of the status quo. “We want problem-solvers instead of flamethrowers to lead our democracy,” Meel writes. Strategy 6 ([link removed]) of Our Common Purpose centers on inspiring a culture of commitment to American constitutional democracy and one another. Read the full op-ed here ([link removed]) .
Binyamin Appelbaum: It shouldn't matter so much whether Elon Musk buys Twitter

October 14 – Binyamin Appelbaum argues in The Berkshire Eagle that government regulation should not focus solely on checking the dangers posed by social media networks. Rather, policymakers should also consider the role that social media might play in strengthening democracy. In his analysis, Appelbaum cites OCP’s Recommendation 5.3, which calls for establishing a public-interest mandate for for-profit social media platforms.

Read Binyamin’s full op-ed here ([link removed]) . Learn more about Recommendation 5.3 of Our Common Purpose here ([link removed]) .
MA pre-registration program finds interest among up-and-coming voters

October 3 – More than 230,000 Massachusetts teens have preregistered to vote since 2016, when a new statewide program went into effect that allows 16- to 17-year-olds to submit information to local election clerks and be registered automatically on their 18th birthdays. OCP Recommendation 2.4 ([link removed]) calls for establishing, through state legislation, the preregistration of 16-and 17-year-olds and providing educational opportunities for them to practice voting as part of the preregistration process. Currently, 15 states permit preregistration beginning at 16 years old. Read the full story here ([link removed]) .
U.S. Jewish groups team up to promote election integrity this November

September 22 – Over 80 U.S. Jewish organizations are working together as part of a new initiative, the Jewish Partnership for Democracy ([link removed]) , to ensure election integrity and back pro-democracy efforts ahead of November’s midterm elections. The coalition features groups across ideological, denominational and geographic lines, and aims to protect electoral democracy in the short term while helping rebuild a resilient democratic culture in the long term. OCP Recommendation 6.3 ([link removed]) calls for developing civic faith and fostering a culture of shared commitment across lines of difference to constitutional democracy.

Read the full story in Haaretz here ([link removed]) .


** GOOD TO KNOW
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** Apply to be a 'Civic Season' Design Fellow
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The 2023 Civic Season Design Fellows Application is open through November 4. Fellows will participate in creating all aspects of a project from ideation to execution and serve as a champion, advocate, and role model for #CivicSeason. In June 2021, OCP champion organization Made By Us, ([link removed]) a coalition of over 150 museums, historic sites and historical societies, launched Civic Season, an initiative held each summer from Juneteenth through July 4th that aims to mobilize citizens to connect with the past, take action in the present, and shape the future.

Learn more about Civic Season and the fellowship here ([link removed]) . Apply to become a 2023 Civic Season Design Fellow here ([link removed]) .
Grant Opportunity: Bridging Divides and Strengthening Democracy

The Strengthening Democracy Challenge, a joint project organized by social scientists from Stanford University, MIT, Northwestern University, and Columbia University to crowdsource and identify short, scalable interventions to reduce anti-democratic attitudes, announced a call for proposals for Bridging Divides & Strengthening Democracy Field Test Grants. Grants of up to $50,000 will be allocated on a competitive basis to new or existing teams of practitioners and researchers.

Grant proposals are due by January 13, 2023. Learn more about the Strengthening Democracy Challenge and the grant opportunity here ([link removed]) .
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