Hi Friend,

Last week, our team spent time in the beautiful Colorado mountains for our annual end-of-year retreat. Team members joined to collaborate in person, team build, reflect on the past year, and plan for 2023. As we’ve seen from this year's successes, the Voters First Movement is gaining momentum, and there is much to plan for as we look ahead to the next year and beyond. And part of this planning means hearing from you! 

Here are there things to think about this week: 

We’d love for you to participate in our end-of-year survey!

To close out the year, we’re asking our readers to answer a short survey about their experience reading our Three Things Thursday newsletter. We appreciate your feedback and will use your responses as we plan for next year! 

Please click here to take the survey! 

Voters in Georgia are feeling election fatigue

Georgia taxpayers were once again on the hook for a U.S. Senate runoff election this December, meaning that Georgia voters statewide were voting in their third election this year (the primary, general, and a runoff). ‍It’s quite simply a lot to ask even the most committed voters to turn out for a third or fourth time in a single year, especially during the busy holiday season — Time magazine reported that voters were exhausted. It’s even more to ask overworked and under appreciated election workers to administer another election so soon after a busy general election. But, as we said in a previous newsletter, to save time and money while maintaining high voter participation, Georgia should modernize its election system by moving on from old-fashioned two-round runoffs to implementing instant-runoff voting, which ensures the winner receives majority support and general-election voters make only one trip to the polls. To learn more about Georgia’s runoff check out our latest blog.

‘Tis the season to be united

Keeping with holiday tradition, the White House is adorned with festive decorations this December. This year, First Lady Jill Biden chose the theme “We the People” for the seasonal decorations, with each room of the White House highlighting what brings us together as Americans — our democracy, and our shared civic identity. Author Nicole Bibbins Sedca writes that this is “in essence, our ‘American democratic identity’ [that] unites us under longstanding democratic values, institutions, and processes.”

President Joe Biden and Jill Biden speak to this sentiment in their holiday guide stating, “As our country gathers for the holidays, traditions may vary, but our shared American values — a belief in possibility, optimism, and unity — endure season after season.” 

We know that the American people are capable of such unity — but we also hope that the country’s polity, citizens and elected officials alike, will enter the new year in a the spirit of putting country over party. Making such a change more possible is the reason we do what we do at Unite America.

We’ll be back with Three Things Thursday in the new year. Until then, happy holidays to you and yours!

Regards, 

Alana
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Alana Persson
Unite America

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