The Nevada Assembly on Tuesday passed legislation allowing residents to register to vote on Election Day, as part of a broader measure that expands early voting and provides for online registration.
The sweeping reform package, Assembly Bill 345, now heads to the Senate, which – like the Assembly and governor's seat – is controlled by Democrats.
If adopted, Nevada would become the 17th state to allow voters to register and cast a ballot on Election Day.
Lawyers Defending American Democracy invites you to attend a free webinar, “When Lawyers Attack the Rule of Law,” on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 2 p.m. Pacific (5 p.m. Eastern).
This special event will feature a timely conversation between UCLA School of Law professor Scott Cummings and Boston Globe senior opinion writer and columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr about the ways in which lawyers enable — and are complicit in — the creation of autocracies.
Cummings was named a 2023 Guggenheim fellow to study the role of lawyers in backsliding democracies. Stohr is an on-air political analyst for MSNBC, frequent panelist on NBC's “Meet the Press” and co-host of the legal news podcast “#SistersInLaw.”
In June 2024 Cummings warned about the danger we face:
“In recent years, scholars have focused significant attention on the fading fortunes of democracy around the world. This decline has occurred at the hands of new legal autocrats who dismantle democracy not through violent coups but rather through ostensibly legal actions—like changing the rules of judicial selection and elections—that undermine institutional checks on executive power. Yet while this literature helpfully spotlights law as an essential tool of democratic backsliding, it has largely ignored the actors who wield this tool: lawyers. This is a significant omission since, as the Stop the Steal campaign to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election revealed, lawyers serve as crucial gatekeepers to legal institutions targeted by autocrats (like courts and the attorney general’s office) and are necessary to design and execute legal plans to circumvent constitutional requirements (like election certification and the peaceful transition of power). Precisely because lawyers are guardians of the legal legitimacy upon which autocratic legalism depends, the profession is a critical arena of democratic struggle that merits special attention.
“Rule-of-law attacks like Stop the Steal do not occur in a vacuum. They are manifestations of a deeper democratic malaise. That malaise is a product of structural forces that occur over long time horizons and affect the profession, reshaping lawyer norms and practices in ways that can create conditions of possibility for rule of law attacks to occur.
“One such norm, central to the rule of the law, is professional independence. Because lawyers control access to legal institutions, they serve the critical role of screening legitimate legal claims. Public lawyers—prosecutors and government legal advisors—have special obligations in this regard, guaranteeing that when legal decisions have a policy impact, they are made in the public interest and not for partisan advantage.”
Lawyers have essential roles to play in the struggle to protect and defend our democracy. Join this important webinar to learn more.
"Trump wants to bring jobs back to America. For us, this means more work here and for our community,” says Joge Sactic, who owns a bakery just outside Washington, D.C.
Spadacini is an Italian American freelance journalist who writes about social justice and public health.
The Fulcrum presents We the People, a series elevating the voices and visibility of the persons most affected by the decisions of elected officials. In this installment, we explore the motivations of over 36 million eligible Latino voters as they prepare to make their voices heard in November.
The Latino community is Maryland's fastest-growing demographic. According to Census Bureau estimates, in 2023, Latinos accounted for 11.5 percent of the state’s population.
Langley Park, once a flourishing Latino community nestled across three jurisdictions in the state of Maryland, is now visibly under siege. Road work, orange barricades and drilling equipment are scattered across University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue, making passage to dozens of small, Latino-owned businesses treacherous.
“They are killing us. They know it and don’t care. It is a done deal,” says 61-year-old Jorge Sactic, owner of Chapina Bakery at the La Union commercial center.
He is referring to local and state transportation authorities driving forward the Purple Line. This $2.25 billion transportation project envisions 16 miles of light rail connecting different suburban communities across the portion of the state just north of the nation’s capital. These communities include Langley Park, which has an estimated population of 21,000, and at least 85 percent of the residents are from Central America.
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Meant to bring new opportunities and economic development to areas that currently lack access to rail transport, the Purple Line, according to a 2017 study conducted by the University of Maryland, may also reduce affordable housing and displace many low-income residents who have lived for generations in communities like Langley Park, known as the International Corridor because of its ethnic diversity.
This is the main issue on Sactic’s mind ahead of November's presidential election. As a longtime community leader of Langley Park and founder of the small-business association for La Union shopkeepers, he says that daily survival is his priority and that of many of his compatriots from Guatemala and El Salvador.
Sactic’s bakery — named for Chapín, the colloquial term for people of Guatemalan descent — is one of 46 small businesses in the two-story shopping center. Shop owners and keepers in La Union are primarily from Central America, and their commercial activities cater to their compatriots. Two giant murals depicting workers and people in traditional dresses with a backdrop of the tropics welcome visitors.
“Here, we sell memories and feelings,” explains Sactic, whose bakery offers cachitos and gallianetas, authentic Guatemalan sweet buns, among other delicious treats. “When people come to the bakery, the food they taste brings them home, and they are happy.”
At the bakery, Sactic also offers notary services to members of his community whose paperwork needs to be officialized. “Many don’t have legal documentation, which is why they can’t vote.”
Sactic knows first-hand what it is like to be without legal status. At the age of 25, when Guatemala was ripped apart by civil war, he fled his country and swam across the Rio Grande at Bronxville, Texas. Two years after becoming a U.S. citizen in 2002, Sactic opened Chapina. He has voted ever since. He does not hesitate to respond when asked about priority issues for the Latino community in the upcoming presidential election.
“First and foremost, we care about immigration. We want people who have been here for generations and have contributed to growing the economy to be legalized,” he says. Sactic, like other residents of Langley Park I spoke to, expressed concerns about new immigrants not being as hard-working as immigrants from previous generations and more likely to engage in criminal activities.
Sactic says many Latinos have lost faith in the Democratic Party.
“Older immigrants feel betrayed by this administration,” he explains. “Since Obama, they have been promising us an immigration reform so people who have been here for years can become legal. This party has lied ever since.” In fact, he adds, the largest amnesties have occurred under Republican administrations.
A national survey of Latino voters conducted by the Hispanic Federation in August indicates that 21 percent of respondents consider immigration reform for immigrants who are already in the United States to be the most important issue aside from economic concerns.
Another important topic that will motivate Latino voters this November, according to Sactic, is family. More specifically, family values: “Most Latinos are for a traditional family composition. We don’t accept a couple with a different sexual orientation. This issue matters to us and will prompt many to vote.”
However, according to a 2022 report by the Pew Research Center on how Hispanics view social issues, there is a significant difference between young and old generations of Latinos when it comes to acceptance of same-sex marriages and transgender people. Older Latinos have more conservative views on issues of sexual orientation.
The Hispanic Federation survey also found that jobs and the economy remained high on the Latino voters’ motivation list in November. “Trump wants to bring jobs back to America. For us, this means more work here and for our community,” says Sactic. “Remember, Latinos are the ones who do the dirty and heavy jobs. There are no weekends for us. We work all the time, day and night.”
The mistrust towards the party in power may also stem from local politics. Sactic said that few government officials from this historically Democratic state seem to care about the fate of the more than 18,000 Latino residents of Langley Park. “Our elected officials don’t bother to meet us. No one knows who they are. They have never come here,” he said.
Ironically, a few months ago, Guatemala's president, Bernardo Arévalo, visited La Union to acknowledge the sizable Guatemalan community in Maryland. Sactic, also known as the unofficial mayor of Langley Park, helped organize the visit, which briefly revived the mall's activity. Since the Purple Line construction began, shop owners have lost 50 percent of their customers and are struggling to pay rent.
But in the early evening, the side streets of this working-class neighborhood are filled with parked white commercial vans used by construction workers. Food stalls scattered across a few key intersections sell traditional Latin American food like carne asada — marinated grilled meat — arepas, pupusas, and bags of sliced mangos with lime juice and seasoning. Despite the uncertainty, life goes on.
“We have been in this community for over 30 years,” says Sactic. “We have started businesses from scratch, have created jobs, and have paid taxes. We feel betrayed at the national level and also locally.”
In the weeks leading to Election Day, The Fulcrum will continue to publish stories from across the country featuring the people who make up the powerful Latino electorate to better understand the hopes and concerns of an often misunderstood, diverse community.
What do you think about this article? We’d like to hear from you. Please send your questions, comments, and ideas to newsroom@fulcrum.us.
Meyers is executive editor of The Fulcrum.
Three members of Congress are hoping to bring ranked-choice voting, which has been growing at the state and municipal levels, to congressional elections.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) on Thursday introduced the Ranked Choice Voting Act, which would change how all members of Congress are elected. In addition, the bill would authorize funding to assist states to help them educate voters and implement RCV-compliant systems for primary and general elections by 2028.
In an RCV election, voters may rank multiple candidates in order of preference. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, with that person’s support redistributed to voters’ second choices. The process continues until a candidate has a majority of the votes or there are only two candidates remaining.
Supporters believe this process, in addition to guaranteeing the winner has majority support, reduces partisanship because candidates need to appeal to voters beyond their party base in order to attract second- and third-place votes.
“In an increasingly polarized Congress, it’s become ever more difficult to produce pragmatic legislation and solutions that benefit the American people,” Beyer said. “By implementing ranked-choice voting, which ensures that winners are elected with majority popular support, we can encourage the election of leaders who build broad and diverse coalitions and are focused on solutions rather than divisive rhetoric. This would increase voter satisfaction and be a great win for a healthier democracy.”
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Two states already use RCV for federal elections. Both Maine and Alaska use it in general elections, but Alaska’s general election follows an open primary in which all candidates run on the same ballot. The four candidates who receive the most votes, regardless of party, advance to November.
The legislation would give states some latitude on implementation.
“It’s permissive of both [the Maine and Alaska] types depending on what the state prefers,” said Deb Otis, director of research and policy for FairVote, a nonprofit organization that advocates for RCV and has played a central role in building support for the bill.
In a minor twist on RCV, the bill would continue the runoff process until there are two final candidates, rather than until one candidate has a majority of the votes.
“It’s a distinction without a difference,” said Otis. “It doesn’t change who wins … and provides some extra clarity on voter preference.”
Nearly 50 counties and cities use, or have approved use of, RCV for municipal elections, including New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis and a dozen cities in Utah.
Voters in Nevada, Oregon, Colorado and Idaho will decide whether to move forward with RCV in their states when they cast ballots this fall. A ballot initiative in Alaska seeks to repeal the 2020 voter initiative that instituted RCV elections.
The bill faces a difficult path in Congress. Lawmakers are only expected to be in session for a few more weeks before heading home to campaign in advance of Election Day, and those remaining work days will likely be devoted to spending bills and a handful of other matters. But more time might not make a difference.
RCV, despite being a nonpartisan solution to concerns about elections being won with less than a majority of support, tends to attract opposition from Republicans. And with the GOP controlling the House, the bill would face long odds even at the beginning of a congressional session. The same goes for the Senate, where most legislation needs to overcome a procedural hurdle that requires getting 60 votes in the nearly evenly divided, 100-person chamber.
“Obviously at FairVote we would love for all of our bills to pass this session. But we understand politics and it’s not likely,” said Ryan Suto, FairVote’s interim director of government affairs. “But it’s a time when a lot of people are talking about politics and voters are frustrated with their election system. So this is a good time to make sure this conversation continues. So people who don’t know about ranked-choice voting are reached.”
Other bills aiming to change elections have faced similar partisan roadblocks in recent years. Democrats have pushed comprehensive reform bills like the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Neither made it through Capitol Hill, with Republicans often arguing that states have authority over election laws, not Congress.
But advocates of the new bill believe the Constitution is on their side.
“The Constitution's text is clear. The federal government many times in our history has found it necessary to regulate the time, place and manner of elections,” Suto said. “Everyone being on a level playing field, playing by the same rules, is important.”
Republicans have been pushing their own elections bill this year, one that would reiterate existing law that declares noncitizens may not vote in federal elections. Members of the House leadership planned to attach that bill to a spending bill that needs to be passed before the end of the month in order to avoid a partial government shutdown, but Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pulled the appropriations measure from consideration Wednesday when it became clear he did not have the votes to pass it.
Cooper is the author of “How America Works … and Why it Doesn’t.”
Are Kamala Harris and Donald Trump really the two best candidates for America's most demanding and important job? Hardly. Trump tried to reverse the last election. And while Harris would be a reversion toward the mean — after an unfit Trump and an aging Joe Biden — she's far from the most talented executive in the country.
So why, then, are they the two candidates to be president?
The answer is America's two-party political system. While third parties occasionally make some noise, they never threaten the Democratic-Republican duopoly.
It’s just as America's founders feared. George Washington warned against having only two political parties: “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.” According to Washington, rival political parties “serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party.” John Adams, for his part, considered a two-party system a grave threat to the republic: “a division of the republic into two great parties ... is to be dreaded as the great political evil.”
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Indeed, the fewer tribes there are, the worse tribalism gets. And in America the two political tribes battle each other — and only each other — every single day. This rivalry amplifies bias, distorts the political debate, shunts policy platforms, stifles compromise and negotiation, and leads to subpar and underqualified government officials.
A deeply backward approach now dominates American politics: hating the other side even more than you like your own. An October 2020 study published in Science Magazine titled “Political Sectarianism in America,” highlighted this new paradigm: “Democrats and Republicans — the 85% of U.S. citizens who do not identify as pure independents — have grown more contemptuous of opposing partisans for decades, and at similar rates.” Recently, the study continued, “this aversion exceeded their affection for copartisans.”
This explains a lot. When you hate Trump viscerally it makes his opponent, Harris, seem like a better candidate than she really is. And vice versa.
The problem created by having only two political parties has been getting worse. Lee Drutman, the author of “Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America,” explained in 2020 that although “America’s two-party system goes back centuries, the threat today is new and different because the two parties are now truly distinct, a development that I date to the 2010 midterms. Until then the two parties contained enough overlapping multitudes within them that the sort of bargaining and coalition-building natural to multiparty democracy could work inside the two-party system. No more.”
A more diverse set of political parties would help. It would invigorate mainstream political discourse with additional points of view, as today many important ideas don’t make it onto the platforms of either side. The introduction of new ideas and coalitions would reduce rigid partisanship and provide incentives for politicians to respect empirical reality and not just reflexively appease their constituencies. As Drutman put it, a multiparty system would be “more fluid and responsive to Americans’ political preferences” and help “dissolve our binary partisanship.”
Additional political parties wouldn’t solve everything, to be sure. The new parties’ specific platforms would be key. There would likely still be gridlock in Congress. Tribalism and social-media echo chambers wouldn’t disappear. And other defects in the political system would remain.
But a vibrant multiparty system would directly address the biggest problem in U.S. politics: tribal rivalry and irrational partisanship. This more rational and diverse political system would make elections more about individual merit and less about party loyalty. And it would likely generate talented presidential candidates who are the most qualified for the job. A far cry from what we have now.
National Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan civic holiday dedicated to celebrating our democracy. It kicked off in 2012 and is endorsed by the National Association of Secretaries of State, the National Association of State Election Directors, the U.S Election Assistance Commission and the National Association of Election Officials.
Over the past dozen years, the people and partners supporting the effort have worked to get more than 5 million Americans registered to vote.
Voting is the most sacred principle of our democratic republic yet only 66 percent of eligible voters turned out in the last presidential election. But this can change.
Many organizations are working hard to educate voters so it is easier for them to vote. Citizen Connect offers citizens a comprehensive 2024 Election Participation Guide, a valuable resource to make it easier for all Americans to have their voice heard at the ballot box. Citizen Connect makes it clear that it does not tell anyone what to think or how to vote; they simply want all eligible voters to vote.
This valuable guide helps voters find out if they are registered and, if not, how to register. Additionally, the Citizen Connect guide offers personalized information on which candidates and issues on users’ local ballots.
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(For those citizens who want to do more than vote and want to apply to be a poll worker, visit Power the Poll.
Citizen Connect is just one of many organizations across America encouraging Americans to vote. The Team works with student athletes across the country to encourage their fellow students to vote. This fall The Team launched the Civic Captain Initiative, an innovative nonpartisan program focused on recruiting, training and empowering student athletes to utilize their platforms to organize their peers to vote. These civic captains will lead volunteer voter registration and participation opportunities for students by leveraging their social media platform to encourage civic engagement and voter participation.
The Team will also host the Virtual All Star Meeting 2024 on Oct 8. This activation is for thousands of athletes, coaches, administrators and supporters with a message focused on nonpartisan civic engagement and how to be an engaged athlete/citizen in your community. In 2022, NBA star Stephen Curry, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former Stanford University women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer spoke with more than 2,000 student-athletes about how to make an impact beyond their sport. That event included 26 teams gathering across 17 states for watch parties (they ate more than 250 free pizzas), while learning from some of the top people in sports and civics.
Both of these programs will improve institutional civic and voting practices within the athletic departments and campuses at large.
As we approach this historic election we ask our readers to do everything they can to encourage their fellow citizens to vote. Abraham Lincon said it well when he proclaimed:
"Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters."
Of course we all want our candidate to win but perhaps more importantly we must remember, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Don’t be silent this Election Day. Vote.
