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Democracy reform’s A-listers join the call for voting at a social distance

Jennifer Lawrence
RepresentUs

Voting absentee has officially become the hottest cause for the democracy reform movement during the coronavirus pandemic: The celebrities have weighed in.

The biggest pop culture icon to put her celebrity behind fixing the system, Jennifer Lawrence, started doing so again Wednesday: She launched a social media campaign to promote the virtues of voting-by-mail by sharing a video of herself in her home. At least 10 other celebrities have since joined in the conversation online.


The 29-year-old actress has long been a spokeswoman for one of the most prominent good governance advocacy groups, RepresentUs. It's part of the enormous collection of such organizations pushing for states to ease absentee voting rules for their primaries and the fall election — and to get Congress to help with $2 billion in aid .

"The best thing that we can do to slow the spread of this virus is stay at home, but there's still an election coming up with millions of Americans who have yet to cast their ballot in the 2020 primaries," Lawrence said in her video before directing viewers to RepresentUs' online tool for requesting mail-in ballots.

Jennifer Lawrence: We Need Vote at Home During COVID-19www.youtube.com

For her fans in states that only allow those with specific excuses to vote absentee — generally travel, age or disability — Lawrence urges grassroots lobbying efforts to relax the rules not only during the public health emergency, but indefinitely.

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Other celebrities who have started encouraging their large social media followings to vote at home include: reality TV star Khloé Kardashian, pop singer Sia, TV show host Jonathan Scott, anti-bullying activist (and former White House intern) Monica Lewinsky, music producer David Guetta, comedian Sarah Silverman and actors Rita Wilson, Alyssa Milano and Paul Scheer.

The social media posts encourage people to take the #VoteAtHome pledge and tag three friends to keep the trend going. Lawrence called on fellow actress Amy Schumer in her post.

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People holiding "Yes on 1" signs

People urge support for Question 1 in Maine.

Kyle Bailey

The Fahey Q&A: Kyle Bailey discusses Maine’s Question 1

Since organizing the Voters Not Politicians2018 ballot initiative that put citizens in charge ofdrawing Michigan's legislative maps, Fahey has been the founding executive director of The PeoplePeople, which is forming statewide networks to promote government accountability. Sheregularly interviews colleagues in the world of democracy reform for The Fulcrum.

Kyle Bailey is a former Maine state representative who managed the landmark ballot measure campaigns to win and protect ranked choice voting. He serves as campaign manager for Citizens to End SuperPACs and the Yes On 1 campaign to pass Question 1, a statewide ballot initiative that would place a limit of $5,000 on contributions to political action committees.

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Ballot envelopes moving through a sorting machine

Mailed ballots are sorted by a machine at the Denver Elections Division.

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

GOP targets fine print of voting by mail in battleground state suits

Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

In 2020’s presidential election, 17 million more Americans voted than in 2016’s election. That record-setting turnout was historic and even more remarkable because it came in the midst of a deadly pandemic. A key reason for the increase was most states simplified and expanded voting with mailed-out ballots — which 43 percent of voters used.

Some battleground states saw dramatic expansions. Michigan went from 26 percent of its electorate voting with mailed-out ballots in 2016 to 59 percent in 2020. Pennsylvania went from 4 percent to 40 percent. The following spring, academics found that mailing ballots to voters had lifted 2020’s voter turnout across the political spectrum and had benefited Republican candidates — especially in states that previously had limited the option.

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Members of Congress in the House of Representatives

Every four years, Congress gathers to count electoral votes.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

No country still uses an electoral college − except the U.S.

Holzer is an associate professor of political science at Westminster College.

The United States is the only democracy in the world where a presidential candidate can get the most popular votes and still lose the election. Thanks to the Electoral College, that has happened five times in the country’s history. The most recent examples are from 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush won the Electoral College after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and 2016, when Hillary Clinton got more votes nationwide than Donald Trump but lost in the Electoral College.

The Founding Fathers did not invent the idea of an electoral college. Rather, they borrowed the concept from Europe, where it had been used to pick emperors for hundreds of years.

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Nebraska Capitol

Nebraska's Capitol houses a unicameral legislature, unique in American politics.

Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

100 years ago, a Nebraska Republican fought for democracy reform

Gruber is senior vice president of Open Primaries.

With Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s announcement on Sept. 24 that he doesn't have enough votes to call a special session of the Legislature to change the way the state allocates electoral votes, an effort led by former President Donald Trump to pressure the Legislature officially failed.

Nebraska is one of only two states that award a single Electoral College vote to the winner in each congressional district, plus two votes to the statewide winner of the presidential popular vote. Much has been made — justifiably — of Republican state Sen. Mike McDonnell’s heroic decision to buck enormous political pressure from his party to fall in line, and choosing instead to single-handedly defeat the measure. The origins of the senator's independence, though, began in a 100-old experiment in democracy reform.

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