• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Newsletter>
  3. newsletter>

Whaddya know? More people participate in vote-by-mail states.

The Fulcrum
July 07, 2022



Good morning

Vote-by-mail states outperform others in primary turnout this year

Primary turnout isn’t really a point of pride for state officials, especially in a midterm year without presidential candidates on the ballot. But when examined in a vacuum, there is some positive news worth noting this year – at least in states that run mail-in elections.

The National Vote at Home Institute, which advocates for voting by mail, crunched the data on the primaries completed through June and found, perhaps not surprisingly, that the vote-by-mail states outperformed everyone else.

Six of the seven vote-by-mail states that have conducted primaries so far rank among the top dozen in terms of turnout. The No. 1 spot belongs to Montana, which does not mandate that all registered voters receive a ballot by mail but allows counties to send them if they wish.

NVAHI broke out the states into four categories: vote by mail, primarily vote by mail (Montana), no-excuse absentee voting and excuse-required absentee voting. Six of the bottom seven in terms of turnout were (again, perhaps not surprisingly) states that require voters to provide an excuse in order to vote by mail. New Jersey, an “excuse not required” state, has the second lowest participation rate so far, ahead of just neighboring New York.

Read more.

Finding sacred purpose in repair

Debilyn Molineaux, co-publisher of The Fulcrum, wrote this week about the intersection of art, democracy and repairing the world. She found the common theme of restoration in the Japanese art of kintsugi, in which broken pottery is not just repaired but transformed into a new piece of art, as well as Suzanne Firstenberg’s art installations honoring those who died from Covid-19.

We hold people accountable for their actions. We should also hold ourselves accountable for the harm we’ve caused others. And then we lovingly seek to make the situation whole again. Not the same as it was, but whole with the new conditions of the current reality. We will never be what we were, but we can become whole again. And find the beauty in the process of repair.

Read more.

Ask Joe

Joe Weston, The Fulcrum’s resident advice columnist and the person behind Fierce Civility, wants to help you navigate difficult conversations in our polarized world. If you’ve got a question for Joe, email him at AskJoe@Fulcrum.us. His column is published every other Friday (including tomorrow).

Podcast: Gerrymandering (not as fun as it is to say)

"Why and Why Not" host Brad Fallon welcomed Stephen Medvic, author of “Gerrymandering: The Politics of Redistricting in the United States” for an in-depth discussion of gerrymandering.

Both parties love to criticize the practice of partisan mapmaking when done by the other side, and yet maps are becoming more gerrymandered than ever. Brad and Stephen address how we got to this point and what can be done about it.

Listen.

Also in the news

Mass. high court hears GOP case challenging mail-in voting (WBUR)

Why Abortion Is A Civil Rights Issue for Black Voters (FiveThirtyEight)

Poll workers are short-staffed, under attack — and quietly defending democracy (PolitiFact)

Charted: Split-ticket districts are disappearing (Axios)

Upcoming events

Media: How Do We Recognize Bias? - Crossing Party Lines - July 10

We the People’s Forum: Is It Time For A Third Party? - Braver Angels - July 11

How to Host and Organize Living Room Conversations - Living Room Conversations - July 11

Unpacking Court Reform: How to Ensure a Strong Judiciary - R Street - July 11

From Your Site Articles
  • New Jersey enacts law to facilitate mail voting - The Fulcrum ›
newsletter

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff

What "Progress" should look like, and what we get wrong

Damien De Pyle

The long kiss goodnight: Nancy Pelosi and the protracted decay of public office

Kevin Frazier

Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

C.Anne Long
latest News

Ask Joe: Warring with AI is warring with ourselves

Joe Weston
5h

Prioritizing the grand challenges

Leland R. Beaumont
5h

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
5h

The show must go on

Amy Lockard
21 September

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Rick LaRue
Jamie Raskin
21 September

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Michael Beckel
Ariana Rojas
20 September
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
5h

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
12 September

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Our Staff
07 September
Recommended
Ask Joe: Warring with AI is warring with ourselves

Ask Joe: Warring with AI is warring with ourselves

Pop Culture
Prioritizing the grand challenges

Prioritizing the grand challenges

Big Picture
Podcast: All politics is local

Podcast: All politics is local

Big Picture
The show must go on

The show must go on

Big Picture
To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Big Picture
Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Big Picture