How to help elect secretaries of state apart from with Democratic GOTV?
May 13, 2022 6:37 AM Subscribe
In the upcoming 2022 US midterms, who is doing work to get dems AND repubs+ticket splitters+other voters to vote for non-kleptocratic state-level secretaries of state? This question derives from the terrifying conclusions of this article: The Most Pivotal Elections in 2022 Are Not the Ones You Think
State-level secretaries of state hold the key to not fucking the country by overturning fairly-conducted elections. It’s clear that for the 2022 midterms not to have a chance of basically putting one of the final nails in the coffin of US democracy, in states where secretaries of state are being selected, and are anywhere close to competitive:
1) Democratic turnout needs to be higher.
2) Democrats that are turning out need to remember to vote for the democratic/non-deranged state sec.
3) “Reasonable”/local-republican-candidate-loving/recently-flipped-from-weak-dem/conservative-not-trump republican voters need to be reminded to vote for a secretary of state that actually cares about democracy (or not vote for one that wants to destroy it).
I know people are working on 1 furiously. I’d like to volunteer for 2 & especially 3.
Please don’t argue with the premise of the question. I very specifically don’t want to enter into a discussion about #3 along the usual MeFi lines. People in #3 EXIST and are not all explicit fascists, and, whether we like it or not, they will VOTE and won’t vote for the democratic candidate. It’s a midterm in a subjectively shit economy, and SOME people are going to say “throw the bums out” & some love their local congress-critter or candidate for whatever reason, or are soft-R-republicans but don’t buy the “STOLENZ!” deranged-ness and are not naked-power-grabbers-at-any-cost people.
Elections have all been nationalized, sure, but there are margins to work especially in this issue. Local elections like this where people routinely ignore downballot boxes to check and are often decided on razor thin margins. I want to push at those margins for secstate voting.
State-level secretaries of state hold the key to not fucking the country by overturning fairly-conducted elections. It’s clear that for the 2022 midterms not to have a chance of basically putting one of the final nails in the coffin of US democracy, in states where secretaries of state are being selected, and are anywhere close to competitive:
1) Democratic turnout needs to be higher.
2) Democrats that are turning out need to remember to vote for the democratic/non-deranged state sec.
3) “Reasonable”/local-republican-candidate-loving/recently-flipped-from-weak-dem/conservative-not-trump republican voters need to be reminded to vote for a secretary of state that actually cares about democracy (or not vote for one that wants to destroy it).
I know people are working on 1 furiously. I’d like to volunteer for 2 & especially 3.
Please don’t argue with the premise of the question. I very specifically don’t want to enter into a discussion about #3 along the usual MeFi lines. People in #3 EXIST and are not all explicit fascists, and, whether we like it or not, they will VOTE and won’t vote for the democratic candidate. It’s a midterm in a subjectively shit economy, and SOME people are going to say “throw the bums out” & some love their local congress-critter or candidate for whatever reason, or are soft-R-republicans but don’t buy the “STOLENZ!” deranged-ness and are not naked-power-grabbers-at-any-cost people.
Elections have all been nationalized, sure, but there are margins to work especially in this issue. Local elections like this where people routinely ignore downballot boxes to check and are often decided on razor thin margins. I want to push at those margins for secstate voting.
The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State exists to elect Democrats to SoS posts nationwide.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 7:47 AM on May 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 7:47 AM on May 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
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posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:48 AM on May 13, 2022 [3 favorites]