10/24/2022
Caption: Election booths lined up against a wall with decorative red, white, and navy blue banners.
It started with a question.
"What could an everyday person do to improve the effectiveness of elections in the US?"
It boils down to 3 issues- improving the candidates, improving voting guides, and educating people on why voting matters.
1. Better candidates.
Running for office is a great solution to improving conditions. If you aren't a wealthy oligarch, have a dark triad personality disorder, or are heavily entrenched in political propaganda like Qanon, then you are a great candidate! Being a politician doesn't require being a fancy, perfect person. There's lots of programs out there that help everyday people on their political campaigns.
But it can feel intimidating. Running for city council sounds great until you realize you don't know what city council members actually do.
A great solution would be putting together a comprehensive list of all elected positions that appear on a voting sheet. Each position would have required vocabulary and concepts to understand in order to successfully hold the position. There would be a detailed job duty description including a “day in the life”. It would also include skills you'd need to have. If most of your job is reading, doing paperwork, or negotiating then it's important that's something you're okay doing for the length of your term.
2. Better information.
Typical voters guides have a lot of inaccuracies written by candidates and interest groups that want to win. There are websites online that help clear the air. Many of them run on volunteers.
Some of these websites additionally list the positions that are available for a person to run for office. There are deadlines for how early a person needs to apply in order to be on the ballot.
One solution is putting together a volunteer group online to help do this research. They would:
Research positions people can run for and deadlines to apply
Research net worth/income of each candidate, their family if they are supportive, and the candidates biggest donor.
Research and create a detailed and unbiased voters guide for all the propositions. This would include:
-what type of solution it is- long term, short term, etc.
-details and explanations on what it’s about
-detailed information on those that support and those that oppose
-pros and cons, who it benefits and who it hurts
4. Education on why voting matters.
In the United States, local politics is significantly more important than federal politics. A large amount of issues that people face each day can only be solved by the government of their city, county, or state. Teaching people to research and vote for their senators, city council members, sheriffs, and district attorneys is one of the most important ways to improve conditions in the US. If you have an election coming up, make sure to schedule time to do research.
If you are the type of person who cares about democracy and ending fascism but haven’t been able to volunteer, advocate or make progress on these issues, you’re not alone. We live in a system that attacks our time and ability to do things. Don’t forget to take care of yourself.
If you do have time and interest in these issues, check out the Ballotpedia website: https://ballotpedia.org
If you’re a young progressive person and interested in running for office in a future election, check out the organization Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/
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