So, Washington Monthly unleashed the online version of their Jan/Feb issue earlier this week (you’re all reading them daily, right?) and there’s a lot of good reading there.
I was extremely impressed by their ‘monopoly power’ article. If you think Dems need a strong economic message going forward — a proposition I’ve personally been lukewarm on until reading this - THIS is the winning frame.
But what I want to draw your attention to today is something else — an article with a detailed, concrete plan for expanding the Democratic electorate — this is EXACTLY the kind of of strategic infrastructure thing the DNC should be focusing on RIGHT NOW.
It’s based on the idea that:
Universal vote by mail is the most effective way to boost turnout among young and minority voters.
and the proposition that higher turnout is the key to big wins:
There’s a reason Republicans focus so much on making it hard to cast a ballot: they know they generally do better when fewer people vote. Indeed, for all the talk of how the Democrats need to rethink their message, the simple fact is that their biggest problem is low turnout. Even in the 2016 presidential year, sixty-four million registered voters didn’t show up. The problem is far worse in midterm elections, the real killing fields for Democrats’ dreams in recent years. In 2014, 57 percent of all registered voters—almost 110 million people—sat out the election. The ones who did show up were disproportionately white and older—and voted heavily Republican.
I don’t have anything to add to what is a very brilliant article….I’m just trying to get you to go read it. And then ACT on it.
Towards that end, I’m going to pick a few key sentences out to highlight…..but please go read the whole thing. Then bring it up with YOUR local Democratic party. And contact your desired DNC head and tell them THIS is the kind of focused program we need:
…...finally go on the attack with a much bolder strategy. It’s time to get serious about eliminating the most powerful and ubiquitous voter suppression device of all: the traditional polling place.
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Implementing “vote from home”—also known as universal vote by mail—is the most promising way to significantly increase voter turnout, especially among young people and minorities.
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Vote from home makes some of the standard voter suppression tactics—requiring photo ID, closing polling places to create intentionally long lines—impossible to execute.
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it raises turnout. And the evidence is also mounting that the voters it brings into the fold are disproportionately young people and people of color—in other words, voters more likely to choose Democrats.
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here’s the good news. In twenty-one states that don’t already have vote from home, including several crucial electoral battlegrounds, citizens have the right to change the law via ballot initiative. In these states, proponents can go straight to the people.
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With enough financial backing, universal vote by mail could be on the November 2018 ballot in a dozen key states, including Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, and Nevada. If any of those measures pass, the turnout boost in 2020 could help Democrats regain the presidency, win back seats in the U.S. Senate and House, and take back enough state legislatures to minimize the damage of GOP-controlled redistricting in 2021.
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The highest-impact states are Florida, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio, battlegrounds that collectively represent seventy-three electoral votes. In all of these but Michigan, Republican incumbents will be defending their U.S. Senate seats in 2022. Funding the campaigns just to get on the ballot in these states would cost about $3 per signature, for a total of about $4 million;
Hopefully those excerpts piqued your interest. Please, please, please go read the article — these ideas are fleshed out and there is a LOT of data presented to gnaw on.
Both Ellison and Perez could do a lot worse than making something like this a major piece of their platform to win DNC head…...
