Category: Uncategorized

A couple of weeks ago I read a letter to the editor of the Kitsap Sun (which I can’t find or else I would link to it) encouraging people to let their local government officials (Mayors, Councilpeople, etc.) know that they support the imposition of COVID vaccine and/or testing mandates.

This is a good idea because if ever the moniker “silent majority” applied, it’s to the 60+ percent of Americans who do indeed favor mandates.

Unfortunately, there is a small but extremely vocal nutbag fringe with breathtaking amounts of free time to picket outside City Council, Health Department, and other meetings, which the press is unfortunately unable to resist covering way more extensively than is probably merited.

I had some free time this afternoon and so I decided to dash off a note to my Mayor to let them know how I felt. Their response: “Thank you! Yes, we are being deluged with emails objecting to vaccinations. It was refreshing to get your email. I support vaccination.”

Politicians can read polls as well as anybody, but it has to be a shot in the arm, and add some steel to the backbone when constituents reach out specifically to let them know that they are in favor of mandates. So please consider doing so.

Alas, it seems the For The People Act was just too much democracy for Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). That being the case, Democratic legislators have had to recalibrate their goals, and have scrambled to produce a new bill of election reforms dubbed the Freedom To Vote Act.

There’s actually a lot to like in this bill–specifically, it:

• Sets standards for election administration, including minimum amounts of early voting, the availability of mail-in ballots, and crucially wait times on poll lines.
• Makes election day a public holiday.
• Criminalizes disseminating any false information that would deter voters from casting a ballot.
• Restores federal voting rights to convicts who have paid their debt to society.
• Sets standard for redistricting that should severely impede Republican’s data-driven gerrymandering efforts currently underway (hel-LO Texas).
• For states that require Voter ID, it sets (fairly permissive) standards for what should be considered legitimate identification.

And much more. As usual, the Brennan Center has all the details.

The main thing missing from FTV that had been in FTP is campaign finance reform (see the in-depth discussion of differences over at Democracy Docket).

But can it pass?

Manchin’s objection to For The People was that it “wasn’t bipartisan”. Freedom To Vote is largely based on a framework that he put out, and so now the task will be to convince 10 republican Senators to support the bill, in order to surmount the current filibuster rule. These days it’s hard to be optimistic that so many republicans can be convinced to support such a bill (heck, they don’t even seem to support the US meeting its debt obligations lately). But maybe Manchin knows something the rest of us don’t.

In the meantime, please be sure to call your Senators and let them know that you want to see Freedom To Vote pass, and have their back to modify or completely do away with the filibuster if necessary.