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WASHINGTON STATE Open Thread
This is a community series giving our Washington Kossacks a virtual meeting place to discuss issues of concern to our state and share what's happening in our lives. Share your activist efforts, plug for your favorite candidate, share a LTE you've gotten published or educate us on the issues you are passionate about. Tell us an interesting or funny story, ask for advice from the community or share a recipe. Tell us anything that has happened out there. Nothing is off topic. Let's connect, unite and act!
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Last time around, I covered The Statehouse and beyond, the elected Officials in our WA State Congress.
Today I'd like address an issue which is becoming more and more important the closer we get to 2020 - the participation rate of voters in our state (and the nation at large, too) and what we can do to change that.
There is a project underway in the State of Virginia this year in anticipation of their Nov 2015 election, which includes all members of their State House AND Senate. It's the 90for90.org project. If you haven't heard of this great project yet, please take a moment and check out their website 90for90.org.
All this project is about is the idea that MORE VOTERS is a good idea, and that activists (people like you and me) and candidates (also me) should get together and work to register 90 new voters per precinct. Which would give Virginia nearly 250,000 new voters.
Why should WA State activists, citizens and voters care about a project going on in Virginia?
Because that project is on target to hit their goal by November! I spoke with Dr. Ferguson Reid, Jr yesterday (Sat, Aug 1) and he informs me that they are adding about 10,000 new voters every month.
The Republican Party is likely not getting very many of those new voters. Why not? Because the Republicans have spent the past 40 years at the precinct level hoovering up each and every even slightly conservative person and registering them as a GOP voter. Basically, they've maxed out on their share of the Voter Pie.
But the Democratic Party has not. Our Big Tent has seen some action in the modern era on Voter Registration, like the Rock the Vote campaign, founded in 1990...
Rock the Vote's mission is to engage and build political power for young people, for almost 25 years, Rock the Vote has pioneered ways to make voting easier by simplifying and demystifying voter registration and elections for young adults.
Here in WA State we have a lot of room to grow. From the Secretary of State's website:
As of June 30, 2015, Washington has 3,941,957 active registered voters.
Approximately 76% of the state's voting eligible population is registered to vote, according to a comparison of our latest Voter Registration Database (VRDB) data and the 2010 census data.
[emphasis added for clarity]
Take a look at this page of the Washingon Secretary of State's website on
Voting results from 2014
2014 General Election results CD 3,4, 5 and 8
Now, imagine those results with nearly 25% NEW voters for our side.
The results in my District (WA-03) might have been different, also those in Congressional District 4, 5 and 8 - all of which the Republicans won in 2014.
So perhaps we should take a page from the activists in Virginia seeking to change the makeup of their Statehouse this November by expanding their Voter base.
If it's working in Virginia, the home of such terrible legislation as the "transvaginal ultrasound", then it can surely work here in the Evergreen State - and all across the nation.
Senator Bernie Sanders has been calling for a "political revolution" in America, saying that we need to put a stop to the wealthy and the corporations deciding how our nation runs by deciding who gets elected. I agree with him.
In my view, the way to start doing that is to start at the very bottom - by teaming up activists and candidates running for office right now, to pursue adding at least 90 new voters in each and every precinct in our state. With 6,600 voting precincts in our state as of the 2010 Redistricting that would mean adding 594,00 new voters to our rolls.
Over a half-million new voters, most of them for our side.
So when you hear people say the Evergreen State is a Center-Right state, don't you believe them. They are only counting the people who have been elected to office when they say that, and we could change that in a single election.
Just like the State of Virginia is preparing to do this November, by way of the 90for90.org project.
I think that's something worth discussing. How about you?