A "Healthy" Democracy in a Pandemic

“The most important political office in America is that of private citizen.”

In our first ever virtual Expert Night, the Battery Powered community heard from experts on what it would take to ensure a healthy democracy in the U.S., one in which all people are empowered to participate. With the coronavirus pandemic placing enormous strain on the country, communities, and families, there are new challenges to participation but new opportunities as well. Our panel of experts led us through the key issues and left us with actions we each can take. Here’s what we learned.

Moderator Alexandra Acker-Lyons opened by noting that the coronavirus is a major stress event that has exacerbated existing problems not only in our health systems, but in our democratic systems – and disadvantaged communities are hardest hit. But she also highlighted the historic opportunity to fix our democratic systems. We know how to do it, she stressed, and we need to galvanize the collective will to make it happen. As Alexis Anderson-Reed, CEO of State Voices, said, “This moment is asking us to shift to a new way of being… where everyone is truly represented and has a voice on the issues that impact our lives.”

An Election & A Pandemic

Our panelists made it clear that expanding vote by mail is essential to ensuring people can access the ballot without jeopardizing their own and others’ health. The good news, as Jake Matilsky of the Center for Secure and Modern Elections laid out, is that 33 states already have some form of no-excuse absentee voting – but 17 do not. Some states (such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania) can implement more minor changes to improve vote by mail accessibility, but others, such as Texas, need much larger changes to make this option available.

Changing policy to expand vote by mail is one thing; implementing these changes in a short time frame is another. Tiana Epps-Johnson of the Center for Tech and Civic Life shared that election administration was already under-resourced before the coronavirus, and switching to vote by mail “is a big learning curve.” For many election offices, the vote by mail process is completely manual – one or two staffers stuffing every envelope and then opening them on return. “That’s just no longer feasible at scale,” Tiana noted. But some states, such as California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, have been serving the majority (or all) of their voters by mail for some time. These leaders are sharing best practices with election offices in other parts of the country that are taking it on at scale for the first time. 

Safe in-person voting options will remain crucial. Some rural and native communities have unreliable mail or mail that only comes once a week. People have disabilities or translation needs that can only be met at an in-person polling place. Ensuring they can access the ballot safely, and that enough poll workers are available to administer the sites, will pose a major challenge during the pandemic. 

It is critical that policymakers make decisions now so that election officials can prepare their systems and inform voters clearly and consistently for the November 2020 election and beyond.

Information in the Disinformation Age

In the past 10 years, we have lost two-thirds of our local reporters and 1400 local news outlets have shuttered. At the same time, coverage at the national level has remained the same. John Thornton, Founder of the Texas Tribune and the American Journalism Project, put it this way: “Roughly half of all taxes are levied and spent at the federal level and the other half at the state and local levels. In Washington, DC, reporting resources are essentially the same now as 10 years ago. In the rest of the United States, where the other half of taxes are levied and spent, reporting resources have declined by two-thirds.”  

Just at the moment when local reporting resources have been depleted, the coronavirus has increased the need for reliable local information: traffic to local news sites has gone up two to 10 times in the past 10 weeks. Layer on top of that changing election dates and voting processes, and voters could easily be confused without trusted local sources.

John argued for new business models for local news outlets that doesn’t leave them relying on advertising; “that jig is up,” in his words. “I believe,” John said, “that the institutions that inform us need to be civic institutions, not commercial institutions.”

Beyond the Election

Alexis exclaimed, “Our work doesn’t stop on election day!” We must build power for disenfranchised communities through year-round issue advocacy and leadership development. Jake agreed, noting that we must come together at this time to pass policy and budget reform that fixes the systems for communities that have been historically disenfranchised. 

Redistricting comes on the heels of the November election. For the next 10 years, those district lines will impact our elections – and many other facets of our lives, from Congressional representation to federal funding for hospitals and schools. Who’s sitting at the table when these lines are drawn is hugely important and, as Alexis noted, is a big focus of grassroots civic engagement work in many states.

Several panelists highlighted the need to modernize the registration and voting process from one that currently leaves out 40 million eligible voters to one that is seamless and inclusive. Jake and Tiana even suggested eliminating voter registration, giving examples of many other countries that manage elections without registration. Even North Dakota doesn’t require it!

Take Action

Our panelists left us with some steps all of us can take:

• Sign up to vote by mail. You can check your voter registration status and sign up to vote by mail using Turbo Vote here. 
• Volunteer to be a poll worker. Most poll workers are over the age of 65. Having enough polling places on election day is dependent on poll workers. You can sign up to serve as a poll worker in San Francisco here. 
• Subscribe to quality local news outlets. One recommended for Californians is CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news outlet that informs Californians about the issues that affect our lives.
• Lift up the conversation. Share what you learned and heard with your family and friends. You can invite others to view the recording of our conversation here. 

To learn more about our spring theme, check out the Issue Brief here. 

Our theme on Healthy Democracy continues on May 19th with a virtual Organization Night. Our 12 finalists for a grant will be presenting about their work. You can RSVP here. 

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