JXIndivisible

A map of the 2016 elections. All the counties depicted in black are places where, if all the eligible voters (note that is not the same as “registered” voters) who didn’t vote had voted as a bloc their vote count would have exceeded that gathered by Trump or Clinton, i.e. those non-voters could have elected “Nobody.”  Source: Philip Kearney, an amateur cartographer based in Austin Texas. Click here for the full page version.

Dear Group,

Yesterday I wrote about the four “debates” scheduled between Lisa Brown and McMorris Rodgers. (“Debates” is in quotes because as yet we don’t know what the format will be. Who makes up the questions? Who asks them? What are the rules? Are these really “debates?”) Understand this: a whole lot of the people who pay attention to these “debates” are voters who have already made up their minds.  They are already engaged and unlikely to change direction except in the event of a major faux pas. Yes, what happens there is important in an election that may turn on a small margin (Remember George Nethercutt unseated Tom Foley by roughly 4000 votes out of 220,000 in 1994), but the debates are just a part of a large picture. 

Take a look at the map above. Click the links in the caption for more detail. In 2016 eligible voters who did not vote, had they voted as a bloc, would have beaten both Clinton and Trump. We’ll call their candidate (since they didn’t vote) “Nobody.” 

Take a close look at eastern WA. Did you assume that central square of red was Spokane County? I did. Look again. It’s Lincoln County, not Spokane. Lincoln County has a grand total of around 7000 registered voters (and another 3,300 eligible but not registered). The other three are Pend Oreille, Garfield, and Columbia. All together those four counties currently total 20,440 registered voters (and another 9000 eligible but not registered). The registered voters in those four counties represent only 4.6% of the total registered electorate in CD5 (about 435,000). Broadly, in U.S. Congressional District 5 in 2016 “Nobody” likely could have beaten either Clinton or Trump. Granted that’s a big hypothetical, but still…the point is that a whole lot of eligible voters aren’t paying attention, much less watching “debates.”

Every vote counts. Voters who will make the difference come election day on November 6 are all those Democrats who usually vote just in the Presidential election years, not in the midterms, along with those Democrats who have come to feel their vote in CD5 just hasn’t counted recently…the dispirited Democrats. Those folks now have reason to hope.

There are good Democratic candidates in nearly every race this fall. That is a change from recent years when, oftentimes no Democrat even filed. Each of them contributes to the electoral buzz.

My conclusion from all this? The debates will be interesting and worth watching, worth talking about for the excitement they produce, but the real difference will be made door-to-door, face-to-face, person-to-person. convincing the dispirited and disconnected this is the time their vote can really make a difference. Adopt a candidate, get to know them, join their campaign. Make it happen. 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Dear Group, There was political calculation in scheduling a series of four “debates” between Lisa Brown and McMorris Rodgers, a calculation not transparent to us. Before we go any further, mark the dates on your calendar, September 19, October 17, and 18 in Spokane and October 24 in Walla Walla. McMorris Rodgers has declined a gold-plated, time-flexible invitation from a traditional debate host coalition of Gonzaga Law School, the League of Women Voters, and KXLY.  According to the Spokesman article: “The groups sponsored a nationally televised debate between George Nethercutt and Rep. Tom Foley in 1994, a few weeks before Nethercutt’s historic upset, and again in 2004 when Nethercutt ran against Sen. Patty Murray for her seat.” The excuse offered, according to the Spokesman, was “the congresswoman couldn’t neglect her duties in Washington, D.C., to campaign.” McMorris Rodgers will be camped out in eastern Washington for four and a half weeks between now and the general election. There is plenty of time already scheduled away from “her duties in Washington, D.C.” Is she concerned this fall is starting to look like 1994?  Perhaps McMorris Rodgers’ election handlers have concluded the format of the Gonzaga/LWV debate, “relying upon panelists to pepper the candidates with questions,” might put her at a disadvantage. A program inviting her to go off script is perilous. Perhaps accepting bad publicity from ducking the invitation from Gonzaga Law and the League of Women Voters seems less risky.   Look at the debate hosts McMorris Rodgers did accept: Spokesman Review/KHQ on September 19th (during a full week “in district”), Greater Spokane, Inc., October 17th in Spokane, Rotary Club at noon October 18th in Spokane, and the Walla Walla Chamber of Commerce October 24 (during the three and a half weeks “in district” time leading up to the election).  Where’s the variety? How about a debate on a college campus or under the auspices of the Coalition of Color, two other invitations from Lisa Brown’s campaign? If those are too scary, why not the invitation from League of Women Voters, traditional debate hosts? Perhaps some letters to editors are in order. Keep to the high ground, Jerry I’ve copied and pasted below part of the Spokesman article from last August 31. Once again I note the difference between the title for the online version of the article, “Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Lisa Brown have agreed to four debates that don’t include Gonzaga/League of Women Voters event” and the paper version, “CANDIDATES FOR CONGRESS AGREE ON DEBATES McMorris Rodgers, Brown to meet four times this fall.” There is a difference in shading between the author, Kip Hill, and the editor.  One debate that won’t take place is a contest that has been hosted in the past by the law school, the League of Women Voters and KXLY. Stephen Sepinuck, a Gonzaga professor who helped organize previous debates in the district with those partners, said it was unfortunate the congresswoman declined their request. Brown accepted the invitation. KXLY is instead finalizing details to broadcast the Greater Spokane event on Oct. 17, said Melissa Luck, news director for the local ABC affiliate. The groups sponsored a nationally televised debate between George Nethercutt and Rep. Tom Foley in 1994, a few weeks before Nethercutt’s historic upset, and again in 2004 when Nethercutt ran against Sen. Patty Murray for her seat. “I’m sure they get a lot of requests. I have no doubt about that,” Sepinuck said. “I don’t think every request is equal.” The Gonzaga debate would not have followed the “town hall” format, Sepinuck said, instead relying upon panelists to pepper the candidates with questions. The format would have included time for follow-up questions and would have been geared more toward governing philosophy questions than strictly on policy, he said. “This is the third time these organizations have come together, and this is the first time our request has been denied,” Sepinuck said. Pamela Behring, the president of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, said they were also disappointed by the decision. The league has asked the congresswoman to appear at their own, independent events during past general elections, but those invitations haven’t been accepted. “We did ask immediately after the election results were in, and we did open it up to her preferences,” Behring said.

Dear Group,

This week I’ve been listening to eulogies in praise of John McCain, a legislator with whom I often disagreed but whose integrity I never doubted. I listen with nostalgia for a better time in our governance when integrity was valued, a time when the man sitting in the White House was capable of joining us in mourning the passage of a war hero and statesman regardless of personal grudges, 

In the same week, last Monday, with only a little fanfare, Highway 395 in Washington State was renamed the “Thomas Stephen “Tom” Foley Memorial Highway” in a sign-unveiling ceremony near where Division St crosses the Spokane River. Tom Foley served his constituents in U.S. Congressional District 5 (eastern Washington) from 1965 to 1995. He was a man of unquestioned decency, fairness, and intelligence, a man respected by all who knew him. We do well to remember him among the great people who have served our country and eastern Washington well.

I can only imagine the moral repugnance Tom Foley would have felt for the current resident of the White House. In his early years in Congress, Tom Foley served through the Nixon administration, the last time we heard the words “unindicted co-conspirator” legitimately applied to a President. 

As the nation mourns a war hero and statesman of integrity, and as eastern Washington names a highway after another statesman, Tom Foley, we contemplate the divisive autocrat who pretends to lead us while tearing at the fabric of our democratic institutions. We consider the Republican/Libertarian lawmakers, McMorris Rodgers among them, who seem incapable of anything but praise for this man.

Keep to that high ground,

Jerry

P.S. In November 1994 Eastern Washington lost Tom Foley to George Nethercutt by a mere 4000 votes (110,057 to 106074). The election turned on two issues: 1) Tom Foley’s opposition to term limits. Nethercutt campaigned on a promise to serve only three terms…and then had the gall to stay for five. 2) Tom Foley’s reluctant vote for Bill Clinton’s assault weapons ban, an issue over which the NRA allied with the Republican Party to stir up fear over a supposed threat to the Second Amendment. 

P.P.S. The history of Hwy 395 and Tom Foley’s efforts to secure the funding to improve it are nicely covered by an article in the Spokesman by Nicholas Deshais published September 20.

 

Dear Group,

Washington State is a great place to be a voter. The office of WA Secretary of State, headed by Kim Wyman, is responsible for oversight of the thirty-nine county auditors (Vicky Dalton in Spokane County, Dianna Galvin in Ferry County) who actually manage the local details of voting and voter registration. Even so, a lot of voter registration can be done directly through the Secretary of State’s office: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/voters/ . It provides a wealth of information from which I’ve picked a few key points below.

Rule One: For a given election you can only vote in one place in the United States. Period. It is not actually illegal to be registered to vote in two states. With our mobile population that happens sometimes by accident or inattention, but it is not illegal. However, if you cast a ballot in more than one place in a given election that is voter fraud, and voter fraud is a felony. 

How easy is it to register to vote or change your “voting residence” in Washington State? Very easy. Three options. If you’re already registered in WA State or if you have a valid WA State driver’s license or WA state ID (and know your birthdate 🙂 the quickest and easiest way to register, review, or change your WA State voter registration is to go to MyVote.wa.gov. In fact, I recommend you visit right now, just to see what’s there and make sure your registration is up-to-date. It is unlikely that anyone reading this email has an “inactive” or “cancelled” voter registration, but it never hurts to check. (To learn how a voter registration could become inactive or cancelled go here.) There’s a lot of other nifty information at MyVote.wa.gov, like your “voting history” (actually your ballot casting history). How consistent have you been as a voter? Although there are a lot of safeguards, it is remotely possible someone with access to your birthdate could mess with your registration, so check it out.

[Online voter registration will not be available this Labor Day weekend on account of a licensing system update. Mail-in registration will still work.]

Washington State needs you to “establish a legal residence” 30 days before the election in which you wish to vote. “Voting residence” specifies the content of your ballot. You can specify a  different address as the mailing address to which your ballot will be sent, and you can change all of that easily. (Broadly speaking, your voting residence is where you sleep. If you have a nontraditional address, such as a motor home or transitional housing, your voting residence is the physical location at the time you register to vote. Under some circumstances, like living overseas or being in military you won’t even have to sleep at your voting residence.)

Now let’s take the case of a U.S. citizen who moves to Washington State. If you don’t have a WA State driver’s license or WA State ID yet, then you need to get registered using the last four digits of you Social Security number. That cannot be done online but is done by mail or in person. 

The deadline for registering or updating voter registration in WA State online or by mail (postmarked by) is October 8 for the General Election this November. You can still register or update your registration in person until October 29, but that’s a bigger effort.

So how does this apply to the quest to obtain better representation in government? Know the rules, check your own status, suggest to others they check theirs, and, finally, help others to sign up.

One group to think about is college students. If a student turns eighteen before November 6th (Election Day), is a U.S. citizen (and not under Department of Corrections supervision for a felony conviction) and lives at school then that student can claim their student residence as their voting residence as a new WA State voter (or change voting residence as an already registered WA State voter). [See eligibility details here.] 

Washington State makes it easy to register and easy to keep up to date as a voter. We have not been gripped by efforts at voter suppression that we read about in the national news. Voting is the one chance we get to have a real voice in our government. 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. There is a WA State Auditor. Isn’t it curious the Secretary of State and not the State Auditor oversees county auditors’ work with elections? The organization of government is not always superficially logical…

P.P.S. Whenever we get a whiff of a county auditor whose actions look like or are making voting harder it is right to point at it, as Karen Hardy (candidate for State Senator in LD7) did twice with Dianna Galvin, county auditor for Ferry County in the Primary Election this year. See a second article in the same vein here.

Dear Group, Politics is a social endeavor. Knocking on doors and talking to strangers can be done solo, but it is energizing and fun to go as a small group. Meeting up afterwards to compare notes and stories is a treat. The main path to electoral success lies in overcoming our shyness, meeting up with other like-minded folk, talking with strangers, and motivating voters to vote. That said, I have a confession to make. Before this election cycle the most political act in which I engaged was sending an occasional letter to the editor of the Spokesman Review. I would labor for days crafting the perfect letter and worry over how others might perceive the clarity and truth of the points I wished to make. If the letter was not published, I felt a pang of personal rejection. If it was published, I felt my words were somehow sufficient, that I could return to my books having discharged my civic duty.  In the last nearly two years things have come into sharper focus: 1) One letter, no matter how well crafted, is but one drop in the bucket, one toothpick-sized arrow of an idea. 2) The more clever, erudite, ironic and wordy the less likely anyone will read it and even less likely all who need to understand it actually will. 3) The choice of letters to publish is roughly in proportion to the numbers of the letters of a particular slant received by the editor, with some favoritism for letters that concern local issues. So what is my letter writing advice? Keep if fairly short and pointed. The maximum for the Spokesman is 200 words. You don’t have to use them all. Write often. Don’t fret if a favorite letter is not published. Getting a phone call from the Spokesman staff for permission to publish does not guarantee publication. (Comfort yourself that you are contributing to the effort.) When you do get a letter published mark the date of publication in your calendar. (Letters are ephemera. Once published it is often hard to figure out when it appeared. The Spokesman says it limits publication to one letter per month.) Judging by the letter of some frequent writers, the standards of logic and literacy are not high. So write! Compose freely. Send frequently. What you write may ring a bell with someone. No one is keeping score or lying in wait with a red pen to grade your work. A week later hardly anyone will remember your name, but a few might remember your idea–and that’s the point. For reference I’ve copied the Letters Policy for the Spokesman below, but remember there are many other newspapers in CD5 in your local communities. Many of them publish letters and their rules are usually available on line these days.  Spokane Spokesman Review Letters policy The Spokesman-Review invites original letters of no more than 200 words on topics of public interest. Unfortunately, we don’t have space to publish all letters received, nor are we able to acknowledge their receipt. We accept no more than one letter a month from the same writer. Please include your daytime phone number and street address. TheSpokesman-Review retains the nonexclusive right to archive and republish any material submitted for publication. Send letters to: Letters to the Editor The Spokesman-Review 999 W. Riverside Ave. Spokane, WA 99201 Email: editor@spokesman.com Questions: (509) 459-5026 Keep to the high ground, Jerry P.S. If you send you letter in by email (the easiest way) and they publish it, it is likely to go in “as is,” that is, copied and pasted. Proofreading is recommended!