Bright Spots. | Three Things Thursday
It’s Thursday for those of you who have lost count.
If it’s Thursday, that can only mean one thing: It’s time for another three things.
Here are three things to think about this week:
In case you weren’t aware, vote at home is the best way to ensure a representative election that’s also safe for every voter. Despite being a safe and secure way to cast a ballot, some partisans have been outspoken against vote at home, arguing that it will swing the election in one way or another. (Despite evidence from vote at home states that that’s not the case.)
Well now there’s even more evidence to back us up: vote at home isn’t partisan. A new, hot-off-the-presses study by researchers at Stanford looked at election results in states that had allowed counties to progressively adopt vote at home. Their conclusion? “[Vote at home] is remarkably neutral in its partisan effects.”
Check out the whole study here (or a quick summary version here!)
It was a good week s week, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court’s decision that Michigan’s recently passed independent redistricting commission laws were indeed constitutional, meaning that Michiganders will finally have a chance at fair maps ahead of the 2021 redistricting process!
This is a huge victory for Michigan, and one that would not have been possible without our friends at Campaign Legal Center and Voters Not Politicians. (For those of you unfamiliar with VNP, check out the film “Slay the Dragon” if you’re on lockdown).
People should choose their politicians, not the other way around. Learn more about independent redistricting commissions here.
Between the Democrats and the Republicans, governors and the federal government, WHO, the CDC, and seemingly every other government entity this week, there has been a lot of finger pointing going around. Everybody, it seems, thinks it’s everybody else’s fault that the coronavirus pandemic has upended Americans’ lives as much as it has.
Amidst the finger pointing, real Americans continue to suffer as the country faces historic unemployment numbers with the economy placed at all but a stand still, as our frontline workers seek to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Our fellow Americans need our help. Right now, we can’t get distracted by tiger kings or the political games in Washington. As reform victories in Michigan, Virginia, and countless other states show us, we can achieve great things when we come together. Right now, food banks around the country are facing hours long lines as hundreds of thousands of Americans struggle to put food on the table. Now is the time to step up for each other.