PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REFORM: 2020 AND BEYOND
August 13, 2020, 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM Eastern Time
www.crowdcast.io/e/electoralcollegereform2020
(see below for registration instructions)
Are you concerned that the country’s current presidential election system:
does not count every vote equally;
does not assure that the candidate who earns the most votes nationwide becomes president;
results in elections being decided by 5 to 10 swing states, which means candidates and campaigns largely ignore 80% of the country’s population;
suppresses voter turnout;
sows widespread and ever-deepening distrust of the federal government, our election system and our political parties;
is a monument to our history of racism and remains a bulwark of systemic white supremacy and injustice?
Are you aware that the Constitution gives the authority and responsibility to the states to remedy the primary defect in the system—the state-created, winner-take-all battleground state system?
A constitutional amendment is not needed to change the state-created system and remedy these damages.
The remedy can and should be adopted by states and American voters.
Highlights of the Program include Ambassador Mondale; Ambassador Glassman; Jesse Wegman, author of the recently released Let the People Pick the President (2020) and member of the New York Times editorial board; Prof. Alex Keyssar, author of the soon to be released Why do we Still Have the Electoral College (2020) and Harvard Kennedy School historian; Jason Harrow, executive director of Equal Citizens; Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon; and Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold.
Also speaking (Session 5) will be Dr. John Koza, founder and chair of the nonpartisan National Popular Vote and first author of Every Vote Equal (4th Ed. 2013). Dr. Koza has championed the national popular vote interstate compact since 2006.
In addition (Session 4), Reed Hundt, co-founder and chair of nonpartisan Making Every Vote Count (which has consistently endorsed the Compact), Chairman of the FCC from 1993-1997, member of the Clinton and Obama transition teams, and author most recently of A Crisis Wasted (2019) (identifying opportunities missed during the Obama transition), will report on a new reform proposal complementary with the Compact: Voter Choice Ballot.
A very well-funded group has put a proposal to repeal Colorado’s compact on its fall ballot and is widely outraising supporters of the Compact. The Program will discuss how to bolster support for the Compact in this election. See www.yesonnationalpopularvote.com.
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Outline of August 13 Program on Presidential Election Reform
To register for the event, follow the link below and click on the green button. You will be prompted to enter your email address and name.
www.crowdcast.io/e/electoralcollegereform2020
Moderator: Andrew Brown, partner, Dorsey & Whitney
1:30 PM (Eastern Time) - Welcome & Introduction
1:35 PM Session 1: Race and the Electoral College: origins; preserved by white supremacist regimes; continuing structural racial injustice
Featuring Jesse Wegman and Prof. Alex Keyssar
2:10 PM Session 2: The Electoral College: archaic, anti-democratic, vulnerable, divisive, and dangerous
2:20 PM Q/A
2:30 PM Session 3: Thought Leaders Reflect and Speak Out
Includes Ambassador Mondale, Ambassador Glassman, Jesse Wegman, Prof. Alex Keyssar, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold
3:15 PM Q/A
3:30 PM Session 4: Incremental but Powerful Change: Voter Choice Ballot
Aligned with the Interstate Compact, elegantly simple, powerful, a new kind of direct democracy
3:55 PM Session 5: The Interstate Compact
Hear from the experts at National Popular Vote; learn the latest developments from Colorado and what you can do to help
4:20 PM Q/A
4:25 PM Closing Comments
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Material to be archived by Making Every Vote Count and other co-hosts (at their discretion):
Video recordings of the Program
Written materials and links, including:
- Chronology of Electoral College and White Supremacy
- Links to resources on the Electoral College and systemic racism
- Slides and handouts for Session 2
- Voter Choice Ballot: Questions and Answers
- Paper: The Constitutionality of Citizen Initiative for Reforming the Presidential Election System
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Co-hosts: Making Every Vote Count, Equal Citizens, Minnesota Citizens for Clean Elections, Minnesota Unitarian-Universalist Social Justice Alliance, Friends Committee on National Legislation and others.
We hope to talk to you at the August 13 program.
Reed Hundt, Making Every Vote Count Co-Founder, CEO, President
Jon Blake, Covington & Burling LLP, Counsel for MEVC