The Main(e) Event

Mainers decided on June 12 to stop politicians from overturning their voter-approved Ranked Choice Voting law. Maine became the first state to pass Ranked Choice Voting at the ballot in 2016, but politicians repealed it the next year. Voters were so outraged they gathered 80,000 signatures in just 88 days to put a “People’s Veto” on the ballot to protect the law.

The Maine vote to save Ranked Choice Voting is so important that we made a video for the campaign with RepresentUs board member Jennifer Lawrence. We were able to activate our national membership to assist with Get Out The Vote phone calls, and deploy staff to Maine to help on election day.

This is a major catalyst for anti-corruption reforms across the country and a huge boost to our movement.

Win Number 84…and Counting

We’ve surpassed 80 local act and resolution wins! Win number 84 came out of Vinton, Virginia. This victory was championed by high school student Tessa Yarbrough and her school’s Democracy Matters group. Tessa and her mom, Angela, have been with the Represent Roanoke chapter for years and were honored with a Courage Award at the Unrig the System Summit in February. After a 140-mile march from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, Tessa was the youngest person arrested at Democracy Spring for sitting on the Capitol steps with her mother and almost 500 other protesters.

Tessa’s involvement with the Represent Roanoke chapter, which her mother founded, led to her organizing the Democracy Matters club at her school. Her dedication and commitment to this movement is truly inspiring.

Victory Likely in Alaska

We’re about to see a major victory in Alaska. We’ve already gathered signatures for a ballot initiative that would create tough new ethics laws and protect the state’s elections from foreign influence—but Alaska has a unique system. If citizens place an initiative on the ballot, the legislature may preempt that initiative by passing a “substantially similar” law during the legislative session. The Alaska legislature did just that, fearing our initiative would hurt their re-election campaigns.

The legislature’s bill, if signed into law by the Governor, will give Alaskans a big win. It includes strong conflict of interest rules, lobbyist gift limits, restrictions on foreign travel, and a ‘no budget, no pay’ provision that will force the legislature to adopt a budget on time. If they don’t pass a budget, they don’t get paid—it’s that simple. These were all common sense solutions that were stuck in the legislature before our ballot measure campaign pressured the legislature to take action.

More importantly, the new law will be a huge victory for the citizens of Alaska, 45,000 of which voiced their support for this initiative by signing petitions collected by our members going door-to-door last winter. The campaign, drawing support from independents, Democrats, and Republicans, has been a case study in the power of cross-partisan grassroots action.