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Kevin Mullin

America is confronting an unprecedented trifecta that is dominating our daily headlines: A COVID-19 pandemic, a deep recession and most recently the murder of an unarmed black man by law enforcement, illustrative of systemic racism and injustice that has spawned a season of multiracial protests and calls for needed social change. Yet, while the nation is reeling from these crises, duplicitous messaging is being deployed by the occupant of the Oval Office to actively undermine the results of this Novembers election: that voting by mail cant be trusted, that widespread voter fraud exists, and that mail balloting is designed specifically to elect his opponent: FALSE.

Since 2000, more than 250 million votes have been cast via mailed ballots, in all 50 states, according to the Vote at Home Institute with only a handful of fraudulent votes cast. Election law expert and U.C. Irvine professor Richard L. Hasen notes, it is still more likely for an American to be struck by lightning than to commit mail-voting fraud. In addition, there is no evidence to suggest that voting by mail benefits any particular political party.

San Mateo County has shown that voting-by-mail works. My legislation to make San Mateo County an all-mail ballot pilot county demonstrated that the participating electorate more closely resembles the public at large in terms of its diversity and representation, with young people, and voters of color in particular more likely to cast ballots. Thanks to my colleague, Assemblyman Marc Bermans legislation recently signed into law, this Novembers election in California will be an all-mailed-ballot election. Every voter automatically will receive a ballot, postage paid, with community-level vote centers as back-up. Voting by mail is the most efficient and effective way to conduct an inclusive and participatory election.

So-called red and blue states alike have employed voting-by-mail, but the way states have approached elections administration varies greatly. Elections are fundamentally state and locally administered, and recent examples of mismanagement during primary elections in Wisconsin and Georgia remind us of the challenges facing election administrators across the country. This is a highly charged political atmosphere with huge stakes on the line.

There is a growing recognition that the pandemic must force changes in how elections work, and better ensure more participation moving forward. Attempts to help fund elections with federal dollars have fallen woefully short of what is needed to ensure free and fair elections across America. Since the Bush-Gore contested election in 2000, the efficacy of voting mechanisms and machinery have taken center stage. More recently, we are seeing a coordinated misinformation campaign to attack the integrity of, and undermine the publics faith in, our elections. False narratives abound, and voter suppression, which disproportionally disenfranchises communities of color, is real and we all suffer the consequences as a result.

While voting-by-mail works, it is not perfect. Signature-matching issues have led to ballots not being counted, a concern that is actively being addressed in California. One other legitimate drawback to voting at home is the time it takes local elections officials to count waves of mail ballots and certify the election. The current administration is preemptively trying to undermine faith in the eventual vote count and may try to exploit delays in vote tabulation to question the legitimacy of results, triggering a constitutional crisis. While the long wait for vote-by-mail results is not ideal, its in the interest of every vote being counted, which is fundamental to our democracy.

During this tense time when we need leaders who can calm, heal, and build faith, the president has used this period to further divide people and incite violence, all while callously attacking the basic underpinnings of our democracy, like faith in and respect for the work of journalists essentially a broadside on the First Amendment. The work of journalists and the social media platforms themselves have never been more important in fact checking false claims and advertisements with false information.

Vote as if democracy itself, and its pillars like a free press, the rule of law, and free and fair elections, including the right of every citizen to vote, is on the ballot. Because it is.

Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, is speaker pro tempore of the California Assembly and represents San Mateo Countys 22nd Assembly District.

Originally posted here:
Democracy itself is on the November ballot | Guest Perspectives - San Mateo Daily Journal

In every political debate since Facebook began to dominate democracy, the company has placed itself on the wrong side of history. The social media firm cannot be reformed from within because its business model profits from hosting bomb-throwing circuses of hate, humbug and hogwash. The platform harvests users personal data to algorithmically recommend content but cant seem to help steering people towards vilifying one another while keeping their attention. It is not good for society, but it is good for Facebook.

That apparently is fine for the companys founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who is worth $85bn. Consider the latest ugly episode in the firms life. After some of the worlds biggest brands boycotted Facebook over its refusal to ban racist and violent content, the company reached for the usual bromide of reassurance that the matter was being taken seriously. Internally it was a very different story. The boycotters, Mr Zuckerberg said, would be back and his company was not going to change our policies because of a threat to a small percent of our revenue.

In America there is a view that capitalism fixes things. In Britain, government usually acts. The Lords select committee on democracy and digital technologies last week was correct to say it was a mistake to allow social media firms to grow unimpeded by regulation. This, the peers said, had become acutely obvious in the current Covid-19 pandemic where online misinformation poses not only a real and present danger to our democracy but also to our lives. Facebook cannot be allowed to remain beyond the restraints applied to the rest of society. This message has been received by the UKs competition authority, which has proposed forcing Facebook to give consumers a choice over whether to accept targeted advertising and even suggested breaking it up.

The Lords select committee was right to praise the UK government for putting forward an online harms framework, requiring social media platforms to protect users and sanctioning those that fail to do so by, for example, taking too long to remove offensive material. However, ministers have been tardy in bringing forward legislation and theres no sign the platforms duty of care will shield voters from misinformation campaigns.

Such a move would be in necessary conflict with Facebooks neutrality. The firms hands-off approach means it wont drain its swamp of racism, misogyny and conspiracy. In a speech last October, Mr Zuckerberg had controversially signalled that Facebooks interests aligned with Donald Trumps. The Facebook founder said its not right to censor politicians. Mr Trump has been notably softer on Facebook than its rivals.

This bargain is unravelling. Faced with a growing backlash over Mr Trumps inflammatory rhetoric, the social network removed a Trump ad that used a Nazi-era symbol. Facebook will also start allowing US users to opt out of seeing political ads. Yet in Britain Facebook is used to spread false political advertising. It does so knowing that the networks algorithms spit out, in the words of its own research, more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention and increase time on the platform. There is an easy solution. The UK bans all political advertising from being broadcast on television or radio. Unless firms like Facebook change radically, it may be time to extend this prohibition to social media.

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The Guardian view on Facebook and democracy: real and present danger - The Guardian

Time to revive democracy in Jammu and Kashmir |Opinion - analysis - Hindustan Times "; forYoudata += ""; forYoudata += ""; forYoudata += ""; count++; if (i === 7) { return false; } }); forYouApiResponse=forYoudata; $(forutxt).html('Recommended for you'); $(foruContent).html(forYoudata); } } }); } else if(forYouApiResponse!=''){ $(forutxt).html('Recommended for you'); $(foruContent).html(forYouApiResponse); } } function getUserData(){ $.ajax({ url:"https://www.hindustantimes.com/newsletter/get-active-subscription?usertoken="+user_token, type:"GET", dataType:"json", success: function(res){ if(res.length>0) { $("[id^=loggedin]").each(function(){ $(this).hide(); }); } } }); } function postUserData(payLoad, elm){ var msgelm=$(elm).parents(".subscribe-update").nextAll("#thankumsg"); $.ajax({ url:"https://www.hindustantimes.com/newsletter/subscribe", type:"POST", data:payLoad, contentType: "application/json", dataType: "json", success: function(res){ if(res.success===true){ $(msgelm).show(); 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Time to revive democracy in Jammu and Kashmir | Opinion - Hindustan Times

Potter is president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a nonpartisan election law organization. He formerly served as general counsel for John McCains presidential and Senate campaigns and was chairman of the Federal Election Commission. He lives in Fauquier County.

Voting is becoming easier for Virginians. Several election-related reforms went into effect in Virginia on July 1. These improvements will remove many obstacles for Virginia voters while still providing strong assurances against fraud.

Democracy reform in Virginia was long overdue. In fact, as recently as 2018, Virginia was considered to be the second most restrictive state for voting, according to a study by Northern Illinois University. But this reform package has the potential to flip the script and make Virginia a national model, by implementing common-sense provisions to ensure Virginians are able to securely cast their ballot.

One of the most striking reforms is changing Virginias problematic photo ID requirement. Until now, Virginia was one of 18 states that required voters to show a form of government issued identification that included a photograph in order to vote. The photo requirement was the equivalent to taking a sledgehammer to nail in a picture hook and hitting many voters in the thumb in the process. Not every voter has a drivers license by far the most common form of state issued photo ID. Elderly voters and others who dont drive often dont have current valid licenses and studies show that voters of color are less likely to have them, or other photo IDs. Some people respond but everyone needs a current photo ID to fly which is not strictly true according to TSA, and reflects a very skewed view of the world, as many Virginians are not in the habit of flying for age or financial reasons (even before the pandemic).

Photo ID laws are widely considered to be, at their best, unnecessarily burdensome and, at their worst, discriminatory and disenfranchising. Virginia was no exception; civil rights groups sued the state over the laws disparate impact on minorities. But this past year, the state legislature took action and passed a law to change its most burdensome requirements. Now, voters can show a much wider range of acceptable IDs when they go to vote, including bank statements, government checks, utility bills, and voter confirmation documents.

Virginia also passed a no-excuse absentee voting law. Before this bill was passed, Virginians had to provide one of a number of acceptable excuses provided by law to vote absentee. Now, Virginians can request to have a ballot mailed to them in advance of the election for any reason. Additionally, Virginia has made Election Day a state holiday. Making Election Day a holiday serves to encourage higher voter turnout and reduce the occurrence of long lines at the polls before and after work.

But thats not all: in yet another win for democracy, Virginia will now implement automatic voter registration (AVR) through the DMV and their website. AVR is proven to encourage civic engagement by automatically registering legally qualified people to vote when they access services at the DMV (people retain the option to opt-out of voter registration if they choose).

These election law reforms come in the wake of many other promising developments for Virginia voters. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented threat not only to the health of our citizens but the health of our democracy, a federal court ordered the removal of a requirement that absentee voters obtain a witness signature in order to cast their ballot this year. And, in November, we Virginians will have the opportunity to amend our Constitution to use an independent redistricting commission to reform the way electoral districts are drawn, taking the power out of the hands of self-interested politicians.

Virginias leadership on democracy reform could not have come at a more critical time. With a presidential election less than 150 days away, and the looming threat of a possible second wave of COVID-19 in the fall, governments need to be doing everything that they can to make voting more accessible to its citizens. Virginia has shown other states that this can and should be done.

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Potter: Virginia leading the way on democracy reform in critical election year - Roanoke Times

In the fall of 1989, Czechoslovak citizens took to the streets of Prague to peacefully protest the repressive Communist regime that had maintained a stranglehold on the country for over forty years. Within months, this Velvet Revolution caused the regime to collapse, democracy to take root, and a leading dissident who had been in prison a year prior, Vclav Havel, to be elected and sworn in as president of the new Czechoslovak Republic. The pro-democracy Czechoslovaks were assisted in this effort by the U.S. embassy in Prague, whose staff persistently advocated for human rights using all available diplomatic channels.

Our new bookDemocracys Defenders: U.S. Embassy Prague, the Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, and Its Aftermathanalyzes the supportive role that the United States played in Czechoslovakias Velvet Revolution and the peaceful democratic and economic transitions that followed. The best practices of U.S. diplomacy made a peaceful and successful transition possible and at times exemplified the highest ideals of the American experiment.

1. Support international organizations. In 1975, the Czechoslovak government signed the Helsinki Accords, an international agreement in which the regime formally (albeit reluctantly) committed to respecting human rights in exchange for other concessions from the West. This commitment opened the door not only for increased dissent among Czechoslovak citizens, but for a new form of leverage by the United States. The Human Dimension Mechanism of the Helsinki Accords established a channel for countries to raise concerns about human rights abuses in other participating states, and the U.S. Congress established a Helsinki Commission to monitor compliance.

While the Communist regime continued to harass dissidents for over a decade after the accords were signed, it could not flagrantly repress dissent without repercussions from the international community. As we discuss in the book, the international pressure of this human rights strategy supported the development of the vibrant dissident community that drove the Velvet Revolution. It likely contributed to the events of 1989 in other ways as well, including helping to ensure that the Communist regime surrendered power without firing a single shot.

By contrast, the Trump administrations notorious go-it-alone style has typified its response to the COVID-19 crisis, as reflected in its ongoing assault on the World Health Organization (WHO). In a seeming attempt to deflect from his own widely panned handling of the pandemicwhich has led to the deaths of over 125,000 Americans to dateTrump turned the international health body into a boogeyman. Claiming, without evidence, that the WHO helped China cover up the coronavirus outbreak and was therefore responsible for its spread around the world, Trump first froze U.S. funding to the organization, then announced that the United States would leave the organization entirely.

While his legal ability to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO is unclear, the message that such a move sends is not: that Trumps longstanding disdain for alliances, partnerships, and international organizations knows no bounds, including those of a deadly virus. The harms of this approach range from the immediate (the attendant public health consequences of defunding an international health organization in the midst of a pandemic) to the longer term (including a collapse in global trust in the United States to lead the world in the right direction). By pulling out of the WHO rather than leading it from within, the United States weakens its owns securityand, perversely, strengthens Chinas influence within the public health community.

2. Exercise moral leadership. When the new American ambassador to Czechoslovakia, Shirley Temple Black, arrived in Prague in August 1989, she met with the East German ambassador, Helmut Ziebart, whom she termed the dean of the Prague diplomatic corps. After peppering him with questions about protocol and politics alike, Ziebert offered one piece of unsolicited advice: Do not ask the Czech officials any tough questions. Fortunately, Black ignored him. In her first meeting with Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Jaromir Johanes less than a week later, she emphasized the importance of freedom of the presssticking up for the Western news outlets Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, which were regular targets of Communist attacksas well as freedom of assembly and religion. Black continued to tirelessly advocate for these hallmarks of a democratic society in the months that followed.

That clear vision of robust American leadership, guided by democratic principles and exemplified by its diplomats, has been sorely lacking in the Trump administrations response to COVID-19. Indeed, throughout the crisis, the United States government has not only failed to stand up for its founding principles, it has actively worked to turn the international community against them. At a March meeting of the Group of 7 (G-7), an organization consisting of seven countries with advanced economies, the Trump administration insisted on referring to the coronavirus outbreak as the Wuhan virus, a term that has fanned the flames of xenophobia against Asian people and those of Asian heritage around the world. The insistence of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the term Wuhan virus be included in any joint statement issued by the countries was rejected by all other G-7 members. As a result, the group failed to issue a joint communiqueas is customarybut instead issued separate statements.

The administrations adamance about using such a racially charged term is part and parcel of its incessant attempts to both deflect criticism of its own pandemic strategy and to prioritize domestic political posturing above much-needed international cooperation. By referring to the Wuhan virus and the Chinese virus, Trumpas he did with the WHOseeks to blame China for the spread of the virus and in doing so vindicate the United States own poor coronavirus response. Such scapegoating, as best exemplified in Trumps candid statement that I take no responsibility at all for failures in the U.S. coronavirus testing apparatus, is not just a far cry from Blacks moral clarity: it represents the precise opposite.

3. Work across the aisle. The notion that politics stops at the waters edge has never been fully accurate, but it is undeniable that the foreign policy goals of the Democratic and Republican parties at the end of the Cold War were far more aligned than in the present day. The fall of 1989 saw the arrival in Prague of a bipartisan congressional delegation, whose membersDemocratic and Republican alikequestioned Foreign Minister Johanes on the regimes recent crackdown on a protest, suppression of a dissident petition that circulated in Czechoslovakia throughout 1989, and other tough issues. After the regime fell, the Republican Bush administration assisted with Czechoslovakias economic and political transitionswork that would continue and deepen under the Democratic Clinton administration.

In recent months, the bipartisan domestic response to the international COVID-19 crisis started auspiciously enough. Democrats and Republicans in Congress quickly passed several bills, including an unprecedented $2.2 trillion domestic stimulus and relief bill and $8.3 billion for COVID-19 responses domestically and internationally. The State Department and USAID further dedicated $900 million for COVID-19-related international assistance. However, these brief moments of bipartisan cooperation were rapidly undermined by Trumps relentless efforts to paint Democratic states and cities as poorly run and so undeserving of aid, his raging against such Democratic politicians as Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and Washington governor Jay Inslee, and his promotion of a conspiracy theory implicating former president Barack Obamato name just a few. The lack of bipartisan solidarity in facing the domestic and international threat of the virus weakens our ability to address it. If the United States cannot unify at home, we cannot be effective or respected abroad.

American foreign policy in the years leading up to, during, and after 1989 contributed to the peaceful fall of a repressive Communist state in Czechoslovakia and the transition to democracy there and elsewhere in the former Soviet bloc. The Trump administration has lost sight of the benefits that a foreign policy melding ideals with interests can offer, at great cost to both leadership and lives. By studying the lessons of history, we can see the full extent of that blindnessand look forward to a day when the United States government returns to its proud tradition of global leadership as the world continues its fight against COVID-19.

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Democracys defenders no more: Trumps failure to learn from history in the global COVID-19 fight - Brookings Institution