The One Position Nobody's Talking About

I think. 

A lot. It's the blessing and curse of being an introvert. The way we process the world is through analysis, an analysis that is ongoing 24/7. Being involved in the social justice field as a career but also as a personal passion only amplifies the amount of thinking that goes on. Add that to someone who is a news junkie and you can easily see how my days are consumed through a problem-solving lens. Although I've only become political over the last decade, I still see politics as the way to enact positive social change in the country, and seeing an entire political party actively working against everything I believe in has only strengthened my resolve. Knowing what I now know, I can say that I've pinpointed the exact way in which political power is gained and lost in this country. 

And I think I know how to address it. 

Now, what I'm about to say is not revolutionary. It has been noted by people a lot smarter than me. But I have yet to see anyone, scholar or greenhorn, expand upon it and make it a dedicated strategy toward enacting positive social change. That's not to say my plan is flawless. There are probably many fine details that I have yet to extract. But, having seen the world as both a field organizer and a community organizer in both a swing state and a perpetually blue state has given me a unique experience. Because if something can work in both those places, or if something is lacking in both those places, that should be a huge flashing sign that we need to pay attention to. I can honestly say that both my experiences point directly to what I'm about to say. I have both anecdotal and quantitative data. Perhaps most importantly, I feel what I'm about to share in my gut and that, ladies and gentlemen, has yet to lead me astray. 

Here goes: to begin to fix America we need to focus all our time and energy on electing Democratic Secretaries of State in all 50 states. 

Not as sexy as you thought, right? But politics seldom is. The truth is that the Secretary of State position is the gatekeeper to each state's voting laws and subsequent access to the polls. The Secretary of State can enact laws that make voting easier or he or she can enact laws that make voting more difficult and he or she is the gatekeeper of elections in 38 out of 50 states with a similar role being completed by a Lieutenant General in the other 12 states. Even as we celebrated 2020's record turnout of 66.7%, there still exists 1/3 of the country that simply is not engaged in the political process. Plus, as we've seen in red states, voters of color who skew heavily Democratic are often targeted, especially in the last 10 months since the Big Lie first arrived on the scene. Not a single Democratic Secretary of State has enacted voting restrictions and the reason is simple: they know our voting system is secure and they know that we should be expanding rather than restricting the right to vote. 

What does this mean on a practical level? The Democratic and Republican parties both know that if every eligible voter votes, Democrats win. Hence the war on voting. Democratic Secretaries of State are more likely to work to create policies and procedures that create better access to the polls. This can include voting by mail, early voting, accessible dropboxes, extended voting hours, no-excuse absentee voting, and adding additional polling locations just to name a few. In 2020, 16 out of the top 20 states with the best voter turnout had Democratic Secretaries of State with 15 of those states being won by Joe Biden (North Carolina was the lone exception). In those states, there were significant opportunities for the most vulnerable citizens to cast their votes and this had to do with the understanding that every eligible person voting is actually a good thing. This was a sentiment embraced by the Democratic Secretaries of State and actively fought against by Republicans.

A unique fly in the ointment in 2020 was the curious case of Georgia. As we all know from 2016 to 2020, Georgia flipped from red to blue, largely on the backs of Stacey Abrams, LaTosha Brown, and other phenomenal organizers of color who registered nearly 750,000 new voters over 4 years. But, oddly enough it may have been the support of Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that may have sealed the democratic victory. Because unlike his peers in other red states, Raffensperger actually believed in democracy. He believed in the sanctity of the vote and he believed that barriers should be removed, not enacted, for low-income people of color. In fact, Raffensperger even had the audacity to brag about his office's efforts when the official Georgia Secretary of State website proudly proclaimed an increase of 600,000 new voters from 2018 to 2020 through the trifecta of having automatic voter registration, 16 days of early voting, and no-excuse absentee voting. Having Georgia, a historically nonvoting state, exceed the national turnout average made Raffensperger quite a few enemies in Republican circles, as he was pressured by Donald Trump to overturn the election result and has since gotten a primary challenger, obviously endorsed by Trump himself. However, Raffensperger can go to bed with a clean conscience, something that Donald Trump will never be able to do. 

The truth is society changes when people get involved and people get involved through the power of the ballot. The one thing that would crush Republicans from now until eternity would be universal, automatic voter registration (AVR). Bam, that simple. Have every single person automatically registered to vote once they turn 18 years of age. In fact, legislation was proposed in 2016 to do exactly that but obviously with a Republican-controlled Senate, that did not happen. But for those of us in the trenches that spend so much of our time and effort registering voters, AVR would be a game-changer. Imagine the time and resources that could be diverted in presidential elections if there were no need to spend 80% of your time on voter registration. Imagine how much easier signature drives would be knowing that every person who signed your petition was a registered voter. And imagine knowing that everyone on your campus was registered to vote, you simply need to get them to the polls in order to win. That, my friends, would create a whole new world for political campaigns. 

There are no Secretaries of State up for election in 2021. But that all changes next year. The challenge becomes the fact that Secretaries of State are either elected individually, elected on a democratically-elected ticket with the title of Lieutenant Governor, or appointed by the state legislature. It is up to each and every one of us to figure out who is up for the role in our state and to figure out ways to elevate the Democratic nominee for the position. Now, I know the inherent catch-22 of the situation. In red states, the last thing a Republican Secretary of State wants is to lose his job. So there will be barriers to voting. But, as North Carolina and seven-term incumbent Elaine Marshall can tell us, you can win as a Democrat in a red state and you can survive multiple challenges from the right. The key is making sure the Democratic Party knows and understands the importance of the position and doesn't blow it off, thinking it's merely an inconsequential down-ballot race that nobody cares about. It is anything but that.

We are at least a decade away from AVR. Until then, it's critical that we, as Democrats, fight for access to the ballot. While Marc Elias and his team of rock star attorneys will continue suing red states for their repressive voting laws, it's up to us to champion the issue at the state and local level. Should Democrats in Congress ultimately pass either the John Lewis Votings Rights Advancement Act or the For The People Act, that would help, but we still would lack a mechanism to move us toward AVR. In the interim, it's up to states to do so and it's up to us to ensure that our states have qualified Democratic Secretaries of State willing to expand, not repress, the right to vote for the citizens of the state. So starting today, identify who in your state is the chief officer in charge of elections. If you already have a strong Democratic Secretary of State, you're ahead of the game! But help your red state neighbors. Work with them to identify a strong Democratic candidate. Do everything in your power to help elect this person including, yes I know it still must be done, registering new voters to vote them into office. The 2022 midterms will be the most important midterms in our lifetime with the House and Senate up for grabs but other statewide races are equally important. 

And the Secretary of State races should be at the top of our list.