PEG 6th Congressional District Newsletter 385
Sunday, September 8, 2024
About · Volunteer Opportunities · Newsletter Archives · Events · Highlight
Events and Ideas for ACTION!
#GOTV #VoteReady
Please download, print, and share this PDF download of ways to VOTE in Michigan, including the new Accessibility tools (with live links!) Email us if you have any tech issues.
Join the Facebook community of Michiganders fighting back against Project 2025 HERE
Project 2025 aims to roll back progressive gains, dismantle key institutions, and end democracy. Together, we can protect Michigan’s future. 
Write Postcards to Rally Voters!Join the Progressive Turnout Project to write postcards to Michigan voters. Once you sign up, they’ll mail you free postcards along with voter lists and instructions with proven message options. You’ll provide the postcard stamps and mail the postcards in October on the instructed date.
Ongoing. Write postcards to rally voters in Key States!Sign up at Postcards to MI voters to receive free postcards, along with voter lists and instructions. You provide the postcard stamps and mail them in October.
Register Swing Staters to Vote with Field Team 6
For months we have posted volunteer opportunities to affect this November’s election. One of the organizations is Field Team 6. Founded by Jason Berlin, FT6 offers virtual opportunities to help Democrats win this November. Their mission: ‘Register Democrats. Save the World.’ While many organizations only work with registered voters, FT6’s goal is to register new Democrats, making a larger tent. Partnering with organizations like NOW and The Union, FT6 focuses on swing states through texting, phone banking, and postcarding. These activities aim to register likely Democratic voters. There’s a role for everyone interested in contributing.Please join Field Team 6 to contact unregistered likely Swing State Democrats and turn them into registered Democratic voters! Sign up to:
Write Postcards
Real Texting Send Slow Texts
Phonebank
Other volunteer opportunities
Volunteer with the Washtenaw County Democratic Party
WCDP says: “It is a crucial year for Washtenaw Dems to engage voters, hear from them, and provide information, and support Democrats all down the ballot.” It’s also fun! Get involved by entering your info here and/or through the links below.
- September 7 and beyond: Staff the WCDP table at the Saturday Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market. 9—11 AM or 11 AM—1 PM
- September 14—21: Voter Guide bundling and distribution to Area Captains.
- September 21—October 5: Voter Guide distribution. This is a truly massive countywide effort, which is timed for shortly after voters receive absentee ballots.
- October 10—31: Ballot chase via text for Democratic-leaning voters who haven’t cast their ballots.
- October 26—November 5: Early voting and Election Day activities including poll watching and poll greeting.
Weekly: Inform Michigan Voters (Together or Solo) with Michigan Resistance
From Michigan Resistance: We are an activist group that has been around since 2016. Usually, our focus is on promoting progressive legislative action and stopping things we find harmful. What we do is text people in a certain district and ask them to call their own representatives and ask them to do something. During campaign seasons, we focus on informational texting, such as letting Democrats from purple districts know what their Rep has done for them, or who the liberal supreme court candidates are. If you are interested in joining us, please call or text Terryl Sperlich at 810-516-0923.
Virtual Training to Spread the Good Word
Become a Social Ambassador with the Democratic National Committee. Fun and easy, share prepared content on so many topics on social media. Whether you are a Social Media Pro or a casual user, learn how you can share content and the latest messaging from the Harris-Walz campaign with your online networks. Register here. Mondays 8:00—9:00 PM, Wednesdays 12:00—1:00 PM, Thursdays 6:00—7:00 PM, and Saturdays 12:00—1:00 PM
Ongoing. Online conversations and messaging!
- Using Your Digital Voice, Tuesdays, 5pm, Mobilize link here
- Deconstructing Project 2025 and Inspiring Voters to Fight for their Freedoms, Sundays 4pm, Tuesdays 6:30pm, Mobilize link here
- Contact Washtenaw Dems to Help identify Dem/pro-democracy social media influencers with Michigan connections and followers.
- Register Michiganders to Vote with Field Team 6 Sign up to: write postcards, real time text, slow texts, phonebank, and more.
Visit the PEG Events Page for more upcoming events at www.equalityingov.org/events!
Certification of Votes and What Happens When Election Officials Refuse to Certify
The Electoral College: The Power, Function, and Process of Presidential Electors
When Americans vote for President and Vice President of the United States, they are actually voting for presidential electors, known collectively as the Electoral College. It is these electors, chosen by the People, who elect the chief executive. The Constitution assigns each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of the state’s Senate and House of Representatives delegations. A candidate needs a majority of those electoral votes, which is at least 270.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution provides the power and function of presidential electors. The electors are NOT officers. Their sole function is to cast, certify, and transmit the vote of their state for President and Vice President of the nation.
The election certification process involves local election officials tabulating all ballots (in-person, mail-in, provisional, absentee) and then certifying that the ballot count is complete and accurate. That process is then repeated by election officials on the state level and, in the case of a presidential election, in Congress. The certification function has been considered ceremonial.
Refusal to Certify
A recent Rolling Stone investigation found there are at least 70 election officials in key swing states who refused to certify after the 2020 election. In 2022, nearly a dozen counties refused to certify the election results, prompting lawsuits and court orders. Fortunately, courts and state officials intervened in each of these instances to compel certification.
Each state has specific statutes that outline a process to follow if a local official won’t certify an election. Some states use a single official, like the secretary of state, to certify all the election results from that state. Other states have the courts legally compel the individual to fulfill their duties to certify the election or be removed from their position. Whatever the method, states do this within 30 days after the election. The bottom line is that there is a mandatory duty to certify the correct results without any investigation into the election itself.
We in Michigan amended our state constitution to expressly clarify that state and local officials have a “ministerial, clerical, [and] nondiscretionary duty . . . to certify election results” and state law allows state election officials to take over certification at the local level if a local official refuses to certify.
Activities Since the 2020 Election
In December 2022, Congress passed reforms to the Electoral Count Act that should make it more difficult for parties to manipulate the process of counting the Electoral College votes for president. According to the Brennen Center, modern state certification frameworks were designed with the specific goal of preventing rogue election officials from disrupting the process. The new provisions, in part, ensure that only one slate of electors makes it to Congress, each governor is required to sign off on electors, the vice president’s responsibilities are merely ceremonial, and that the vice president has no say in determining who actually won the election.
In early August 2024, the Georgia Election Board approved a rule allowing local boards to conduct “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results, with Republicans backing the measure 3-2. A Fulton County Election Board member is suing to affirm local discretion on certification. Subsequently, the state and national Democratic parties have challenged the new rules, arguing they breach state law requiring mandatory certification. Governor Kemp has requested that the Republican attorney general assess his jurisdiction over the matter.
Summary
Despite potential issues in November, Lauren Miller Karalunas of the Brennan Center for Justice assures that election certification protections will prevail. She says that election denial cannot overcome our election certification protections. “There are processes in place to make sure that certification ultimately will happen in a timely fashion and that their vote will be counted.”
In the article Refusing to Certify Elections Isn’t About Fairness. It’s Aimed at Sowing Doubt, Miller Karalunas outlines the mandatory duty of election officials, the legal remedies if certification is delayed, and addresses whether election deniers’ strategies could succeed.
PEG Exclusive! Why Do Many Americans Think That the Economy is Doing Poorly?
by Kayla Conrad
Our economy is the most complicated economy in recent memory, as many economists have noted. In fact, as Dan Preiffer notes, “Unemployment is at an historic low, the stock market is at an all-time high, the economy is growing, and inflation is coming down faster in the United States than almost anywhere else in the world.
Top Republican Excuses To Do Nothing About Gun Violence
Vote to hold Republicans accountable for blocking gun safety reform this November.
