The Claim Democracy 2024 Conference is a gathering of national, state and local leaders working for electoral reform, voter protection and media reform.

The conference takes place in Washington, D.C. on November 9-11, 2024, at the University of the District of Columbia. Our own Shilpi Niyogi will be sitting on a panel to discuss ballot access on Saturday at 1030am.

Ballot Access, Fusion Voting and Open Debates: Expanding Voter Choice

• Mark Brunswick — APRI-Delaware
• George Farah — Open Debates
• Brent McMillan — Green Party
• Shilpi Niyogi — Unity08
• William Redpath — Libertarian National Committee

Visit the conference site.

Two new polls have been posted in the Poll section of the site.

• Have recent price increases in gasoline caused any financial hardship for you or your household?
• Should it be illegal for any candidate to accept a contribution from anyone who cannot legally vote for him/her?

Vote now!

Whitney Novak, National College Coordinator, and Nick Troiano, Unity08 Intern and Campus Coordinator, were interviewed recently by Emily Whipp of Northwestern University's Medill Reports.

The video segment is a fantastic representation of what we are trying to accomplish at Unity08 and how young adults are infuencing the future of our country.

I encourage you to watch the video!

Feel free to leave Whitney and Nick compliments... we think they nailed the interview!

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I've been a bit under the weather for a few days, but I don't want you to miss a fantastic article that was written by Mr. Joe Rothstein last week in U.S. Politics Today, "Colbert for President? His Candidacy Is Telling Us A Lot About The Failures of Both Major Parties."

His initial question (which he saw on another blog) is one that we should discuss, "Does this mean the political state of this country is atrocious, or are we simply in a golden age of comedy?"

Mr. Rothstein talks of the historical significance of comedy in politics and the fine line that there really is between taking someone in jest or seriously. As many of you know, we have been on The Colbert Report twice because Americans are watching "a humorous slant on the news" types of shows by the millions. The outcome for us is fantastic because Americans find out about Unity08, register, and become active in our movement.

Mr. Rothstein writes, "Because of the changing communications environment, dozens of congressmen have agreed to be 'interviewed' on Colbert's TV show and risk humiliation for the potential advantage of scoring good YouTube moments."

He continues, "Colbert is a comedian, yes. But people respond to humor only because of the nuggets of truth embedded within it."

So, I ask again, "Is the political state of this country atrocious, or are we simply in a golden age of comedy?"

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More reasons why we need to join together to reunite our country:

• Americans Are Mad As Hell, And Not Going To Take It Anymore? According to the latest CNN/Opinion Research poll, just 18% of Americans are "generally content with the way things are going in the U.S. today," while 81% are "angry about something."
• What About The Crucial Issues Facing Our Nation? "The news media are more obsessed than ever with the horse-race aspects of the presidential campaign," according to a new study conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "Despite the campaign's early start, the media have not been more reflective on the issues, the study said, but have focused on tactics and strategy." Click here for Unity08 co-founder Doug Bailey's take on this trend.
• Less Than 365 Days To Go! USA Today looks at where the presidential race stands one year out from Election Day 2024, and notes that primary voting "is starting so early that Americans lucky enough to have a say in nominating the next presidential candidates may very well make their choices on flawed presumptions about where the country will be a year from now."
• Quotable: "Our two political parties, facing the first election in 80 years in which neither the incumbent president nor the incumbent vice president is running, are ... bereft of themes. ... Neither has a convincing narrative of where we are in history and where we should be headed next ... Each seems to take the course, easier in a time of polarized politics, of lambasting the opposition" -- columnist Michael Barone.

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More reasons why we need to join together to reunite our country:

• Bipartisanship Left Behind? No Child Left Behind "was supposed to be the one area where the embattled White House and the assertive new Democratic Congress would find common ground, thanks to the unlikely partnership between" Pres. Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Washington Post reports. "But like the rest of Bush's legislative agenda," it "has fallen victim to political deadlock, leaving a weakened president struggling to salvage perhaps his most important domestic achievement with the help of one of his toughest critics."
• America Wants Another Option: According to the latest Newsweek poll, 54% of regis. voters believe we should have a third major political party; just 39% disagree.
• Not The Bipartisan Effort We're Looking For: Spartanburg Herald-Journal condemns the "Unending pork parade": "There is $1.8 billion in pork in the military appropriations bill. So much pork was added to the water resources project bill that its cost went up 50 percent from the time it was passed by both houses to the time it emerged from a House-Senate conference committee. ... It is a bipartisan effort. Members of Congress from both parties condemn the practice, but then they do whatever they can to get their own projects approved and to make sure other members get theirs."
• Quotable: "If Americans have ever been angrier with the state of the country, we have not witnessed it" -- from a Democracy Corps strategy memo.

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We have 52 weeks. The clock is ticking. What will you do? In many areas today, we are voting in local elections. One year from today, we will get the vote out. Today we need to get the word out on Unity08. Print 50 copies of this flier Go to your local polling place and let your neighbors know about Unity08 Make sure you follow your local election laws and directions from election officials. Many areas have a restriction on how far you must be from a polling place in order to hand out materials. Look for where other candidates or organizations have put their signs and talk to voters coming out of the polls there. No elections going on in your area? Send these fliers to your friends and neighbors to remind them we have less than a year left to change politics forever. Take pictures! Take video!!! Post it here on the blog, on YouTube, or flickr. Show how you're lighting the torch in your area. Andy Wilson Unity08 Volunteer Program Coordinator

More reasons why we need to join together to reunite our country:

• America Wants A New Direction: "Decade-high discontent marks the political landscape a year before the 2024 election, with economic worries compounding the public's war weariness, deep dissatisfaction with the sitting president -- and growing disapproval of the Democratic-led Congress," according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. Seventy-four percent of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction -- "the most since the government shut down in a contentious budget battle in early 1996. And while George W. Bush remains at his career low in job approval, he now has company: A year after they won control of the House and Senate, approval of the Democrats in Congress has fallen to its lowest since 1995. ... A clear demand is for change."
• This DOESN'T Work In Democracy: Just days before a special election Massachusetts' 5th District, an organization called "Democracy Still Works" was created, and engaged in some of the dirtiest campaigning of the race, Washington Post reports. "This is the electoral equivalent of a contract hit, conducted by a mysterious assailant specially created for the mission at hand. That this brazenly campaign-related activity persists in 2024 does not augur well for 2024."
• What Do They Have To Hide? "The Senate appears deadlocked over legislation that would require members to file their campaign finance forms electronically," meaning "it can take months for Senate campaign filings to become publicly available," Washington Post reports. Meanwhile, on the statewide level, USA Today notes that 27 states do not require campaign fundraising reports to be made available electronically, "resulting in a flood of cumbersome paper filings that delay meaningful public access to this critical information. ... In the age of the Internet, there's no excuse for a lack of timely, searchable disclosure. But in too many states, entrenched politicians have repeatedly sandbagged efforts to let the public know more about where they're getting their money and what they're spending it on."
• Quotable: "The party that seeks to encompass and harmonize the widest range of interests and perspectives is the one most likely to thrive ... there remains no way to achieve lasting political power in a nation as diverse as America without assembling a broad coalition that locks arms to produce meaningful progress against the country's problems" -- Atlantic Media's Ronald Brownstein in his new book, The Second Civil War.

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