So what are we going to do to ensure we have free & fair elections anyway?

Willamette Week pitchbot energy

Support Morillo’s amendment. Stop letting fear drive policy.

Portland deserves budgets that help humans, not headlines.

My church has a neighborhood mutual aid fund for stuff like this, but we would draw the line at "lady who is obviously lying and playing a recording of a baby crying"

I don't think it's selfishness, so much as people struggling to understand issues that feel abstract to them. Community involvement is the antidote to that. It can be the thing that helps people understand they have a stake they have in our political process.

Voting on local issues happens at least once a year and campaigns around those races or ballot measures happen throughout. Getting out the vote is a constant process, with constant opportunities to draw people into more engagement with their community. I see these things as deeply linked.

Someone might not care about a district attorney race until they've been to a protest where the DA dropped charges (or didn't drop charges). Or care about the mayoral race until they've gotten to know personally how the mayor's shelter plans impact their houseless neighbors.

And in my experience, getting involved in your community is the thing that makes voting more compelling to people. I was someone who would often forget to vote in off-year elections up until I started paying attention to my neighborhood and showing up to county commissioner meetings.