Take Action Links and Reading

[lynnenne]

Ask the Electors: Write to the electors in red states and ask them to cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton (or even another candidate) to prevent Trump from reaching 270.

How to Be Your Own Light in the Age of Trump: "Having studied authoritarian states for over a decade, I would never exaggerate the severity of the threat we now face. But an American kleptocracy is exactly where president-elect Trump and his backers are taking us. That’s why I have a favor to ask you, my fellow Americans."

Meet the Real Face of the Trump Voter: "The 'populist' side of Trump's campaign was actually a vision that catered only to white working-class men. There is no innocent Trump voter."


And for my Canadian friends: Lessons from the Trump election for progressives in Canada

Influencing the outcome of the electoral college

[tanaqui]

In our Ideas and Suggestions post, hannah asked

I've seen it suggested to pressure electoral college members to change their vote this year, but nothing clear on who to contact or what to say - that is, if I'm in New York, whether I should phone the Wyoming representative or not. Might you post something about that in the next couple of weeks?

lynnenne has already posted two links:

If you live in a red state, write to your electoral college representative and insist that they do not cast their ballots for Trump, on the grounds that he represents a clear and present danger to American democracy. Here's an article that explains it.

Ask the Electors: Write to the electors in red states and ask them to cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton (or even another candidate) to prevent Trump from reaching 270.

However, the people behind the FaithlessNow petition (a Republican-originated initiative to get the electors to choose another Republican in place of Trump) have urged people not to contact electors directly. They point out that electors are mostly “ordinary citizens": party stalwarts rewarded for their service. While some are locally elected officials, they generally don’t have the office staff of a Senator or Congressman, and will have to handle calls and deal with emails personally. Deluging them with protests may be counter-productive.

Also, as this Vox article points out, "The Trump state electors are Republican Party stalwarts or activists chosen during state party deliberations. [...] Almost always, the parties do a good enough job of vetting their respective electoral slates to ensure that they will indeed loyally back their party’s presidential nominee. The Republican Party clearly ended up falling behind Trump, and any Republican elector who abandons him would be defying the will of not only their state’s voters but also the party generally."

Some other options to consider, apart from contacting electors directly, are:

• Contact Democratic Senators, Congressmen and State Senators in Trump states, who probably know the (Republican) electors personally, to ask them to persuade the electors they know to change their votes -- to a candidate other than Trump, if not Clinton.


• Contact your local Senate, Congress and State Senate representatives to press for adoption of the National Popular Vote proposal:
  

  When a state passes legislation to join the National Popular Vote Compact, it pledges that all of that state's electoral votes will be given to whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote nationwide. (source: NCSL)

  It won’t affect the outcome of this election, but it would mean that if enough states adopt it, future elections will be won by candidate with the most votes nationally - in 2016, that was Clinton.


• If you are in a Clinton state, you could contact your local electors or local elected officials and ask them to make statements encouraging electors in Trump states to change their votes.

Action: Call Your Congresscritters: #AuditTheVote

[alexseanchai]

image text: two Nov 17 tweets from the #AuditTheVote hashtag.

MarkDice, a verified account: Careful what you wish for Liberals. If we #AuditTheVote then Hillary will lose a few million after the dead and illegal ones are tossed out.

JonBFanForum: Trumpsters seem to think #AuditTheVote will uncover "massive" Dem voter fraud. Okay, then, I'm willing to look under that rock. Are you?

I am perfectly happy to get on board the "Clinton unexpectedly lost every swing state by a narrow margin—let's make sure all those losses are honest, given the voting law currently in play" train. Especially in context of the "Russia hacked our election" rumor (I mean, it might be just a rumor? but let's check), and the Cheeto* University fraud case that the Cheeto just settled, and the conflict-of-interest bullshit, and need I go on.

Call your Congresscritters: house.gov and senate.gov will both direct you to the appropriate phone numbers. Email might work, too, but I imagine by now we've all seen the tweet thread screenshot where a former Congressional staffer says calls are the thing most likely to work. (Sucks to be spoon-deprived and massively anxious about phones.)

(Unfortunately, auditing the vote isn't going to restore voting rights to the millions of people denied same this year because of the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act. But it might be worth making noise about that problem too.)

* The man's a walking trigger, so I don't want to use his name, and I will damn well respect the President-elect when the person holding that title is someone worthy of respect. I imagine we can all name a few reasons why this one isn't.

Abortion Rights

[tassosss]

via wendelah1

We Won't Go Back

When I was in college, I was a volunteer with Planned Parenthood. While I was a nurse at UCLA Medical Center, for 14 years I took care of women who were having second trimester abortions. My AmazonSmile has been set up to donate to Planned Parenthood Los Angeles since AmazonSmile was created. I make a monthly contribution to Planned Parenthood. A few years back, I even sent money to Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas to help keep their clinics open. This issue is important to me.

Since the landmark Roe v. Wade in 1973, I have witnessed a slow erosion of women's right to choose. I shudder to think what Vice-President-elect Mike Pence and his buddies in the Republican-controlled Congress have in store for the women of America.

The Nation: The War on Planned Parenthood Is Also an Assault on Poor Women of Color.

The youngest woman we took care of was twelve-years-old. She'd been molested by a family member beginning at the age of eight. But this young woman could easily have been one of my patients, too, and her story is more typical. I had an abortion at age 14 and I don't regret it. For eight years I let society shame me for my decision. But I'm not ashamed—and I believe no woman should be.

It's hard for me to believe that there are people in this world who would force a woman to carry a hopeless pregnancy to term, or punish her for deciding on an abortion. I took care of many women who had to make this impossible choice.

Interview With a Woman Who Recently Had an Abortion at 32 Weeks. Elizabeth* is 35. She grew up in the South, currently lives in Brooklyn, and has been married for two years. After a previous miscarriage at 10 weeks, she was overjoyed to find herself pregnant for a second time. At 31 weeks, she found out that the baby boy she was carrying wouldn’t be able to breathe outside the womb and would not survive. And at 32 weeks, she flew to Colorado to get a shot that would start the process of a third-trimester abortion; she then flew back to New York to finish the delivery. We talked on the phone two weeks into her recovery.

This was written by the physician who operates the clinic described in the above article. Stat: An abortion doctor on Trump’s win: ‘I fear for my life. I fear for my patients.’

You can support Dr. Hern's clinic: BOULDER ABORTION CLINIC RENOVATIONS AND SECURITY UPGRADES.

Quartz: Two case studies show what could happen in the U.S. if abortion were outlawed.

Here's another wrinkle. Abortion Clinics in Blue States Are Closing Too.

Last but not least: The Handmaiden's Tale: A Warning About Patriarchy and Power by Gloria Steinem. Let’s just say this novel is not exactly fiction.

If abortion rights mean as much to you as they do to me, here are some ways you can make a difference:

New York Magazine: How to become an abortion clinic escort.

The National Network of Abortion Funds. Abortion funds are nonprofit organizations that raise money specifically to help women and girls pay for their abortions.

From 2013 but still relevant: I'm a Case Manager for My Local Abortion Fund: Here's What Happens When You Call For Help

Planned Parenthood. There have already been 40,000+ donations made to PP in honor of Mike Pence. Finally, an internet meme that accomplishes something.

NARAL Pro-Choice America. I know Mike Pence would be pleased to hear that you were supporting NARAL.

National Abortion Federation. Hey, Mike's a big fan of theirs, too.

reposted with permission

Petition for Americans

[lynnenne]

Demand An Audit Of The 2016 Presidential Election

From VerifiedVoting.org:

The FBI determined some months ago that hacking, originating from Russia, was having an influence on our electoral process. These hackers interfered with our presidential election through attempted and successful penetration of email and voter registration databases, among other systems. This created fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the safety of our electoral processes.

Computers tabulated the vast majority of the 129 million votes cast in the presidential election, and polls were wildly off. Did hackers manipulate the results by compromising voting equipment? Did other problems, glitches, or errors affect the outcome?

There's a simple, relatively inexpensive way to find out: audit the electronic results against the paper ballots used by about 75% of U.S. voters.

Sign the Petition


Related: #AuditTheVote is trending on Twitter

EDIT: There is also a phone number you can call here: https://twitter.com/GarnerMeg/status/799716502232514560