We Want Politicians to Fear Women’s Voting Power
 November 7, 2022 ‘Twas the night before elections, and all through the House, every creature was stirring, even that guy that looks like a mouse. I could keep going, but I dropped out of my poetry elective in college for a reason. So let’s talk turkey, folks. Tomorrow is the big day. (Here at The Meteor, our offices will be closed.) So tonight, we’ve got some last-minute treats: an interview with Supermajority’s Amanda Brown Lierman on why women could literally change the outcome of tomorrow’s election—and voter guides to help you do it. Running out of rhymes, Shannon Melero  WHAT TO KNOWWho’s who: Still unsure who to choose in your state’s local election? This handy tool from Vote411 allows you to select your state and search for candidates, ballot measures, eligibility requirements, polling place locators, campaign finance information, and more. If this is your first time voting, PLEASE check eligibility requirements before going to your polling place. Some states are extremely specific about acceptable forms of ID (yes, it’s a strategy) and you don’t want to get turned away. (If you do, though, STAY in line and call the Election Protection Hotline.) Voting the issues: So you know who you’re voting for—but are you certain about what you’re voting for? Voting for the first Democrat you see on the ballot by default may have worked in the past, but with so many of our rights on the line, it’s time to read the fine print. Here are some guides curated by groups we know and trust:
 FROM THE EXPERT“Our Oppressors Win When We Divide Ourselves”Amanda Brown Lierman talks to us about creating the most powerful voting bloc possible.BY SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY  LOOK HOW HAPPY WE COULD ALL BE IF WE VOTED! (IMAGE BY JEMAL COUNTESS VIA GETTY IMAGES) You already know you have to vote (and we trust that you will.) But how much difference will your vote make? And what is likely to happen tomorrow? For a view from the front lines, I turned to the executive director of Supermajority (an organization working to build national political power for women), Amanda Brown Lierman. Amanda has been working in the voting rights space for years: she used to work at Rock the Vote and was the organizing director at the Democratic National Committee. We’re also good friends and former colleagues. I wanted to hear from her what exactly is at stake tomorrow…and what’s giving her hope. Samhita Mukhopadhyay: How are you feeling about the midterms right now? Amanda Brown Lierman: I feel like the only thing I can do is hold hope. It is just amazing to see the commitment of women [at Supermajority] who are freaking tired and have every reason to be too tired to do this work. But they’re showing up and they’re showing out when it really does matter. Of course, I feel anxious because there’s also so much at stake and so much on the line. Usually at this point in an election cycle, you spend a lot of time talking about why it’s so important to vote for somebody. And there are incredible pro-women champions and pro-women leaders who are running for office. But there are also names on that ballot of people who don’t deserve to be sitting in those seats of power. And in many cases, they are power-hungry white men who are not serving women, not serving the people who put them in office, and they need to be kicked out of those seats. Can you spell out a little bit what’s at stake? The president has made a couple promises about what he can and will do if we get him two more Democratic senators [giving Democrats a majority irrelevant of how Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia vote]. And there are some really incredible women who are running for Senate. If we could deliver those two new Democratic senators, then we can actually make progress in some of those national policy conversations around childcare access, around paid leave, and other care economy issues that were cut out of Build Back Better. We could codify Roe at the national level. The gubernatorial races are going to be very important too. Gretchen Whitmer has been the number-one defender of women’s rights in Michigan since she was elected in 2018. There’s also that ballot initiative in Michigan which intends to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right in the state. In Michigan—this is actually incredible, Samhita—in order to get an initiative on the ballot, you have to have something like 400,000 signatures. And they had 750,000 signatures for this ballot initiative in Michigan—double what was necessary, double what people thought was impossible to get done.  PROTESTORS IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN SHOWING UP AND SHOWING OUT FOR ABORTION RIGHTS. (IMAGE BY MATTHEW HATCHER VIA GETTY IMAGES) We saw something similar in Kansas in August, where voters voted to protect abortion rights. What are you seeing in the post-Roe political landscape? For so long, people have run away from having conversations about abortion, and abortion [historically] has been more of a polarizing issue than it has been a mobilizing issue. And what I think we’re seeing in this landscape is abortion right now is not polarizing. It’s actually created the opportunity for us to build coalitions in a way that we have never done before. And Kansas is such a great example of that. You have folks in Kansas, women in particular, who voted no on that amendment to make sure that we did not advance abortion bans in that state. Organizing is all about having conversations. It’s all about connecting with somebody over a shared set of values. Women might not [all] have the same experience; they might not be motivated by the same issue. But I feel like we have been able to build connections, build coalitions around this value that our bodies should be respected and that women should be able to make a decision about their bodies—instead of power-hungry men who are sitting in a political seat. That’s what gives me hope: the ability to think about abortion as a coalition-building issue, which is a new phenomenon for us. Oh, I love that. We want to make sure that women recognize their power as individuals, as voters, but also claim the power that we have as a collective. And our coalition, hopefully, is a voting bloc that is respected, is revered, and is… also, if I’m being honest, a little bit feared. I want politicians to be afraid of a whole lot of women voting because they have to be accountable to the very people that put them in office. Our oppressors win when the walls go up, and we divide ourselves. There are some signs that there could be record turnout. I voted in upstate New York, and it was a 45-minute wait to vote a week before Election Day. Wow. But the fact that the Zeldin/Hochul race feels so close in New York is not a great sign to me. I know you’ve worked in the voter space for a long time. What can we actually expect tomorrow? I think that there are people (notably Democrats) who have been dismissing this election for the last year with a sort of despair and just [resigning] to loss. So I do refuse to sort of give into that, and think it is our job to make sure that we do the work because change happens with one conversation, one voter. And that commitment to organizing, I think, is the only thing that has always worked, and has always saved us. But to your point: These elections are fucking close. And I think many of them will come down to field margins. And there’s a reason why we have to give it our all, because some of these elections will be won or lost by two votes, by a hundred votes. And so this idea of giving in just makes me sick to my stomach and so angry. Because literally, if we each spent the time talking to—I mean, honestly, two to three people in the next couple of days and got them to the polls, it wouldn’t be close. I think voting is an expression, and Election Day will be an expression of the collective as women flexing our political muscle and making sure that our voices are heard and demanding that of our elected leaders. I’ve been saying this a lot: They can ignore our primal screams, but they cannot ignore our votes.  PHOTO BY HEATHER HAZZAN Samhita Mukhopadhyay is a writer, editor, and speaker. She is the former Executive Editor of Teen Vogue and is the co-editor of Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance and Revolution in Trump’s America and the author of Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life, and the forthcoming book, The Myth of Making It.  THANK A POLL WORKERToday is Election Hero Day, a day to recognize and thank all the folks who make it possible for us to show up and cast our votes. That includes your state directors, local clerks, staff, and (everyone’s favorite) the volunteers that hand out the “I Voted!” stickers. And they need support: They’re short-staffed, and too often under attack. Spread the love by sharing the image below from @electionheroday or kick it old school and thank an election worker face-to-face. (But keep a respectable distance; we are still in a pandemic.)  (SCREEN SHOT VIA INSTAGRAM) Remember, Election Day is a marathon, so drink water, be patient, be kind—and above all, be there! We’ll see you on the other side.  Speaking of marathons, did you run the New York City Marathon this weekend? Let us hype you up! Send your marathon pics to [email protected] and we’ll include them in a future newsletter. FOLLOW THE METEOR    Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays. |
