Next steps

Bruce Skarin

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Oct 22, 2015, 9:27:47 PM10/22/15

to Citizen Equality

Greetings,

As many of you now know, the Lessig campaign has recently announced the plan to have the CEA crowdsourced by citizens across the United States. There is a fair amount of groundwork to be laid before we can get started in earnest, but I want folks to feel free to start sharing ideas and discussing all things relevant to making the CEA a reality.

The most immediate next step is to hit our goal of 1,000 initial citizen co-sponsors. As of this writing we are now at 565 and climbing. After hitting this "sanity check" mark we will then make the necessary arrangements to secure a 501(c)(3) status and launch a kickstarter-style campaign to reach a significant number of early co-sponsors and a much smaller number of monthly contributors. The current goals being considered are 50,000 co-sponsors, and 5,000 small-dollar monthly contributions (comparable to the monthly cost of Netflix, Spotify, etc.). These funds will ensure that we can keep the lights on for the year long process, and have at least a minimal staff of full-time organizers and coordinators that would be able to scale along with the number of active participants.

Because the kickstarter we are proposing is not your typical approach, we would like to have a custom solution. There is a significant codebase from previous campaigns at: https://github.com/Lessig2016/pledgeservice There is also a small non-profit that is developing a similar platform to our needs that could use a code evaluation and a few Clojure coders to accelerate development. If you are interested in evaluating and supporting either of these two, options, please let us know.

Over the next few days will be trying to flush out the details for the kickstarter site and make a decision on obtaining non-profit status (we are evaluating a partnership with FairVote versus just using a fiscal sponsor). There is a Google Drive folder with a few working documents including the kickstarter site requirements doc. If you would like to help edit/contribute, please send me a private message.

Ever forward,

-Bruce

Bruce Skarin

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Nov 5, 2015, 10:48:36 AM11/5/15

to Citizen Equality

I finally heard from Larry and he does want us to press on and is asking what he can do to help. Unencumbered by the campaign, I think a new intro video by him would have the greatest impact. I think we might also be able to double our goals if Larry is actively helping to spread the word. I'm hoping we can get a quorum to discuss this and more tonight. Please let me know if you plan on joining and if you have any agenda items. Thanks! -Bruce

Brian Shields

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Nov 5, 2015, 10:52:17 AM11/5/15

to Bruce Skarin, Citizen Equality

I'm in. When's the conference call and what are the details?

Brian Shields

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Ryan Black

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Nov 5, 2015, 10:55:36 AM11/5/15

to Bruce Skarin, Citizen Equality

That's good news Bruce. I could help with an intro video. I am an independent freelance producer and I actually have worked with Larry before - just a few weeks ago I traveled to Ferguson, MO with his team on their listening tour of the city.

Do we have a group that works on digital content?

-Ryan B

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Bruce Skarin

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Nov 5, 2015, 11:03:17 AM11/5/15

to Ryan Black, Citizen Equality

The call in details are:

Thursday 11/5 8:30PM EST

Conference Line: 213-992-5491

PIN: 84098

URL: www.uberconference.com/feedbackdynamics

Thanks Ryan, I saw your Ferguson video, great work! I don't know who usually does Larry's videos. I'm hoping that group will come along, but help mixing the video might be needed. Do you also do graphics?

Ryan Black

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Nov 5, 2015, 11:16:26 AM11/5/15

to Bruce Skarin, Citizen Equality

Yea I do it all.

I know Larry's core video team - I'll shoot the director a text today and let you know what I hear.

Manuel Hurtado

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Nov 9, 2015, 10:15:46 AM11/9/15

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Talking about next steps and films...

Our democracy is in crisis.

Exactly one year from TODAY we will be voting for our next President of the United States.

Well, some of us will be. America is now 120th in the world for average voter turnout, which lands us well below places like Tunisia, Yemen, and Iran.

But we can change that!

Sign the petition - Demand President Obama make the 2016 general election a one-time federal holiday.

President Obama can issue an executive order to make the 2016 election day a ONE-TIME federal holiday, giving millions of Americans a paid day off and giving permission to all states and businesses to follow his lead.

#ElectionHoliday

http://www.signforgood.com/electiondayholiday/

https://twitter.com/bravenewfilms/status/663399226508972032

https://twitter.com/robertgreenwald/status/663521213562552320

Bruce Skarin

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Nov 9, 2015, 12:09:33 PM11/9/15

to Manuel Hurtado, Citizen Equality

This is great! The perfect lead-in to making the day a holiday permanently with the CEA.

In other news, I was finally able to have a nice long chat with Larry yesterday. We are working up a new and very exciting strategy for starting the CEA in earnest on January 1. Lots of details to work out, but it will be a totally separate org and Larry will not be part of any leadership even though we will continue to tout the CEA in everything he does going forward. He will be announcing "what's next" later this week, so stay tuned and be ready!

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Clay Shentrup

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Nov 12, 2015, 9:32:23 PM11/12/15

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On Monday, November 9, 2015 at 9:15:46 AM UTC-6, Manuel Hurtado wrote:

Well, some of us will be. America is now 120th in the world for average voter turnout

Sign the petition - Demand President Obama make the 2016 general election a one-time federal holiday.

The evidence is pretty strong that making voting more convenient is likely to have a pretty small effect on turnout, compared to changing the voting system to create more competitive elections.

http://scorevoting.net/StudiesTurnout.html

In addition, turnout is a pretty minor factor in determining election outcomes. Here are some ballpark estimates of the importance of various reforms, including reforms to increase turnout.

http://scorevoting.net/RelImport.html

Of course, if you can change the demographic composition of the electorate by increasing turnout disproportionately among a currently underrepresented group, that can have a significant effect. But even then, it is small compared to the effect of changing the voting method. With Plurality Voting, you'll typically only have two viable options.

Will Hall

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Nov 19, 2015, 10:40:55 AM11/19/15

to Citizen Equality

I don't support Obama taking an initiative like this because it will seem like a partisan pro-Hillary move.

it also doesn't fix the rules of the game it's just a nice thing that then leaves the fundamental problems intact.

The CEA success or fails on non partisanship.

Joe

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Nov 19, 2015, 10:53:26 AM11/19/15

to Will Hall, Citizen Equality

I like the holiday idea. It would set a great precedent for this power to be used in elections that follow.

I don't see how it relates to our group and I agree with Will that our group should not officially back it, because we need to be as non-partisan as possible.

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Ryan Black

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Nov 19, 2015, 11:02:06 AM11/19/15

to Joe, Will Hall, Citizen Equality

The holiday seems entirely inclusive. Though it would probably lead to greater increases in Democratic voters, it stays true the core principle of CEA - which is equality.

Without a holiday, election day is exclusive to people who have jobs they can easily get time off and those who can afford to take time off. In this specific case, I don't think the results should burden the policy. Politically speaking though, it may look like a push for Hillary - I agree with that.

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Tim Huegerich

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Nov 24, 2015, 12:30:25 PM11/24/15

to Citizen Equality

Is there a reason this is still pinned? It seems outdated.

Tim

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