Making All Votes Count in DC

Opening

Lisa Rice (Guest): Hi, how are you? I can’t vote today. Ask me why? 

Robert Pease (Host): Lisa Rice is the official proposer of Ballot Initiative 83 which would open Washington DC primaries to independent voters and create a ranked choice or instant runoff general election. 

Lisa Rice: Because I’m an independent and I don’t have the right to vote in the primary in DC. Did you know that?

Robert Pease: Lisa’s at her home district polling station today, which is primary day, wearing a sandwich board, which does in fact say, ask me why I can’t vote today

Lisa Rice: I can’t vote today. Ask me, why

Voter: Why Can’t you vote today?

Lisa Rice: Because I am an independent. I’m not affiliated with the Democratic party or the Republican party and we’re barred from voting in the primary… 

Robert Pease: Washington DC has long been a one party town, meaning the Democratic primary is the only election that counts. With 10 candidates in the race, the city council member in Lisa’s district will essentially be elected today with less than 25% of the vote from a single party’s registrants. Which is a really small percentage of all registered voters. But that is not uncommon in DC and the large number of deeply blue or deeply red election districts around the country with closed primaries and plurality voting.

Voter: I was actually about to switch to independent. I was no longer going to be a Democrat anymore.I’m more liberal than anything really,

Lisa Rice: As we all are. So most of us vote on policy if we want something to happen. And so that’s why I’m an independent, because I vote on policy, not politics. 

Robert Pease: Lisa Rice is also Chairperson of Make All Votes Count DC, the group leading the signature collection effort to place Initiative 83 on the ballot in DC this November, as is happening in a record number of states, blue, red and purple, in 2024. 

Voter: I’m signing this. Because when I change to independent, we need to be able to vote no matter what.

Lisa Rice: I’ve got pens in my pocket, I’m ready. But yeah, it’s important.

Voter: It is.

Lisa Rice: And I really appreciate you signing this. This is so we have ballot access and we’re working towards pretty lofty goal of signatures. But we’re going to do it.

Robert Pease: Make All Votes Count DC has signature gatherers at numerous voting locations in DC on this primary day when the folly of an election system controlled by political parties is so clearly on display. 

Voter: I wish people were more involved in local politics because they don’t realize how much it affects them.

Lisa Rice: Exactly.

Voter: Our children, we are the parents now and we need to make sure that we are getting the right policies in place for our children.

Lisa Rice: Exactly. We are leaving space. You can check more. Thank you so much.

Voter: No problem. Thank you. You guys have a good one. Stay hydrated out here.

Lisa Rice: Yes. Yes ma’am. We are. Where’s my water? I love someone looking after my hydration. Because I will forget.

Robert Pease: It will take a committed leader like Lisa Rice to harness momentum for Initiative 83 in solidly Democratic DC, more than a city, but less than a state and as it’s long lacked a voice in congress. You have likely seen that very common DC license plate: End Taxation without Representation. 

Robert Pease: It will also take teamwork to gather support for Initiative 83 throughout DC’s thirteen districts or wards. We’ll be hearing from several key team members, including Kenyatta Smith, a District Outreach Coordinator.

Kenyatta Smith (Guest): The first thing someone might say to me is, aren’t you a Democrat? And I say, absolutely, but I think it’s time for some fresh Democratic blood in DC and I’m okay with getting challenged or having my Democratic party step up their game and being more accountable if they’re competing against the independent. That’s the first thing that they say to me. 

Robert Pease: We’ll also meet Phillip Panell, a veteran Democratic Party activist in DC on civil rights and LGBTQ+ issues. In becoming Treasurer of Make All Votes Count DC, Phillip has encountered some serious pushback from Democratic Party colleagues and even some longtime friends. 

Phillip Pannell (Guest): This is an overwhelmingly Democratic city. So the independents are pretty much left out of the decision making because all the action is pretty much in the Democratic Party. And I think it’s the arrogance of exclusion. They like to say to people that if you want to participate in our primary, you have to be a Democrat. That’s not forward of thinking, that’s not bringing more people in. 

Robert Pease: Bringing democracy to DC this episode. This is The Purple Principle, a podcast on the perils of polarization focusing this season on efforts to depolarize our politics through election reforms. I’m Robert Pease and last episode we met the coalition advancing reforms in conservative Idaho. 

Robert Pease: This episode we meet both the leaders and some key team members behind Ballot Initiative 83 in deep blue DC. Let’s start with the origins of this effort with Lisa Rice, Unite America board member, and like many African Americans in DC a long time Democrat until her political divorce from that party. We asked when Lisa first became aware that independent or unaffiliated voters are not able to vote in primary elections in DC and many other primaries nationwide.

Lisa Rice: Ask me why. Why? Because I’m an independent. Doesn’t that suck.

Voter: That does suck. See…

Lisa Rice: Everybody should have the right to vote. That’s it. Thank you so much. See lots of support. It’s logical. It’s very logical.

interview with Lisa Rice

Lisa Rice: Well, I became aware of that probably in the 2017, 18 range. Um, and that of course is when I realized, because that’s when I divorced. I call it my divorce from the Democratic Party. And I switched intentionally from being a democrat to being an independent as a DC voter. And I really didn’t think at that time that it meant I couldn’t vote in primaries. I didn’t really know that until later, 20 18, 20 19, you know, as the cycles were coming up. And I was getting excited for 2020 and realized, whoa, I don’t have a voice in what is effectively the, uh, most critical election in the cycle, the primary in DC because

Robert Pease: Everything’s decided in DC.

Lisa Rice: Yeah. For all but two offices, everything is virtually decided in the primary because we’re super majority town. Right. Super majority democratic town.

Robert Pease: And when did you first hear about rank choice voting in a significant way as a possible solution to some of these problems?

Lisa Rice: Well, uh, nationally, I was hearing about it a lot during 18 and 19, and I was starting to hear about it as a possibility here in DC in 2021. I was hearing about the grassroots efforts that were happening here to have a legislative push for rank choice voting, and was definitely intrigued by that.

Robert Pease: And I wonder, did you follow, you know, as a board member at United America, what was going on in Alaska? Uh, or did that seem rather far away from, from the problems here in DC.

Lisa Rice: No, it seemed absolutely relevant. Um, Alaska though, much, much bigger than DC has, uh, some similar, it’s, we’re we have similarities in that, uh, there’s a large indigenous native population in Alaska that isn’t necessarily always represented. And in DC we used to be a majority black city, and now we are not, but we have many more, um, minorities in DC than not. And so those kind of similarities with Alaska, um, it, that was very intriguing to me. And, uh, the, the Alaska model really is what we wanted to do here in DC, you know, as opposed to what we’re, what we’re able to do.

Robert Pease: So let’s break that down for people not familiar. The Alaska model is Final four voting, unified, open primary, top four ranked choice voting. What part of that can you do in DC and what can you not do?

Lisa Rice: We can do rank choice voting if it’s approved, you know, if it’s, if it goes through what we can’t do because of the home rule charter is have completely open primaries. We can’t have all parties in one primary because the Home Rule Charter, which was established by Congress, prevents us from doing that. The home world charter dictates that we have partisan primaries.

Robert Pease: I see. But you can open primaries to independent voters. We…

Lisa Rice: Are trying <laugh>, that’s what we wanna do. Yeah.

Robert Pease: We’re talking with Lisa Rice Chair of Make All Votes Count DC and proposer of Initiative 83 which would open each party primary to independents who comprise close to 20% of DC registered voters and create ranked choice or instant run off general elections. It’s a big effort against a fair amount of inertia in a town where the Democratic party has held power so tightly and so long over elections and governance. 

Meeting the Initiative 83 Team

Robert Pease: But Lisa has recruited some allies in this effort. And we met several members of the Initiative 83 team at this year’s DC Pride parade. Make All Votes Count DC was one of 300 vehicles riding past many tens of thousands of citizens and visitors lining the central DC streets this year. Alongside Lisa in the Yes on 83 Jeep was a widely recognized figure in local DC politics. 

Phillip Pannell (Guest): My name is Phillip Pannell. I am the treasurer of Make All Votes Count DC, the campaign committee for Initiative 83. And for the past 50 years, yes, nearly a half century. I have been very much involved with the DC Democratic Party and held several positions of leadership. 

Robert Pease: Those positions have included President of the Young Democrats of DC, five terms as the President of the Ward Eight Democrats and most recently the recording secretary of the DC Democratic State Committee. 

Phillip Pannell: So I’m very much, very much wedded to the Democratic Party and I believe that the Democratic Party is politically speaking the best vehicle for opportunity and socioeconomic pro justice in our country.

Robert Pease: But despite long and strong affiliation, Phillip has received blowback from the DC Democratic establishment for his support of Initiative 83. 

Phillip Pannell: Oh yes. I have a pushback from colleagues. As a matter of fact, some colleagues have been, I would say fairly rude to me, even to the point of passing motions to prevent me from speaking at an organization in the ward where I live and the organization, which I have found 40 years ago. So that was quite hurtful and humiliating.

Robert Pease: For Phillip Panell, aligning with the Democratic Party does not mean that party should be beyond reproach or reform. 

Phillip Pannell: And unfortunately, there are democratic leaders here in the District of Columbia who feel that the Democratic Party should be a political fraternity or sorority, or even worse, a gang being very exclusive, very exclusionary. And that type of practice I don’t think is helpful when you’re trying to build coalitions, people of similar ideology, of principle and of conscience. They should be willing to expand. And those people who are just so shackled by the past that imprisoned by the present, just find it so offensive that there would be a change. And in their thirst to maintain the status quo, they’re basically advocating continued electoral segregation and actually a voter suppression. So there’s an old saying that when the winds of change come, some people build Walls, some others build windmills.

Robert Pease: Those winds of change include the election reform efforts gaining momentum throughout the country this year, in predominantly red states like Idaho and South Dakota as well as much more bluish Oregon and Colorado. 

Phillip Pannell: The evolution of the Democratic Party shows that a party that one time was the party of Jim Crow, the party of segregation eventually became the Party of Civil Rights. The party advocating women’s rights, rights for the LGBT, acute immunity, labor unions, et cetera. And in my mind, what I am doing, being the treasurer of this effort, is very much in keeping with the thirst and the quest of the Democratic Party to embrace more people, to actually bring more folks into the tent, to be more inclusive. That is the spirit of the Democratic Party. And that is what has made the Democratic Party the great party that it is today, but there’s still some unfinished business. And that unfinished business here in the District of Columbia is instituting ranked choice voting and opening the primaries to the independents. 

Robert Pease: Phillip Pannell longtime Democratic Party official and widely recognized figure here at the Pride Parade, lending gravitas to the Initiative 83 Effort as treasurer of Make All Votes Count DC. 

Robert Pease: Washington is a highly diverse city with a large student population of close to 100,000. Recent Howard University graduate. Nate Roseboro has led an effort on that campus to introduce the rank choice voting component of Initiative 83. 

Nate Roseboro (Guest): My first ranked choice voting event was at a policy and education forum that was a collaboration with several student organizations and we did rank the song event where students came in, we didn’t say anything, we just had them rank which song was a favorite. And before even telling them about rank choice voting, we just had them do it and made it fun. So once we did the election and found out which song won, that’s when we went into all the benefits and all the problems that Rank Choice voting solves within our community.

Robert Pease: An engineering major originally from New Jersey, Nate has absorbed DC culture and politics during his four years at Howard. 

Nate Roseboro: Well, I think Howard and college students in general, especially around this area, they come here to learn about the federal government. But as you stay in this community, you realize how beautiful of a community DC is and you do get more invested in the state and the local politics. I will say we are at an inflection point at a national scale. Young people are not happy with our choices at all. And for me, I want to redirect that energy and that hopelessness into rank choice voting and open primaries because I believe that they will result in better choices for young people.

Robert Pease: DC also has a large population of voters with international backgrounds . Canadian-educated Miguel Deramo is a steering committee member for Initiative 83 bringing comparative perspective to his outreach efforts. 

Miguel Deramo (Guest): When I was very young, I was an intern in Parliament in London and saw, for example, there are far more members of Parliament than we have members of Congress. And of course the UK is very small. So the members of parliament have a much deeper connection in their communities. They represent smaller constituencies, so they’re much better known back home and people have more direct access to their elected officials. So serving overseas, working overseas really has given me, it sparked an interest in what other ways could we arrange our system? How could we better distribute power throughout our country? And this is a reform that I think is essential to doing that.

Robert Pease: Miguel wore Uncle Sam attire for the Pride Parade. Others in and around the Prop 83 jeep dressed as Lady Liberty and Lady Justice.

Miguel Deramo: We’re actually introducing people to rank choice voting this weekend at Pride, at the Pride Festival. We’re going to have who wore it best competition for all the costumed members of our team who are in the parade today. So people will be able to open up a ballot on their phones and rank the best dressed characters from our parade contingent. And that’s going to be a rank choice ballot so people can see how their votes are distributed and how easy and how natural it is to rank candidates on a ballot. Right? People rank things all the time, which ice cream flavor is your favorite, right? If they don’t have vanilla, what’s your second choice? Everyone knows how to do that, right? We learn that as kids. 

Midroll

Robert Pease: The Purple Principle is visiting the nation’s capital this episode, part of our season-long series on non-partisan election reforms around the country this year. In Washington DC that effort is to bring Proposition 83 onto the ballot this summer and over the electoral finish line this November. And outreach to the DC’s largest group of voters, the African American community, which has been traditionally straight ticket Democrat, that’s both critical and challenging. 

Meet The Initiative 83 Team, Continued

Kenyatta Smith (Guest): Hi, my name is Kenyatta Smith. I’m a native Washingtonian, born and raised in Ward Five. I currently live in Ward Seven, east of the river in a family home. I’m a product of DC Public Schools, a graduate of Howard University, and I am the East of the River coordinator for Make All Votes Count. 

Robert Pease: Kenyatta has been involved in many previous outreach campaigns on social issues but is new to political campaigns like Initiative 83, and new to the fact that tax paying independent or unaffiliated voters are excluded from party run primaries in DC and many states throughout the country. 

Kenyatta Smith: I mean, especially like in Washington DC where federal, we a federal state, you know, we were a district, you know, so I thought we had more freedom in the open primaries. So it was frustrating ’cause it kind of answered a lot of questions that I had about why certain politicians and council members have had the same position for forever. Forever, my entire life. Yeah. I’m 40 years old and some people have been in the same position over 40 years. 

Robert Pease: Kenyatta quickly recognized the potential of rank choice voting for the District of Columbia, where many long standing elected officials stay in power with a small percentage of primary voter support. 

Kenyatta Smith: This is amazing. This is pretty cool for someone who’s not interested in politics at all. It got me a little more intrigued about how this can probably… rank choice Voting can really put certain people who have no trust in politics. It might give them more, um, trust in politics and give them, um, a way to They can be educated on how to make sure they can have more control of how they can bring in exactly who they want as a council member in their community.

Robert Pease: But, like Lisa and Phillip and many thousands of Americans working to advance non-partisan reforms this year, Kenyatta has encountered concern, resistance and pushback during her outreach. 

Kenyatta Smith: I actually enjoy walking to rooms and people saying, oh, that’s that Initiative 83. She’s pushing that thing that is like, you, she might not say she works with those white hippies or whatever, but it’s cool because the respect level is there. They’re not rude. This can get very, if been certain early on, it’s got really aggressive. People were very nasty to me. But again, my goal was to be just be as person in a space to listen. I will listen. If they want to be heard, I will listen. If they’re open to being educated, I’ll educate them, but the blow is softer. So I actually feel like something has been accomplished. I am actually very proud to stand next to an initiative that there’s so much opposition east of the river where I live. I like competition. I grew up in a home that’s full of friendly competition and I want to continue. I would as much, as much as everybody wants to, I want to keep it black too. I want us to be in power still. I feel strongly about that, but I also want to challenge my community and want them to educate themselves on something new.

Robert Pease: At first Kenyatta’s instinct was to hear those concerns but also push back just a bit on that push back. 

Kenyatta Smith: And that’s what I really try to push is that, you know, it doesn’t mean that we’re gonna allow Republicans or like independence to take over our town, but I think it is important for everyone to have a space to voice their, their um, opinion and what they, what they want to present to their communities. 

Robert Pease: But political identity has deep roots. And is so often fear driven. In the case of DC, those fears are that Democrats will lose political control and that African Americans as the largest voting bloc could lose representation.

Kenyatta Smith: Well, I do have a friend who is a politician here in DC and he strongly supports rank choice voting. However, he is unsure of how it will protect native Washingtonians and how they can and how we keep DC authentic and how we keep dc I’ll just say it, there are a lot of gentrifiers coming in. There are a lot of white people taking control of our taking over major property in DC and some locals and community leaders feel that if rank choice voting is implemented, it will give them a chance to continue to gentrify our town.

Robert Pease: To deal with these challenges she’s had to adapt her own strategy and tactics 

Kenyatta Smith: I have created more order and structure and my outreach goals, which has made it a lot easier for me focusing in on the senior community, east of the river. Also trying to figure out how to engage the youth. Before, I think I was all over the place trying to get everybody to understand and agree to initiative and persuade opposition. That was a waste of my time, not completely, because I feel like the opposition has more of a lighter blow. They’re not aggressively against it. They’re quiet. It’s not as loud. They’re against it, but they’re still helping me behind closed doors, which is helpful, but I’m putting more time into the community and constituents who are interested in learning about initiative 83, which is open primaries to independents and rank choice voting.

Lisa Rice Interview, Continued

Robert Pease: We’ve been speaking with Kenyatta Smith, an Outreach Coordinator for Make All Votes Count DC, getting some political education herself as she educates others on Initiative 83 and the potential for creating healthy competition and collaboration in DC Politics. And that was a point Chairperson Lisa Rice was working to make from behind her “ask me why I can’t vote” sandwich board starting in her home district and moving onto a variety of polling stations on primary day. 

Voter: Why Can’t you vote today?

Lisa Rice: Because I am an independent. I’m not affiliated with the Democratic party or the Republican party and we’re barred from voting in the primary… 

Lisa Rice: Yeah, so I got the idea to where the sandwich board from something that I’d seen actually on, I think it was the Open Primaries website, and they had photographs of people from, I believe it was either the 2020 election cycle or maybe the 2022, I think it was the 2020 election cycle. And there were groups of people holding poster board signs, I can’t vote today. Ask me why. And I saw one lady in the crowd with an actual sort of sandwich board and I said, I’m doing that. That is so me.

Robert Pease: And did people come up to you and ask you?

Lisa Rice: Yes, all day people came up to me and asked at every polling place. We were people of all ages, genders, races. It was phenomenal. Even at one place, one little girl who was nine years old who was there with her grandma, I think. And after they had come out from voting, they left. We saw ’em going in, I saw ’em going out, and then she came back and her grandmother said, she wants to ask you why. And I said, ask me why. Yeah. So people definitely wanted to know why and it was great conversations all day long. All day long.

Robert Pease: And were there a lot of people who didn’t realize that independents are not allowed to vote in party primaries?

Lisa Rice: Absolutely. I would say maybe probably 90, 95% of the people were surprised at the answer because I’m an independent. That’s what I’d say, because I’m an independent. What do you mean? I’m registered as an independent, not affiliated with the Democratic Party, not affiliated with any party in fact. And so on primary day I’m barred from voting and the jaws just dropped. What do you mean? I said, yeah, our taxpayer funded elections, I can’t vote in because I don’t belong to a party.

Robert Pease: How was it talking about Prop 83 on primary day when you had a race with 10 candidates for city council?

Lisa Rice: It was really interesting. Of course, the first thing people ask me is about the signs. So it’s really, the conversations began with the talk about opening the primaries for independent voters. And then I would talk if they had time because a lot of people were in a rush. But if they had time, I talked a little bit more about the ballot initiative and what we wanted to do with rank choice voting and bringing that to the primaries and the generals and people, those who knew what rank choice voting was, their answer immediately was, of course we need it here we have 10 candidates. And those who didn’t, it sort of had this moment of realization that this theoretical thing that I was talking about would actually solve a problem that they as voters were experiencing that day. 

Robert Pease: And I believe you had a discussion with someone on primary day who argued that rank choice voting could actually disadvantage minority candidates. So how do you push back on that feeling that there’s a potential disadvantage?

Lisa Rice: Well, I always like to ask if someone says that there’s a disadvantage. So I really like to pull back and listen and ask them, tell me why. Tell me what you mean. I don’t understand. Because a lot of times, people’s objections aren’t necessarily fact-based, they’re more emotion based. 

Lisa Rice: Look, we’re all people and we don’t like change. We all have our habits we don’t want to change. And I understand that, and I understand why both candidates and voters would want to know what’s in it for me. We always want to know what’s in it for me.

Lisa Rice: So what I say, what’s in it for you, the voter, is that you’re electing someone who will be accountable to a majority of the voters. That is seismic change, that is power. And if you don’t believe that is power continue as we are. And what I say to candidates is this gives you an opportunity to go into office knowing that a majority of people support you, 

Robert Pease: Well, let’s talk about the Pride Parade major event here…What were your sort of major moments, highlights, or challenges or disappointments from the Pride Parade, both from a personal and an organizational standpoint?

Lisa Rice: Well, I would say zero disappointments. It was everything I could have imagined personally and as an organization. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. It was hot, but it wasn’t too hot. It wasn’t as hot as election day, so there’s that. And we had a great time. I loved being on the streets with so many people from dc. A point of serendipity when we were lined up for staging and we had to move a couple of times and move down the street and met all concert interesting people and we ended up being staged behind the group that was representing the Washington Teachers Union, which was great because my son is a DC public school teacher. And so I was like, we’re with the teachers. This is great. 

Lisa Rice: And doing the walking, I really enjoyed that because I ran into people that I didn’t know, but I knew their organizations and I ran into people that I’d expected to see, but I didn’t know they were with certain organizations. 

Lisa Rice: So we had a great opportunity and were really successful in getting a lot of signatures even before we departed and then walking along. And we had Lady Liberty leading us and Lady Justice, those two were leading our contingent. And Lady Liberty was awesome. She stirred up the crowd and got people chanting. We got people chanting. We had a fun time. I had people that were with the contingent come to me later and say, if there’s any bit of cynicism that I had about democracy or about our voting process or about DC politics, it all got washed away today. I had such a good time and people are so receptive to our message. So that was really good. That was really good.

Robert Pease: Has there ever been a point at which you felt like I’ve taken on too much here, that you didn’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel? Or have you been pretty confident from the beginning that this was going to fly?

Lisa Rice: Good Lord. Every day I think, what is that light? Is that sunshine or is it a train coming to hit me? Come on. I mean, anybody who is doing something, especially I would say that it’s changing the status quo. I know that this is right. I know that this is good. I know this will change politics for the better. I know this will be so good for DC and I’m really excited. I really want it to happen. But there are days, of course, when the energy is low or maybe you’ve heard negative news or someone’s driving home a point, or you see one of your colleagues that’s involved in a debate and it’s not going well, or their points are being misconstrued. We had a lot of concerted effort during the first half of our signature collection. And a lot lies were being told. I mean, straight up lies.

Lisa Rice: And we had to divert our attention from the positive energy of gathering signatures as being a hundred percent of what we were doing. And some of us had to devote ourselves to addressing the misstatements. 

Robert Pease: Well, thinking back to that first interview in January, you had introduced us to several members of the team, Kenyata, Nate, Miguel. Have you been able to pretty much retain the people that you wanted to retain even despite some of the challenges, the political pushback, the misinformation?

Lisa Rice: Yeah, we’ve been able to retain most of the folks that signed on either as paid staff or volunteers. The team is really strong. There have been people who wanted to collect signatures. And I think, again, that whole starting in the bitter, bitter, cold, sort of discouraged some folks. And I think that those who don’t understand the initiative fully have had some challenges. But I think as with any movement, any organization, those who are fully committed, stay committed to the end. 

Robert Pease: And tell us about when you first met Kenyata, who has told us that she’s never been involved really in a politics effort like this, or prior to working on Rank Choice voting had never been involved and…

Robert Pease: Our sense is that she has, I don’t want to overstate it, but felt some pushback that was difficult for her, that she’s been called a Trump girl, and just things that are wildly inaccurate, but they bother her. Have you had to counsel Kenyatta or other people?

Lisa Rice: Yes. And not just her, but other people. Because of my years of experience in the democracy reform movement on the national level, I know that the things that those of us who want to engage in change, I know how we will be attacked. And what I’ve told everyone is it doesn’t matter what party you belong to or you don’t belong to when you want to change the system, when you engage in ruffling the feathers of people who are in power, you will be attacked. It doesn’t matter that we are in super majority DC or we could be in Republican majority Oklahoma. The talking points of the opposition are exactly the same. 

Robert Pease: But is it also surprising in this effort and your work with United America, how many people in our democracy don’t really believe in democracy? They just want their party to win?

Lisa Rice: Look, oh boy, you just opened a can of worms. Okay, yes, partisans just want their party to win. A lot of people are like that. I just want the party to win. I think a lot of people have had their eyes opened at certain points in their lives, or at certain points in the last 10 years, the last decade, this century, that the party, the parties don’t serve everyone that they claim to serve. 

Robert Pease: And who are some of the people that you draw some positive energy or inspiration from?

Lisa Rice: Well, it won’t be anybody that anyone will know, except for people in my family. And I would say that’s my parents, Arthur and Lillian Rice. And they were very active in voting. They’re the people who taught me that the most important thing you can do is vote. And my very early memories of childhood are going to the polling station with my parents. It was a big event as it was for many middle class and working black families. 1964 was the first time that a lot of black people felt safe in going to the polls. So my heroes are my parents because they taught me the importance of being involved and were with me when I registered to vote at age 18, and made sure that I was voting. And it’s just like everything we learn, most of the good things that we learn at home.

Robert Pease: Are they still with…

Lisa Rice: You? They are not. My mother passed away in 2019. My father passed away eight years before that. In 2011,

Robert Pease: Well, what do you think they would say about your current effort?

Lisa Rice: They would love it. They would absolutely love it. 

Outro

Robert Pease: Lisa Rice, Chair of Make All Votes Count DC and official proposer of Initiative 83 making the connection there between the long struggle of African Americans to gain the right to vote with the importance of also having election systems where votes really do matter. 

Robert Pease: Lisa’s team is nearing the point of submitting well over the 23,000 signatures needed for Initiative 83 to be on the ballot this November. But there is always resistance to change from the powers that be, be those powers red or blue. So we’ll be checking back with Lisa and the Make All Votes Count team as they transition their effort from signature submission to the election day ballot when DC voters may have the chance to inject some competition into their elections and some accountability into their elected officials. 

Robert Pease: Next up on the bumper crop of non-partisan election reform efforts aiming to be harvested in this fall’s election, we’ll be speaking with John Opdyke Founder and President of Open Primaries on the continued growth of non-partisan or independent voters nationwide. 

John Opdycke (Upcoming Guest): It’s both across the board age wise, geographic wise, and ideology wise. I mean, the rise of independence is happening in red states, blue states and purple states, young voters and old voters, conservative voters and liberal voters, and increasing number of voters that don’t fall into neat ideological categories 

Robert Pease: We’ll also learn about a 2024 ballot effort to open primaries to independent voters in South Dakota and some notable press attention to this effort: 

John Opdycke: There’s both been growth. There’s been media sensitivity. They’re covering what we’re doing. I mean, A, B, C News National. When South Dakota filed their signatures, a, b, c News National covered that. That would never have happened in 2016. 

Robert Pease: As well as a unique ballot initiative in Arizona telling the major political parties to either open up or pay up: 

John Opdycke: And I think if it’s successful, a lot of people around the country are going to look to Arizona as a model they want to emulate in some form or fashion, because what they’ve done is they’ve said, we’re going to have nonpartisan primaries. All voters are treated the same, all candidates are treated the same. We’re going to combine that with opening the presidential primaries to independent voters. And if the parties don’t like that, they can pay for the primaries themselves.

Robert Pease: We hope you’ll join us for that episode, part of our non partisan election reform series running through November. We also hope you’ll share us on social media and check out our Youtube page for video highlights of all our season 4 guests and episodes. The Purple Principle is created by a talented team of audio reformers: Kevin A. Kline, Sr. Audio Engineer; Vienna Maglio, Bookings & Field Producer; Alex Couraud, Associate Producer for Audio; Trevor Prophet, Digital Ops & Strategy; Mary Claire Kogler, Video Production; and Jason Tomczak, Fact Checking & Research. 

Robert Pease: The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge Production. Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney.