PLI Bulletin

Voting Machines, Community Schools, Best Cities and More

Posted on October 24, 2018

Voting Systems Reform Act: Our voting systems are under attack from both international cyber warriors and domestic right-wing partisans. The Voting Systems Reform Act would require all jurisdictions to defend themselves by using modern voting machines and provisional ballots, limiting voter purges, and by creating a state Election Review Commission to publicize voting system problems and recommend solutions.

How to persuade with questions: What if you’re trying to persuade someone who is fairly close to being an impossible conservative partisan? Ask your listener a question. Asked well, a question avoids a negative response and establishes the topic of discussion—which you can steer to your most likely point of agreement. For more detail, read the latest IdeaLog, our blog intended to raise eyebrows and engage minds.

Confronting Inequality and Structural Racism by Building Community Schools: This webinar will explain that the community schools model is a powerful evidence-based equity strategy and describe how to do it. This discussion complements the Community Schools Playbook, a new resource which PLI helped create and is available here. For more information or to register for the webinar, click here.

Seven State Options to Reduce the Number of Uninsured and Stabilize Insurance Markets: (October 30 @ 2pm Eastern) The Affordable Care Act is under attack at the federal level. This report from FamiliesUSA provides practical ideas for state governments to hold down insurance costs while expanding coverage.

Of Conde Nast’s “Best Cities in the U.S.,” 42 of 50 are in east- or west-coast states: In the annual Conde Nast Readers’ Choice Awards, 23 of 25 best smaller cities are on the east or west coast (with Charleston, SC earning #1) and 19 of 25 best larger cities are in those states or Hawaii (with Chicago winning #1).

Models for abortion rights: The Playbook for Abortion Rights is available for free on the PLI website as HTML text and/or a PDF download. We offer 38 model abortion rights bills for state and/or local policymakers.