Shenna Bellows
@shennabellows
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ME Secretary of State, Former State Senator, Executive Director, ACLU, Holocaust & Human Rights Center. Tweets are my own and not official. Follow @MESecofState
Manchester, Maine
Joined April 2009
Also, let’s be clear. The President has pitted the 50 states against each other competing for supplies rather than using his power to order, authorize and pay for national production. Maine is doing its best, but competing against 49 other states isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
"Officials in more than 200 American cities, large and small, report a dire need for face masks, ventilators and other emergency equipment to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a survey released on Friday.". We are all Gretchen Whitmer now.
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The rule of law in a democratic republic depends upon the foundational principle that no one is above the law. American democracy has never bowed down to any king.
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Same day voter registration is one of the key reasons Maine leads the nation in voter participation.
If you're looking for eclipse glasses right now you understand why same day voter registration is important.
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It’s about protecting Maine voter privacy and protecting them from intimidation or harassment, especially in an era of rampant online harassment.
Several conservative groups are pushing to make voter rolls public in what they say is a crowd-sourcing effort to identify potential voter fraud. Election officials in some states are pushing back over concerns it will lead to voter intimidation.
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It shouldn’t be up to the Governor or any other one person whether or not you have the right to vote. We are proud that in Maine every citizen has the right to vote regardless of current or former incarceration.
A huge voting rights rollback just took place in Virginia. Governor Glenn Youngkin announced he was no longer automatically restoring people's voting rights. What this means is quite exceptionally harsh: lifetime disenfranchisement is back in Virginia.
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Maine ❤️ ranked choice voting.
I’m proudly watching Maine’s Secretary of State @shennabellows speaking to the @DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee about how ranked choice voting works in Maine and can be implemented in our presidential primary. Dirigo. We lead.
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My obligation as Secretary of State is to follow the law and uphold the Constitution. That’s my sole consideration in evaluating any candidate qualifications for office.
The Constitution sets many qualifications for holding the highest office. A 22-year old can't run for president. Shakira can’t be on the ballot. And there is a strong case to be made that every state secretary of state has to take seriously whether Donald Trump is disqualified.
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2024 would be a very good year to elect our nation’s first black woman President.
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Congratulations to Alaska in a successful ranked choice tabulation. Their live streaming of the process is such a good reminder that election administration is technical, precise and a little bit boring. As it should be! Counting every vote is not that hard.
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Maine Senate just passed online voter registration! So proud that here in Maine we continue to strengthen voting rights, but that should be the case everywhere. Time to pass the #ForThePeopleAct.
The voting rights of people in other states matter as much as our own. We must fight so all voters can have the same unabridged access to the ballot box—regardless of where they live.🗳
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If Alaska or New York would like some tips on fair, accurate and efficient tabulation in ranked choice voting, Maine is standing by to provide advice. We love ranked choice voting, which helps ensure the will of the people is represented.
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To be fair, you've only been in a position to do something about this for 22 years.
We can't ignore the impact of climate change on our public health, environment, & economy. This should cause all of us, including the Administration, to take a harder look at the consequences of inaction & use what is known about risks to inform policy.
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I stand with @katiehobbs and @JocelynBenson as they stand up for our democracy in face of lies, misogyny, partisanship and dangerous attacks on the fundamental constitutional right of every American to vote. They're democracy heroes.
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Same day voter registration was passed in 1973 in Maine by a Republican-controlled legislature. It’s a wonderful safeguard against accidental or illegal voter purges. It should be national policy.
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Our clerks work hard to make sure Maine elections are free, fair and secure. Strong chain of custody protections, checks and balances and a paper ballot protect against fraud. To suggest otherwise is a lie.
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Make no mistake, we’re entering into an economic crisis, but one only solved once we resolve the underlying public health crisis. You can’t defeat coronavirus by gutting social security or bailing out oil shake billionaires and cruise ship owners.
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Time for Congress to restore the provisions of the Voting Rights Act eviscerated by the Supreme Court. Time to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the #FreedomtoVote Act.
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Good for DOJ for making it clear that post election interviews of voters about their ballots is illegal voter intimidation. Also, a secret ballot is key to our democracy.
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I voted today! So proud of Maine’s law allowing no excuse absentee voting. Election Day is two weeks away. What’s your plan to vote?
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2 weeks to Election Day. Love Maine’s no excuse absentee voting available to all until close of business October 31. I’ve voted. Have you?
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And may Maine lead the nation in turnout. :).
My two big wishes for the 2024 election:. High turnout .& low drama. Let’s make them both happen! 🗳️.
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Many of you have asked if Brandon and I are safe. We are. Please see my personal Facebook post here.
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Love this quote! Also, so inspired by @SenWarren and her leadership in getting big money out of politics. We’ve made so much progress in states like Maine. It’s time to take these reforms national. #S1Townhall.
A6: @RepPressley says: “The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.” But leaders have to spend too much time hobnobbing with rich donors. Small-dollar public financing helps empower people to run and helps ensure leaders work for working people. #S1TownHall.
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In two weeks I can visit my 101-year old grandmother. Thank you @POTUS, @GovJanetMills and @nirav_mainecdc Grateful.
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I only lasted five minutes more than Brandon. Tapping out. But excited to vote for Biden as soon as I can. Let’s restore civility. #LetThePeopleDecide.
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This is so important. Thank you, @POTUS for standing up for our young people.
"The onslaught of state laws targeting transgender Americans + families is wrong. As I said last year, especially to our younger transgender Americans, I'll always have your back as your President, so you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential.". My President. #SOTU.
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To sign voter suppression into law on the anniversary of the completion of the Selma to Montgomery March is cruel and a clear indication we need federal standards set forth in the #ForThePeopleAct That march was a catalyst for the Voting Rights Act. May today too be a catalyst.
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An honor to be sworn in today as Maine's first female Secretary of State.
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In age of misinformation, one way to evaluate truth is to believe people based on their actions. Especially if their words have belied their actions in the past. Especially important today.
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Finished the Millinocket Half Marathon today! Grateful for Team Wabanaki. Grateful to finish.
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In a democracy, the people do the hiring and firing of politicians on Election Day. When a Governor fires an elected official of the opposite party and replaces them with someone of his own party, well, that’s not democracy.
BREAKING: DeSantis suspends four Broward County School Board members, appoints replacements
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This is small town America. When I got threats this winter and swatted - it was my neighbors and my family - some who didn’t agree with me politically - who were looking out for me. Community, not bitterness and hate, is what defines living in small towns everywhere.
Walz: That family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do. They may not love like you do. But they're your neighbors. And you look out for them. And they look out for you. Everybody belongs.
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I'm excited to announce that I am running to be Maine's first female Secretary of State. In 2011 I co-chaired Protect Maine Votes - an amazing grassroots coalition that worked hard to restore same day voter registration in our state. It was incredibly meaningful.
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We need to come together around our democracy - around voting rights, which are fundamental to everything else we care about.
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So after 3 years, I caught COVID. Feeling grateful to be vaccinated & boosted, grateful for Paxlovid, grateful to loved ones plying me with nourishment and hopeful that those same loved ones as well as those who celebrated with me last week stay healthy. The pandemic is not over.
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Some folks talk about the success of voter turnout 2020 as a reason not to enact federal standards. Well, 19 states saw free, fair and secure elections in 2020 as a problem somehow. Past time for the #FreedomToVoteAct.
In an unprecedented year so far for voting legislation, 19 states have enacted 33 laws that will make it harder for Americans to vote.
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So proud of my friend Anna McDougal for her historic induction into the 2024 Maine Sports Hall of Fame today for her international skiing accomplishments. She’s the first Special Olympics Athlete in Maine to receive this honor!
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The fundamental right of any American citizen to vote freely, fairly and to have their vote counted is the premise of our democracy. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not values to be compromised away. #FreedomToVoteAct.
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One ranked choice voting tabulation and one House recount complete. Congratulations to Congressman Jared Golden and State Rep Mike Lajoie on their wins! Mainers should be proud of our secure and accurate elections.
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Am I the only one that thinks it’s nuts that polls close at 7 in Georgia? In Maine we’re proud to stay open until 8 pm to maximize voter participation.
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Love this graphic! Love Maine’s awesome voting rights even better.
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Judges matter. In some ways more than anything else a chief executive does.
Since 1989, the American Bar Association has assessed federal judicial nominees for consideration by the Senate. Of the 1,400 or so nominees assessed, just 22 have been rated "not qualified". Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who just struck down the flight mask mandate, is one of them.
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Sometimes Twitter is not a bad place. Like discovering that a star of your favorite sitcom from high school and college years is passionately pro-voting rights AND in your mentions. Thank you @OfficialJLD for supporting rock star Secretaries like @NMSOSMaggie.
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An honor to be re-elected unanimously and without opposition to be Maine’s Secretary of State today!
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Just plugged in my electric vehicle at the BMV charger at 101 Hospital Street, one of a few we’ve installed this year at BMV offices. Happy Earth Day!
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74 days until Election Day! In Maine you can register to vote and request your absentee ballot online now, so your clerk will send you a ballot in early October. What’s your plan to vote? Get registered. Get ready!.
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So proud of my friend, the Hon. Rachel Talbot Ross, nominated Maine’s first Black Speaker of the House today! #mepolitics
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When I lived in Panama where abortion was illegal, I had a friend who almost died from an illegal abortion. I never forgot that. And while I marched and worked to prevent that day from happening here, here we are. So sad. Angry. But determined. And grateful to live in Maine.
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Listening to @NPRCodeSwitch and feeling grateful as someone who benefited from Pell Grants to go to college and marveling that the woman behind that program, Lois Dickson Rice was a trailblazing black woman from Portland, Maine. How is this history not better known in our state?.
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Good luck, @SaraGideon, @BetsySweetME and @BeeKay4ME. If an incumbent Governor in KY can't keep his seat where Trump won by 30%, I think an incumbent Senator in Maine (Clinton +3%) may be about to have the race of her life. #mepolitics.
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This story is horrifying. Incredible to see the lengths at which votes are discarded by partisans. Grateful to be in Maine where our elections are free, fair and secure.
.@MargaretMcMulla with a depressing but essential first person look at 11/7 voting in Mississippi. Thanks Margaret and all others who continue to bear witness and work for change. @BulwarkOnline
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The immorality of the death penalty is so clear when the state executes a likely innocent man…against the wishes of not only the defense but also the prosecutor and victim’s family.
Tonight, Missouri executed an innocent man. Our hearts are with Marcellus and his loved ones.
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Remember when a Republican Governor shut down Maine govt & Dems controlled Maine House? Maine Senate Rs stepped up. unanimously to do the right thing, voting to reopen over Governor’s protest. Collins, McConnell could learn something by calling Hon. Mike Thibodeau. #mepolitics.
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A pleasure to deliver certification of the official election results to Governor Mills and witness the swearing in of the extraordinary Senator Craig Hickman today! Thank you to the amazing elections officials who worked hard to deliver the results in time for swearing in today.
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Thank you to the voters of SD14 and my amazing volunteers. Honored to win re-election to the Maine Senate tonight. #mepolitics.
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Don't forget #PlannedParenthood provides women's healthcare, far beyond abortion. Extremists are targeting our basic right to healthcare.
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Thanks to artist Robert Shetterly for installing these Americans Who Tell the Truth portraits in my office! This display of civil rights heroes, Frederick Douglas, Frances Perkins, Sojourner Truth and John Lewis reminds us as Lewis said, “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.”
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This is insane. Thank you, Sen. Susan Collins for catapulting women back into the dark ages or forward into Handmaid’s Tale with your Supreme Court Justice. #mepolitics.
The Supreme Court refused to review a Kentucky law that compels abortion providers to insert a transvaginal probe, describe the fetus, point out its organs, and play the sound of its heartbeat. So the law stands.
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Absolutely lovely to join the Maine delegation for breakfast this morning in Chicago!
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Lies about elections are at the root of the rise in violence against election officials. It needs to stop.
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Congratulations to the first woman Governor of Maine! Janet Mills is extraordinary! #mepolitics.
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Thank you @GovJanetMills for signing into law LD1363 and LD1575 today to strengthen voting rights. Online absentee ballot tracking, absentee drop boxes, student IDs for registration and so much more. Now it’s the US Senate’s turn. #mepolitics #ForThePeopleAct.
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Your move, Senator Collins. This, of all moments, is your Margaret Chase Smith moment. #mepolitics
UPDATE: 48 senators now support the Keep Families Together Act. We're making progress, but we still need Republicans to join. If you're represented by a Republican senator, tell them to support S.3036. #KeepFamiliesTogether.
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This political violence is reprehensible. In Maine, legislators,including me when I was state senator, have always shared our home addresses. It’s small town constituent services at its best. Now online extremists are exploiting this transparency to terrorize. Shame on them.
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It shouldn’t be easier to vote in Maine than in Georgia. And Congress can fix those disparities by passing the #ForThePeopleAct.
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@PressHerald Fair to subject the perpetrator to a story perhaps but not cool to identify and single out the victim in this incident against her will or wishes. You subject her to another horrible experience. You make her a potential target. You encourage silence in the face of harassment.
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Judge Jackson is extraordinary, and it’s shameful that the hearing today has devolved into racist attacks on her integrity. She will be a powerful Supreme Court Justice. This answer - all of her answers - have shown a deliberative thoughtfulness and judicial temperament.
Judge Jackson was asked about her position on the board of trustees at Georgetown Day School – the first racially integrated school in the nation’s capital. Her response was deeply powerful. #ConfirmJackson
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Happy Pride! The rain held off for the Hallowell Pride Parade led by Grand Marshal Senator Craig Hickman. I walked with Rep. Karen Montell & Rep. Dan Shagoury.
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So much policy in that speech. So much heart. As SoS I LOVED the promise to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Advancing the freedom that unlocks all other freedoms.
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And all 11 towns are in. We won 10 out of 11. Thank you Chelsea, Farmingdale, Gardiner, Hallowell, Manchester, Monmouth, Pittston, Randolph, Readfield and Winthrop and West Gardiner which I appear to have lost by only 35 votes. #mepolitics.
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Ominous. Thank you, Susan Collins, for helping confirm someone clearly so hostile to Roe that access to abortion may well be denied to the next generation. Bringing us backward.
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Honored to be the Democratic nominee and look forward to tomorrow.
Democrats nominate @ShennaBellows as #Maine's next Secretary of State. Senator Bellows, a former Executive #director of the Maine #ACLU, will be the 1st woman to hold the post when the full Legislature approves her on Dec 2. #resist #mepolitics #VoteBlue
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So I was just live on Facebook for most of 3 days straight explaining how vote verification and ranked choice voting work. So if Twitter shuts down, I’ll be back over there.
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Thank you @ratemyskyperoom A true honor.
Top Secretary of State setup. Good lamp work. Dirigo. Maps are art. Has a bird. 10/10 @shennabellows
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“Political violence has no place in democracy.” Amen, Mr. President.
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“Even when we don’t agree with each other, we can find a way to live with each other.” -President Obama. Indeed. Or as the country song goes, most people are good.
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I never thought I’d be on a Russian blacklist, but I’m honored to be included on this list. Count me in on the side of freedom and democracy.
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Wonderful to see Grandma again today! Thank you @nirav_mainecdc and @GovJanetMills for access to the vaccine and good public health policies. Also she looks great at 101.
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What this means is that coverage for pre-existing conditions becomes in effect optional. Tell me what insurance companies will cover some of the more expensive pre-existing conditions out of goodness of own heart. States need to stand up on pre-existing conditions. #mepolitics.
Effective today, “insurance” that doesn’t include coverage for the following events👇 will be eligible to count towards insurance— *and get subsidies that currently go to the ACA. States need to apply for a waiver that the Trump Admin is allowing as of today. 2/
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A big win for busy Mainers - secure and convenient online voter registration. I can’t wait to implement this. Every state in the nation should do this, and the feds should help through the #ForThePeopleAct.
Bill to allow online voter registration clears Maine Senate #mepolitics
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On climate justice and reproductive rights, @SaraGideon has been a leader since her first day in office. I’ve worked hard to defeat Collins in the past, but this time we’re going to prevail, and Sara will be a wonderful US Senator.
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It may be #EarthWindAndFireDay, but it’s also our anniversary. 9 years married! Dinner (outdoors) at Slate’s tonight where we had our first date 13 years ago. 🎶
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In Maine today the House voted for two bills to make voting easier - ongoing absentee ballot status from @SpeakerFecteau and LD1575 allowing use of student IDs to prove identity for registration! Dirigo! Also, time to pass #ForThePeopleAct cause Mainers alone can’t save democracy.
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I’m incredibly honored to testify before Congress Thursday in favor of HR1. Let’s strengthen our democracy!.
On Thursday (2/25), the Committee will hold a hearing entitled “Strengthening American Democracy.” Tune in! .
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Thank you to law enforcement who worked so hard to find the perpetrator. We grieve. We remember. Hopefully, we can heal.
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“There’s no place in America for political violence. You cannot say you love your country only when you win.” Thank you, President Biden for your leadership, for understanding that democracy and the rule of law is what makes us strong. We all have grateful hearts.
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American elections are free, fair and secure. Anyone who says otherwise is uninformed or worse, deliberately lying to perpetrate grift or upend our democracy.
A definitive review showing infinitesimal and inconsequential voter fraud incidents in 2020 presidential election in six closet battleground states, from @AP:
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Prefer registering in person rather than online? In Maine elections are run by city and town clerks, so visit your town office or city hall. Or register to vote when you go to the BMV! We make it easy.
99 days until Election Day! Are you registered? In Maine you can register to vote in person any day including on Election Day. But why wait?
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Today I met virtually with fellow Secretaries including @JenaGriswold @MNSteveSimon @NellieGorbea and Texas Democrats who are sounding the alarm about dangerous proposals to strip Texans of voting rights. So clear that we need the #ForThePeopleAct to protect voting rights.
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“The most fundamental right in America is the right to vote.” Pass the Freedom to Vote Act. Pass the John Lewis Act. Yes!.
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Excited to vote for Biden and Harris. Also the rest of the debates should be virtual. Worrying about pink eye and coughing or sneezing distracts from the real issues.
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And it came down to one vote from Susan Collins in the Senate. Argh.
Your browsing history is no longer private.
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“A harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us…We are all in this together.” -MVP Kamala Harris.
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