November 1, 1996

Voter Guides: Protest Votes and Cheat Sheets

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Tired of the two-party system but unsure about casting a protest vote? WebActive‘s pragmatic analysis helps you make your vote count either way. They cast a critical eye over Clinton’s first-term performance, endorsing him for president, but encouraging a vote for Nader in states where Clinton is ahead (or behind) by a large margin. An interactive map shows which category your state falls into.

In the more hotly contested state and local races, the problem for many voters may be a surplus, not a dearth, of choices. If you don’t have the entire weekend to devote to deciphering your ballot pamphlet, you might want to consult a cheat-sheet: the endorsement lists and scorecards put out by your favorite advocacy groups. For example:

  • The ACLU rates all members of Congress with a scorecard showing how they voted on key civil liberties issues, including Internet censorship, school vouchers, national ID cards, wiretapping, Immigration, HIV in the military, and English Only.

  • Both the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club endorse candidates based on their environmental track record.

  • NOW pinpoints key races for women to watch and endorses candidates based on their support for feminist issues.

  • The Human Rights Campaign scores the 104th Congress on issues of concern to gay and lesbian Americans. [Watch out for the 157 members of the House and 14 members of the Senate who scored zero percent.]

And don’t forget to check your local alternative weekly for comprehensive coverage of state and district races.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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