The Aug/Sept Advocate is here. Now that the primaries have wrapped up, it’s all about November’s mid-term elections. We have a conversation about voter suppression with Keesha Gaskins-Nathan, Democratic Practices Director of the Rockefeller Bros Fund, coming up in September. Self-styled “Patriots” are spreading disinformation around the state based on the Big Lie about election fraud. (Hint: fraud has occurred in MN elections at an almost unmeasurably small rate.) Our bedrock right to vote in free and fair elections is under attack, and there are ways to combat the lies and help preserve our trustworthy system–used successfully by 80 percent of eligible voters in 2020. (We can do even better with automatic voter registration.) We have questions for candidates; you can ask them! We have a link to Vote Forward; they’ll help you complete short, non-partisan letters to encourage low-turnout voters to cast ballots in November. Take courage from the brave people testifying to the January 6 committee. Democracy is not a blessing bestowed upon a passive population. We all have to defend it–peaceably!