The Cut, H&M and US voters

[Thedom]

The Cut having a snarky side eye at Duchess Difficult and her British Prince, the letter writing from the staff sounds totally like one of MM's harebrained and patronising ideas, i have a vision of them all feverishly writing letters as MM stomps around their desks in her high heels, providing her 'constructive criticism' feedback. They really are a laugh a minute.

"For example, do you think any unregistered voter was persuaded to get their shit together because Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reminded them?

In honor of National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, employees at the couple’s Archewell Foundation got together to write personalized letters to unregistered voters encouraging them to register. Whether Harry and Meghan were part of the letter-writing campaign remains unknown

It’s kind of funny that a literal prince who can’t vote in a U.S. election is saying this"

web.archive.org/web/20240918222930/www.thecut.com/article/prince-harry-meghan-markle-voter-registration.html

The foundations can't endorse candidates, but the celebrities as individuals can.

There's nothing unusual about Archewell urging voter registration - groups of all sorts do letter / postcard writing ahead of elections in the US to encourage voter registration or to encourage voting for a specific candidate. Voter registration is politically neutral.

I have a friend who is a ward captain in the local Democratic Party organisation, who held a postcard writing event two weeks ago in her house. There were probably thirty-five people there all writing postcards and using addresses supplied by the local state congressional representative and state senator. The postage was paid by the local Dem organisation. Getting out the vote is quite a sophisticated business (there's a lot more to it than just writing postcards, obviously).

• and I participated in the postcard writing even though I'm not a citizen, and therefore can't vote.

"They" don't buy the list of registered voters. It is obtained, for free, by organizations, and sometimes the parties themselves. Volunteers then help write the letters. Voter registration information is Public record in the US.

Here is just one of the US organizations you can work with yourself to support Harris.

https://votefwd.org/

A tax exempt organization can not appear partisian. Thus Archewell can encourage people to vote, but can not support a candidate.

Meghan and Harry can endorse whoever they want and have chosen not to. Most celebrities don't.

Nobody knows what his Visa is, but it is doubtful that it is an A1. He is not here on behalf of his government.

travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/other-visa-categories/visas-diplomats.html#

This could because they are actual foundations. Archewell calls itself a foundation, but is a public charity that needs to follow charity legislation.

Yes well that's the million dollar mystery, isn't it, and the whole point of the Heritage Foundation case.

And yes, legal commentators have discussed whether Harry is on an A1 Visa that has been renewed or carried on from the years where he did visit the US as a representative of HM Government.

@Americanpseudoroyaltorture it's been said that the Heritage Foundation's case has been squashed after some kind of secret ruling, though I don't know how reliable to report is

Which wouldn't suit me at all as I prefer justice to be done in plain sight, whether it's Harry or anyone else

www.yahoo.com/news/prince-harry-visa-drugs-lawsuit-145010749.html

The case has ended @Puzzledandpissedoff with an ex parte order which is not open to public scrutiny. It hasn't been dismissed in favour of DHS to anyone's knowledge, nor is it known whether Heritage have won. One possibility is that the judge has ruled in Heritage's favour, but the ruling (and information under the FOI) needs to remain private pending DHS appealing (as it's an FOI case, any appeal would be nullified by the info requested actually being made public by an order favorable to Heritage). We may find out, we may never find out. One thing we know is that DHS came up with a good number of unconvincing reasons to keep it private.

Many thanks, @Americanpseudoroyaltorture - I really appreciate the clarification

You can only register online if your signature is already on file with the DMV which is an issue for poorer generally disenfranchised people.

This is an interesting take on the Sussexes election stance from the Telegraph.
Sorry, it’s behind a paywall but if anybody could archive it?
The bit I found particularly interesting was when it talks about them talking to Gavin Newsom when they moved to Montecito. I wasn’t aware of that 🤷‍♀️
See here

Revealed: Why Harry and Meghan are deliberately avoiding the US election
Oprah Winfrey’s celebrity love-in with Kamala Harris would have once been a slam dunk for Harry and Meghan. Why weren’t they there?

I cant read much futher than the headline above - so can only comment on it.

My suggestion is that they have asked the wrong Q or made the wrong assumption - are they deliberately avoiding it? - or are they being swerved / cold shouldered as potentially a toxic brand due to the widespread, repeated, persistent and consistent bullying allegations?

Would be interested to read the rest of the article though.

Here’s the just of their hypothesis

Oh dear. That's got to hurt a bit.

Meant to quote post above this one. Damn.

That makes sense @smilesy

"Ouch" indeed....

It's not fair (copyright/legal reasons) to quote the whole thing, but being swerved might not be a factor - they mention another reason why the Democrats might not be particularly interested in having their support:

... from A Democratic strategist in California who knows the governor and the party machine there, "With all due respect to Meghan Markle," said the source, "given the star power that we have in California, she's kind of in the minor ranks of them to be honest." Ouch.

I totally agree that an endorsement from Meghan would be small potatoes. I applaud Archewell trying to increase voter registration in the US though, and she may reach some black voters. Very few in the US really cares what her opinion is on the candidates. But that also applies to any other celebrity. Except Taylor. Her endorsement is the only one that matters IMO. LOL

The republicans have purged millions of voters in several states in the US, so any way to spread the word to check voter registration is a win in my book.

You're not "disenfranchised" if you have the right to vote.

The republicans have purged millions of voters in several states in the US, so any way to spread the word to check voter registration is a win in my book

Excuse my ignorance, but how have they done that?

Qre you asking how or why? Lol

All states have rules in place to clean up voter rolls. People who have died, people who have moved, havent voted in X number of elections, etc. Every state has a different set of rules they can exploit.

Right now there are several republican led states who are purging voter rolls in mass. More than the "normal" clean up.

Texas is the worst offender. IIRC they have purged over 1 million voters this year. Texas also has a deadline to register to vote and does not allow online registration. Eligible voters may very well find they have been purged when they go to vote and will be unable to vote because they are no longer registered. Thus disenfranchised them.

The why is more complicated. In Texas, democrats typically do not vote as often as Republicans, so they are likely getting purged and don't know it. This will also effect minority voters who will not be able to take time off work to reregister.

Anyhow, that is a generalized overview of how the purging works. There are nuances and differences in every state though, so if you are more interested in my explanation you should research it.

Wow. Thanks for the explanation. I didn’t realise that could be done. Interesting take on democracy