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The Voter’s Speakeasy featuring unbiased reporting and insight into life at Vote Smart from our staff, interns, and volunteers.

236 Years Later - Get the Facts you Deserve!

2012 July 05

236 years ago yesterday,* some people set in motion a really good idea. It was so good that it galvanized thousands of people. 

People from different towns, cities, and colonies, from different backgrounds, different ages and different religions, came together and sacrificed – their time, their labor, and some their lives – just to see that idea realized. And it wasn't easy. We celebrate the 4th of July with parades, barbecues and fireworks and sometimes forget about the 14th of January, “Ratification Day”, which commemorates the ratification of the Treaty of Paris in 1784; 8 hard fought years after the Declaration of Independence was signed. And it wasn't just 8 years of suffering and sacrifice that secured the promise laid down in that original document. In many ways we're still fighting for it today.
 
We don't mean to be heavy handed with the metaphors, but sometimes they are worth pointing out. Just like back then, people from different towns and cities, different backgrounds, different ages, religions, different political beliefs are all coming together to work for another really good idea – Project Vote Smart. Here, we do the work that needs to be done to keep our democracy strong by providing quality, non-partisan information to every American citizen, free of charge, so they can elect those to office who will truly represent them. And it isn't easy. It has taken over 20 years and countless hours to realize that idea. It's such a simple idea that a lot of people don ...

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