True the Vote

July 04, 2026 | Read Online Hi Friend — Two hundred and fifty years ago, a small group of ordinary people put their names to a piece of paper that should have gotten them hanged. They had no army worth the name, no treasury, no guarantee of anything but the risk in front of them. What they had was a conviction — that a free people are meant to govern themselves, and that the consent of the governed is not a slogan but a sacred trust. That trust runs through every ballot cast in this country....

July 04, 2026 | Read Online 250 Years: Continuing the Work of Self-Government Hi Friend, On Saturday, America turns 250. Two and a half centuries ago, a small group of ordinary people made an extraordinary claim: that government exists to secure the rights of the people, not the other way around. But signing that declaration was the beginning of the work, not the end of it. The generations that followed kept liberty alive by doing the unglamorous work of self-government—writing laws, serving...

July 04, 2026 Volunteers: Time to Speak Up Hi Friend, The courts handed us two losses this week on mail-in ballots. But there's a door still open, and it shuts Thursday, July 2 at 5:00 PM Eastern. The U.S. Postal Service is taking public comments on a proposed rule that would finally bring some transparency to ballot mail — the Election Mail logo on envelopes, barcodes so ballots can be tracked, and a reconciliation process to match ballots returned against ballots sent. By law, USPS has to...

July 04, 2026 | Read Online Hi Friend — This has been a hard week for those of us who care about election integrity, particularly as it relates to mail-in ballots. But there's an opportunity to have our voices heard — a United States Postal Service call for public comment that ends this Thursday, July 2. Quick background: First, in the courts. Two rulings landed in the past week, and neither went our way. On June 25, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in a case brought by 23 states and...

July 04, 2026 | Read Online A quick note before we dive in: we're hearing our emails are landing in spam — or not arriving at all. To stay on our engaged reader list, just click here. Nothing else needed. And if you're new or it's been a while — welcome! Our mission hasn't changed: the fight for transparency, accountability, and trust in our elections matters now more than ever. Glad you're with us. The TTV Weekly Wrap Up If there was a theme this week, it was control of the process. From...

July 04, 2026 | Read Online How the Rules Matter Before the Ballots Do Hi Friend, Elections don't start on Election Day. By the time you're standing in line, the candidates have been chosen, the procedures adopted, the deadlines set, and the laws passed—sometimes years earlier. It all becomes visible during elections, which is exactly what happened in Maryland when 500 thousand incorrect ballots were sent out by mistake. The actions following that incident is where citizens like Kate...

July 04, 2026 | Read Online A quick note before we dive in: we're once again hearing that our emails are landing in spam folders — or not arriving at all. If you'd like to stay on our engaged reader list, just click here and you'll be all set. Nothing else is needed on your end. And if you're new to the newsletter, or it's been a while since one of ours last reached you — hello and welcome back! We're glad you're here. Our mission hasn't changed. The good fight for transparency,...

July 04, 2026 Most election problems don't begin on Election Day. Neither do the solutions. Hi Friend, If you've ever planted a garden, you know the harvest doesn't begin with the fruit - it begins with the soil. Long before anything blooms, someone has to pull weeds, remove rocks, water faithfully, and tend the ground. None of it is glamorous. Most of it goes unnoticed. But without that work, there is no harvest. Elections are no different. Most Americans think elections begin when ballots...

July 04, 2026 | Read Online A quick note before we dive in: we're once again hearing that our emails are landing in spam folders — or not arriving at all. If you'd like to stay on our engaged reader list, just click here and you'll be all set. Nothing else is needed on your end. And if you're new to the newsletter, or it's been a while since one of ours last reached you — hello and welcome back! We're glad you're here. Our mission hasn't changed. The good fight for transparency,...

July 04, 2026 | Read Online What is a "Carcass Bill" and Why You Need to Know Hi Friend, There's a quiet trick we're seeing more of lately. And the fallout lands on you as a citizen and a voter. A bill you've been watching can turn into a completely different bill overnight. Same number. Same author. Same place in line. New guts. It's called gut-and-amend, and it runs on a carcass bill — you'll also hear shell, vehicle, or skeleton bill. A near-empty placeholder, kept alive until lawmakers...