Pegi Christiansen
“Hi, I’m Pegi Christiansen,” says the woman costumed as an early 20th century suffragette (now with added face mask) who is unexpectedly addressing you in an open public space from a careful social distance. “And I would be grateful,” she continues, “for exactly five minutes of your time to talk about the Electoral College.”
Like the suffragettes who fought for women’s right to vote, she’s out to change the way we elect our president. Christiansen is a well-respected Milwaukee performance artist and citizen activist. Her courageous, new, nonpartisan pop-up performance is titled Is this fair? If you accept her request to listen, you’ll receive a concise history of the Electoral College and its impact, and useful information on the National Popular Vote Bill that 15 states have already passed. The NPV guarantees that the candidate with the most votes wins the presidency.
How many performances have you given?
About 65 between September and the governor’s stay-at-home order in March; and in the last days of May, I’ve started again at the Public Market and farmers markets. I’m crafting a one-minute version now for people who are in a hurry.
You have a history of joining art to presidential elections. You started the Performance Art Showcase in 2004 and, through it, produced My Vote Performs.
I’m prouder of My Vote Performs, co-produced with John Loscuito, than any other performance art or temporary art project I’ve produced. Diverse, non-partisan performance art projects were presented in 11 of Milwaukee’s 15 voting districts on Election Day in 2008. The goal was to celebrate and encourage discussion about citizenship and voting. The 13 lead artists represented three decades of Milwaukee’s finest performance artists. They work in a broad spectrum of disciplines and come from diverse backgrounds. I knew I wanted to do another nonpartisan voting project. I couldn’t for the 2012 election because I was organizing a 20-block temporary public art project along Fond du Lac Avenue. I couldn’t for 2016 because I was caring for parents and grandchildren. For 2020, I considered two themes, gerrymandering and the Electoral College. Gerrymandering is being addressed by a lot of different groups, so I decided on the Electoral College.
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How do you view it?
People who live in cities are having their concerns squelched due to the Senate as well as the Electoral College. Every state, regardless of population, has two senators. By 2040, 30% of Americans will elect 70 of the 100 senators. I have no idea if it will ever be possible to change the Senate. By 2040, 70% of Americans will live in 15 of the 50 states, and 50% will live in just 8 states. It will become increasingly more likely that a presidential candidate could win with five, six or seven million votes and still lose in the Electoral College. The ideal, from my perspective, would be to eliminate the Electoral College, but this would take potentially decades. The National Popular Vote is doable this year.
I know you’d planned to perform the piece statewide until the Democratic National Convention.
Due to the COVID crisis, I will keep doing Is this fair? beyond August. My plan was, beginning in spring, to perform around the state in connection with hiking Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail. Now, I’m not sure when I’ll feel safe in hotels. So the range might get restricted to where I can drive and get home in a day. I’ll perform where it makes sense to do so. And that’s any place legal where there are people. What also matters to me is getting to areas where the legislators have not supported the National Popular Vote Bill. I was hoping to perform in university unions and outside City Halls. Whether the DNC happens here or not, I’m going to try to reach beyond Wisconsin. This might take me into 2021.
So you consider yourself an expert on the Electoral College?
No, but I keep learning. Chris Stoa, a researcher in Sun Prairie Representative Gary Hebl’s office, fact checked a draft of Is this fair? He recently helped me answer the most consistent pro-Electoral College comment I receive from listeners: that without the Electoral College, California and New York will decide who is president. That’s not true. Chris explained that there were almost 4.5 million Republican votes in CA in 2016. Those votes meant nothing. 4.5 million Republican voters had no effect on the outcome of the presidential election. This is also true for 2.8 million Republican voters in New York.
You’re a suffragette for every American voter.
Wisconsin was initially resistant to the suffragette movement, but it became the first state to ratify the 19th amendment giving women voting rights. That was one hundred years ago this August.
For information on the National Popular Vote in Wisconsin, visit https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/state/wi
Independent videographer Cindy Eggert Johnson is working on a documentary about Christiansen's project by recording her performances/presentations. Johnson creates films focusing on women and issues they face, and she was drawn to Christiansen's unique art-centric approach to the somewhat esoteric yet vitally important topic of the Electoral College. Here’s a link to a 2 ½ minute video preview.
