Two front-page stories by the Raleigh News & Observer highlight the perspective of the forces dominating this year's election cycle: make voting for poor people harder and the influence of big-money political donors easier. The first story describes Tea Party supporters in Raleigh harassing Chavis Park voters by writing down their names, asking them questions, [...]
Two websites provide background and instructions, including a video, about the Instant Runoff Voting method being used this year in three local Superior Court races and one statewide Court of Appeals election. The Court of Appeals race, which is the nation’s first use of IRV in a statewide general election, has a certain historical fascination. [...]
A hat tip to Art Pope’s Civitas Institute for providing two practical, fairly objective services without overt ideological interpretation (no doubt they’re offered this year because the GOP is promoting Early Voting, but anyone can use these tools). One service tracks the use of absentee voting; caution: counts of mail-in ballots and in-person ballots cast [...]
The Washington Post reports today that a study of felony disenfranchisement laws has found that 800,000 former felons have returned to the voter rolls in the past decade thanks to a push by criminal justice advocates and civil rights groups -- including Democracy North Carolina -- to rewrite state laws and eliminate various voting barriers [...]
Who makes up the largest group of the early-early voters this year? In 2008, black Democratic women were the largest demographic group during the first 3 days (and all 17 days) of the early voting period. Their enthusiasm and organizing paved the way for the Obama victory. By sharp contrast, white Republican men are the [...]
(Posting delayed due to dead computer.) With Early Voting off to a roaring start, here’s a link to an all-purpose resource for North Carolina elections that we encourage others to post on their sites: http://www.NCElectionConnection.com/. It connects you to your Early Voting sites, a view of your sample ballot, the location of your precinct polling place on [...]
Early voting begins Thursday in North Carolina. Two short video messages, pro-Tea Party and anti-Tea Party, are each designed to get their side to the polls with a message that says, “Aren’t you scared by what’s happening in America? Get out and vote!”
This week was all about some Youth Voter Pledge cards. We hit the ground running on Monday and Tuesday by going to local recreation centers and talking to kids about voting. We were looking especially for high school students but when the "big kids" started signing the cards all the little ones wanted [...]
Shock, awe and amazement. These three little words are the best ways to describe the reaction we get from Fayetteville's citizens whenever we invite them to our neutral, informal City Council/ County Commissioner Meet and Greet. People, including some of the city council members and the county commissioners that have invited to the event, are [...]
Another busy week has flown by, and it’s incredible that there are only two weeks remaining in our Democracy Summer experience. We had some great events occur this week which will go a long way to help our strategies for increased voter participation, youth civic engagement, and electoral reforms. On Monday we traveled [...]