Update on Census Equity Fund in Boston, MA

In Massachusetts, local funding group Access Strategies Fund and other local foundations have come together to create the Massachusetts Census Equity Fund launched to provide up to $400,000 to Massachusetts nonprofits for work on the 2010 Census. They will be granting funds to area nonprofits. Applications are due 11/25/09. For more information on how to apply, visit their website.

(Boston Globe) - MassVOTE on Boston's phantom precinct

Photo and story--Boston Globe --
It’s one of the stranger rituals of Boston politics: For each Election Day, a pristine ballot box is cleaned, filled with fresh ink, and force-fed at least 50 test ballots before being lugged to a seaside precinct where nobody will vote.It’s the lonely machine,’’ said Loretta Paulding, the election warden in charge of Ward 1, Precinct 15, for the last 15 years. “But I do have to keep an eye on it. And at the end of the night, I still have to tally up zero, zero, zero.’’

This phantom precinct, made up of Boston’s Harbor Islands, where no ballots have been cast in the last four elections, is a quirk of the city’s intricate electoral landscape, which because of an obscure legal exemption has not been redrawn in almost a century. The archaic system will be on display again today, when Boston voters go to the polls to elect a mayor and City Council.

Critics argue that the antiquated structure should be reorganized and streamlined to reduce the number of precincts, an overhaul that would require fewer poll workers and police officers and save taxpayers an estimated extra $100,000 per election, according to MassVOTE, a nonpartisan voting rights group. The current, lopsided structure leaves the busiest ballot boxes with more than 2,300 voters during some elections, while other precincts have far fewer.

“This one little voting place is so out of whack that it is an indication that all the precincts in Boston are in need of adjustment,’’ said Avi Green, executive director of MassVOTE. “They all need to catch up with the last 100 years of demographics and history in our city.’’

Prisoners of the Census - News from Ole Miss

One Mississippi. 48 states don't allow those sentenced in prison to vote, yet they include them in the election districts where the prison happens to be located. How convenient. It creates districts empty of real voters easy to win for incumbents and giving undue representation to rural districts where many prisons are built. In a welcome departure, we applaud the recommendation of the Mississippi Attorney General who declared "Inmates under the jurisdiction of the Mississippi Department of Corrections … are not deemed 'residents' of that county or locality, as incarceration cannot be viewed as a voluntary abandonment of residency in one locale in favor of residency in the facility or jail. For purposes of the Census, these individuals should have been counted in their actual place of residence. For more - Prisoners of the Census

New Multilingual Fact-Sheets from AALDEF

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has launched its Twenty10 Project initiative to promote Census participation within the Asian American community. The initiative has kicked off with the release of educational factsheets provided in English as well as 13 Asian languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Access the factsheets and find out more about AALDEF's campaign here.

Gerrymandering: Pure and Corrupt

Why do we continue to allow legislators to redraw their own districts? That is the question a recent editorial in the New York Times asks. Every 10 years, following the decennial census, state legislators around the county sit down to redraw not only congressional districts, but also their own state legislative districts. In effect, legislators are given the opportunity to choose their voters, rather than the other way round. This practice stymies electoral competition, precludes genuine accountability on the part of legislators to their constituencies, damages the public's trust and ultimately leads to corrupt and unresponsive government.

According to the Times, “New York Public Interest Research Group reports that in 2008 more than half of the state’s 212 legislators were re-elected with more than 80 percent of their districts’ votes. In 57 districts, the incumbents ran unopposed. New faces appear rarely, usually when a lawmaker retires, dies or, increasingly, gets convicted of abusing the public trust.” (Be sure to check out the Times' interactive feature "Redistricting New York Style" to see examples of some New York's worst districts.)

The editorial echoes arguments made by Prisoners of the Census, a group devoted to
examining the unintended consequences of counting prisoners in the census in the states where they are incarcerated. Prisoners are used as “phantom voters” to inflate the populations of the districts where they are held, and because they can’t vote, skew the numbers in favor of one party over another.

With so many viable alternatives, now is the time to stand up to legislators to demand a stop to partisan redistricting before we are left with another ten years of gerrymandered districts. To learn more about redistricting, visit The Redistricting Game website.

D.C. passes same day voter registration

The DC Council has unanimously passed an election reform bill that includes Same Day Registration and asks the District to look at implementing a system of universal voter registration.
See this statement from Miles Rapoport, President of Demos.

A tale of two fails: the impossibility of accessing confidential Census data

(Image source- 2010 Census website)

Here's two little-known anecdotes of times that people have tried- and failed- to access confidential Census data.

1953— During the Truman administration, the White House had to undergo renovation. It was necessary to relocate the President until the renovation was completed. The Secret Service requested from the Census Bureau information on residents living in the proposed relocation area for the purpose of performing background checks. However, because census data are ABSOLUTELY CONFIDENTIAL, even to the President, the request was denied. President Truman spent his exile at Blair House.

1980—Armed with a search warrant authorizing them to seize census documents, four FBI agents entered the Census Bureau’s Colorado Springs office. No confidential information was ever released because a census worker held off the agents until her superiors resolved the issue with the FBI.

Another little known fact: in 1961, Congress strengthened the law so that even copies of census questionnaires kept in your possession cannot be used as evidence against you in a court of law.

Want it spelled out more simply? As one Census administrator put it:

"No one can get access to census data. It is rock solid secure."
--James T. Christy, Los Angeles Regional Census Office Director

Sources:
Census.gov
Complete Count Committee guide - Census Bureau

Update on the 2008 Asian-American vote

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) has released “Getting Out the Asian American Vote: Achieving Double Digit Increases in Turnout During the 2006 and 2008 Elections,” based on work APALC conducted in 2006 and 2008 to mobilize Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters in Los Angeles County.

APALC's report:

• Shows that AAPI voters respond to traditional campaign tactics such as personal phone calls.
  
• Explains how phone calls made to “low-propensity” AAPI voters can generate increases in turnout which significantly exceed the typical 3 to 4 point increase produced by comparable phone calls.
  
• Describes tactics that APALC and OCAPICA used in their campaigns, and highlights what tactics were most effective in turning out voters.
• Provides information about similar work conducted by the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA) in Orange County.
  

The report can be found online at www.apalc.org.

TABOR ballot questions go down in Maine, Washington

2 ballot initiatives to restrict spending to a percent of current years spending and budget went down in yesterday's elections, in Maine in Colorado.

Iris Lav, Senior Advisor, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a statement today:

"By rejecting TABOR, officially Question 4 in Maine and I-1033 in Washington, voters have helped these states preserve needed public services and improve the business climate. Colorado, the only state ever to adopt TABOR, suffered a serious deterioration in education, health care, and other services due to its rigid spending limits. That's why a broad coalition of residents -- including business leaders -- came together to suspend it in 2005."

The measure was widely opposed by nonprofits in both states.

How hard to count is your neighborhood?

How in danger of being missed in the decennial census are people in your community ?

Michigan's 2010 Census Planning Website makes it easy to find out, allowing you to search for your addresses' census tract and its "Hard-to-Count" score designation.

The tool also brings up your area's census form mail-back rates, percent renters, percent unemployed and poverty rate from the last decennial Census. A collaboration project of the Michigan Nonprofit Association and other research organizations, the tool works for all 50 states. Try it out!

English-only registrations creates barriers for voters

(Photo- Iowa Independent)
In March of 2008, an Iowa state court ruled that providing non-English voter registration forms to voters was a violation of a state law which required English to be the "official language" of the state.

The IA Secretary of State's office removed all non-English registration forms from its website, and as a result, non-English speakers in Iowa faced special difficulties in registering to vote for the 2008 presidential election.

With the 2009 elections tomorrow and 2010 midterms only a year away, Michael Zuckerman revisits language disenfranchisement in a working paper Constitutional Clash: When English-Only Meets Voting Rights.

"General criticism aside, English-only policies are particularly troublesome when applied to voting," says Michael Zuckerman in a recent guest column to the Des Moines Register. "This is because voting is a fundamental right and one of the most important tools of political change. To that end, requiring voting materials to be only in English infringes upon the rights of Iowans to vote and to petition the government, both of which are protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution."

To download Zuckerman's paper, visit the SSRI website here.

New Jersey students hit the mock polls

Image source

New Jersey Press Association- If New Jersey's schoolchildren could vote in the General Election next Tuesday, they would choose incumbent Gov. Jon S. Corzine to continue as the state's governor.

In addition to their selection of Corzine as governor, 74.24 percent of the students voted to approve the Green Acres, Water Supply and Floodplain Protection, and Farmland and Historic Preservation Bond Act of 2009, the Public Question on this year's statewide ballot.

Corzine, the Democratic candidate, received 46.8 percent of the votes cast in the New Jersey Student/Parent Mock Election at 183 of the state's schools. Republican Chris Christie received 31.8 percent of the Mock Election vote and Independent Christopher J. Daggett received 13.5 percent. Seven other independent candidates received a total of 7.9 percent of the statewide vote. Results will continue to be updated through the General Election on November 3.

Voting results for each New Jersey county, as well as the statewide results, are available at www.njmockelection.org .

Read more.

More on Redistricting

With 2009 elections approaching, the 2010 Census on the horizon, and America's midterm elections only a year away, now is the time to take a few minutes to understand what it means to redraw our district lines. Here are a few useful and fun learning tools.

A Citizen's Guide to Redistricting from the Brennan Center's Democracy site - downloadable in pdf form.

The ReDistricting Game - A fun and interactive way to see how partisan elected officials have the ability essentially choose their voters.

Redistricting the Nation- Get a street-level map of your congressional district, state senate district, state representative district and local district, along with the corresponding current elected officials! Find your legislators; then, check out some of the crazy district shapes this country has.

Redistricting the nation

Cool free online redistricting tool launched by the company Avencia in preparation for the 2010 Census!
By entering your address, you'll render a street-level map of your congressional district, state senate district, state representative district and local district, along with the corresponding current elected officials! Comes with easy-to-navigate tabs along the top you can use to switch views, and links to your state legislature and constitution. Find your legislators; then, check out some of the crazy district shapes this country has!

Voting Information Project

Cool initiative for those of us trying to make polling place information easily available to our constituents online -

The Voting Information Project has developed an open data format with which state election divisions can publish their voting information. Other organizations or individuals, such as newspapers, search engines, and civic-minded technologists, will parse the data contributed by the states and disseminate the information in the form of easy-to-use websites, maps, and other tools.

They have a sample tool up and running for Virginia's 2009 election, which maps your polling place location on GoogleMaps after you enter your address. Word on the street is that they hope to have similar tools for at least 25 states in 2010.

Oh, Wow.

Were you frustrated by the old, confusing (not to mention hideous) 2010 Census website?

Well, check out http://2010.census.gov now, because 2010 Census.gov has relaunched...and it's beautiful!

I especially love the new Multimedia Center, which makes it MUCH easier to get the newest census videos and photos for use in newsletters and websites. We're still getting used to the new navigation, but among the many improvements are:

1. An interactive guide to the Census form, which allows you to roll over any question on the questionnaire and get in-depth explanations.

2. An attractive, easy to read list of key dates for the 2010 Census.

3. A page dedicated to FAQs on Census privacy, an issue that has been concerning (and confusing) many in recent months.

4. A blog! Director Groves has made his first, very humble post on the brand new 2010 Census blog. Check out his first post below:

A Look from the Inside

I’m new to the role of Census Bureau Director and new to blogging.

My idea is to use this blog to let you know my thoughts about how the country is doing as we approach this “national ceremony” that occurs every 10 years – the decennial census.

I can’t promise great humor. I can’t guarantee fascinating or gifted writing.

I will tell it like it is, as I see it. Hopefully, you’ll find it interesting, as together we all approach April 1, 2010, where each of us have the right and responsibility to return a census questionnaire.

The census is a massive undertaking, with over 1 million employees working to gather information from you and me, to repaint the portrait of America. I’ll try to give you a sense of what that effort looks like from the inside.

Feel free to share my posts with your friends; feel free to comment. It will be more fun for all if we use this blog to have our voices heard.

Stay tuned. I’ll probably have a new post twice a week or so, more when a lot of things are happening.

-Director Robert M. Groves

QueertheCensus.org

Check out Queer the Census.org, a project of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and CREDO Action to have the US Census form include a question on sexual orientation. Includes some good background information on issues surrounding sexual orientation and inclusion in the Census.

Hagase Contar launches website to count all Latinos in Census 2010

NALEO has launched a new Census website and initiative, "Hagase Contar," part of their Ya Es Hora program, to count every Latino in the 2010 Census. The site offers FAQs, key dates, ways to get involved, sample forms and more, all in Spanish and English. Way to go, NALEO!

Interesting tidbits on uses of Census Bureau Data in FY2007 Federal Funds Distribution

This pie chart represents the distribution, by category, of the nearly $4.5 billion in federal funds distributed among 140 federal programs during the fiscal year 2007 on the basis of Census Bureau data (data from the Lisa Blumerman and Philip Vidal of the Census Bureau.)

The following programs received less than <1% Small Business Administration, Commerce, National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, Energy, Corporation for National and Community Service (Americorps), Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Homeland Security and Justice.
Also interesting - out of the 140 programs receiving the $4.5 trillion in federal funds based on Census data, 11 programs (or 8%) received 85% of these funds. This chart represents the distribution of funds allotted to the top 11 programs.

NVEN Partner MNA in the news: "Foundations fund effort for accurate census"

From Crain's Detroit Business:
Michigan nonprofits are being asked to play an unprecedented role to make sure each person in the state gets counted in the 2010 census.

In the absence of the typical $500,000 or so in state funding for census promotion, four foundations have stepped up with $300,000 in grants made to the Michigan Nonprofit Association for pass-through to other nonprofits for census promotion initiatives.

Those foundations are the Troy-based Kresge Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint and the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation.

“While the current (state) budget discussions are important, they won't be as long-lasting as the consequences of the census,” said Kyle Caldwell, president of the Michigan Nonprofit Association.

Federal funding for the region and state for the next decade will hinge on the census count, said Sam Singh, former president of MNA and a consultant with Public Policy Associates, on loan to MNA for the census campaign.

For every person missed in the official count, an estimated $12,000 in federal funding will be lost over the next decade, he said, or about $1.2 million for every 1,000 people not counted.