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.

Census Adds Languages to Advance Letter

The Census Project has just released a new Census News Brief highlighting the bureau's recent decision to include messages in languages other than English on the advance letter sent to all households next winter. The advance letter announces the start of the census and the imminent arrival of census forms at each home. The revised letter will direct recipients, in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian, as well as English, to the 2010 Census web site for assistance in filling out the questionnaire. The 2010 Census Web site is scheduled to launch later this month.

The News Brief also notes that the bureau also is adding a targeted follow-up mailing to its outreach arsenal, to reach households in census tracts where at least ten percent of households speak primarily Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, or Russian. The new postcard will feature messages in all six questionnaire languages, telling recipients to call a toll-free number for assistance.

Phil Sparks covers Groves' first press conference

Phil Sparks of the Census Project has posted a great rundown of Census Director Robert Groves' first press conference over at the Census Project Blog. Check it out.

Voting in Germany. And then, voting in the United States.

Germany's federal election was yesterday, re-electing Angela Merkel for a 2nd term as Chancellor.

In honor of my sister Hilary, who is studying abroad in Berlin right now, here's an interesting piece on how elections work in Germany.

In a nutshell, Germans have 2 votes.

The 1st vote (seen on the left side of this sample ballot from 2005- click to enlarge) directly elects the voter's constituency representative. There are 299 of these representatives directly elected, representing half of the lower house.

The 2nd vote is cast for a "party list" (see the right side of the ballot) and determines the distribution of the remaining 299 seats to each of the various political parties.
An additional quantity of "overhang seats" are allotted in case any party receives more votes through the 1st direct election than it would normally receive through its allotted distribution of seats based on the 2nd party vote.

See the pie chart to the left for the breakdown of seats distributed in Sunday's election.

Interesting tidbit- Germany's government takes a much higher responsibility for registering its citizens to vote than the United States government does.

Germany uses existing civil registries at the municipal level (inclusion on these lists is mandatory) to automatically generate voter lists, according to this report from the Brennan Center. If a German will be 18 by the next election, they are automatically added to this voter list and receive a notification card in the mail.

By contrast, the United States- along with Belize and Burundi- places the burden on citizens to take responsibility for knowing the rules and registering themselves to vote.

Is it any surprise that in 2005, 93% of eligible Germans were registered to vote, while in the United States, 68% of age-eligible citizens were registered to vote in 2006?

Voter turnout is generally excellent in Germany, averaging in the past quarter century at around 80% - though in Sunday's election, a "lackluster campaign" seems to have contributed to a decrease in voter turnout to 71%. However, compare this to US voter turnout, which in 2008's extremely high-profile election amounted to just 62% of eligible voters.

Imagine how US turnout might be affected if we combined the high-profile races of our 2008 election with Germany's near-universal voter registration (not to mention, their Sunday Election Day...).

MassVOTE kicks off 2010 Census activities

On Wednesday afternoon, Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network partner MassVOTE kicked off its 2010 Census activities with an event co-sponsored by the Boston Foundation amongst others.

The event, attended by more than 60 representatives from Nonprofits around Massachusetts, featured (from right to left in the photo) Avi Green, executive director of MassVOTE, Kathy Ludgate, director of the Boston Regional Census Office, Michael Weekes, President and CEO of the Providers' Council, Paulo Pinto, executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers and Kelly Bates, executive director of the Access Strategies Fund. The speakers offered a broad perspective on the challenges and opportunities for 501(c)(3) nonprofits in the 2010 Census.

Director Ludgate provided an overview of activities in the coming months and extended the help of her office and staff of nearly 100 partnership specialists and assistants to the attending

Weekes, a member of NVEN's steering committee, spoke about the high stakes for Massachusetts in next year's Census. Based on data obtained in the 2000 Census, Massachusetts received more than 9.6 billion dollars in federal funds in 2007, of which more than half went Health and Human Services. Looked at another way, each person counted in the 2000 Census earned Massachusetts $1,493.61 in federal funds in 2007. Those individuals and dollars add up fast.

Pinto spoke about the importance of the Census to ethnic and immigrant communities and some of the simple tactics nonprofits can use to reach out to their clients and constituents. While Mr. Pinto's organization has formed a Complete Count Committee to help ensure an accurate count of the Portuguese and Brazilian community, he stressed the importance of a range of tactics from putting up a poster in your organization's lobby, providing flyers at events or including Census messaging in your communications to becoming Questionnaire Assistance Center or Be Counted site. Every nonprofit has a role to play in the 2010 Census.

Bates, of Access Strategies, not ready to concede the fight for the congressional seat Massachusetts is predicted to lose during the next apportionment, discussed the importance of a complete and accurate count of Mass residents. Bates also discussed a new initiative by Access Strategies, the Boston Foundation and a growing list of local foundations to create a Census Equity Fund to provide $500,000 to Massachusetts nonprofits for work on the 2010 Census. Bates expects that on-the-ground work by grantee organizations will be in full swing between January and June 2010. The groups will be sponsoring public education events; distributing and displaying census information onsite, in their community, and in organizational materials; phonebanking and going door-to-door to help people complete and return their census forms; and promoting the census in ethnic media and markets.


All attendees received a copy of NVEN's Census Toolkit for Nonprofit Organizations, which provides nonprofits with all the information they need to get started involving their communities in the 2010 Census. To order your copy, visit www.nonprofitscount.org/toolkit-orders

Congratulations to MassVOTE on a very successful Census 2010 outreach campaign kickoff!

Indiana strikes down voter ID law

From the NY Times-

An Indiana law requiring voters to show identification, declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court just last year, was struck down Thursday by a state appellate court.

The state court said the law violated the Indiana Constitution by not treating all voters equally.

The major difference between the state court decision and the Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board is that the state court was interpreting the Indiana Constitution, while the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution of the United States. Generally, state courts are given the last word in interpreting their own constitutions. (Continue reading...)

"Voter Registration Around the World"

A report from the Brennan Center details voter registration systems in 16 other countries compared to the United States' system, gathering best practices and suggestions for reform of US registration methods.

Check out where the US falls when compared to other major countries on the scale of voter vs. government responsibility for registration!

Chart from - "Expanding Democracy: Voter Registration Around the World," Brennan Center 2009.

Congratulations to MassVOTE!

Congratulations to NVEN partner MassVOTE, whose initiative “We Need Two Senators” was mentioned in the NY Times last Wednesday!

The "We Need Two Senators" campaign was created in partnership with advocacy organizations around the state to encourage the State House to allow for a temporary appointment fill Senator Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat; a hearing was held on the proposal on Tuesday, drawing crowds of over 600 (many bearing MassVOTE’s “We Need Two Senators” stickers).

Current Massachusetts law would keep the seat empty until a special election can be held (currently planned for January 19th, 2010), meaning Massachusetts would be down a vote in Washington this fall during crucial health care debates. "It is absolutely essential that Massachusetts not go underrepresented," said U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass. "All hands on deck."


Photo- The Boston Channel