All posts in Voting Access

Jean Quan made history this week by becoming the first female and first Asian-American mayor of Oakland, CA. Her victory, decided by less than 2,500 votes (out of 106,000 votes cast), came as a result of Instant Runoff Voting (also known as “ranked choice” voting).

According to the CA Secretary of State, Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is “is a method of voting in which voters rank candidates for office in any order they choose and a single winner is elected, thus eliminating the need for run-off elections. Voters mark their ballots for multiple candidates in order of preference. The ballots are counted and the candidate with the least votes is eliminated. Then, a new round of counting begins with each ballot cast for the eliminated candidate counted toward the voter’s next choice candidate listed on that ballot. This continues until only two candidates are remaining and the candidate with the highest number of votes is declared the winner.”

IRV was approved by Oakland voters in 2006 and authorized for use by the State in 2009. Oakland Rising, one of our key partner grant organizations, strongly advocated for the use of IRV,  primarily as a cost-cutting and power-leveling elections innovation.

“By eliminating the June primary,” they wrote on their website back in February 2010, “we will see greater voter participation and ultimately more representative election results.  IRV provides an opportunity for voters to vote for whom they really believe in, not just whom they think will win the election.  In so doing, IRV helps to even the playing field for candidates who may not have as much money or who may not have received any political party endorsement.”  Oakland Rising utilized a comprehensive and strategic outreach plan to educate hard-to-reach voters in East and West Oakland on IRV, which ultimately was used in 85% of the mayoral votes cast. This is precisely the kind of grassroots education and organizing that is needed to make elections accessible to both voters AND candidates.

On a related note, congratulations to Oakland Rising’s Executive Director, Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont, who received the 2010 Redford Center Art of Activism Award!

Ten days after the national mid-term elections, there is still much to digest about the implications of the electorate shifts. Attached are two excellent resources from the Funders Committee for Civic Participation:

FCCP 2010 Election Roundup (Word doc with live links)- A great compilation of analyses on policy issues, polling, and state-level elections.

Post-Election Analysis by Lake Research Partners (pdf) by Lake Research Partners

From a progressive (yet nonpartisan!) vantage point, some of this information is hard to read and accept, but these trends will have a pronounced impact on overall efforts to ensure fuller voting access and enthusiastic civic participation for all.

Kapor Foundation Offices Prepare for Election Day 2010

Encouraging evidence of the growing strength and vibrancy of Latino civic participation continues to emerge.  Unfortunately, deliberate efforts to silence the voice of these communities continue on as well.  In ways similar to the call earlier this year for Latinos to boycott the census in the name of immigration reform, there has been a call for Latinos to not vote this election.  Below is Kapor Foundation key grant partner VotoLatino’s statement in response to this “don’t vote” campaign.

With only a day left until this year’s mid-term election, we hope not only that you vote, and that you encourage your friends, co-workers, family and community members to do the same, but that we also collectively be watchful and vocal about any attempts to disenfranchise or discourage our active participation.

Here at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation offices, we’re gearing up ourselves.  We hope many of you coming over from Oakland, especially you morning casual carpoolers, have seen the “VOTE” sign in our windows, visible from the Fremont Street off-ramp in San Francisco.  And, beginning tomorrow, we will once again host the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law as they corral as many legal professionals as possible throughout the nation to answer calls and assist voters on Election Day through the 1-866-OUR-VOTE voter services Hotline.

Happy early Election Day to everyone!   Looking forward to hearing your own stories from these mid-term elections …

Voto Latino released the following statement regarding Latinos 4 Reform’s “Don’t Vote” campaign:

“While Voto Latino applauds the right for free speech, Voto Latino is fundamentally opposed to any organized effort by community leaders or organizers urging Latinos to sit out of the upcoming mid-term elections. The specific claims by Latinos for Reform are misleading to voters. Voting, no matter your political party or which candidate you support, is the most important civic tool that American Latinos have to be heard and understood by decision makers nationwide.

To be clear, only one thing happens when you don’t vote. You vote against your interest. Instead, you elect your opponent’s interest.

Now, more than ever, American Latinos are feeling squeezed. They have the highest unemployment rate, highest foreclosure rate and highest high school drop out rate. The next Congress will decide our country’s next steps and will take up legislation addressing our community’s top priorities. As a result, it is imperative that American Latinos exercise their vote to ensure that their voice is clear and present.  The American Latino community does not have the luxury to sit this election out.

Voto Latino is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that seeks to educate and empower American Latinos and young people to become engaged in the political process. Through the multi-tiered United We Win campaign, Voto Latino is actively working on a national and local level to get out the vote this mid-term election.”

We are excited to host our third annual What Works! Convening November 8-9, 2010 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. This year’s convening will bring together organizations from across the country working at the cross-section of race, civic engagement, and criminalization. Angela Davis – scholar, life-long activist, and co-founder of Critical Resistance – will be the keynote speaker.

As the national conversation about race has become inundated by the reactionary, exclusive, and xenophobic, the Kapor Foundation sees a critical opportunity to bring together organizers from across the nation – New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New York and Oakland among others – to deepen their relationships and build a meaningful network of support for the collective well-being. The convening also aims to inform a cross-race and cross-sector national agenda to build political and economic power with low-income people and people of color.

The Kapor Foundation is committed to creating meaningful spaces for its allies and colleagues to share and learn what has worked in their efforts to build power in low-income communities of color. What Works! is the annual manifestation of this commitment. We’re especially pleased that our 2010 gathering is in partnership with the Ford Foundation, Solidago Foundation, and Surdna Foundation.

Panels showcase a range of community-based work: youth organizing in the Bay Area and New York; worker organizing of Black workers in the Midwest, immigrant workers nationally, and cross racial organizing in San Francisco; and long-term civic engagement illustrating the relationship between Oakland and Albuquerque.

What Works! is open to staff and membership of community based organizations, funders, students, academics, and the interested general public. Space is limited. General admission is $50. There is free admission for students (with valid ID) and for staff of grant recipient organizations of the Ford, Kapor, Surdna, and Solidago Foundations. To register for What Works!, go to whatworks2010.eventbrite.com.

Please click the following link to see the convening agenda and speaker bios:  What Works! 2010 Program Booklet

The time has come to get out there and vote!

It’s been a crazy two years since the historic presidential election of President Obama.  Since then, we’ve seen the passage of national health care reform,  the rise of the tea party movement, and the economic crisis strike across the country.  We’ve also seen negative campaign ads, local critical mass, and all kinds of parties to make sure we make it out on election day.  And now the time has come.  A number of our key partner organizations are at the forefront of local and national civic engagement efforts including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, San Francisco Rising, Oakland Rising, and Voto Latino.  Below are some voter resources, including two voter guides from the League of Women Voters & The Ballot as well as organizational voter guides from the Ella Baker Center and Oakland Rising

League of Women Voters

The Ballot

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights Voter Guide

Oakland Rising

Today, October 18th, is the last day to register to vote in the State of California.

If you haven’t already, register through California Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s website or through Kapor Foundation key grant partner, VotoLatino.

Already registered?  Check out these California-based voter engagement alliances, Oakland Rising, San Francisco Rising and the California Alliance.

The Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network is hosting a special web training event:

“Voter Education and GOTV for Nonprofits”
Thursday, October 7th
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM PT

The final weeks before the election are a good time to focus on voter education and getting out the vote (GOTV). This webinar will review best practices around voter education and GOTV activities that you can do at your nonprofit or in your community. It will help you decide where and when to conduct these activities and where to find additional resources.

There will be opportunities for question and answers throughout the training.

To RSVP, please click HERE.

Image source: http://pclinuxos.com

Over the last couple of years the city of Oakland has become home to numerous blogs discussing the pressing political, community, and economic issues of the day.  These include Oakland Focus, A Better Oakland, Oakland Local, and Living in the O.  These blogs provide a much needed space for everyday people in the city to connect to each other, engage in city life, and sadly fill the space of our lacking newspaper.  I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about citizen journalism- on the one hand I think they provide an important look into how different people live and experience the city and on the other I feel like they too often mistake commentary with in depth journalism.

That said, last week I was invited to be a guest on OaklandSeen and had a great conversation with Aimee Allison on the state of Oakland.  We had an interesting conversation on issues ranging from the city’s gang injunction to economic development opportunities for the city’s long term residents.  Listen HERE and let us know what you think.

Congrats to Demos, which was praised in last Friday’s New York Times for their critical public policy and advocacy work from a progressive perspective. Demos, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary next month, was one of our first grant recipients when we launched the civic engagement focus area in 2007. They remain one of our key grant partner organizations, mostly for their notable work on voter registration modernization and campaign reform.

Keep up the great work (we need it)!

If you haven’t already, it’s not too late to send in your census form and it’s not too late to remind your friends and family to do the same.

Do you already know how important it is for people of color and low-income communities to send back their census forms, but still need some talking points to convince everyone around you? Check-out Color of Change’s census website, www.colorofchange.org/census, to find out how much money each filled out and returned census form is worth to your community (for even more Census numbers, visit the Brookings Institution online).

Want to know what percentage of households where you live have already mailed back a form? See how your neighborhood, and every neighborhood in the United States, is doing at  www.CensusHardToCountMaps.org (courtesy of the Funders Census Initiative, CUNY and our colleagues at the Hagedorn Foundation) or 2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/ (courtesy of the Census Bureau).

You only get one chance every ten years, so … fill it out, spread the word, claim the money, and build political power in your community!

Local update: Oakland physically divided in Census returns | National update: For all things census, see Terri Ann Lowenthal’s important, informative and entertaining Census Project Blog. And, the Ford Foundation’s Funder Census Toolkit.