For Immediate Release From Rock The Vote!
(A Ten-Minute Read)
The results are in! Gen-Z, get ready to vote; let's make this year's voting turnout our biggest yet.🗣️
We can't harness the full potential of our generation if we don't show up to the polls! Don't underestimate the power of our votes to create change and make a difference.🤘
#GenZVotes #YouthVote #GenZ
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Hundreds of primary ballots that would have counted in previous elections were disregarded in March primary
About 775 mail-in absentee ballots arrived at local board of elections offices in the three days after March 5 primary.
Under a law that had been in place for more than a decade, most of those ballots would have been counted. Under a new law enacted last year by the legislature’s Republican supermajority, none of them were.
Citing the hundreds of trashed March primary ballots, Common Cause North Carolina called for the restoration of the grace period that permitted ballots postmarked by election day to be counted if they arrive at local boards of election within three days after an election.
The legislature established the three-day grace period in 2009 with unanimous, bipartisan support.
Republican views on voting have undergone a significant shift since then. Republican legislators repealed the grace period last year over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.
“The three-day grace period was a commonsense safeguard for North Carolina voters and was passed with unanimous, bipartisan support in 2009,” Bob Phillips, Common Cause North Carolina executive director, said in a news release. “The legislature’s decision last year to suddenly dismantle that safeguard hurts voters who rely on voting by mail to access the ballot box.”
Far fewer ballots were received in the three days after the primary this year than were received during the grace period after the 2020 primary.
For that primary, 4,675 civilian absentee ballots were received by county boards of elections from March 4-6, 2020, and 3,949 ballots were accepted, according to the state Board of Elections.
Board of Elections staff launched a voter education campaign this year to remind voters that the new deadline for mail-in ballots was 7:30 pm the day of the primary.
The 2020 and 2024 numbers defy direct comparison because voter turnout was higher in the 2020 primary and the looming COVID-19 pandemic sparked increased interest in absentee voting, said Bryan Warner, Common Cause NC spokesman.
Phillips said in an interview that he was at an Iredell County board meeting where members were told about a voter who requested an absentee ballot on Feb. 2. The ballot, with a Feb. 22 postmark, arrived at the elections office one day after the primary, too late to be counted.
“This is a blatant example of what happens,” Phillips said. And it also highlights the question Republican legislators were not able to answer during debates last year: “How early do you have to mail in an absentee ballot?”
There was no good reason for repealing the grace period, Phillips said. “It accomplishes nothing but disenfranchise good North Carolina voters who do everything right.”
Voters are also adjusting to the relatively new voter ID law.
Read the full article HERE!:
https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/hundreds-of-... ****
CHICAGO (AP) — As President Joe Biden and Donald Trump step up their campaigning in swing states, a quieter battle is taking place in the shadows of their White House rematch.
The Republican National Committee, newly reconstituted under Trump, has filed election-related lawsuits in nearly half the states. Recent lawsuits over voter roll maintenance in Michigan and Nevada are part of a larger strategy targeting various aspects of voting and election administration.
It’s not a new strategy. But with recent internal changes at the RNC and added pressure from the former president, the legal maneuvering is expected to play an increasingly significant role for the party as Election Day in November approaches. The lawsuits are useful for campaign messaging, fundraising and raising doubts about the validity of the election.
Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the RNC and the Trump campaign, said the lawsuits were one of the organization’s main priorities this year.
“This is something that’s very important to President Trump,” she said. “He has said that this is something the RNC should do year-round.”
Democrats and legal experts are warning about how the lawsuits might overwhelm election officials and undermine voter confidence in the the results of the balloting.
The Democratic National Committee has a legal strategy of its own, building “a robust voter protection operation, investing tens of millions of dollars,” to counter the GOP’s efforts that seek to restrict access to the polls, spokesperson Alex Floyd said.
“The RNC is actively deploying an army of lawyers to make it harder for Americans’ ballots to be counted,” he said.
Election litigation soared after the 2020 election as Trump and his allies unsuccessfully challenged his loss to Biden in dozens of lawsuits.
Experts that year wondered whether the blitz of legal action was an aberration caused by false claims of a stolen election and changes to voting processes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Miriam Seifter, attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
They quickly realized that wasn’t the case as the 2022 midterms also generated a high number of election-related lawsuits. This year is projected to be similar, she said.
“Litigation seems to now be a fixture of each parties’ political and electoral strategies,” Seifter said.
Voter ID rules, mail ballots and voter roll maintenance are among the RNC’s litigation targets. The latest is a lawsuit this month alleging that Michigan has failed to keep its voter rolls up to date.
Read the full article HERE!:
https://apnews.com/article/rnc-trump-lawsu... ********
AT Third of Local Election Candidates Are Women BY CAITLIN WEBB
Just 34% of candidates in the local election today are women, according to data analysed by the Fawcett Society and Democracy Club.
The women's equality campaign group's head of policy Alesha De-Freitas said this shows political parties are "failing to make real progress". One third of those standing in the local elections in 2021 were women, and 64% of elected members are not.
There is a slightly lower proportion for the mayoral elections where only 27% of the candidates for the nine combined authorities, London and the Salford City Council are women. There has only been one female metro mayor, Tracy Brabin (Lab).
The Fawcett Society said there is a "real risk to success of devolution if mayoral candidates continue to fail to adequately represent half the population".
None of the main political parties have an gender parity in their list of candidates for the elections today, with Labour and the Green party having 41% female candidates while 29% of Conservatives candidates are women.
Analysis of candidate names was done using Democracy Club's database of the 10,248 candidates. Some candidates' gender was entered by themselves or a volunteer, for the rest a pre-gendered list of names was used. Just over 800 people's gender was not clear from their name and they were excluded from the analysis.
Democracy Club is a crowdsourcing platform about people standing in UK elections. It is part of mySociety.
The list of common first names of candidates also signifies a gender imbalance with a female name only appearing on the list at position 17 as there are 66 candidates named Sarah.
Five most common first names of local elections candidates:
Read the full article HERE!:
https://www.lgcplus.com/home/news/a-third-... ********
Laying the Groundwork for a Record-Breaking 2024
We’re launching our 2024 Starts Now campaign to ensure every young voter is registered and ready to vote next year.
Donate to Rock the Vote
With your support as the driving force, we can reach, educate, and mobilize the 16 million young people who've come of voting age since 2020. We need your help to organize and turn out these millions of new voters!
Your contribution will directly support Rock the Vote's tried-and-true voter registration, education, and mobilization programs, proven to turn out young voters at 30 points higher than the national average.
Learn more HERE!:
https://www.rockthevote.org/ ********
All On The Line
RECOMMIT TO REDISTRICTING
Since we launched All On The Line five years ago, we've seen the arc of the moral universe be pulled closer to justice because of our work. However, our work remains unfinished as long as some states remain gerrymandered.
That is why All On The Line and its affiliates are pressing forward in the fight for fair maps and a more representative democracy. From supporting voters who are challenging gerrymandered maps in court to mobilizing volunteers across the nation to advocate for more redistricting reforms. We know we must continue our comprehensive multi-prong approach to protect our progress.
Add your name to be a champion for fair maps and recommit to All On The Line's fight today.
VISIT:
https://act.redistrictingaction.org/a/reco...
Posted By: agnes levine
Saturday, May 18th 2024 at 8:03PM
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