BLOG for ADVOCATES

We created this blog to share interesting advocacy related items that cross our desks. It can be anything from new research on funding for advocacy to examples of unusual advocacy strategies. If you have an item to share please send it to npaction@npaction.org.
NPAction Staff

Friday, May 09, 2008

Voterwatch’s Transparency Recap summarizes key updates on government transparency and accountability, from nearly twenty blogs. With regular updates on the most interesting and informative developments in these issue areas, this new resource can help you stay more informed and gain a better understanding of conflicting perspectives. To view the Transparency Recap , click here.

Posted by Andrea Wilson

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is awarding a total of $750,000 in grants for programs that encourage college students to serve as poll workers as part of it’s HAVA College Poll Worker Program. The program will award up to 50 grants of no less than $10,000 each.

The College Program grants are authorized under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to encourage student participation as poll workers or assistants, to foster student interest in the elections process, and to encourage state and local governments to use students as poll workers. The grants also aim to relieve poll worker shortages.

To fulfill is mandate of serving as a national clearinghouse of information about election administration, the EAC has issued several best practices guidebooks to help election officials recruit, train, and retain poll workers. The guidebooks include:

• Successful Practices for Poll Worker Recruitment, Training, and Retention
• A Guidebook for Recruiting College Poll Workers
• Poll Worker Requirements by State

Read NPAction’s Poll Worker's Notes on Elections, Democracy, and Nonprofits to learn more about the experience of working the polls on Election Day, as described by an OMB Watch staffer.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Nonprofit Vote's online voter engagement library streams together several different sources of useful information that can help your nonprofit design a strategic voter engagement plan. With increased access to information on voter turnout trends, voter registration, voter mobilization efforts and several other voter engagement topics, this library can heavily impact nonprofits and voters alike. To visit the library, click here.

Posted by Andrea Wilson

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

On Apr. 28, 2008, the League of Women Voters of Florida and several voting rights advocates filed a new lawsuit challenging a Florida voter registration law that imposes prohibitive fines on voter registration groups and risks preventing eligible Florida citizens from registering and voting in the 2008 elections.

Under Florida law, fines are levied against charities for each voter registration not submitted within ten days of its completion. For each late registration, a nonprofit conducting a voter registration drive would be fined $50, posing a tremendous financial burden on nonprofits seeking to legally conduct voter registration drives.

As quoted in a press release by her organization, Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida and a plaintiff in the suit, said,

“This law makes it extremely risky for our volunteers and for our organization to conduct voter registration drives in Florida… The escalating fines make voter registration drives prohibitively expensive, even for individuals who just want to help once a month. The threat of paying costly fees will chill registration efforts and keep eligible voters from the voter rolls.”

To learn more, read the League of Women Voter’s press release on the suit here and check out OMB Watch’s Sept. 2007 article on the Florida voter registration rules Nonprofits Challenge Two Florida Laws Regulating Voter Registration.

Monday, April 28, 2008

1 - Under Trained and Not Enough Poll Workers: In each primary covered by Election Protection, the dedicated cadre of poll workers misapplied many election rules — from what ballot to give which voter, to what to do when election equipment broke down — causing voters to unnecessarily cast provisional ballots or, worse, to leave the polling place without voting.
2 - Election Machinery Breakdowns : Last-minute changes in voting equipment and new procedures at the polls caused confusion among voters, poll workers and election administrators often leading to disenfranchisement. But it was not only human error and confusion; ballot scanners jammed, electronic voting machines broke down and new electronic poll books malfunctioned.
3 - Registration Roll Problems: From state to state, eligible voters who submitted timely registration applications failed to appear on the registration rolls. Other voters showed up on the rolls registered with a political party other than the one with which they intended to register.
4 - Confusion Over Voter Identification Requirements: Voters across the country were improperly asked for identification. Some poll workers, apparently confused about the requirements in their state, were implementing illegal and restrictive voter identification requirements, turning away eligible voters who did not have identification.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Project H.O.M.E — a Philadelphia nonprofit that has been showcased on NPAction — was profiled in a story this week by the Philadelphia City Paper. The story reports on Project H.O.M.E’s continued efforts to register and to mobilize homeless Philadelphians to vote. Project H.O.M.E is the leader of the Vote for Homes Coalition (VFH). As reported in the recent article,

The idea is to make the homeless a political constituency to which politicians have to cater, and VFH has succeeded in registering more than 12,000 current and formerly homeless and ex-offenders. They estimate that about 3,000 of them have voted in each of the past two elections.

Read NPAction’s profile of Project H.O.M.E.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Does your nonprofit have a voter engagement plan? If not, a new webinar hosted by Nonprofitvote.org may help. The webinar, hosted on May 15, seeks to help nonprofits develop tailored plans for fitting voter engagement into daily activities. Guidance on permissable nonpartisan voter engagement activities will also be presented. To register, click here.

Posted by Andrea Wilson

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Tough to Vote,Tough to Get By is a free online course offering from Demos and YP4 (Young People For) that will allow you to learn more about:

• economic insecurity

• debt (de facto safety net)

• youth economics

• election reform

• National Voter Registration Act (NVRA)

While the course has already begun, registration will be accepted until April 28th. The course will be available from April 21 through May 30th. To register, click here.

Posted by Andrea Wilson

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Camp Wellstone will be offering training in northern Virginia, for those interested in learning how to integrate grassroots organizing, electoral organizing, progressive public policy and ethical leadership.

From May 9 to May 11, three separate sessions will be offered:

• Citizen Activist Track
• Working on a Campaign Track
• Being a Candidate Track

To register for any of these sessions, please click on the links listed above. The 2.5 day training sessions are scheduled to take place during the following times:

• Friday: 2:00pm - 9:00 p.m.
• Saturday: 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
• Sunday: 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

On April 9th, the Washington Post reported on the extensive efforts of nonprofit groups to ensure this year’s elections are executed in a fair and efficient manner. According to the article — “Groups Step Up Efforts to Avert Voting Mishaps” — two African-American nonprofit organizations — the NAACP National Voter Fund and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation — are leading the effort to register voters, to prevent voter suppression, and to monitor and record unfair occurrences as the polls.

The NAACP’s National Voter Fund — in partnership with the Tom Joyner Morning Show — launched a toll-free voter hotline — 1-866-MYVOTE1. Using the hotline, citizens can

• Request a voter registration application, which they can sign and return to their local county elections board;
• Find the closest polling place to their home;
• Record up to a :60 second complaint if they have encountered any problems, or
• Transfer to a person at their local county elections office. Throughout the primary season and Election Day, Joyner and the NAACP will be encouraging tens of thousands to register to vote and be able to monitor any problems voters might have at their polling places.