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

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The mission of the Craigslist Foundation — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, operating foundation — is to help emerging nonprofit leaders succeed. One of the ways the foundation supports nonprofits leaders is by hosting Nonprofit Boot Camp — a day-long event focused on how to start and run a vibrant nonprofit. The aim is to connect attendees with valuable industry resources, peers and potential supporters.

This year, Nonprofit Boot Camp is being held in both New York and San Francisco in August. The Craigslist Foundation also offers Nonprofit Boot Camp Online via podcasts, class notes, and other materials.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

According to Rock the Vote, more than six million voters under 30 have cast ballots in the 2008 primaries and caucuses so far. A very conservative estimate is that this more than 2.2 million more than voted in the most recent comparable primaries.

To learn more, check out Rock the Vote's recently updated 2008 Primary Turnout Factsheet.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Are you a community organizer unsure of how technology can help you? Do computers make you nervous? If so, then the Progressive Technology Project’s TechCamp may be a valuable way to spend a few days this summer. Join other community organizers in learning basic computer and technology skills in a collaborative and fun environment.

According to a May 12, 2008 story in the New York Times— Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship — lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a constitutional amendment that would enable election officials to require proof of citizenship to register as a voter in the state. Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect— argue that it is necessary to prevent illegal immigrants from voting.

Jon Greenbaum, a former voting rights official at the Department of Justice and now the director of the voting rights project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a liberal advocacy group, is quoted in the article, saying,

"Everyone has been focusing on voter ID laws generally, but the most pernicious measures and the ones that really promise to prevent the most eligible voters from voting is what we see in Arizona and now in Missouri."

The amendment pending in Missouri follows the recent Supreme Court decision in April in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, in which the Court ruled that Indiana could require photo-ID of voters at the polls.

Arizona is currently the only state that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. Since the requirement was implemented in 2004, more than 38,000 voter registration applications have been rejected by Arizona election officials.

For more on the repercussions of the recent Supreme Court voter ID decision, see OMB Watch's blog — Supreme Court Voter ID Consequences.

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.