Tag Archive for "voting"

Posts Tagged voting

Vote for strong families

Strong Families, an initiative to raise awareness and change policy around poverty as it impacts all of us, is running an election day campaign to increase voter turn-out. Using art and a nifty tool that allows you to upload a picture of yourself with a frame that says, “vote for us,” they are bringing attention to the reality that most of us are not living with a variety of taken for granted support structures in our lives, stating simply,

“From a lack of affordable childcare and afterschool programs, to immigration policy and marriage equality, the way we make policy and allocate resources needs to catch up to the way we live.”

The day to day wonk-o-palooza of the election can be draining and ...

By Vanessa • 11 years ago

On the last day to register to vote, exercise your right that others want to take away

There are 5 trillion reasons why you should be registering to vote today, but this should really be wake-up call to why: Because others are trying their damnedest — and possibly criminally — to make sure those rights aren’t exercised.

It’s true that voter suppression tactics are not new and it’s been a huge issue around the elections over the last year (a notable example was Florida Gov. Rick Scott being sued by the Department of Justice for attempting to purge thousands of eligible voters), but the incredible level of efforts happening in states across the country right now is pretty unbelievable. Just a few examples:

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) recently began conducting an investigation against Truth the Vote, ...

By zerlina • 11 years ago

Today is National Voter Registration Day!

Voter registration deadlines nationwide are fast approaching and the Obama campaign as well as 1,000 other organizations, including Facebook, Google, and Rolling Stone Magazine are making a major push online and off to register as many people as possible for the upcoming election. Below you will find a form to register to vote, if you haven’t already, and that you can pass along to family and friends via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even email to get everyone engaged in one of their most important duties as a citizen.

Early voting has already begun in some states and GottaVote.com is also an invaluable resource that has all of the relevant information and is worth checking in case you live ...

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

What the Wisconsin election results mean for the future of progressive activism

There’s no way around it: the results of yesterday’s election in Wisconsin suck. In case you haven’t heard, Republican Governor Scott Walker defeated Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee with 53 percent of the vote in a recall election that put it all on the line. The recall vote was only able to take place through tons of hard work and grassroots organizing by Democrats after Walker’s despicable union busting legislation inspired thousands of protestors to take to the streets last year. You may remember some of the iconic images of workers and union supporters and others swarming the Wisconsin Capitol.

But what about actual labor organizers? How are they feeling about all of this?

I spoke to Michelle ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

CLPP 2012: 6 things you didn’t know about the 2012 presidential election

What’s the deal with the 2012 presidential election?

In the CLPP session “2012 Elections: Representing Our Communities” a stellar panel of advocates and policy makers came together to answer that very question. They talked about where things are at with elections in the U.S., where they are going, and how we can continue to work to ensure that people of all ages in our communities are represented in the 2012 presidential elections in particular.

Speakers included Deborah Peterson Small, founder and director of Break the Chains, Julia Reticker-Flynn, Manager of the Youth Activist Network at Advocates for Youth, Representative Ellen Story (D-MA-3rd Hampshire), and Sarah Audelo, the panel moderator and Senior Manager of Domestic Policy at Advocates for Youth.

They ...

What’s the deal with the 2012 presidential election?

By zerlina • 12 years ago

Mitt Romney thinks voters have no memory

Yesterday, in typical “post-primary step all over my victory with a gaffe” Mitt Romney fashion, Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s campaign spokesman told CNN that by the general election Romney will be able to “hit a reset button” and stated that it’s “almost like an etch-a-sketch you can kind of shake it up and start all over again.”

Uh…

So Mitt Romney thinks that all of the “severely conservative” positions he’s taken during this long primary fight will just go away like the drawings on an etch-a-sketch? Certainly the Romney camp realizes that many of Romney’s most problematic positions–like saying he would get rid of Planned Parenthood–are all on video right?

It’s certainly interesting that the one candidate this year who has seemingly lacked ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

Saudi women are granted the right to vote. Now what?

In an unprecedented move, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia granted women the right to vote this past Sunday. Women in Saudi Arabia have been organizing on a variety of fronts, pushing for political representation, fighting for the right to drive and for more mobility in public since as of right now women have to be chaperoned when in public. While the right to vote is a marginal step forward and a great media opportunity in the face of a how terrible Saudia Arabia looks internationally on the issue of women’s rights. But the real question many activists are asking is, ‘will this actually make women’s lives that different?’

The NYTimes reports,

Even under the new law, it was unclear how many women would ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

67% of Americans would support a gay or lesbian presidential candidate

According to a new Gallup poll, only 32% of Americans would be against supporting a gay or lesbian presidential candidate and 67% would be in support. As Think Progress mentions this a tremendous shift in mindset from say, 1978, when approximately 74% of the American public wouldn’t have supported a gay or lesbian political candidate.

What this brings up for me however is, why, despite what appears to be majority public support for gay lifestyles, has it been so hard to pass legislation in support of gay marriage? Also, this percentage would be skewed if we were to include gender non-conforming or transgender people, since I’m sure part of what has caused the change in mindset is the increased ...