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  • How voting by mail could save the US election

    As one of the most consequential presidential elections in the United States approaches in the midst of a pandemic, many Americans are worried about voter turnout, and other logistical concerns. But a simple answer exists: voting by mail. With tens of millions of people in the United States already routinely voting by mail, proponents tout the additional time for research voters can take and the potential for higher voter turnout as added benefits.

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  • How to Save Elections From a Pandemic Audio icon

    The coronavirus pandemic swept the nation at a time when many would be going to polling stations to cast their votes in primary elections, but vote-at-home practices are providing a solution for this civic inconvenience. Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and now Utah have all implemented statewide all-mail election campaigns that not only improve voter turnout, but also cost less to taxpayers than only relying on in-person polling booths.

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  • Advocates, teachers aim to help growing number of young Texas voters wield their power

    Organizations and educators in Texas work to increase voter engagement among young people. Schools must provide voter registrations, but many don't, so some teachers register students and teach the importance of civic participation. Several groups also work to get high school and college-age voters to the polls. MOVE Texas and Texas Rising registered thousands of young voters on National Voter Registration Day in 2019. Utilizing technology, going to where young people are, and teaching media literacy increased civic engagement among young people in 2018, although the turnout was still relatively low at 25%.

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  • Map the Vote app finds unregistered voters in cities and helps get them to the polls

    Register2Vote (R2V) identified unregistered voters in Texas and built a platform for them to fill out the form online, which R2V printed and mailed to them with a stamped envelope addressed to their county’s registrar’s office. 112,000 of the 156,000 new voters they registered voted in 2018. R2V later created Map the Vote, a nationwide crowdsourced app that maps where unregistered voters live. It also provides tools to help organizations, or even neighbors, register new voters, including scripts that people can use to start a conversation about registering to vote and respond to common voting concerns.

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  • How organizations, lawsuits are fighting voter suppression in Texas

    Civil rights groups used a lawsuit and a vigilant network of activists to defeat an attempt to purge qualified voters from the list of Texas' eligible voters and to guard against ongoing attempts to disenfranchise naturalized citizens and other people of color. In 2019, the Texas Secretary of State's office compiled a list of what it said were as many as 100,000 illegally registered voters. Countering claims of fraud and threats of prosecution, activists forced the state to abandon the effort and oust the secretary of state. A study shows at least 17 million names have been cut from voter lists nationwide.

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  • Harnessing the power of Latino voters could reshape politics in Texas

    Texas voter registration initiatives are aimed at Latino voters, where less than 41% of eligible Latinos voted in 2016. Voto Latino focuses on college campuses, registering 15% of all new Texas voters in 2018. Southwest Voter Registration Education Project visits Latino-majority schools, including reaching out to 500 high schools across Texas. Jolt Action registers voters, held the first Latino-focused political candidate forum in Texas attended by 870 people, and runs Poder Quince where girls can have a free photo booth at their quinceañera if paired with a voter registration table and pledge to vote at 18.

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  • Meet the Latinos Trying to Get Latinos to the Polls

    The Democratic Party consistently struggles to turn out the Latinx vote, which is projected to be 32 million people. Instead of trying to find a cohesive message for this incredibly diverse group of people like in the past, Democratic candidates this year are letting Latinx people lead engagement in their own communities.

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  • Explaining 'Citizens Assemblies', a Real Kind of Democracy

    In the city of Leeds, England, a group of randomly selected demographically representative citizens came together to solve the climate crisis. This group of twenty-one strangers formed the Leeds Climate Citizens' Jury, which is a smaller version of the better-known Citizen's Assembly. Over the course of several weeks, the members of the assembly or jury learn about and discuss how to tackle a certain political problem, like climate change. Similar assemblies have formed in Ireland, Australia, and Poland to tackle political problems like abortion and nuclear storage.

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  • Translators help Korean American voters in Harris County find their electoral voice

    Even in multicultural and diverse Harris County, Texas, with a population greater than 26 states and over 145 languages spoken, some groups, like Korean Americans, are marginalized when it comes to voting and civic participation due to language and other cultural barriers. Houston resident is fighting this marginalization by organizing Korean American Early Voting Day, which provides Korean-speaking Texans with translated voter guides and other translation services.

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  • The Way America Votes Is Broken. In One Rural County, a Nonprofit Showed a Way Forward.

    In Mississippi, a recent election went off without a hitch thanks to new voting machines built by nonprofit VotingWorks. The machines, which were not approved by federal or state regulators, were easy to use, set up, and take down, and improved security of votes.

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