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Civic Action Assessment of Issue Pictures
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Civic Action Assessment of Issue
Civic Action Assessment of Issue
While studying the topic of voting rights I was given a unique opportunity. Fortunately, the government timeline lined up well with the 2020 Presidential election. This gave me a chance to try something new and work at the polls. I was assigned to a polling place out in Clayton It was a little farther than I thought I would be going but that was still going to be a fun experience. On the morning of November 3rd I woke up at 4:30 in the morning excited for the day ahead. I left the house around 5:30. I arrived right around 6 and I jumped right in and helped finish setting up. Around 30 minutes before the polls opened we had 4 people show up ready to vote. Right before we opened the doors opened we were sworn in and given these nice Pins. As soon as it hit 7 am and the doors opened we had amassed a small line of 6-7 people ready to vote right from the start. One thing that surprised me was that from 7:30 - 9 we had a good amount of hospital workers. It was clear from the ID badges on their shirt to the scrubs most were wearing. I am not too familiar with that area but when I assumed and was later confirmed that there was a hospital nearby and it was the pre-work rush. We had constant people throughout the day. Around 11:30 I went for lunch. I returned 30 minutes later to find our ballot counting machine’s battery had died with no apparent reason why. A good amount of people went to other polling places but a good number still voted and put in a separate container for those votes. After about an hour to an hour and a half without it, our vote counting machine turned on and started functioning properly. We constantly had at least one or two voters inside voting at all times. Around 4:45 we started to get busy again with the post-work rush. It was not an overwhelming amount of people but was still a pretty good group of people. After a quick dinner break and more voters coming in it was suddenly 7:30, 30 minutes before the polls closed and we were dead. No one came in. In those last 30 minutes, we had 3 voters come before we started taking down. As soon as the clock hit 8 we shut the doors and started to take down. This picture was taken at the end of the day right after takedown.
It was a unique experience and something I will try to do again in future years. I got to be involved in a historic election. We were all taken down in about 30-45 minutes. I did not get home until 9:30 or so but I had a great time. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about how our elections work. Voting rights is an issue in certain parts of the country. Here there is no such issue. If a person was not in our system or not registered we were still able to help them vote which was also cool. We had about 300 people vote in person during my 15 hours of working. Would highly recommend taking place in volunteering in the next election.
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Legislative and Executive Action
Legislative and Executive Action
The most recent bill put forward on the topic of voting rights is House resolution 295 Reaffirming that voting is a fundamental right of all eligible United States citizens and recognizing that allowing illegal immigrants the right to vote devalues the franchise and diminishes the voting power of United States citizens. The bill was introduced by Bob Gibbs, a Republicans from the 7th congressional district of Ohio. He introduced the bill on April 8th of 2019. The bill is still in the process of getting through the Judiciary Committee and is currently in the immigration and citizenship sub committee . The bill states the affirmation that illegal immigrants should not be voting and it hurts the voting power of US citizens. It also states that voting is a fundamental right for US citizens. I think the Bill is kind of pointless because it says thinks that we already know and should follow. US citizens have a Fundamental right to vote and that illegal immigrants should not vote.
The department that controls my civic action issue is the Justice Department. The DOJ website states that their mission is to “To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.” The main part that I believe relates the best for my topic is “to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all American”. I think it relates to my topic the best because when it comes to controlling voting they should be fair and impartial to both sides of a ballot. Currently the Attorney General is William Barr. Mr. Barr has earned his A.B. In government from Columbia in 1971, his M.A. in government and Chinese studies in 1973 and his J.D. for George Washington University in 1977. From 1973-1977 he was a member of the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA. He first started working in the White House under Ronald Regan from 1982-1983. From 1990-1991 he was the deputy attorney general under George H.W. Bush. From 91-93 he served as the 77th attorney general of the United States. He then left for the private sector and did not return to the DOJ until February of 2019 when he became the 85th attorney general of the United States. He is only the second person to be attorney general twice. The DOJ did a lot in the 2020 election. With constant challenges from the Trump administration about the election integrity. Attorney General Barr helped run an investigation into the election where he did not find mass voter fraud that the Trump campaign claimed to have happened .
Sources
https://www.justice.gov
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hres295/text
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/295
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California Proposition Assessment
California Proposition Assessment
In the 2020 Election there were two propositions that had to deal with voting rights in California. The one I am focusing on is Prop17 which would give voting rights to people who are on parole. The measure passed by a wide margin 58% to 41% in favor of Prop 17. The Fiscal impact of the proposition is estimated to be a couple hundred thousand dollars which is less than 1% of the states general fund budget. The supporters of the propositions think that as part of a person's return to society they have a stake in the society so they should get the option to vote. They also state that 19 other states have passed similar bills so its California's turn. The opponents of the propositions say however that Prop 17 would allow violent criminals to vote before their full term is served, which includes parol. They also think that parole is the time for them to prove them self of changing their actions before they have full rights and liberties restored. There was a lot of support from California government officials, parties, Unions and organizations. I would have voted in favor for this propositions because they served their time so it is time for them to have their say in the government again. An interesting fact about the propositions is that there was no PAC for the opposition of the bill so no money was spent fighting against it, while over $700,000 was spent in support of the bill.
Sources
https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_17,_Voting_Rights_Restoration_for_Persons_on_Parole_Amendment_(2020)
https://cavotes.org/vote/elections/ballot-measures/prop-17-voting-rights-people-parole
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Political Interest Groups and PACs Assessment
Political Interest Groups and PACs Assessment
Brennan center for justice
There main goal is voting reform, voting rights, voting suppression and reform money in politics. They also fight to restore voting rights to felons after their sentence is completed. They want it to be as easy as possible for people to vote with little to no restrictions. One of their main headlines was “Ensure Every American Can Vote” once a reader clicks on it the site takes you to a good way of describing their goal “Voting is the most basic right in our democracy, but too many people are locked out of the process. The Brennan Center has developed bold solutions to ensure that every eligible American can cast a ballot”. This quote shows perfectly the intent that they work for to try to do to help the community. As the reader scrolls farther down the page it shows the issues that their organization addresses. They included Voting reform, voting rights restoration, and Voter suppression. Some people think it is too complicated to register to vote and the outdated platforms makes it hard to do so, their goal is to try to make it easier to register or promote automatic voter registration to make it simple for the voters. They also strive to ensure the US voting system is safe and secure so everyone can vote. An article that was released on their site recently was about prop 17 which would restore voting rights to people on parole. It is clear to all readers of their site and article they support this proposition. It is one of the major issues they fight to fix so that everyone has the right to vote. They have two locations both on the east coast. Those locations are located in Washington DC and New York, New York. Their organization works closely with the law school at NYU with the students from NYU working as interns or work on projects with them. Unfortunately for people on the west coast all of their events and volunteers opportunities are all on the east coast.
When searching threw the list of super PAC that goes with voting rights and one that stood out to me was the Votar Es Poder PAC which roughly translates to Voting Is Power PAC. This PAC is based out of Florida and its goal is to get the Latinx community to come out and vote in the 2020 election. They came out in support of Joe Biden and raised a grand total of $1,049,000 and spent around $639,288 in independent expecives. Most of the money was spent on Campaign events and activity’s as well as salaries for its workers. One of the biggest donors in this cycle was Mike Bloomberg. He donated $500,000 to the PAC as a part of his $100 million he planned to spend to support Joe Biden.
Sources
https://www.brennancenter.org
https://www.mikebloomberg.com/news/mike-bloomberg-gives-500000-to-votar-es-poder-pac-and-poder-latinxs-get-out-the-vote-efforts/
https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/expenditures.php?cmte=C00758011&cycle=2020
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Election 2020 Presidential Candidates Assessment
Election 2020 Presidential Candidates Assessment
Trump- President Trump is not a firm believer in our system. He wants everything to go his way. An article stated “Trump on Monday vowed to sue Nevada, which plans to send mail-in ballots to every voter ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election.” Then later in the week Encouraging voters in republicans states to trust mail in voting. This constant hypocritical nature on Trumps views on voting should be quite concerning for our country. He only wants to help protect the people who will have and have voted for him and no one else.
Source https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump/trump-sows-confusion-with-tweet-urging-vote-by-mail-in-florida-idUSKCN2502KU
Biden- Joe Biden believes everyone’s voice should be heard. He often throughout his campaign would constantly encourage people to go to the polls and vote even if it is not for him just get out there and vote. He also wants everyone to have a chance to vote in fact in 2006 when he was a senator he cosponsored “a bill that banned discriminatory practices such as literacy tests and poll taxes, designed to deny African Americans the right to vote. The Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 98-0.” He wants people to vote. He wants to keep our democracy strong and he wants that by trying to get people to vote.
Source
https://justfacts.votesmart.org/public-statement/194189/biden-hails-senate-passage-of-voting-rights-act-renewal
Honestly I strongly agree with Joe Biden. I think everyone should vote and it should be simple and easy to do. I think Trump suing over mail in voting the voting by mail himself is the most hypocritical thing he has said during his entire administration. I also agree with the bill Biden helped threw the senate. It helps protect people’s rights and he was right to push it threw
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Political Party Action
Political Party Action
While trying to find each party's side on voting rights it was hard to find on each part site. While looking threw each partys site it follows what an article I found later on the parties stance, It was evident that the Democrats want people turning out to vote in the upcoming election. Their website has a big tab that says vote and when you click it you get redirected to a site to help register or answer questions the voter may have. The GOP site has a tab that says vote but the next screen has you put in your first and last name and that's it. The other 3 parties which include the Green party, the Libritarian party and the Peace and Freedom party all did not have any voting tab what so ever. Now back to the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats want it be as easy as possible for people to vote. For example in California all registered voters in the state was mailed a ballot that they can mail in. The Republicans on the other hand want to make it harder to vote. An article I found from NPR that says republicans want to prevent “voter fraud” and is often why they are not wanting any mail in ballots because they are “fraudulent” while they actually are not. Voter fraud is very rare the article said “It exists, but it's very rare. Despite anecdotal cases of people voting fraudulently in person or suspicious ballots appearing in the mail, most of the time, in most places, the way elections in the U.S. are processed is legitimate.” The president is very much against mail in voting even though he votes by mail for years. He has also said in the past only republicans states should be allowed to do mail in voting because they wont be fraudulent even though it was proven as false.
I agree with the democrats because I think it should be easy for people to vote. I also believe that if people want to vote by mail they should be allowed to vote by mail. I would vote for the Biden because he is actually going to be honest to the American people and not try to hide things from them he mentioned it during the debate telling the people to come and vote and said a place or two to register and it was a big topic during the debate while it was not clear because of the constant interruptions but you could tell Biden was wanting people to come and vote. I believe that if most people step forward and vote and find a way to vote it could easily change an election.
Source
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/873878423/voting-and-elections-divide-republicans-and-democrats-like-little-else-heres-why
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Media Assessment of Issue
AP
1. https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-constitutions-voting-rights-general-elections-elections-72d27ee63fe4d755e19f8fcae2415431
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SUBJECT voting rights with former inmates in California
AUTHOR CHRISTOPHER WEBER
CONTEXT it is about prop 13 which is about weather former inmates should be able to vote for elections, it also is about if people who will be 18 at election time should vote in the primary’s
AUDIENCE potential voters in California
PERSPECTIVE from the middle trying top inform voters on each side
SIGNIFICANCE both sides are pushing a good case on both sides and this source did a good job of showing both sides
MSNBC
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https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-suggests-voting-rights-proposal-socialist-msna1201686
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SUBJECT The Dems plan to improve voting rights
AUTHOR Steve Benen
CONTEXT it is about how McConnell wont let a dems bill get a vote and his authors perspective
AUDIENCE the American people
PERSPECTIVE from the dems side of it and against McConnell
SIGNIFICANCE showing how rep wont let dems expand voting rights and gov transparency
Federalist
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https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/09/democrat-policing-reform-bill-would-have-schools-offer-abortions-give-illegal-aliens-voting-rights-end-prisons/
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SUBJECT its about giving voting rights to” illegal aliens” among other issues
AUTHOR Tristan Justice
CONTEXT “The radically leftist proposal seeks to magically restore all of the “justices” the left so often exhaustively claims have deteriorated. It includes provisions for “educational justice,” “environmental justice,” and “economic justice,” most of which have nothing to do with policing, and certainly nothing to do with saving black lives”
AUDIENCE American people and people who might flip sides
PERSPECTIVE from the right it is shown by the line “Radically Leftist proposal”
SIGNIFICANCE It is showing a bill that may change rules and rights for many people
3. All of the articles give information for at least one side with only one showing both sides in an equal way. The MSNBC is much less than the Federalist article which was very far right
4. I agree most the AP article because it shows both sides equally which gives you. The proper information needed to make a well informed decision on your ballot
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Blog post 1
I choose to do the voting rights issue because it is because it is a very relevant topic right now and it fascinates me. Voting rights is the issue of people being able to vote and whether or not people should vote. It relates to government because people use voting to choose the government. The action that needs to be taken to deal with it is finding a way to protects people’s right to vote
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