Mobilizing for Change

Appeals court strikes down North Carolina’s voter-ID law

A federal appeals court on Friday struck down North Carolina’s requirement that voters show identification before casting ballots and reinstated an additional week of early voting.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit was an overwhelming victory for the Justice Department and civil rights groups that argued the voting law was designed to dampen the growing political clout of African American voters, who participated in record numbers in elections in 2008 and 2012.

Some say it’s time California had statewide rules for provisional ballots

Boxes of California Provisional ballots.

By John Myers, LA Times

Once reserved for emergency situations, provisional ballots were freely handed out across California on June 7 as a Times analysis finds they were used by more than one of every five primary voters who showed up at a polling place.

But the wide use of provisional ballots has not been matched by any broad statewide oversight, with rules changing from one county to the next dictating when they are used and how elections officials decide whether to count them as valid votes.

Union-Tribune: Social justice group pushes for voter registration

VOTE

A Faith that Does Justice — an interfaith organization based at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Barrio Logan that said it’s focused on fostering social, political and economic changes — is hosting outreach events. Its aims are to encourage residents to apply for U.S. citizenship, register to vote or pledge to vote.

The next drive is scheduled for 8 a.m. until noon Aug. 7 at the church, 1770 Kearney Ave. 

California Voters Will Vote A Lot in November

voting

California is again testing how much democracy is too much, with voters facing up to 18 ballot questions in November that could end the death penalty, cut into the cost of prescription drugs and free marijuana smokers to legally light up in the nation’s most populous state.

San Marcos poised to shake up voting system

voting

San Marcos is poised to become the second North County city to elect City Council members by district, after being threatened with a lawsuit alleging its at-large elections disenfranchise Latino voters.

Mayor Jim Desmond said Tuesday that nothing’s set in stone, but that the proposed change will be hammered out in public hearings in the coming weeks and months. He said it was “prudent” to move to district elections in the face of a potential lawsuit.

Get-Out-The-Vote Mural Goes Up In City Heights

City Heights Library. Joe Wolf / Flickr

City Heights Library. Joe Wolf / Flickr

By Megan Burks, KPBS

This month’s election is over. But for community nonprofits in San Diego City Council District 9, the effort to get out the vote has just begun.

The council district is home to one of San Diego’s lowest turnout precincts in City Heights and one of its highest in Kensington. KPBS, as part of its California Counts election coverage, has been focusing on this area and what it would take to get more people to go to the polls.