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Youth advocacy groups kept voters safe and informed on Election Day

Lauren Hernandez

November 13, 2020 |

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Arizona

Civic participation by youth advocacy groups registered tens of thousands of young voters and educated many more on election-related issues, including local and state ballot initiatives. Events held on zoom provided registration information and helped students connect with their peers, where they made pledges and plans to vote. Arizona PIRG Students New Voters Project educated 10,000 students this way, while CALPIRG Students' 500 volunteers registered 10,000 students, provided voter information to over 150,000 students, and made over 90,000 peer to peer Get Out the Vote contacts.

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Grassroots Organizers Flipped Georgia Blue. Here's How They Did It.

Anoa Changa

November 12, 2020 |

Truthout |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Georgia

Civic engagement organizers have decreased the gap between Republicans and Democrats in Georgia over the past several elections by increasing voter participation and leveraging the shifting state demographics. Groups conduct outreach to previously disenfranchised voters, recruit new voters, and seek to empower civic participation among Black and Asian American communities in particular, which helped Joseph Biden win the state in 2020. Organizers prioritize in-language organizing from trusted sources and connecting with communities on issues that are relevant and important to them.

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In Brazil, Women Candidates Find Strength in Numbers

Isabela Dias

November 12, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Brazil

Collective, or shared, candidacies, where groups of candidates to run for a single elected position in Brazil, has helped elevate women and other marginalized groups with progressive platforms to rise to power. From 2016 and 2018, 22 of the 98 groups that ran were elected. In 2020, 41% of the joint candidacies were led by women. A national bill to formalize collective candidacies has stalled since 2017, so one member of the group is formally elected, and is the one to cast votes and give formal speeches, while the others are hired as advisers but still are empowered to write and propose bills.

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Local high school students volunteer for national nonprofit to educate voters

Kathryn Goodwin

November 08, 2020 |

The Daily Tar Heel |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States

MyVote organized over 300 student volunteers, mostly in high school, to research candidates and their policies so that voters could have a “one-stop-shop” platform to learn about policy platforms of candidates running in national and local elections. The group covered the policies of all candidates from North Carolina, Florida, and Pennsylvania and voters used the guides at the polls to educate themselves on the candidates and issues. Since many of the volunteers are not old enough to vote, carrying out the voter education research helped them get involved in ways that are useful to the democratic process.

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As last of Georgia ballots are counted, a look at how voter turnout hit record high

Carlisa N. Johnson

November 05, 2020 |

The GroundTruth Project |

Multi-Media |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Georgia

A massive, though unofficial, multi-issue coalition made up of voter advocacy, legal, and other social justice groups, increased participation in Georgia’s elections. The groups conducted voter outreach year-round and ran ads, social media campaigns, and sent direct mail to educate voters about their rights and promote civic engagement. They also focused on systemic changes, such as pressuring the state to replace old voting machines and challenging “exact match” signature laws. Their work decreased voter suppression and the disenfranchisement of communities traditionally overlooked in the political process.

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2020 is a curveball for civics. How Chicago classrooms are responding

Cassie Walker Burke

November 04, 2020 |

Chalkbeat |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Chicago-area high school teachers are approaching the mental-toll of election cycles on their students by rethinking curricula. Some teachers are approaching election anxiety by hosting empathetic dialogues by addressing students' anxieties and exploring their individual powers. Students also completed lessons that required them to have conversations with the adults in their lives regarding general voting information. Other educators are placing emphasis on exploring media literacy and understanding online propaganda with students.

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Forget civics class: Students want to make a difference in real life

Charlotte West

October 30, 2020 |

The Hechinger Report |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

The Oakland Youth Vote started as a youth-led ballot initiative to give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote for school board representatives. Student activism helped get the initiative on the November 2020 ballot and the Oakland City Council promised to fund and implement the measure if it is approved. The ballot measure passed with 67% of voters supporting it. Voting for school board representatives will allow students to have a say in the policies and decisions that shape their education and ensure that the diverse student body is appropriately represented.

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We can't vote in San Quentin prison. So we held a mock election

Juan Moreno Haines Kevin Deroi Sawyer

October 28, 2020 |

The Guardian |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Quentin, California

Two men incarcerated at San Quentin prison tell how the men incarcerated there held a mock presidential election, despite a pandemic-related lockdown and prison officials' failure to distribute ballots that had been sent to the prison. Using handwritten ballots, the "voters," denied their actual voting rights by the state, managed to cast 176 mock votes (heavily favoring Joe Biden) by distributing the ballots during limited time outside their cells. Voting gave the men the opportunity to express their views, not just by checking a box but by adding comments on their ballots.

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Ballots Behind Bars

La Risa Lynch

October 24, 2020 |

The Crisis Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Votes works to ensure access to voting for people awaiting trial in jail. In addition to registering thousands of voters, they helped pass a Cook County law designating the nation’s largest single-site detention facility as a polling place. This access enabled 1,850 people to cast their votes and about 600 people were able to take advantage of same-day registration and voting, which isn’t possible with traditional absentee ballot voting. Addressing jail-based disenfranchisement, which disproportionately impacts communities of color, gives people a voice in policies that directly impact them.

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To Recognize Misinformation in Media, Teach a Generation While It's Young

Amy Yee

October 23, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Media Literacy Now is a nonprofit aimed at combatting misinformation, especially on social media platforms, and lobbying for media literacy education in schools. The organization was started by Erin McNeill in 2013 and played a hand in the formation of 30 bills in 18 states. The organization also provides resources on its website, including toolkits for teachers to incorporate media literacy in their lessons, and templates for emails and letters people can send to their local officials in support of increased media literacy in schools.

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