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  • Doctor Offices In Wisconsin Step In To Help Register Voters

    VotERdoctors partners with doctors, clinics, community centers, and hospitals to register voters. Staff can wear badges with a QR code that patients can scan with their cellphone, which takes them to a webpage that offers information about how to register to vote, including a live help line if the patient gets stuck. Some facilities, such as Progressive Community Health Centers in Milwaukee, send monthly text messages to their patients to remind them to register. VotER is being used by more than 300 U.S. hospitals and about 40,000 patients have gotten help registering or requesting ballots.

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  • In San Diego, Black Muslims are working to expand voting access in jails

    Pillars of the Community hires people incarcerated in local California jails to register new incarcerated voters and conduct civic engagement education behind bars. Pillars, a faith-based criminal justice advocacy group led by Black Muslims, registers hundreds every year, many of whom did not know they were eligible to vote and did not know how to register on their own. Those voting in 2020 will be able to vote on state referenda concerning expanding voting rights for people with felony convictions and on ending cash bail.

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  • Equality of Opportunity

    Legal challenges have protected Native voting rights since the 1980s, when districts diluting native votes were ruled unconstitutional and redrawn. In 2012, three tribes sued to increase access to registration and polling sites. The county settled, agreeing to open offices on two reservations two days a week. In 2018, tribal leaders challenged a law limiting the number of ballots someone could collect on behalf of others. A judge agreed that, by disproportionately suppressing Native votes, it was unconstitutional. The legal challenges increased voter turnout and helped elect more Native representatives.

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  • Illinois advocates work to ensure ballot access for jail voters during pandemic

    Many people who are currently incarcerated still retain the right to vote, and as the 2020 election approaches advocates in Illinois are making sure that those who are in Chicago’s Cook County Jail have access to ballots. Under a newly implemented law, Cook County Jail was designated as a polling place, which increased access for pretrial detainees and those serving certain misdemeanor convictions, and ultimately resulted in a higher voter turnout for the March primaries.

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  • Wisconsin election infrastructure is mostly secure — but inaccurate counts are hard to catch and correct

    Same-day voter registration and the implementation of advanced cyberdefenses have bolstered Wisconsin's voting database, fortifying it against hackers and data breaches. Apprehension about election security prompted the formation of a watchdog group, Wisconsin Election Integrity, which regularly prompts the Wisconsin Elections Commission to update and improve the existing systems. Some machines have been identified as risky and measures to safely use and secure them are underway.

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  • Latinos hold almost half of all elected positions in Fresno County. Here's how they made gains

    Latino and Latina politicians hold 48% of Fresno County’s elected positions. These gains were facilitated by the California Voting Rights Act, which calls for the use of district elections instead of citywide races in areas where communities feel disenfranchised. Districts are smaller units, so candidates are elected by their immediate community rather than the entire city. Financing a district election campaign is also more reasonable. District elections lessen the disproportionate influence of populations that historically have higher voter turnout. About 130 of 450 cities have adopted district elections.

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  • How to fix America's voter registration system so more people can vote

    Over a dozen states have adopted some variation of automatic voter registration, which is common in many European democracies. Voters in Oregon are mailed a notification when they are enrolled, which they can send back to opt out if they want. Prior to the 2016 election, 225,000 Oregonians were registered that way and 100,000 of those voted, a turnout rate of 43%. Some believe it is a more accurate way to maintain and update voter rolls. For voter data, states can use DMV and state tax records or join the over 30 states who are members of the nonprofit Electronic Registration Information Center.

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  • What a City-Sized Sharing Economy Looks Like

    The First Nation–Municipal Community Economic Development Initiative is a nationwide initiative to foster positive relationships, empowering First Nation and municipal leaders to talk as equals. There have been hundreds of requests and 15 pairs completed the program. The goal is to foster joint economic development, but it also initiated discussions about the impact of colonization and ensures First Nations are represented in decision-making. Pairs have cooperated on infrastructure projects, such as highway expansions and solar farms, and have a renewed sense of being connected.

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  • Ervin Staub: A Holocaust survivor's mission to train ‘heroic bystanders'

    By training police officers to intervene when fellow officers engage in brutality or other misconduct, the New Orleans police department has reduced officers' use of force and increased public trust. After the killing of George Floyd by a police officer whose colleagues did not intervene, the ethical-policing model called EPIC (Ethical Policing Is Courageous) is expanding to dozens more cities as ABLE (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement). It is based on the violence-psychology research of Ervin Staub, whose family was saved by "active bystanders" in Nazi Hungary.

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  • ¿Qué tan diverso es su gobierno? Estas leyes cambiaron quién tiene el poder en California

    Dos leyes en California (Estados Unidos) han ayudado a abrir oportunidades para que los candidatos con menos experiencia puedan tomar cargos estatales y locales, lo que ha aumentado la representación entre las personas de color. Por un lado, una ley de 1990 estableció límites de mandato para la legislatura estatal, lo que obliga a la rotación; a la vez, la Ley de Derechos Electorales de California permitió a las comunidades de color exigir cambios electorales, incluidas elecciones por distrito que han aumentado la cantidad de representantes latinos y afroamericanos a nivel local.

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