Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Youngstown, Ohio, Lost Its Only Paper. A 'Zombie' News Site Wants To Fill The Void

    Mahoning Matters formed as a news site with laid-off veterans of the Youngstown Vindicator, filling part of a void in local accountability journalism in what is now the largest U.S. city without a seven-day print newspaper. Its funder, The Compass Experiment, set the startup on a three-year trajectory toward self-sustainability, an experiment that has yet to play out. Meantime, Compass successfully recruited a tiny band of Vindicator alumni, whose first stories have included unmasking the public official whose sexual misconduct compromised the management of a local police department.

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  • Why doctors are handing out voter registration kits

    Thousands of physicians and 60 hospital systems are participating in Civic Health Month, a nationwide effort to encourage voter participation. VotER has over 15,000 orders for “Healthy Democracy Kits,” which compile voter registration resources for medical professionals. Med Out the Vote is another effort focused on registering medical students to vote and dozens of universities have expressed interest in hosting head-to-head voter registration competitions with rival schools. Some don't think doctors should be involved with civic education, but others believe it is one part of treating the whole individual.

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  • 'An awakening': the George Floyd protests spur surge in Black voter registration

    Advocacy organizations conducted voter outreach and registered new voters at Black Lives Matters protests on a scale not seen since the civil rights era. HeadCount, a voter-registration organization, created QR codes that anyone with a printer could put on protest signs. Other attendees could scan the codes with their smartphones to immediately register to vote. The group registered 14,898 new voters in June 2020, compared with 1,204 in June 2016. Political organizing at the summer’s protest events contributed to higher turnout in local and national elections, particularly among Black and Latino voters.

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  • Can the LBJ Women's Campaign School build a pipeline for women candidates?

    The LBJ Women’s Campaign School at the University of Texas at Austin provides nonpartisan support for women running for political office and seeks to recruit more center-right women into the pipeline of political candidates. The inaugural class had 50 women - 33 Democrats, 12 Republicans, and 5 Independents/Other. The group was racially diverse, 58% identified as women of color, but there is room for improvement when it comes to recruiting Republican women. The LBJ program received a financial award from the Women’s Public Leadership Network, which helps center-right women get involved in politics.

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  • The world has shown it's possible to avert Covid-caused election meltdowns. But the U.S. is unique.

    Several countries successfully held elections during the Covid-19 pandemic and can offer insights for how the U.S. can hold a safe presidential election. These include providing more funding for additional polling places and poll workers, expanding ways for people to vote so that it is easier, requiring protective equipment and social distancing at the polls, allowing officials to process mail-in ballots before election day, and informing the public about any changes to contradict misinformation campaigns. It could be harder in the U.S. due to its size and the complexity of electoral laws across the states.

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  • The birth of the Black is Beautiful movement

    The African Jazz-Art Society & Studios (AJASS) kickstarted the Black is Beautiful movement with 1960s fashion shows elevating Black models with dark skin and full bodies, who agreed to keep their hair natural year-round. As events increased and photographs spread, and famous Black women adopted their style, natural hair became more normalized. The founders recently released a song called We Will Breath to empower black people to “take back control of the narrative surrounding their lives.” The group continues to inspire Black entrepreneurs, such as Rihanna, and encourages people to support Black businesses.

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  • How Hawaii's New Voting System Could Help Disabled Voters

    Voters with disabilities in Hawaii have more options for voting than in most other states. Electronic ballots in particular, which can be paired with assistive technology, allow voters more freedom and independence. Any voter with a disability can request a ballot be emailed to them as an HTML file. Voters must sign a privacy waiver and ballots have to be printed and signed. Hawaii is one of the few states that allows voters to scan their signed ballots and return them by email, as well as by mail or dropped in an official ballot box. More voter outreach is needed to make people aware of this option.

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  • 19th Amendment: The six-week 'brawl' that won women the vote

    Three generations of activists marched, protested, lobbied, and campaigned for more than seven decades to win the right to vote for American women. In 1920, national and local activists worked to convince Tennessee legislators to support the 19th amendment and become the 36th and final state needed to ratify it. Local suffragists were the most visible forces, lobbying their representatives to support the amendment, while national activists built alliances, identified legislators known to take bribes, and exerted political pressure at all levels of government, including among presidential candidates.

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  • The growing global movement to end outdoor advertising

    There are 29 Resistance to Advertising Aggression (RAP) groups working in France to ban outdoor advertising such as billboards. The groups worked with the mayor in the city of Grenoble to cancel a contract for 326 outdoor ads. While not all contracts can be changed, RAPs are particularly focused on stopping digital signs because the energy required to run them is harmful to the environment. Groups in the United Kingdom, São Paulo, New Delhi, and Tehran have won campaigns to remove billboards and other outdoor ads, which research shows reinforce sexist and capitalist ideologies.

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  • Why the Botched N.Y.C. Primary Has Become the November Nightmare

    New York City received ten-times the average number of mail-in ballots in the June 2020 primary, which caused problems and highlighted changes needed in the general election. The postal service had to hand sort the pre-paid envelopes to postmark them because pre-paid postage doesn’t normally get post-marked. Some envelopes were missed and those ballots were rejected. There were also delays tallying the votes, with some contests remaining undecided for weeks after the election. Ballots were also rejected due to minor errors. Better voter education and increased city and postal service staff is needed.

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