My city council just voted to divide the city into districts and have one council member per district and have a rotating mayor instead of a voted on and dedicated one. Two of the council members are half way through their four year terms. There will now be 40% of the city that will not be able to vote for representation in next years election. Because the entire election process is being changed, wouldn’t it make sense, and is there president, for all five seats being up for election with two of them only serving half terms so the staggered elections can still occur?

Culver City is well-known for Columbia Pictures, NPR, TikTok, and for being an overall great place to live in West Los Angeles. Additionally…Culver City is on the leading edge of real voting reform.

Join California Approves and The Center for Election Science

this Thursday 11/18 at 6:00 PM PST

for a virtual Culver City Area Open House. Learn more about approval voting and the effort to bring it to Culver City and Southern California!

Listen as guest of honor - Mayor of Culver City, Alex Fisch - tells us where the effort stands today and what can be done to further the cause.

There is no cost to attend…anyone interested in voting reform is encouraged to attend.

Register here

Let us know if you have any questions…see you there!

Very best,

Chris Raleigh
Director of Campaigns & Advocacy
The Center for Election Science
chris@electionscience.org

Alan Savage
President - California Approves Alan@CaliforniaApproves.org

Jeff Justice
Secretary & Treasurer - California Approves Jeff@CaliforniaApproves.org

I'm White, my wife is Hispanic. I was born here, lived here my whole life,, she was born in Peru and has been here for 8 years. English is my first language. Spanish is hers. While working on becoming a citizen she worked full-time for 8 years, and got a second degree. We voted in our state's local election last week. We both registered, and we both voted. I asked her after, "Did they do anything to make the process difficult because you're not White?". She said no, same exact process I went through.

So how is it that someone not from this country can navigate the system, register to vote, vote, all while being "Not a White person", but American citizens who've been here their whole lives can't figure it out.

I'm with the Republicans on this issue. If you really wanted to vote, and it's as important to you as it is to my wife, you'd find a way.

The poll worker in upstate NY asked for my birthdate. I gave it to her and found an error on their part. Poll worker asked for my ID to confirm and I gave it. They did show me the screen after I insisted on seeing it, and there was indeed an error. We called the board of elections and got it straightened out. Seems strange though because I’ve never been challenged for a birthdate before. Is this unusual?

Why do people in the USA refer to voting as a sacred right?

I'm unaware of any religion or God which addresses democracy or voting as a tenet of their beliefs.

And except for presidential races we tend to vote at less than 50%. So it's hard to say as a group we revere the process if so few people exercise it.

Just wondering...

I recently returned home for break and had the chance to vote in my hometown elections. The University I attend is in another city (in the same state), and I was curious to know if I can vote in the elections here? Thank you.

What is on the other end of that phone number? Is it ever a recorded message where you hit 1 for yes, 2 for no. Or talk to someone?

After a shortage of poll workers forced election officials to scramble during the 2020 primaries, a high-profile recruitment push helped most places find enough workers for the general election. But now, election officials are scrambling to find the workers they need so voters can weigh in on this year’s elections.

Read the full story here: https://publicintegrity.org/inside-publici/newsletters/watchdog-newsletter/election-officials-scramble-poll-workers/

How can I encourage my friend to vote? She has absolutely no interest in it, but it’s a city election and her voice could make a big difference. I know some of you will say “yOu sHoUlD rEsPeCt hEr DeCiSiOn,” but listen, we’ve been best friends for our whole lives and guilt trip each other into things all the time; I really don’t care. Any tips for getting her to vote?

BY: Michael Payne - October 1, 2021

Read the article here: https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/10/01/forget-the-voting-rights-bill-heres-how-to-destroy-gop-voter-suppression/

Republicans are determined to take full control of this country and its government, but there is one thing that stands in their way. It’s the American democracy. Though under fierce attacks by authoritarians, it still stands.

These lying, scheming, manipulative Republican politicians, who long have used various forms of voter suppression to remove specific voters from voter rolls, have now passed additional laws in many Republican-controlled states to take voter suppression to new, much greater heights.

The problem for Democrats is that they have allowed Republicans to go on the offensive while they have been reduced to playing defense. This dire situation has to be completely reversed with Democrats going after Republicans like a bunch of banshees. They have to kick their ass-s.

Democrats should understand that they bear the chief responsibility for putting the brakes on this voter suppression. They have to stop the Republicans in their tracks because of what they failed to do in the past. 

But how can they? Democrats thought that it could be done by coming up with powerful new legislation. That’s why they created H.R.4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021. It was passed in the House but now is stalled in the Senate. 

The problem is that Senate Democrats can’t fully agree on what exactly should be in the bill. Even if they find some way to agree on its coverage, the dark specter of the filibuster still hangs above them.

But that should be no great problem since all they have to do is eliminate or modify the dreaded filibuster and the act will become law, right? Nope, because the next obstruction in the way is the combination of Demo senators Manchin and Sinema who insist that it’s very important to preserve that “sacred” Senate rule. 

If one were to ask the two of them, if they had to choose between either preserving the filibuster or our democracy, I’d say they would choose the filibuster, without question. Modern-day patriots aren’t they?

My advice to Democrats is to WAKE UP, stop banging your heads against the wall; get moving, use your heads to think deeper for a change. 

Just forget about passing a Voting Rights bill and go in an entirely different direction, one which has the potential to repeal the Republican voter suppression effort. Let’s call this new strategy The “grassroots method” of connecting solidly with the American people. 

This looks like the most promising, effective way to stop Republican voter suppression, preserve our election systems, and save our democracy. 

Here’s how to get this grassroots method underway: The #1 objective is to: get out the vote like never before, using a variety of methods to contact Democratic voters. Get them fired up and primed to protect their voting rights, get them damned angry at those who would dare to try to take them away. 

Make certain that powerful lawsuits have been started or are ready to be initiated in all of the states that are under Republican suppression. They should win in courts, for what could be more Constitutional than preserving American’s voting rights?

Arrange meetings with some of the main Democratic supporters/donors and ask them to fund a large part of this very costly process. Michael Bloomberg and his fellow billionaires can and should come up with big bucks for a myriad of commercials designed to inform Democratic voters of the seriousness of this situation and to motivate them into action.

These commercials should clearly explain how Republican suppression tactics will create havoc in the election system, prevent many thousands of Americans, primarily African Americans and Hispanics, from voting. They should motivate these Democratic voters to come out to the polls determined not to allow anyone to stop them from casting their ballots.

The commercials should also be used as educational tools to educate voters relative to all of the election rules such as proper voter ID, voting by mail, and other important requirements that must be followed. 

The bulk of the efforts must be concentrated on the key electoral states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. These states are the battleground states where Democrats have to use most of their firepower.

Democrats need to send out several hundred canvassers into these states several weeks before the midterms to knock on doors, hold neighborhood meetings and communicate with the media. Nothing is more important than personal contact.

President Biden, VP Harris, and other high-level officials need to make numerous visits to key, highly important areas of each of these swing states. This will help greatly to inform the people about the great dangers that voter suppression poses.

Democrats in the Senate have been making a monumental mistake in continuing to play by the rules in this Congress that has become entirely dysfunctional and has fallen into a state of paralysis and gridlock. What to do? 

Just shove the Senate aside and put the plan detailed above into action. Connect directly with the American people to dismantle the Republican voter suppression strategies. When that is done successfully, and it will be, the Republican Party will be buried in the biggest turnout and landslide in U.S. history in the next election.

The lesson to be learned here? When you are faced with a massive obstacle, aka, the Republicans in U.S. Senate blocking your way, then you must either go around it, over it, under it, or right through it. 

should i start making books and things or should i make yt vids?

View Poll

When I first registered this was right for me. Now I only vote one side. Should I change my registration?

Hi, I'm looking for a way to create an exercise for an election (hypothetical or real) where the positions of various candidates/parties on various issues are programmed in, and then users answer a series of question about their views, and the system shows how closely their views align with each candidate. (Or, failing that, just shows which candidate is closest.)

A good example of this would be the "Vote Compass" tool that is often set up for elections in Canada and elsewhere, but I don't necessarily need anything that elaborate.

Preferably the tool would be free to use, but I can handle a nominal fee.

If there isn't anything like that specifically for elections, I can probably repurpose a tool that's designed to make those "Which character from ______ are you?" style of quizzes, if something like that is available.

Thanks in advance.

I know very little about voting systems but I have been watching CGP Grey on Youtube, who does a number of videos on voting systems. It seems from what he says, that Alternative Voting (AV) or Single Transferable Voting (STV) are better systems than First Past the Post (FPTP). Is this accurate? Do people have a preference for "best" voting system?