voters

26May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Voters Opt To Protect Abortion Access In First Nationwide Election Since Roe Was Overturned

The first major election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade saw abortion rights on the ballot in a record number of states. The outcomes of these initiatives suggest that when Kansas voters in August 2022 rejected a proposed constitutional amendment declaring there is no state right to abortion, it was not a fluke. Indeed, results following the close of polls on Nov. 8 revealed that voters in Kentucky had followed suit and rejected a similar constitutional amendment. And in three other states — California, Michigan and Vermont — voters approved constitutional amendments to safeguard abortion access as part of a broader protection of personal reproductive autonomy, including contraception. In Vermont, the margin of victory was sweeping: 77.2% to 22.8%, with 95% of votes in. In...

Religion And Geography Add To Voters’ Diversity – There’s No One ‘Latino Vote’

2Apr

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POLITICS

Religion And Geography Add To Voters’ Diversity – There’s No One ‘Latino Vote’

Nearly 1 in 5 people in the United States today are Latino, and “the Latino vote” has attracted significant news coverage as their political voice grows stronger. Yet considering all 62 million Latinos as a group isn’t necessarily all that helpful in understanding attitudes or voting patterns, as some scholars and journalists have pointed out. The U.S. Latino population is extremely diverse. As scholars who study immigration in the fields of sociology and religious ethics, we are especially interested in the growing religious diversity and often overlooked geographical diversity among Latino populations. These aspects of Latino identity are just beginning to be recognized more clearly in media reports. Yet they are as informative as gender, race and other characteristics for understandin...

Why Do American Voters Keep Letting Elected Officials Get Away With This? 5 Examples

10Oct

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POLITICS

Why Do American Voters Keep Letting Elected Officials Get Away With This? 5 Examples

I'm sick and tired, and not going to take it anymore! This line, from the decades - ago, movie, Network, expressed an individual's frustration, which what seemed to continue, occurring, and how, many of us, instead of being served, and represented, by our elected officials, seem to be, merely, serviced (and abused/ taken advantage of)! Little has changed, since then, especially, for the better! We continue, witnessing, the same - old, same - old, where these people, care more about their personal/ political agenda, and/ or, self - interest, than helping service, the greater good, and attempting, a meeting - of - the - minds! There are, at least 5 examples, of this type of continuing behavior, and, the reality is, only, when voters, start demanding better, and more, from these people, than,...

Kamala Harris Wants To Be Seen — And Let Voters Know She Sees Them — Can It Work?

27Jul

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POLITICS

Kamala Harris Wants To Be Seen — And Let Voters Know She Sees Them — Can It Work?

Vice President Kamala Harris is back on the road, something she’s been eager to do after spending the first part of her tenure largely in Washington. In the past week alone, Harris has traveled to the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, as well as New Jersey, laying out the administration’s accomplishments, shoring up support with state lawmakers on abortion and attempting to rally voters ahead of the November midterms. She’s also talking to the media more: After giving few interviews in her first 18 months in office, she’s done newsmaking sit-downs with CNN, NPR and Face the Nation in recent weeks. Last week, I traveled with Harris to Florida and asked the vice president big questions about her leadership, the midterms, and what she sees as threats to freedo...

What’s Next For Policing Reform – Voters Rejected Plans To Replace The Minneapolis Police Department

3Apr

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POLITICS

What’s Next For Policing Reform – Voters Rejected Plans To Replace The Minneapolis Police Department

Michelle S. Phelps, University of Minnesota Voters in Minneapolis rejected a measure that would have transformed the city’s policing 18 months after the killing of George Floyd thrust the city into the forefront of the police reform debate. By a 56% to 44% margin, voters said “no” to a charter amendment that would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety focused on public health solutions. Michelle Phelps at the University of Minnesota leads a project looking at attitudes toward policing in the city. The Conversation asked her to explain what happened in the Nov. 2, 2021, vote and where it leaves both Minneapolis’ beleaguered police department and police reform movements nationwide. An edited version of her responses are below. What have v...

Young Voters Are Fighting Back Against Voter Suppression

19Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism, POLITICS

Young Voters Are Fighting Back Against Voter Suppression

Politics In November 2020, young voters exercised their electoral power by turning out in record numbers to help Democrats win the White House and other key races. In 2021, however, an onslaught of voter suppression measures being enacted in statehouses could have an outsized impact on those young people, according to voting rights advocates. “We’ve seen some pretty concerted efforts to push back against that new engagement from young voters,” says attorney Sean Morales-Doyle, acting director for Voting Rights and Elections at the Brennan Center for Justice. The Brennan Center has reported that so far this year at least 18 states have enacted 30 laws to make it harder to vote, and more than 400 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in state legislatures....

Heading Back To The Battlefield Is Black Voters Matter

21Jun

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Heading Back To The Battlefield Is Black Voters Matter

Black Voters Matter is leading a coalition of national civil rights and grassroots groups on the Freedom Ride for Voting Rights starting Saturday. Errin Haines Originally published by The 19th Since helping to deliver Democratic victories in November and January, largely on the backs of Black voters, LaTosha Brown has barely had time to catch her breath. Normally after an election, people have the space to decompress, to really get ready for the next fight, explains Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. But Brown and many of her sister Black women organizers say nothing about this moment in American politics is normal. “We haven’t had a break in four years,” she said. “Instead, it intensified. We have been fighting nonstop, because we are in extraordinary circumstances. This isn’t...

Uber And Lyft Drivers Are ‘Contractors’ California Voters Decide As Gig Workers Continue Search For A Livable Wage

6Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

Uber And Lyft Drivers Are ‘Contractors’ California Voters Decide As Gig Workers Continue Search For A Livable Wage

Uber, TaskRabbit and other ride-hailing and delivery service companies in California can keep classifying their workers as independent contractors rather than employees after California voters approved a measure known as Proposition 22, according to the state’s still-unofficial tally. The fundamental question of whether Uber drivers and similar workers should be considered employees or contractors has been debated and litigated for years now. The issue is often framed, however inaccurately, as a tradeoff between the flexibility that comes with being independent against the higher incomes and benefits that employees tend to get. Uber and other supporters of Proposition 22 have argued the measure would provide both flexibility and some employeelike benefits, such as a guaranteed minimum wa...

Black Voters Know Climate Justice Is Racial Justice

2Apr

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Journalism, POLITICS

Black Voters Know Climate Justice Is Racial Justice

It’s not only been a summer season (now autumn) of a deadly pandemic, toxic politics, and social unrest, but the nation has been rocked by a nonstop series of environmental calamities triggered by the human-pressed climate crisis. Hurricane Sally was a destructive slow-moving mix of high winds and epic flooding battering the Gulf Coast and other parts of the South. That was after Hurricane Laura and ahead of an unprecedented number of cyclones forming in the Atlantic for what’s building up into one of the most active—if not the most active—hurricane season on record. The entire West Coast is either, literally, on fire or under a blanket of choking smoke from said fire. This summer was the fourth hottest on record, with nights no longer cooler and city neighborhoods burning up because of l...

State prosecutors and voters – not the feds – can hold corrupt officials accountable

12Jun

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LAW ENFORCEMENT

State prosecutors and voters – not the feds – can hold corrupt officials accountable

Two high-ranking officials with ties to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hatched a plot in 2013 to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, a town adjacent to the George Washington Bridge – the busiest bridge in the world. The reason for targeting the mayor: his refusal to endorse Christie for reelection. To inflict pain on the mayor, the aides ordered lane closures on the bridge under the guise of a sham “traffic study,” causing massive backups – with school buses idling in traffic for hours and emergency vehicles and ambulances blocked. A public uproar ensued. The press swarmed, the plot unraveled and the state legislature began an investigation, as did the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Two aides were charged and convicted under a federal wire-fraud statute for misusing fede...