ARIZONA EDITORIAL FORUM
By Michael Wong and Twyla Haggerty
Candidate signs are affixed on every street corner. Ballot information fills our mailboxes daily. Phone calls crowd our voice mail. And of course ads, ads, and more ads every time we turn on our favorite television show.
While Arizona voters are inundated with campaign materials and pundit speculation, the Arizona Student Vote Coalition is one group that doesn’t worry about the polls or how young people vote – we just want them to vote.
The Arizona Student Vote Coalition, comprised of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group, the Arizona Students’ Association and the University Student Governments, has been working since 2004 to significantly boost youth voting.
There are three important reasons to increase voter participation among young people. First, young people are the generation that will be most impacted by pressing issues in Arizona (the economy, college affordability and transportation). By engaging us now, it is more likely that we will be a driving force towards the solutions to these issues. Second, we are a big and growing portion of the electorate (nearly 25 percent in 2008) and as such we have the potential to make big impacts on these issues. Third, youth voting habits are formed early, so getting more young people to vote now results in a more active citizenry for the future.
Although some cynics believe that young people don’t care about anything but themselves and their electronics, the facts show otherwise.
In 2004, young voter turnout surged nine percent, an increase three times that of the general population. In 2006, the youth vote increased again -- growing by two million votes. In 2008, the number of voters under 30 who showed up at the polls increased by approximately 11 percent, while the number of older voters who cast a ballot increased by only three percent. Young people as a percentage of overall turn-out in Arizona increased on both sides of the aisle in 2008 over previous levels (Republicans – 12 percent in 2008 from 10 percent in 2000; and Democrats – 10 percent in 2008 from seven percent in 2004).
Yet, even with these encouraging increases in turnout, overall youth voter turnout still remains too low.
Studies suggest that a large-scale peer-to-peer effort of voter contact targeted at young people can make a significant difference in the turnout rate of young voters.
Putting that research into practice, in the months leading up to the election, hundreds of students have reached out to peers on college campuses across the state to register them and get them to vote on Election Day. We have helped bring together a large, diverse coalition of partners – from the College Republicans and Young Democrats, to fraternities and sororities. We are speaking in classrooms, storming the dorms, and holding events to make sure young voters in Arizona show up on Election Day.
As the campaign season becomes more polarizing the closer we get to Election Day, one unifying message we hope all Arizonans will promote is that young people (and others) need to vote!
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Wong and Haggerty are co-chairs of the Arizona Student Vote Coalition.
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Copyright © 2010 by Arizona Editorial Forum. 10/10
By Sarah van Gelder
If you’re like me, this election doesn’t feel anything like 2008. The excitement and hope of that historic election have been replaced by worry and disappointment. The 2008 campaigns at least occasionally addressed our country's serious problems.
This year it's all noise, attacks, and accusations. Little actual policy makes it through. Meanwhile, billionaires, big oil, and Wall Street corporations unleashed by the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United are able to spend unlimited amounts of money to flood the airwaves with anonymous attack ads.
It’s a tough election season, and many Americans say they’ll be voting with their feet by staying home.
But not voting is a huge mistake. Things could get much worse, and if enough of us stay home, they almost certainly will.
The Great Recession is creating hardship for families in every part of the country. More than 6 million Americans fell below the poverty line in the last two years, and nearly a quarter of all children under the age of six are living in poverty. Unemployed workers are typically going jobless for six months, nearly twice as long as they have during any time since World War II. Median household wealth fell by 20 percent since 2007, retirement savings have evaporated, and now some are talking about dismantling Social Security.
This is not the year to stay home. Our families can’t afford it.
Democracy is especially fragile during times of stress. It’s a time when our commitment to build a more perfect union is tested.
Voting alone isn’t enough, but it does make a difference. We may not be able to directly influence big corporations to create jobs at home (or at all), but we can elect leaders who will press for jobs in our communities. We may not be able to force employers to offer pension benefits, but we can elect leaders committed to protecting Social Security. And maybe we can’t bring down the high cost of college tuition, but we can vote for members of Congress who will support Pell Grants and other means for young people to gain the skills they’ll need to find work and build a strong country for the next generation.
Elections aren’t everything. Frankly, Congress has fallen short many times, and it is bound to disappoint us again. If we want better policies, we have to do more than vote. We have to get organized, develop our own agenda, and hold our elected officials at all levels of government accountable to us. We’ll need to organize in our communities, work places, and political districts to counter the influence of big-money special interests and the media they control, and set a course that will protect and support strong families.
Voting isn’t everything, but when combined with organizing outside the political process, it can be powerful.
If we work together, we’ll be able to create green, family-wage jobs that stay in our communities. We’ll protect social security and assure our veterans get the long-term help they need. We’ll rebuild our failing schools, divert our young people away from the “cradle-to-prison” pipeline, combat discrimination against women, gays and lesbians, people of color, and ex-felons, and restore a sense of possibility for everyone’s future.
Voting alone won’t accomplish all of this – it’s just the beginning. A democratic system isn’t something delivered to us by politicians. It’s ours to remake with each generation—as the saying goes, “Use it or lose it.”
Don’t be discouraged by the cynicism of television pundits, the negative advertising, and the bad economy. Vote for the country you hope for—and then go out and help build it.
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van Gelder is co-founder and executive editor of YES! Magazine, www.yesmagazine.org, an independent media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions for a just and sustainable world. The Winter 2011 issue of YES! features a pro-family political agenda, and other stories about how American families are surviving, and even thriving.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by American Forum. 10/10
TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM
By Dick Williams
The Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) requires replacement of paperless touchscreen voting machines with optical ballot scanners by November 2010. Optical-scan voting systems read marked paper ballots and tally results, providing a tangible record of the voter's intent. They are now the most widely employed voting systems in the nation, used by 60 percent of voters in other states.
The TVCA was adopted nearly unanimously by the Tennessee Legislature – by both Democrats and Republicans -- and in 2008 enthusiastically signed into law by Gov. Phil Bredesen. But implementation of the law has been ensnarled in legalities and technicalities.
Tennessee's secretary of state and coordinator of elections have argued that the new law requires scanners be federally certified to 2005 standards, and because no machines have yet been certified to that standard, the law cannot be put into effect in time for 2010 Elections.
That’s why Common Cause Tennessee and other voters' rights advocates, in an effort to break the logjam, filed a lawsuit seeking clarification of the law's language. Nothing is more important than having verifiable ballots. There is no good reason for running the 2010 elections with systems that are vulnerable to error and don't allow a recount or an audit.
In a November 5 ruling, Chancellor Russell T. Perkins concluded that the TVCA does not require new ballot scanners to meet those 2005 standards, but declined to issue an injunction forcing application of the law. Still, the court ruled that the secretary of state was "obligated to take prompt, effective steps to meet the statutory deadline" as long as their choice of standards "does not jeopardize meeting the Legislative mandate to implement…on or before the November 2010 election."
Tennesseans need – and deserve – to have verifiable ballots in place for the 2010 election. Paperless systems are subject to unintended errors and possible hacking; hence votes might not be recorded as intended. Without a paper ballot available for audit or contested election, there is no way to tell whether a voter's intent was accurately recorded. These are not just abstract, theoretical concerns. California, after rigorous testing, decertified the same machines which are still deemed acceptable in Tennessee. Are California’s votes more precious, more sacred than the vote of Tennesseans?
Steven John Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor and Shelby County commissioner, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said, “This is a vindication of the election reformers’ position all along. The court agrees with us that, contrary to what the secretary of state has been saying, the TVCA allows us to use currently available voting machines, and that the secretary is legally required to begin doing so immediately.”
State Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins said the court's conclusion could force the state to obtain obsolete equipment that would have to be replaced. But an affidavit submitted by voting technology expert Dr. Douglas Jones, associate professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of Iowa said that if election officials wish, optical scanners certified to 2002 standards could be upgraded to 2005 standards without difficulty.
After the ruling, plaintiffs’ attorney Gerard Stranch stated “The ball is now in the secretary of state’s court. Hopefully, they will have greater respect for the will of the court than they did for the will of the legislature.”
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Williams is state chair of Common Cause Tennessee.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 12/09
