ADP at IUSB to Co-Sponsor Congressional Candidate Debate

From an IUSB Press Release:

ADP at IUSB Election 2012 Event Schedule (https://www.iusb.edu/news/?p=2691)

The American Democracy Project and Political Science Club of Indiana University South Bend and the League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area are moving ahead with the third bi-annual Second District Congressional Candidate Debate to be televised live on WNIT-TV on Sunday, October 28thfrom 6-7:30 p.m. Participants will include Democratic candidate Brendan Mullen and Libertarian candidate Joe Ruiz. Republican candidate Jackie Walorski has declined to participate.

In 2008, these same groups hosted a (WNIT) televised debate between Democratic candidate, Joe Donnelly, and Republican candidate Luke Puckett.

In 2010, they hosted candidates Joe Donnelly (D), Jackie Walorski (R), and Mark Vogel (L).

The Second District Congressional Candidate Debate is part of a larger Fall 2012 debate series hosted by the American Democracy Project and League of Women Voters, which features St. Joseph County candidates for the positions of surveyor, treasurer, recorder, probate judge, and commissioner.

The American Democracy Project and League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area have become well-known locally for hosting candidate debates in races of importance to local voters. For example, last fall (2011), the same organizations hosted debates for Mishawaka Mayor, South Bend Common Council, and South Bend Mayor. Recent candidates for the offices of sheriff, prosecutor, state legislator, and county council have also participated in the ADP/LWV debates. “We are at the stage now where both Republican and Democratic candidates have begun calling us to ask if we can host a debate for their political race,” said Elizabeth Bennion, who is the lead organizer for the events.

According to Dr. Bennion, a political science professor who serves as Campus Director of the American Democracy Project at Indiana University South Bend, the Second District debate has been in the planning stages since July.According to Bennion, the coalition always planned to move ahead with the debate once at least two candidates accepted. “Brendan Mullen and Joe Ruiz accepted our invitations quickly and enthusiastically. We have been waiting since July to receive a confirmation from the Walorski campaign.”

Bennion noted that she contacted Ms. Walorski, communications director Elizabeth Guyton, and campaign manager Brendon DelToro on Tuesday, September 11th to let them know that the sponsors planned to move ahead with the debate with or without Walorski. After receiving an email reply from Mr. DelToro stating that the campaign would be reviewing invitations on Saturday, September 15th, Bennion—still hoping for an affirmative response—promised that she would not confirm a final date until Monday (9/24/12). The Walorski campaign’s response came on Monday, September 24th, the same day the campaign issued a press release indicating that they had agreed to participate in a WSBT radio debate and a Wabash County Chamber of Commerce debate. (Details for these events are not yet finalized).

As a political science professor who studies and teaches about election campaigns, Bennion notes that there are many factors a campaign must consider when determining which invitations to accept. “I understand the many factors that a campaign manager considers when deciding which debate invitations and public appearances to accept. Ultimately, it is the right of the Walorski campaign to accept or reject any invitation. However, as Campus Director of the American Democracy Project, I am eager to give voters an opportunity to hear the candidates on their ballot and compare them side-by-side. The American Democracy Project and the League of Women Voters support engaged and informed citizenship. There is no better way for voters to quickly understand the differences between candidates than to hear the candidates answer issue-based questions in their own words in a face-to-face debate. Our record hosting a wide range of candidate forums reflects this belief and demonstrates our commitment to informed and engaged citizenship.” Bennion notes that the decision to partner with WNIT also reflect this philosophy by opening up the debates to people without cable TV or home Internet access.

Bennion stressed that she would be thrilled if Ms. Walorski decides that her schedule will, in fact, allow her to participate in the televised debate. “There is a podium waiting for her, if she is able to join us. We plan to host every two years with whichever candidates accept our invitation. This year’s debate would certainly be enriched by the participation of all three candidates.” “Jackie Walorski is the current front-runner in this race. Voters are eager to hear what she has to say. She is a strong campaigner and we welcome her participation in the debate.”

Engage the Election 2012: A Webinar Series

The American Democracy Project’s partner organization, The Democracy Commitment (TDC) is sponsoring a set of three free webinars in August focused on the 2012 election cycle. I encourage you to participate to learn more about the work of six leading organizations in the voter registration and education community. The webinars will provide resources and ideas for campus programming.

Thank you TDC for including us!

– Jen Domagal-Goldman, ADP National Manager

ENGAGE THE ELECTION: 2012

Webinar Series

Hosted by The Democracy Commitment, the Engage the Election: 2012 webinar series is an opportunity for college and university campuses to learn more about the programs and resources available to them through national organizations including CIRCLE, the League of Women Voters, the Campus Vote Project, and Student PIRGs. The webinars will presente offerings intended to help ADP & TDC campuses in their efforts to reach out and better engage both students on campus and members of the community in the upcoming national election.

We’re very excited for the opportunity to share the work happening with our national partners and how their resources can help you engage your students in the upcoming national election. We have a great lineup the first three Mondays in August.

To download a schedule with webinar summaries, click here. To register for the webinar series, click here. The password to register is: TDCEngage2012

The following are dates for the webinar series and the presenting partner organizations with a summary of their 30-minute webinar.

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Monday, August 6, 2012 @ 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT

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Fantasy Politics

The webinar will begin with a brief demo of Fantasy Politics, a free and addictive educational game that applies fantasy football dynamics to politics. Then we will go over how this fits into a civics/social studies/government curriculum as well as discuss best practices for driving student engagement well beyond what would be possible with a textbook. Finally, we’ll finish the session with Q&A.

Presenter: Aaron Michel, CEO

Use Your Vote. Raise Our Voice.

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is a non-partisan student mobilization campaign. Since 1984 we’ve helped to register more than 1.7million people. This webinar will talk through our best practices for ensuring your campus registers and turns out on Election Day. For more information on our campaign check out  http://www.StudentVote.org

Presenter: Leigh-Anne Cole, New Voters Project Director

 

Monday, August 13, 2012 @ 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT

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League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters, a leader in engaging and empowering voters for more than 90 years, is active in 800 communities nationwide and ready to work with community college campuses this fall! From helping out with voter registration drives to providing quality nonpartisan information about candidates and the basics you need to know to help your friends get ready for Election Day, the League stands ready to work together. The webinar will be about the League’s work and ways you can join forces with a local League in your area.

Presenter: Maggie Duncan, Elections Program Manager

Campus Vote Project (CVP)

CVP is a campaign of the Fair Elections Legal Network to help colleges break down barriers to voting that disproportionately affect students. This webinar will summarize specific reforms from the CVP toolkit that a school can implement to get college students the information they need to register and vote. It will also cover important election rules and will describe the state-specific resources CVP can provide to support election awareness, voter registration, and GOTV efforts.

Presenter: Dan Vicuna, Staff Attorney and Campus Vote Project Coordinator

 

Monday, August 20, 2012 @ 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT

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Turbo Vote

TurboVote is a service that makes registering to vote, voting by mail, and never missing an election as easy as renting a netflix DVD.  Over 20 colleges across the country have partnered with TurboVote to provide the service on their campuses.  In this webinar, TurboVote Director of Partnerships Sam Novey will discuss exactly how TurboVote works for both users and institutional partners.

Presenter: Seth Flaxman, Executive Director and Co-founder

CIRCLE

TurboVote is a service that makes registering to vote, voting by mail, and never missing an election as easy as renting a netflix DVD.  Over 20 colleges across the country have partnered with TurboVote to provide the service on their campuses.  In this webinar, TurboVote Director of Partnerships Sam Novey will discuss exactly how TurboVote works for both users and institutional partners.

Presenter: Nancy Thomas, Director, Initiatives for the Study of Higher Education and Public Life

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To download a schedule with webinar summaries, click here. To register for the webinar series, click here. The password to register is: TDCEngage2012

For more information about Engage the Election: 2012 you can visit TDC’s website under “Initiatives.” You can also engage amongst your colleagues and students on the Engage the Election: 2012 Facebook page.

Please feel free to share this information with anyone on your college campus that you believe would benefit from the information and resources of this series.

My Voice, My Vote: National Campus Voter Registration Drive & Contest

Amelia Ross-Hammond, Professor of Music and Director of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement at Norfolk State University and member of ADP’s implementation committee is on the volunteer Board of Governors for My Voice My Vote a non-partisan National Campus Voter Registration Contest.

The My Voice My Vote National Campus Voter Registration Contest is sponsored by the National Campus Registration Drive. College and university campuses are invited to participate in this non-partisan voter registration drive and contest which begins September 8, 2012.

Teams from across the U.S. will compete against each other to see who can register the most voters in your area and on your campus. Remember, anyone who turns 18 years old by November 2012 is eligible to register to vote. Contest winners will win a “Day With an Elected Official.” Once you register you will be contacted and invited to participate in the Training Sessions online during July and August.

Information and Rules for the National Contest to Register New Voters!

• Be a leader on your campus in your State and apply today! (If you are a college student, you can apply to be a Team Captain for a national fall 2012 contest to register new voters.)
• Application available at: http://www.myvoicemyvote2012.com/
• You can also download this MyVoiceMyVoteKit (pdf)
• Contest begins September 8, 2012

Rules for Contest Participation

1. Team Captains must be enrolled in college, university or community college
2. Team of 5-10 participants. (1/2 of team enrolled in college and/or 1/2 community)
3. Choose Name for team
4. Submit Contest Application by July 1, 2012 at National Campus Registration Drive e-mail: myvoicemyvote2012@gmail.com
5. 50 Teams will be selected for National Campus Voter Registration Contest
6. College students from all States eligible to apply – maximum 2 teams per State
7. New Voters can be registered on campus and in community at their nearest Board of Election
8. Team that registers the most new voters wins!

 

Top prizes include :

• “Day with an Elected Official” in home States

Contestants notified and begin online training July/August 2012

Sponsored by: National Campus Voter Registration Drive

Questions? Email myvoicemyvote2012@gmail.com

Concrete Steps to Register Voters:

• The National Mail Voter Registration Form, which allows voters to register from anywhere in the U.S., is available for downloading and printing on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Web site (www.eac.gov), as are state-specific instructions on registering to vote.
• E-mail. Use your campus e-mail system to reach every student on campus with a message from the coalition promoting your campaign. Be sure to include a link to the Web version of the National Mail Voter Registration Form at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

• Web. Check with your college’s webmaster about posting voter registration information on the site, and linking to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission site, where potential voters can download and print the National Mail Voter Registration Form. You might also explore creating your own Web page on the campus site to provide a one-stop source for information on your voter registration and education efforts.

• Student Body Meeting. Have someone from your campus voter registration attend a student body meetings to explain the voter registration campaign.

• Incorporate into the Curriculum. Encourage each professor or teaching assistant to spend a few minutes at the beginning of each semester to discuss voter registration. Coordinate with the provost’s office, the faculty senate, teaching assistant organizations, and each department chair.

• Campus Mail Boxes. Draft a letter from your coalition explaining the voter registration project, and how to obtain a registration form. Distribute these letters to all the mailboxes on campus.

• Orientation. Work with the student affairs office or the person who organizes orientation sessions. Get permission to make a presentation to the students, then distribute voter registration cards and help them complete the forms. Be sure to have the federal form on hand for those who wish to register at their home address in another state.

• Community Service Projects. This could provide a unique opportunity to reach out to the community and generate media coverage of your voter registration campaign. Have a group of people from your campus go door-to-door in parts of the community that have traditionally had low voter participation rates. Or encourage existing community service programs to adopt voter registration efforts as part of their ongoing activities.
  
  
• Door-to-Door Registration. Organize a group of volunteers to go door-to-door in the dorms to register students. Take clipboards loaded with voter registration cards and start walking the halls.

• Alumni Voter Registration Opportunities. Homecoming week, class reunions, fall sports events, and the alumni magazine all provide opportunities to encourage your alumni to register and vote. Coordinate with the alumni office, and ask them to write articles for the newsletter.

Campus Spotlight: Voting Rights Advocate Speaks at CalU

Contributed by Mel Blumberg, ADP Campus Coordinator, California University of Pennsylvania

Jennifer Brunner, a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award winner honored for commitment to voter rights, presents “Profile in Courage: Guarding the Vote” at CalU.

Cal U marked primary election day with a talk by a voting rights advocate who has received national honors for her work.

Jennifer Brunner, who served as secretary of state for Ohio from 2007-2011, spoke to students, faculty and a few community members April 24 in Eberly Hall.

A 2008 winner of the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award, she was recognized for her “dauntless commitment to the enfranchisement of every Ohio voter,” said Caroline Kenney, daughter of the late president.

As secretary of state Brunner addressed voting irregularities in Ohio. During the 2008 primary she ordered that paper ballots be provided to voters who requested them.

After problems were found with the state’s new electronic voting systems, she called for them to be replaced with paper ballots and optical scan technology before the November 2008 election, and she supported Department of Justice efforts to offer a bilingual ballot in a county that was home to thousands of eligible voters with limited proficiency in English.

“Democracy is fragile, and the right to vote is at its core,” Brunner said. “You cannot put a price on a vote.”

Brunner has served as a judge, and she now is an attorney in private practice. She addressed questions about voter fraud by noting that it is a felony.

“In general, Republicans think that Democrats want to allow ineligible people to vote, and Democrats think that Republicans want to suppress the vote,” she said. “In either case, that’s voter fraud — but it’s a crime that seldom actually happens.”

Last year, legislatures in 34 states debated voter identification legislation, she said, describing the bills as “solutions in search of a problem.”

Pennsylvania recently signed into law a provision requiring every voter to show photo ID at the polls.

Such measures make voting more difficult, especially for people living in poverty, who may not have a valid driver’s license and who may find it difficult to gather the required documents, she explained.

People who depend on public assistance, food stamps, public transportation and programs such as Head Start should vote if they hope to keep supporters of those programs in office, she added.

“I have told many people in poverty that they have an even greater stake in an election, especially local and statewide elections, because they rely on the system to help them get a better start in life.”

Voters from all background must go to the polls, she added. “We want that diversity reflected in our public officials.”

Brunner’s talk was organized by the American Democracy Project at Cal U. The election day lineup also included two panel presentations in Duda Hall.

Dr. Kwame Botwe-Asamoah of CalU’s Department of History and Political Science enjoys a comment from the audience.

“New Barriers to the Ballot” featured a roundtable talk with Dr. Michael Slaven, Dr. Craig Smith and Dr. Kwame Botwe-Asamoah, all of the Department of History and Political Science, and student Courtney Cochran, who recently completed a research project on the new voter identification law.

“Leadership and Politics” included panelists Dr. Michael Hummel, director of the Linda and Harry Serene Leadership Institute at Cal U; Washington County Commissioner Lawrence Maggi, a member of the University’s Council of Trustees; and the Hon. Janet Moschetta Bell, a Washington County judge.

Program organizer Dr. Melanie Blumberg noted that Brunner required around-the-clock police protection during the heat of her voting rights campaign.

“Jennifer is a woman of courage and a true role model,” Blumberg said.

Campus Spotlight: C-SPAN Visits Western Carolina University

By Todd Collins, Associate Professor of Political Science, Western Carolina University

C-Span Bus visits Western Carolina University

The students, faculty, and staff  at Western Carolina University were happy to welcome the C-SPAN Campaign 2012 Bus to our campus on May 3^rd.  This event was part of a six-day tour of universities and towns in North Carolina by C-SPAN leading up to the N.C. primaries.  The tour was also scheduled in anticipation of the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Charlotte, N.C., during the week of September 3^rd.

Western Carolina students, local residents, and university employees were able to speak with C-SPAN representatives about C-SPAN’s extensive Campaign 2012 programming and resources.  Visitors learned of the many ways to connect with C-SPAN including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, XM Radio, and iPhone and Blackberry apps.  Inside the bus were many interactive election resources, as visitors were encouraged to explore the many sources of election current and historical information offered by C-SPAN.

Visitors to the C-SPAN bus were also able to share their thoughts on campaign issues via Tout, a video-based social media service.  Participants were asked to comment on the presidential candidates and the issues most important to them in this election cycle.  Their responses were captured in 15-second videos and uploaded onto various C-SPAN social media platforms, including C-SPAN’s own Tout page (http://www.tout.com/cspanbus).

This visit served as a great opportunity for our students to think about the upcoming election.  As North Carolina has been considered one of a few “swing states” in the upcoming election, N.C. voters may have a large impact in the next election.  The C-SPAN Campaign 2012 Bus allowed our students and other visitors to reflect on the importance of voting, elections, and civic engagement.  C-SPAN’s visit encouraged our students to consider their roles in the electoral process and highlighted many of the important concepts that faculty emphasize in the classroom.  A big thank you to the staff and administration at C-SPAN for including us in its tour!