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Dear CCEP colleagues, partners and friends:
Welcome to the September edition of Engage!
This month, the California Civic Engagement Project released new research titled "The California Voter Experience Study: A Statewide Survey of Voter Perspectives on Vote-By-Mail and Vote Centers." Since being released, its findings have been cited by multiple news media outlets.
Within this month's edition you will also hear about two presentations that CCEP director Mindy Romero gave on the latest CCEP research, one hosted by the UC Center Sacramento, and the other as part of the UC Davis Capitol Speaker Series. This issue also presents the latest research from Asian Americans Advancing Justice regarding Vote-By-Mail ballot rejection rates, shares a story about 30 youth commissioners from the West Valley who traveled to the state capitol to show support for an amendment that would allow 17 year olds to vote, and presents the latest civic engagement news updates for California and the country.
In partnership,
Mindy Romero, Ph.D.
CCEP Director
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New Research Released!
The CCEP has recently released its new report titled:
The California Voter Experience Survey: A Statewide Survey of Voter Perspectives on Vote-By-Mail and Vote Centers.
The findings of this report identify some of the opportunities and challenges that may arise when switching to a Vote Center Model, particularly for electorally underrepresented populations. This research will help inform implementation strategies by election officials and community leaders as they work together in their planning for a new election model.
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A Conversation About Young Adult Voter Behavior
September 18th
Young adults continue to have low voter turnout rates compared to any other age group. This event, put on by The Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies in partnership with San Jose State University, will discuss potential reasons for this low turnout.
Mindy Romero, CCEP director, will be speaking at this event along with Matt Mahan, CEO and Co-Founder of Brigade, and Dr. Mary Currin-Percival, SJSU Assistant Professor of Political Science. Here they will discuss what young voters need in order to become engaged in our country's elections.
This event will be held Monday, September 18th from 3:00 pm to 5:00pm at the San Jose State University Library. To register for the event, please
visit the event page here.
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Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies
UC Davis School of Law
September 19th
The Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies at the UC Davis School of Law has started their
Fall 2017 seminar series. Attendees will get to hear from researchers and scholars as they present their work that relates to critical race studies.
CCEP director, Mindy Romero, will be giving the second lecture in this seminar series, and it will be held on Tuesday, September 19th from 12pm to 1pm at King Hall. Romero will be giving a presentation titled, "Looking Ahead to the 2018 Midterm Elections: How Changing Demography Will - or Won't - Influence Outcomes.
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Civic Makers
October 13th
Civic Makers will be hosting a training event
titled, "Public Impact Design" in partnership with the City of Sacramento Mayor's Office for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
This event is for anyone working in the public sector, including government agency staff, nonprofits staff, and social entrepreneurs. At the event, participants will learn innovative, bottom-up problem solving techniques.
The event will take place on Friday, October 13th from 1pm to 5pm at Sacramento City Hall. To get tickets to the event, please see the
Eventbrite page here.
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Make Every Vote Count
October 7th
Make Every Vote Count (MEVC) will be hosting a symposium at Stanford Law School where they will discuss how to improve our Presidential selection process.
This event will feature U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) as its keynote speaker.
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Looking Ahead to the 2018 Midterm Elections: How Changing Demography Will - or Won't - Influence Outcomes
CCEP director, Mindy Romero, gave at presentation at the UC Center Sacramento this past month, to discuss new CCEP research on the voter turnout of swing states. She discussed what expected and unique patterns were found in the data, specifically for underrepresented populations, and what this could mean for the 2018 election.
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Vote Centers are Coming to California: What Do We Need to Know to Help Ensure Successful and Equitable Implementation?
As part of the UC Davis Capitol Speaker Series, CCEP director Mindy Romero, presented new research from the CCEP statewide survey on California voters' perceptions of Vote Centers. This research identified opportunities and challenges that could arise if counties switch to the Vote Center model, particularly for electorally underrepresented populations.
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New Civic Engagement Research
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Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Los Angeles
A new report released by Asian Americans Advancing Justice - California found that Asian Americans face a higher than average vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot rejection rate.
The report analyzed Los Angeles, San Francisco, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara counties which together, make up 45% of the California Asian American electorate. AAAJ found that the highest rejection rates among Asian Americans were with young voters age 18 to 24, and foreign born voters. The most common reason for these rejections was signature mismatches.
To learn more about this report titled, "Asian Americans Face Higher Than Average Vote-By-Mail Ballot Rejection Rates in California," see their press release here.
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Civic Engagement Success Story
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Photo Credit: Jasmine Leyva| Mercury News
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West Valley teens call for a lower voting age
On August 30th, 30 youth commissioners from Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, San Jose and Saratoga traveled by bus to the California State Capitol to voice their support for ACA 10, which calls for lowering the voting age from 18 to 17 years old.
ACA 10 made it to a third reading where it was then refused adoption. Assembly Member Evan Low (D-28) has since motioned for the amendment to be reconsidered.
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California Civic Engagement News
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California lawmakers ban taxpayer-funded mailers close to elections
The state legislature approved
Senate Bill 45 which will prohibit local elected officials from using taxpayer funds to send government mass-mailings or public events announcements to constituents during the 60 days before an election.
This bill was introduced after the Southern California News Group said that Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do reportedly sent out nearly 1.2 million mailers, that frequently featured Do's name, promoting community events during his re-election bid. This was said to have cost tax payers around $246,000. The passing of SB 45 will now make this use of taxpayer funds a misdemeanor.
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National Civic Engagement News
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Photo Credit: Eric Gay | Associated Press
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Supreme Court puts Texas redistricting on hold
A federal court in Texas ruled on August 15th that certain congressional districts were guilty of drawing district lines that discriminated against minorities. However, this week the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 5-4 vote, blocked the Texas federal court's ruling.
The Supreme Court's order will stay in place while it hears the state's appeal. This means that the district maps in question are more likely to be used during the 2018 election.
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Photo Credit: Kayana Szymczak | NBC News
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Voter fraud commission clashes over New Hampshire vote count
The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity held its second public meeting this week. During this meeting, Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State, was criticized by New Hampshire election officials over a claim Kobach
made that it was "highly likely" that votes cast by non-residents influenced the results of New Hampshire's election.
Kobach wrote an op-ed in Breitbart News on September 7th claiming that New Hampshire's U.S. Senate seat race, which was won by a Democrat, was "stolen through voter fraud." In response, voting experts stated, again, that there is no evidence of voter fraud.
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CCEP Outreach: In the Media
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Voters skeptical of a new state law that overhauls how Californians cast ballots
The CCEP's recent research was covered by the Los Angeles Times. The article discusses the results of the CCEP's statewide survey regarding voters' perceptions of Vote Centers, an electoral system change that some California counties are considering adopting.
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Some California voters don't trust Post Office to mail ballots, study says
KPCC Southern California Public Radio recently covered the latest CCEP research. KPCC discusses research findings regarding voters' trust in the U.S. Postal Service, a key aspect of Vote-By-Mail.
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Some California counties racing to adopt all "Vote-By-Mail" process
The CCEP's latest research on Vote Centers was recently cited by Capital Public Radio (CPR). CPR looks at which California counties will possibly be adopting the new Vote Center model.
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UCD director: Voting changes will require 'aggressive outreach'
The Davis Enterprise recently published an article regarding the latest CCEP research. The article discusses how the Vote Center model would work, as well as what counties will need to do, and what issues counties will have to be aware of, should they decide to adopt this model.
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Voters don't like California's move to voting centers in place of neighborhood polling places
New research findings by the CCEP were discussed by KPCC in their latest article about California counties implementing Vote Centers.
This change is occurring under the new law known as that Voter's Choice Act (VCA). The VCA allows counties to opt in to the new Vote Center system. While Vote Centers would be open up to 10 days before an election day to provide more voting flexibility, some critics believe this electoral system change could be too disruptive and confuse voters.
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Share Your Civic Engagement Research with the CCEP
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Are you working to promote inclusive civic engagement? Do you have a civic engagement success story to share? Share your story with CCEP and you could be featured in an upcoming issue of Engage! Please send your short write-up to Jennifer Puza at [email protected] for consideration. Thanks for reading and staying engaged!
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UC Davis California Civic Engagement Project
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Kim Alexander
President and Founder
California Voter Foundation
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Matt A. Barreto
Professor, Dept. of Political Science
Professor, Dept. of Chicana/o Studies
University of California, Los Angeles
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Jonathan Fox
Professor,
School of International Service
American University
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Luis R. Fraga
Arthur Foundation Endowed Professor of Transformative Latino Leadership
Professor of Political Science University of Notre Dame
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Lisa Garcia Bedolla
Chancellor's Professor of Education and Political Science
University of California, Berkeley
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Bruce Haynes
Associate Professor, Dept. of Sociology University of California, Davis
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Jongho Lee
Professor
Dept. of Political Science
Western Illinois University
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Peter Levine
Associate Dean for Research and Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University
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Matt Mahan
Cofounder and CEO
Brigade
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James Muldavin
Executive Director
California Center for Civic Participation and Youth Development
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Karthick Ramakrishnan
Professor of Public Policy
University of California, Riverside
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Ricardo Ramirez
Associate Professor, Dept. of Political Science
University of Notre Dame
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Jason Reece
Assistant Professor of Land Use Planning and Law
The Ohio State University
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Cruz Reynoso
Professor of Law Emeritus
University of California, Davis
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Dan Schnur
Director
American Jewish Committee
Los Angeles Region
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Shakari Byerly
Partner and Lead Researcher
EVITARUS
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Samuel Molina
California State Director
Mi Familia Vota
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California Civic Engagement Project
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The California Civic Engagement Project (CCEP) is housed at the UC Davis Center for Regional Change and was established to inform the public dialogue on representative governance in California. The CCEP is engaging in pioneering research to identify disparities in civic participation across place and population. It is well positioned to inform and empower a wide range of policy and organizing efforts in California to reduce disparities in state and regional patterns of well-being and opportunity. Key audiences include public officials, advocacy groups, political researchers and communities themselves.
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UC Davis Center for Regional Change
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The UC Davis Center for Regional Change (CRC). The CRC is a catalyst for innovative, collaborative, and action-oriented research. It brings together faculty and students from different disciplines, and builds bridges between university, policy, advocacy, business, philanthropy and other sectors. The CRC's goal is to support the building of healthy, equitable, prosperous, and sustainable regions in California and beyond.
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