Dear CCEP colleagues, partners and friends:
Welcome to the August edition of Engage!
There has been a lot of talk in the news about cyber security and voter fraud, and in this month's edition, we'll highlight some of those top stories. From how state and federal elections officials are working together to strengthen our cyber security, to hackers at a research workshop breaking into voting machines to find flaws that need to be addressed.
This edition will also highlight a few events coming up, two of which CCEP director Mindy Romero will be hosting. Lastly, we would like to share with you some exciting new job opportunities.
In partnership,
Mindy Romero, Ph.D.
CCEP Director
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Sacramento Housing Alliance
August 17th
The Sacramento Housing Alliance (SHA) will be hosting its 2017 SHA Affordable Housing Bus Tour on Thursday, August 17th from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
At this event, participants will get to visit approximately 10 affordable housing developments in the region alongside community leaders, public officers, and housing stakeholders, and will get to discuss possible solutions to the housing and homelessness crisis in the region.
To register for this event, please visit the SHA page
here.
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UC Davis Capitol Speaker Series | Mindy Romero, Ph.D. Presentation
August 29th
Vote Centers are Coming to California: What Do We Need to Know to Help Ensure Successful and Equitable Implementation?
Beginning in 2018, selected counties will participate in the new Voter's Choice Act (VCA) which expands voters' options for how, where and when they cast their ballots. Mindy Romero, Ph.D., director of the UC Davis California Civic Engagement Project (CCEP), will present CCEP research on California voters' perceptions of vote centers that identifies 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.
Dr. Romero will also preview a new mapping tool currently in development by the CCEP and DataKind designed to provide assistance to California county election offices seeking to implement the new Voter's Choice Act. The goal of this tool is to help election officials make informed decisions about where to locate Vote Centers and Vote-by-Mail drop boxes, while minimizing the risk of voter confusion and decreased participation, especially for voter groups historically underrepresented in California's electorate.
When: Tuesday August 29th, Noon- 1:30 PM
Where: State Capitol Building, Sacramento. Room TBD
Admission to this event is free with RSVP, and lunch will be served following.
Please RSVP by emailing Tammy Heath: tmheath@ucdavis.edu
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UC Center Sacramento | Mindy Romero, Ph.D. Presentation
August 24th
Looking Ahead to the 2018 Midterm Elections: How Changing Demography Will - or Won't - Influence Outcomes
The 2016 general election defied the expectations of many and received extensive analysis by political analysts and the media. But there is still much to be learned about how voter turnout across the U.S. impacted results at the presidential and state level. Dr. Mindy Romero, director of the CCEP, will present new CCEP research that takes a deep dive into the voter turnout data of swing states, identifying both the typically expected, as well as unique patterns that were present in some states, particularly for underrepresented populations in the electorate, including Latino and youth. Romero will discuss what these findings could mean for the growing expectations for the 2018 election on both ends of the political spectrum.
Admission to this event is free with RSVP, and lunch will be served following Dr. Romero's presentation.
When: Thursday August 24th, Noon- 1 PM
Where: UC Center, Sacramento: 1130 K St., Room LL3
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National Disability Voter Registration Week
July 17-21st was National Disability Voter Registration week. Each year, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) runs their REV UP campaign in order to help increase the political power of people with disabilities by encouraging that they register to vote, and vote.
In addition, REV UP also works to engage politicians and the media to recognize the disability community so that they will promote the integration vision of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
To learn more about this event, visit the REV UP page
here.
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New Civic Engagement Research
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Pew Research Center
A new report by Richard Fry, senior researcher at the
Pew Research Center, found that Baby Boomers and other older Americans are no longer the voting majority in U.S. presidential elections - Millennials and Generation X voters are.
Millennial (age 18 to 35 in 2016) and Generation X (age 36 to 51 in 2016) voters cast 69.6 million votes in the 2016 general election, while Boomers and older voters cast 67.9 million votes.
The research found the increase in Millennial votes noteworthy, because Millennials are more likely to describe themselves as independents, and are also more Democratic in their political preferences than older generations.
In addition to the rise in Millennial votes, General Xers cast 35.7 million votes in the 2016 general election, making it the most votes ever cast by their generation. To learn more about the findings, see the Pew Research report
here.
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Civic Engagement Success Story
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Photo Credit: John Gibbins|
San Diego Union-Tribune
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San Diego man works to engage community to achieve social and environmental justice
Clovis Honore of San Diego has been working in community organizing since he graduated college in the 1980s. During his time at San Diego State University, Honore was introduced to sustainability and decided he wanted to limit the damage he was doing to the environment.
Decades later, Honore has now focused his work on environmental justice as an outreach fellow for a non-profit solar company.
In his fellowship, Honore works to make solar technology accessible for low-income communities by promoting community awareness and speaking at community meetings. He hopes that by helping lower-income communities save money, it will help solve other socioeconomic and socio-political problems they face. In addition, he believes that by helping to bring economic development to his community, it will help for the betterment of themselves.
Honore also serves as the board president of a health organization, on the board of a refugee resettlement agency, is the vice president of a local NAACP branch, and is executive director of a reposed community organizing agency. To learn more about this story, check out the San Diego Union-Tribune article here.
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California Civic Engagement News
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Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli|AP
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California redistricting panel sets example for the U.S.
The commission, comprised of a panel of citizens, was given authority over redistricting in
California after the passing of Prop. 11 in 2008 shifted that power from the state legislature. Since then, the commission has produced competitive district maps based on geography and demographics, and not on politics. To learn more about this, visit the Orange County Register article
here.
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Photo Credit: Andrew Harnik|AP
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Data shows Judicial Watch made inaccurate claims about California's voters
The Washington D.C. watchdog group, Judicial Watch, recently claimed that 11 California counties had more registered voters than their estimated eligible voter population.
In response, the Sacramento Bee provided the American Community Survey, February 2017 report to show that those claims are inaccurate. To see the data, check out the
Sacramento Bee article here.
According to officials, California maintains both an "active" and "inactive" list of voters. Judicial Watch included inactive voters in their calculations, and this has led state elections officials to criticize Judicial Watch's data as faulty. To read more about this, check out the LA Times article here.
Regardless, Judicial Watch has asked California's top elections officials and 11 county registrars to give them detailed voter registration records.
Should California not comply to their request, the group said they will file a lawsuit. California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla, said he has not yet made a final decision on how to respond to their request.
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National Civic Engagement News
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Photo Credit: Mike Nelson |
European Pressphoto Agency
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Officials work to formalize election cyber security efforts
During a two-day meeting in New York, state and federal officials discussed with technology experts how they could coordinate information-sharing regarding potential cyber threats. Going forward, the attendees plan to determine how to best share information with each other while protecting the integrity of investigations, as well as the confidentiality of system owners.
To learn more about this meeting, see the Wall Street Journal article here.
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Photo Credit: Ethan Miller | Getty Images
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Hackers invited to expose U.S. voting machine vulnerabilities
At the DefCon Voting Village workshop in Las Vegas this month, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania set up dozens of U.S. digital voting machines for attendees to try and hack.
Over three days, hackers showed how inadequately secured all the election machines were. This Voting Village workshop will expand over the next three years to create a voting network and offer simulations for voting officials and hackers to train on, to help further research on voting machine security.
For more information, see the Wired article
here.
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Professional Opportunities
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The Maddy Institute | CSU Fresno
The Kenneth L. Maddy Legislative Intern Scholar Program is looking to prepare the next generation of political, governmental, business, and non-profit leaders.
Each year, approximately 40 university students are selected and assigned to either a regional government office in the San Joaquin Valley, or in government offices in Washington D.C. and Sacramento. During the program, students will get to develop their leadership skills, gain practical knowledge of government operations, as well as network with professionals in the field.
The deadline to apply for the
Fall 2017 program is
today (August 11th).
The deadline to apply for the Spring 2018 program is December 8th.
To apply, visit the Maddy Institute's webpage
here.
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El Concilio | Multiple Job Openings
El Concilio is looking for people who are passionate about improving the lives of others to fill multiple job openings.
For the past 46 years, El Concilio has worked to improve the quality of life of Latinos and under-served communities in California Central Valley. They provide services such as counseling, referrals, and education to the community in order to help empower people so that they can become significant assets to their community at large.
Interested in these job opportunities? Then check out their job listing page
here.
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The Roddenberry Fellowship
The Roddenberry Fellowship is looking to support 20 activists working in the fields of civil rights, climate and environmental justice, immigration and refugee rights, and LGBTQIA and women's rights.
Those selected for 2018 will receive a $50,000 grant to help support their project or initiative.
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Mutual Housing California
Mutual Housing California is looking to fill two community organizer positions. Organizers will work to involve individual residents, resident groups, and neighborhood groups in community-building programs and in public life.j
In addition, community organizers will build relationships with residents, assist community leaders, conduct outreach efforts, and train residents in the development and maintenance of resident groups.
To learn more about these job opportunities, check out Mutual Housing California's
employment page.
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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 japuza@ucdavis.edu for consideration. Thanks for reading and staying engaged!
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UC Davis California Civic Engagement Project
msromero@ucdavis.edu
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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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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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