Dear CCEP colleagues, partners and friends:
Welcome to the March edition of Engage!
In this edition you will read about upcoming events, you will learn about some of the latest research in the field of civic engagement, and will hear about influential voting rights lawyer Joaquin Avila who died this month, as we remember his life's work in fighting for Latino representation at the ballot box.
In addition, you will
read about current civic engagement news in California and nationally, as well as find out about new job opportunities.
In partnership,
Mindy Romero, Ph.D.
CCEP Director
Follow us on:
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Thursday, March 22nd-23rd
Holiday Inn, Downtown Sacramento, CA
WELL 2018 Annual Conference
Water Education for Latino Leaders (WELL) will be hosting its state-wide educational water conference March 22nd-23rd in downtown Sacramento.
This year's conference, which happens to coincide with World Water Day, will focus on building long-term water policies that sustain California's economy and quality of life. CCEP director Mindy Romero will be the lunch speaker at this event. Romero will present a preview of new CCEP research on Latino representation on California water boards.
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Saturday, March 24th
Youth Empowerment Summit "Yes!"
The Youth Empowerment Summit "Yes!" on March 24th will be hosted at Woodland Community College.
This event is open to all 9th-12th grade students in Yolo County. During the event, students will learn how to become leaders in their community, will have the opportunity to talk to their elected officials, and will get to learn how decisions are made in their community.
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Monday, March 26th
CCEP Voting Center Siting Tool Demo
The CCEP has launched the new Vote Center Siting Tool! This new mapping tool is designed to provide assistance to California county election officers seeking to implement the Voter's Choice Act in the June and November 2018 elections.
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Friday, March 30th
120 Day Deadline: How Local Governments Can Conduct Community-Based Address Canvassing to Ensure Low-Income People Are Counted
The deadline for cities and counties to submit their Local Update of Census Addresses Program (LUCA) list is approaching. So on Friday, March 30th, Community Connect Labs and the Institute for Local Government will be hosting a free webinar to teach how community-based address canvassing can be used to avoid an undercount of poor residents.
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Saturday, April 7th
Representation on Water Boards Roundtable
The Community Water Leaders Network will be hosting a roundtable on April 7th. CCEP director Mindy Romero will be presenting new CCEP research that examines the representation of Latinxs and women in water board elections.
In addition, water board directors will meet for a small panel to discuss their perspectives on water board issues such as: inclusion, representation, and community participation.
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Thursday, March 15th
Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC
Room 2226 |
House Judiciary Committee Room
The Impact of Election Reforms on the Changing U.S. Electorate
Across the country, there are states seeking to expand access to the voting process by
implementing new election reforms. Mindy Romero, Ph.D., director of the
California Civic Engagement Project at UC Davis, discussed how election reforms such as automatic voter registration, online voter registration, and vote centers impact the accessibility and representativeness of the political process for voters.
Dr. Romero also presented new CCEP research that examined the elections reforms taking place in California, and discussed what other states can learn from California's experience.
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Wednesday, March 21st
Rural Justice Summit: Building Power
UC Merced and the California Institute for Rural Studies hosted the second annual Rural Justice Summit on March 21st.
This event brought researchers and rural community members together to discuss historic and current struggles, as well as access to the resources in the San Joaquin Valley, in order to discuss tools needed for social change.
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Civic Engagement Remembrance Story
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Photo Credit: Luis Alejo
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Before he died last week, this man changed how we vote in California.
Influential voting rights lawyer, Joaquin Avila, who devoted his career to breaking down barriers that kept Latinos from being fully represented at the ballot box, died this month.
Throughout his career, Avila fought against "at-large" elections after he discovered that this system favored candidates with the most money and influence, and left poor neighborhoods underrepresented.
Avila had two victories before the U.S. Supreme Court, which required Monterey County communities to implement district elections. This change, caused by Avila's win, led to the first Latinos serving on the Watsonville City Council. Later, Avila sued Los Angeles County and forced them to implement district elections. Since switching election systems, Los Angeles County has a more diverse Board of Supervisors.
Later in career, Avila became the principle architect of the California Voting Rights Act, which made it easier to legally gather when racially polarized voting was taking place.
In March 2018, Joaquin Avila died at the age of 69 from cancer complications.
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New Civic Engagement Research
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Assessing California's Redistricting Commission: Effects on Partisan Fairness and Competitiveness
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a new report by Eric McGhee this month titled, "Assessing California's Redistricting Commission: Effects on Partisan Fairness and Competitiveness."
This report examines election outcomes under the Citizen Redistricting Commission (CRC) plans. The report found that for the most part, CRC satisfied expectations of producing plans that were fair to each major political party, and that their maps were somewhat more competitive than maps drawn by the legislature.
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Elected Officials, Secret Cash
A new report released by the Brennan Center for Justice on March 15th examines the risk of dark money in our elections.
The report finds that at least two presidents from both major parties have established nonprofits that allow them to raise an unlimited amount of anonymous funding for political use after election day. This report analyzes the rules that govern money in politics, as well as the risk for corruption.
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California Civic Engagement News
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California Secretary of State and Nextdoor Announce New Partnership
California Secretary of State (SOS) Alex Padilla and the online social network Nextdoor announced a new partnership on March 13th to provide election information directly to voters living in the five counties adopting the Voter's Choice Act.
Through this partnership, the SOS's office will be able to send messages to voters about changes to their election, send reminders about election deadlines, and will be able to direct voters to Vote Centers in their county.
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State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson announces 2018 Civic Learning Award recipients
California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced the winners of the Civic Learning Award.
74 schools across the state received this award, which celebrates public schools who work to engage students in civic learning in creative and effective ways.
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Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times
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California teens are preregistering to vote, and taking a pass on political parties
On March 8th, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla released data on California's new system that allows 16 and 17 year olds to pre-register to vote.
The data found that during this system's first months of implementation, 88,700 teenagers used it to preregister themselves to vote. In addition, the data found that 44% of pre-registrants said they had "no party preference."
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Judge Rules State Must Fix Faulty Signature Law
On Tuesday, March 6th, a San Francisco judge ruled that California voters must be notified by election officials, before their ballot are rejected due to signature concerns.
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National Civic Engagement News
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Supreme Court upholds Pennsylvania election map in win for Democrats
On Monday, March 19th, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a Republican challenge to the new congressional district map drawn for Pennsylvania.
This ruling stems from a 5-2 vote in January where the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Pennsylvania legislature designed the old district boundaries to hurt Democratic voters.
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Senior Policy Analyst, Political Research | Demos
Public policy organization Demos is seeking a senior policy analyst with at least 5 years of experience in data analysis related to voting rights and democracy issues.
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Did you ignore a summons for jury duty? There are consequences
A new KPCC article by Mary Plummer examines the implications of ignoring a jury duty summons - such as the jury pool becoming less representative.
When people do serve as a juror, however, research has found that full participation in jury duty is related to higher voter turnout rates. According to CCEP director Mindy Romero, "When you serve as a juror, you're connecting into our greater democratic process."
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This city is proud of its diversity, but a lawyer says it blocks Latinos at the ballot
Civil rights attorney Kevin Shenkman believes Elk Grove's at-large election system disenfranchises Latino voters and their ability to influence the outcome of the City's Council elections. Shenkman is using the 2002 California Voting Rights Act to support his argument.
But what is it about at-large election systems that causes concern? CCEP director Mindy Romero weighed in to explain that the crux of lawsuits against at-large systems is that they can inhibit the ability of minorities to influence election outcomes. But, a lawyer must prove that by converting to a by-district election system instead, the dynamic would change enough that a candidate from an underrepresented group would have a platform.
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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, Department of Political Science
Professor, Department 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
Professor, Department of Sociology University of California, Davis
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Jongho Lee
Professor
Department of Political Science
Western Illinois University
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Peter Levine
Associate Dean for Research
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, Department 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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