Engage! May Edition: The CCEP at UC Davis shares the latest civic engagement news

The California Civic Engagement Project (CCEP)

at the UC Davis Center for Regional Change

Engage!

CCEP Newsletter

May 2018

Dear CCEP colleagues, partners and friends:

Welcome to the May edition of Engage!

In this month's Engage you will learn about new CCEP research examining the impact of the Ballot Initiative Transparency Act on public involvement during California's 2016 election cycle. You will also learn about an opportunity for undergraduate students to learn about advocacy work and running strategic campaigns, as well as the latest news in California civic engagement.

In partnership,

Mindy Romero, Ph.D.

CCEP Director

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Upcoming Events

May 30th - June 1st

Oakland, CA

2018 Code for America Summit

The annual Code for America Summit kicks off today in Oakland. This year's summit will cover digital capability in government, policy design, the state of the government technology market, and citizen engagement.

To learn more and to register, visit the Code for America event page here.

July 13-15th

California State University, San Marcos

8th Annual Student Activist Training

California Common Cause will be hosting its 8th Annual Student Activist Training at CSU San Marcos from July 13th to July 15th.

This three-day training event will bring undergraduate students together from across California to learn about organizing and advocacy best practices, running strategic campaigns, and discussing solutions to improve our democracy.

To learn more and to apply to this free event by June 6th, visit the California Common Cause 8th Annual Student Activist Training page here.

Check out the event flyer here.

Civic Engagement Featured Story


	Photo Credit: UC Irvine

UC's National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement selects executive director

On April 23rd, the University of California's new National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement named Michelle Deutchman J.D. as their first executive director.

Deutchman, a civil rights advocate and scholar, has more than a decade of experience advancing free speech. She joins the center from the Anti-Defamation League where she provided guidance to the ADL's regional offices on college campus speech related matters.

Throughout her career, Deutchman has provided guidance on policies and practices regarding free expression, has worked at the state and national level to educate campus leaders on how to handle issues of increased polarization during a volatile political climate. The National Center for Free Speech looks forward to Deutchman overseeing the new center.

To read more about the new executive director, check out the UC Irvine News article here.

New Civic Engagement Research

Status Threat, Not Economic Hardship, Explains the 2016 Presidential Vote

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) published a new report on April 23rd by University of Pennsylvania researcher Diana Mutz that examines the evidence relating to popular narratives used to explain public support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The study, titled "Status Threat, Not Economic Hardship, Explains the 2016 Presidential Vote" found that change in financial well-being carried minimal influence on candidate preference, but rather it was a party's position on issues related to American global dominance and the changing demographics creating a majority-minority America - leading to issues such as how much White Americans feel their dominant status is being threatened - that changed peoples' candidate preferences.

To read the report, find the PNAS study here.

California Civic Engagement News

If you missed the California voter registration deadline, there's another option

The California deadline to register to vote has passed. However, Californians have another option available in case they missed the deadline: conditional voter registration.

Californians can go to their county elections office to register and vote conditionally. Voters can conditionally register to vote until 8pm on the June 5th election day.

For more information, see the KPBS article here.

More California Voters, Counties Opting for Mail-In Ballots

Vote Centers are now open!

Voters living in Madera, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento, and San Mateo counties have the opportunity to experience the new vote center model for the California primary election on Tuesday, June 5th.

Voters in these counties can mail in their ballots, put them in drop-boxes, or vote in person at any county vote center.

For more on this, see the Capital Public Radio article here.

To find out where your vote center and drop boxes are located, visit the California Secretary of State page here and type in your address.


	Photo Credit: California Secretary of State

California Secretary of State launches High School and Youth Programs portal

In April, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla launched the new HighSchool.sos.ca.gov website to engage and educate young Californians who want to be civically active.

The new website features information on how to pre-register to vote, high school voter education week, California student mock elections, and the student poll worker program.

For more on this, visit the new California High School and Youth Initiatives portal here.

Civil rights groups sue California secretary of state over voter language assistance

On April 23rd, civil rights groups Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati filed a lawsuit against the California Secretary of State (SOS).

The complaint alleges that the SOS is keeping 80,000 Californians with limited English proficiency from receiving voting assistance as required by law. The lawsuit asserts that 34 language groups are affected, with voters who speak Spanish, Farsi, and Arabic being the most affected groups.

For more on this story, see the NBC News article here.

Secretary of State, College Association to sign agreement to increase voter participation

On May 17th, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) signed a memorandum of understanding to encourage campuses to offer students voter registration opportunities through student portals, campus emails, and notifications.

To learn more, check out the SF Gate article here.

National Civic Engagement News


	Photo Credit: Eric Gay \| AP

Texas' voter ID law does not discriminate and can stand, appeals panel rules

On Friday, April 27th, the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Court upheld Texas' voter identification law. The court ruled 2-1 that the law did not discriminate against Black and Hispanic voters. This ruling overturned a previous lower court ruling that had struck down the law.

For more on this story, see the New York Times article here.

CCEP Spotlight

New Research!

The Ballot Initiative Transparency Act: Impact on Public Involvement in California's Initiative Process

The CCEP has released new research. The CCEP examined the impact of California's Ballot Initiative Transparency Act (BITA) on the 2016 election cycle. BITA provides Californians with a 30-day online public comment period where the public can provide initiative proponents feedback on their measures, lets the legislature hold earlier joint legislative public hearings, and allows initiative proponents to withdraw their ballot measures at any time before it qualifies for the ballot.

In this policy brief, titled The Ballot Initiative Transparency Act: Impact on Public Involvement in California's Initiative Process, the CCEP analyzes the impact BITA had on public involvement during California's ballot initiative process. This brief is the first in a series.

Check out the new CCEP policy brief The Ballot Initiative Transparency Act: Impact on Public Involvement in California's Initiative Process here.

What Your 7th Grade Civics Class Got Wrong

Matthew Mahan, CEO of Brigade, has released a new blog post to the Brigade website.

This new post, titled "What Your 7th Grade Civics Class Got Wrong" is the first in a three-part series. The series will discuss: systemic risks facing our democracy, ways of approaching these problems, and the path Brigade is on.

To read the new blog post, visit Brigade here.

CCEP in the Media

'She protects us': New ad touts break in East Area Rapist case

Sacramento County district attorney Anne Marie Schubert is featured in a new television campaign as a groundbreaking DNA expert who led the investigation and solved the Golden State killer case. CCEP director Mindy Romero comments on the focus of the new campaign.

See the Sacramento Bee article here for more on this story.

Democrats think it's their year to oust LaMalfa. Does anyone else?

Four Democrats and one Green Party candidate are working to unseat long-time GOP incumbent Doug LaMalfa in Redding's District 1. CCEP director Mindy Romero comments on this recent surge in Democrat candidates across the country, and what it may or may not mean.

For more on this story, see the Record Searchlight article here.

Share Your Civic Engagement Research with the CCEP

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!

UC Davis California Civic Engagement Project

[email protected]

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CCEP Advisory Committee

Kim Alexander President and Founder California Voter Foundation	Matt A. Barreto Professor, Department of Political Science Professor, Department of Chicana/o Studies University of California, Los Angeles	Jonathan Fox Professor School of International Service American University
Luis R. Fraga Arthur Foundation Endowed Professor of Transformative Latino Leadership Professor of Political Science University of Notre Dame	Lisa Garcia Bedolla Chancellor's Professor of Education and Political Science University of California, Berkeley	Bruce Haynes Professor, Department of Sociology University of California, Davis
Jongho Lee Professor Department of Political Science Western Illinois University	Peter Levine Associate Dean for Research Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life Tufts University	Matt Mahan Cofounder and CEO Brigade
James Muldavin Executive Director California Center for Civic Participation and Youth Development	Karthick Ramakrishnan Professor of Public Policy and Political Science Associate Dean, School of Public Policy University of California, Riverside	Ricardo Ramirez Associate Professor, Department of Political Science University of Notre Dame
Jason Reece Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning Program Interim Director of Research, Kirwan Institute Ohio State University	David Campbell Associate Dean for Social and Human Sciences College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences University of California, Davis	Dan Schnur Director American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Region
Shakari Byerly Partner and Lead Researcher EVITARUS	Cruz Reynoso Professor of Law, Emeritus University of California, Davis	Samuel Molina California State Director Mi Familia Vota

California Civic Engagement Project

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.

UC Davis Center for Regional Change

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.