January 2023
ENGAGE!
CID Newsletter
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Experts Discuss Racism in Politics During CID Webinars |
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The secret recordings of racist remarks at a meeting of Los Angeles City Council members last fall made headlines across the world, as legislators, news organizations and communities grappled with the idea of broader implications of entrenched racism in politics.
In December, CID launched its “Behind Closed Doors” webinar series, the first of four webinars delving deeper into the topic.
“We know that the leaked recording in Los Angeles was just the tip of an ever-present iceberg. It provided a very public example of just how deeply rooted racism is in our electoral system and overall power structures,” said CID’s Mindy Romero in kicking off the webinar series.
The first and second webinars in the series are available online now:
Behind Closed Doors Part 1: How the Los Angeles City Council Recording is a Case Study in the Exercise of Political Power through Racism in the U.S.
Behind Closed Doors Part 2: White Supremacy and the Roots of Anti-Blackness Among Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities
Mark your calendars for the next two webinars in the series:
- Redistricting: Does it really have to be zero-sum politics? How multi-racial coalitions have worked together to build political power for all - Feb. 22, 2023, noon to 1pm PT
- RSVP Here
- How communities move forward toward dismantling the relationship between political manipulation and racism - Mar. 15, 2023, noon to 1pm PT
- RSVP Here
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Media analysis: The 2022 midterm was a tale of two elections — what that means for 2024 |
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How did Democrats pull off an upset in November, beating back the historical pattern of the president’s party suffering major losses in midterm elections? |
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Arizona’s new attorney general to use election fraud unit to boost voting rights |
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A unit created under the former Republican attorney general of Arizona to investigate claims of election fraud will now focus on voting rights and ballot access under the newly elected Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes. |
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Older voters know exactly what’s at stake, and they’ll be here for quite a while |
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A lot has been written about the impact of young voters in the November 2022 midterms. But there were also intriguing hints of what looked like a gray countercurrent that helped dampen the expected red wave. |
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Democracy Research & Resources |
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New Cornell University Survey
A new Cornell University survey of 19,000 Americans shows that even in an era of extreme political polarization, many Americans report being aligned on various issues.
The survey found that nearly half of white Americans recognize that the deck remains stacked against Black Americans; a majority of Americans believe in restoring voting rights to people previously convicted of a felony; and a majority of Republicans (80%) surveyed accepted the results of the November 2022 midterm elections, even as some leaders of their party and prominent candidates disputed the outcome.
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Partisan Gap on Trust in U.S. Elections Has Grown Even Wider, Survey Finds
Did the 2022 midterms restore trust in American elections? Yes and no. Democrats and independents say they have greater confidence in the system’s accuracy and integrity than they did before the election was held. But Republican confidence has not increased. This is one of the key findings of a national survey from the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research at the University of California San Diego.
Working in collaboration with nonpartisan election officials in Texas, Georgia, Colorado and Los Angeles County, the research team also ran a survey experiment. They tested the efficacy of actual public-information efforts designed to assure voters of safeguards to their elections, with promising results: Trust in elections went among participants of all political persuasions – Republicans, Democrats and independents.
Thad Kousser, co-director of the Yankelovich Center at UC San Diego, led the research with UC San Diego political science doctoral students Jennifer Gaudette and Mackenzie Lockhart. The academic research team also included UC San Diego political scientist Seth Hill and Mindy Romero of the USC Center for Inclusive Democracy.
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Democracy at Risk: The Real-World Stakes of Moore v. Harper |
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The ACS Bay Area, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Chicago Lawyer Chapters will discuss the independent state legislature theory as it relates to the Moore v. Harper case, and what the case potentially means for the future of democracy in the U.S. The case has implications not only for redistricting, but for all manner of election regulation.
Wed., Feb. 1, 2023
5:00 – 6:00 p.m. PST
ONLINE / Zoom
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Election Center Special Workshop |
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The workshop will cover a wide range of election topics, including election design, communication, access, security, logistics and planning, among other topics. Mindy Romero will be demonstrating CID’s Voting Location Siting Tool at the Feb. 24 session on planning tools and resources.
February 22-26, 2023
The Westin Pasadena, CA
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Below is a selection of recent CID media coverage:
Some Latinos don't vote for many of the same reasons people in general don't go to the polls — feeling that candidates don't represent their views or that their ballot won't count. "Sometimes the case for voting is harder to make with some Latino voters because of the lack of representation and the history of marginalization," CID’s Romero told the LA Times.
During the 2022 general election, 44% of registered voters in LA County cast ballots, 13% lower than the 57% who turned out for the 2018 midterms. Mindy Romero offered possible reasons why. “We didn't have, by all accounts, a competitive governor's race and in a midterm, the top of the ticket is a gubernatorial race, and that typically drives not all turnout, but a lot of turnout,” she commented.
Reporter Pilar Marerro attended CID’s first webinar exploring racism, noting Mindy Romero’s statement about the situation. The leak, commented Romero, “provided a very public example of just how deeply rooted racism is in our electoral system and overall power structures.”
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Check out the job opportunities below: |
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Center for Inclusive Democracy |
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The Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID) is part of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. CID conducts a range of national and multi-state research initiatives exploring voting behavior, civic engagement, electoral and economic research, the intersection of social justice and democracy, and more. Its research informs and empowers a wide range of policy and organizing efforts aimed at eliminating disparities in social and economic well-being. |
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