Category Archives: Voting & Elections

Murfreesboro: GOTV Campaign at Farmers Market & Early Voting Schedules

Murfreesboro branch set up a booth at their local Farmer’s market to help register voters ~

Murfreesboro AAUW doing registering voters outdoors, while social distancing and using masks to keep everyone as safe as possible!

If in person registration does not feel like a safe option for your branch, send an email to members and friends with links to online registration.

EARLY VOTING SCHEDULES

Davidson county has already published their Early Voting Schedule for November – a quick google search will help you find the early voting schedule for your county.

[Virtual Conference] 9/18/2020 – The Battle for Voting Rights in 2020 by Northeastern University School of Law

Join us as we celebrate celebrate the Public Interest Law Scholars Program at Northeastern Law and tackle the battle for voting rights in 2020.   (Found this event in September – you can attend for free, as a Non-Affiliate. )

This half-day VIRTUAL conference will cover the following cutting edge topics:

  • Voting purge
  • Threats to polling locations
  • Voter intimidation  Gerrymandering (and mathematical attention on issues of electoral redistricting)
  • Russian influence (fake news/misleading voters)
  • Machine malfunctions/snafus
  • Voter suppression (from obstacles to registration, cutbacks on early voting, stricter voter identification requirements)
  • Working on: same day and online voter registration
  • Voting Rights Act (1965) and impact today (2013 SCOTUS decision)

Conference Chair:
Hon. Nonnie Burnes ’77-’78
Trustee Emerita, Northeastern University

This annual event will celebrate the Public Interest Law Scholars Program  and each year will focus on scholarship related to a pressing public interest issue.

In partnership with:
The Center for Public Interest Advocacy  and Collaboration and NuLawLab 

About the Public Interst Law Scholars Program

Northeastern is well known as one of the top public interest law schools in the nation. The renewable, full-tuition Public Interest Law Scholarship (PILS) is offered to exceptional applicants who possess impressive academic profiles as well as extensive experience in fields concerned with social justice and public service.  Launched in 1999 by generous donors who believed that the mission of the law school naturally led to the need for such a scholarship, the first class of scholars graduated in 2003. These graduates have built a strong network, giving back to the program and assisting new students as they begin their pursuit of public interest law careers. Once scholars have graduated from the School of Law, it is hoped that a significant portion of their careers be dedicated to public interest law.

September 18, 2020
12:00 PM-4:15 PM

Why Minority Voters Have a Lower Voter Turnout: An Analysis of Current Restrictions by the American Bar Association

“With ethnic and racial minority populations in the United States rising, there is a growing population of voices that remain unaccounted for. Though current legislation has been implemented to ensure fair and impartial voting access, there is too much leeway given to state governments in the voting system’s execution. As a result, restrictions in the election system have resulted in systematic discrimination toward minority populations, making them ineligible to vote. “

June 26, 2020 article from the American Bar Association

Read full article here: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/voting-in-2020/why-minority-voters-have-a-lower-voter-turnout/

Brief History of Voting Rights Laws in US

KQEQ (NPR San Francisisco Affiliate) put together this timeline document – which only goes through 2002.  https://a.s.kqed.net/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-voting-rights-timeline.pdf  – The next article moves into 2018.

This article is dated from November 2019, so it’s missing the efforts in 2020 (and amid pandemic) to interfere access to voting.  But it’s a good overall summary of LAW put in place and reversed with implications on every American’s ability to vote.

View timeline here: https://www.carnegie.org/topics/topic-articles/voting-rights/voting-rights-timeline/

Intro:

The struggle for equal voting rights dates to the earliest days of U.S. history. Now, after a period of bipartisan efforts to expand enfranchisement, Americans once again face new obstacles to voting

Interactive Map of US Vote-By-Mail Processes

Find Interactive Map Here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/11/us/politics/vote-by-mail-us-states.html

From NYT website:

At least three-quarters of all American voters will be eligible to receive a ballot in the mail for the 2020 election — the most in U.S. history, according to a New York Times analysis. If recent election trends hold and turnout increases, as experts predict, roughly 80 million mail ballots will flood election offices this fall, more than double the number that were returned in 2016.

The rapid and seismic shift in how Americans will vote is because of the coronavirus pandemic. Concerns about the potential for virus transmission at polling places have forced many states to make adjustments on the fly that — despite President Trump’s protests — will make mail voting in America more accessible this fall than ever before.

“I have a hard time looking back at history and finding an election where there was this significant of a change to how elections are administered in this short a time period,” said Alex Padilla, the California secretary of state who chairs the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State.

Most of the changes are temporary and have been made administratively by state and local officials who have the power to make adjustments during emergencies like the pandemic.