Happy National Voter Registration Day From George Takei

State-By-State Election/Democracy Fun Facts!

Hey all! You know whenever an organizer comes in from out of town locals inevitably give them the "that might be how it works in x, but that's now how we do things here" spiel? While that's largely untrue, one of the joys of campaigning is learning the little eccentricities that make each state proud or unique. I've been working on this post for a while, and I wanted to share at least one little loosely election-related fact for each of these states united. Some have more! Feel free to correct any errors or add your own! And if you enjoy CampaignSick, please don't forget to subscribe as a patron!

Campaign Love and Mine,
Nancy


Hawaii has its primaries on a Saturday.
New York has its federal and local/state level primaries on different days.
Mississippi, Louisiana, New Jersey and Virginia have off year legislative elections.
Kentucky has off year gubernatorial but not state senate elections.
Nebraska had a non-partisan, unicameral legislature.
At over 6,000, Illinois has more units of government (i.e., city, county, township, etc.) than any other state.
Maine and Nebraska allocate their electoral votes by congressional district rather than on a winner takes all basis.
In 2002, Arizona became the first state to allow online voter registration.
In Missouri, a person can register to vote online and electronically provide a signature using a mobile device, tablet computer or touchscreen computer, but not a standard desktop computer.
Oregon and Washington are vote by mail states.
North Dakota has no voter registration.
In 1945, Georgia became the first state to lower the legal voting age from 21 to 18.
Two states, Maine and Vermont, allow felons to vote from prison.
The first formal government framework outlining a representative body was the Fundamental Orders adopted by the Connecticut Colony council in 1639. This is where Connecticut got the nickname "The Constitution State."
Alabama has the longest still operative constitution of anywhere in the world. It is 40 times longer than the US Constitution.
Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States Constitution (hence its nickname "the first state").
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is called the cradle of liberty because it was where both the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were written (duh.) It is also where the first American Flag was sewn, and Betsy Ross was a badass.
Three states, Texas, West Virginia and Michigan, have straight ticket voting.
Arkansas is the only state to have had a seat in its legislature held by a member of the Green Party.
Unaffiliated and third party voters make up a majority of the electorate in Massachusetts and Alaska.
According to Gallup Rhode Island is the most Democratic state and Utah is the most Republican.
"None of These Candidates" is a voting option listed on the ballot in Nevada along with candidates for President of the United States and state constitutional positions. It recently won the Democratic primary for Governor.
The Republican party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854 as a new anti-slavery party.
New Hampshire traditionally holds the first primaries in the country, Iowa has the first caucuses.
In Alaska and Idaho, the Democratic party has open primaries while the Republican party has closed primaries.
Maryland's 3rd congressional district has the honor of being the most gerrymandered district in the country.
Florida (oh...so much to say) is the only state with a constitution that (through amendments) prohibits partisan gerrymandering.
In 2008 Oklahoma was the only state in which John McCain won every county.
Minnesota had the highest voter turnout in 2012 and 2008.
In 2012, West Virginia was the only state with a voter turnout of below 50%.
Mississippi saw the greatest voter turnout increase between 2008 and 2012.
South Dakota saw the greatest drop in voter turnout between 2008 and 2012.
In 2012 Wisconsin became the first state to elect an openly gay senator. (Tammy Baldwin!)
California was the first state to have two female Senators at once.
Wyoming (when it was still a territory) was the first state to give women the right to vote.
Montana was the first state to send a woman to Congress (Jeannette Rankin) even before women had universal suffrage in the US.
In 1894 the first women to serve a state legislature were elected in Colorado.
The recorded first female mayor in the world was Susanna Salter of Argonia, Kansas.
In 2012 New Hampshire became the first and only state with an all female congressional delegation.
Tennessee was the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.
Vermont has the highest percentage of women in its legislature, but has never sent a woman to Congress.
Mississippi sent the first African American Senator to the Senate. (Hiram Revels!)
South Carolina elected the first African American Congressman (Joseph Rainey!)
In New Mexico, Native Americans make up 10% of eligible voters.
North Carolina has the lowest rate of Union membership (and hence union voters) in the United States.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was organized in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1881.

Today In Voter Suppression: California Same Day Voter Registration Delayed Until 2016

The Voting News has the release here, but basically from what I can gather, Secretary of State, Debra Brown says the state won't be meet the legal standards it set for itself in time to implement same day registration by 2014, which (again from what I can tell) the Secretary of State was responsible for:

"The law was expected to take effect in 2014. However, to be operative for the 2014 general election, the Secretary of State needed to complete its HAVA compliance by December 31, 2013. Last month, Bowen took to Twitter to explain why the state won’t be adopting California’s landmark same-day voter registration law anytime soon. 'That law (CA Elections Code section 2170) will likely take effect in 2016 or later,' Bowen tweeted on Jan. 13."

So you know, there's that.

Presidential Commission on Election Administration Talks About the REAL Problems With Election Technology

The findings are so important and affirming that I am just going to let Nate Persily, Research Director for the Commission, speak for himself.

The principal recommendations of the commission are:

1) modernization of the registration process through expansion of online voter registration and state collaboration in improving the accuracy of voter lists
2)improving access through expansion of pre-Election Day voting, and selection of suitable, well-equipped polling place facilities, such as schools
3) endorsement of tools to assure efficient management of polling places, hosted at the Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project and available through the commission’s Web site;
4)reforms of the standard-setting and certification process for new voting technology to address soon-to-be antiquated voting machines and to encourage innovation and the adoption of widely available off-the-shelf technologies.

The issue of long polling place lines is an illustrative example. Media reports on long lines focus on battleground states, and usually the most populous counties within those states. National surveys, such as those conducted by Charles Stewart, have identified “problem states” where respondents report long wait times. What we need, however, are nationwide wait time data at the polling place level. As anyone who has visited Disney World with a child can attest, calculating wait times does not involve 21st century technology. But until we have every polling place in America using their stop watches for similar purposes, we will not have a clear picture of the location of the line problem and its multifarious causes.

The same can be said for any number of issues, such as the failure to count provisional, absentee and military ballots, accessibility of polling places, and perhaps the easiest and most important, the performance of voting technology. The lack of a nationwide data infrastructure hinders the kind of institutionalized learning and feedback loops that will allow our system of election administration to learn from itself. If the report of the Presidential Commission can push election officials to take even this minor, clearly nonpartisan step, it will have made a substantial, long lasting contribution to improving the voting experience.

Unrelatedly, I have been watching Scandal and House of Cards this weekend as soooo many people begged me to. I'm not gonna say they're not addictive, but we're got enough voting drama right here in real life.















Unrelatedly, I have started watching House of Cards and Scandal, so

Today in Voter Suppression: Voting Rights Round Up, 2013

The Brennan Center for Justice (fan girl!) does an amazing job of summing up laws to both restrict and expand voter access. You'll be happy to learn it's not all bad news! Click here to find out more.

5 Ridiculous Things That Happened During New York's Primary This Week

As you know, I could not blog about specific campaigns during the New York City primaries because I was working on one and am I'm not an idiot. That didn't stop me from really, really wanting to however. And there was MUCH to blog about. For example, an intern talking to the press (WHAT?) and the Weiner campaign firing back and calling her a "slutbag" (BIGGER WHAT?). Maybe it's because I couldn't write, but there were SO MANY things I wanted to write about. Here are 5 things that happened in the last week alone that I wanted to share with you:

1) Corey Johnson Ad on Grindr

Corey Johnson is an LGBT Activist who beat Yetta Kurland for the New York City Council seat vacated by Christine Quinn. Grindr is a gay, ahem "dating" app, popular in the Chelsea district in which Johnson was running. Now THAT's thinking outside the box. (Zing!)


2) Vito Lopez INSANE sexual harassment flyer

Vito Lopez, a disgraced former Assemblyman better known as the Gargamel of Brooklyn politics lost his bid for a city council seat on Tuesday. Not before someone circulated this disgusting victim-blaming flyer about Lopez's sexual harassment scandals. You know someone is trustworthy when the New York Times quote on their literature is, "Denies all charges." Not bragging, but the flyer went viral when my former boss and FOCS, City Councilman Brad Lander, tweeted it.


3) Lawrence O'Donnell's Anthony Weiner Interview

These final three stories involved Anthony Weiner for whom my schadenfreude steadily dissipated as his public breakdown went from gratifying to cringeworthy. However, I think this story actually makes Weiner look good. Like high schoolers hanging out with ugly people to appear more attractive, O'Donnell's hyper-aggressive line of questioning makes Weiner seem sane. He starts out with "What's wrong with you?" and it goes on from there.

4)Anthony Weiner not on the voter rolls

Even as Boards of Election go, the NYC BOE really seems to be in a class of its own when it comes to incompetence. Say what you will about the former candidate, he is a registered voter. VERY alarming considering that few voters who might find themselves in similar predicament have the same resources or motivation to vote as Weiner, who did ultimately get to cast a ballot. Our Finance Director had to leave her polling place because of massive machine malfunctions and return to vote later in the day. Ask not for whom the bell of disenfrachisement tolls, New York City, it tolls for thee.

5) Weinermobile

This is actually a picture I took a couple of weeks ago, but come on guys, brilliance! Zoom in to see the hot dog truck with pictures of cell phones and Weiner's face.


Time to go get glamorous and beautiful for our GOTV (Get Out the Vodka) party! I missed you guys!

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

I've Been Meaning to Talk to You About That

My Quick and Dirty Thoughts on What's Been Happening in Election and Advocacy News

Oh my God you guys, I miss you so much! I seriously think about blogging the way you think about cupcakes when you're on a diet: I can't have it and I want it all the more!!! The good news is operation no-blogging-until-I-finish-finals is working. I have one paper (on the definition of women's political participation as a human right) left, plus a whole bunch of editing. However, the list of things I want to blog about has been stock piling out of control and before they become irrelevant and/or consume me, I wanted to share them with you. Below are some articles and issues I've been collecting along with one or two of my witty and incisive comments each. Hopefully this will tide us all over for the next couple of days. Here we go!

Obama-rama:
Marshal Ganz from the "too good to accept Nancy" Harvard Kennedy school talking about values vs. issues for FOCS the New Organizing Institute. I'm not always a fan of the hippie-dippier aspects of the Obama campaign, but I love this because it highlights the impact and importance of empowering volunteers to take agency not just in the context of the campaign but in their own lives.
DNC Director of technology, Bryan Whitaker, on the role of technology in President Obama's election. I love this article because it gives credence to contributions and advances made from 2004 to 2008 that made the historic use of technology on the 2012 Obama campaign possible.
Jim Messina on what's next. My favorite part of this interview is that he distinguishes between what is an isn't transferable from OFA 2012.
Speaking of technology...my friend posted the Dole Kemp website on his facebook wall recently. I'm sure the Clinton '96 site was equally visually appealing. I believe the term the kids use is LMFAO.

Today in Voter Suppression:
Voter ID bill passes North Carolina house. Booooo!
Nebraska decreases in-person early voting by five days.
Conservative Colorado Group Photoshops Out Minorities In Mailer Opposing Pro-Voting Legislation Wow. Tell me that part again about voter ID laws not being racist?
Trevor Potter of Stephen Colbert/John McCain fame makes the case for electronic voter registration. Yes!
Oregon Secretary of State pushes for automatic voter registration. A thousand times yes!
Florida bill lowers the mandated number of early voting days and hours, expands the number of early voting sights Oh, Florida...
Special interests and conservative Democrats are going after fusion voting and the New York State Working Families party, again. Fusion voting is such a good idea. You know you're doing it right when the real estate lobby hates you. For more info on why I love Fusion Voting and the Working Families Party and what those things are, click here.
And....This.

Women:
People keep asking me what I think of those new Dove commercials. Here is what I think.
Women and organizers are both socialized to say "yes" when someone asks us for something, even at the expense of our own professional priorities. Great piece by friend Cole on the right way to say "no" when someone asks you for a favor.
Lindy West's response to men asking for 'the rules' after President Obama called Kamala Harris a hottie. Is it possible to get naked and roll around in a blog post? Because that's how much I loved this. For the record, I don't think what President Obama did was that bad, but I do understand where the people who do are coming from. It's all about privilege, a topic I've thought a lot about in grad school and intend to explore on this blog going forward. Seriously, read this piece. Lindy West NAILS IT.

Candidates:
Super PAC, Ready for Hillary started galvanizing support and heavily hinting at a Clinton 2016 run. People ask me if I think she'll run all the time and I always say I hope so, but after the way the media treated her in 2008, we sure as s**t don't deserve her.
In a case of art imitating life, the Onion agrees. I thought they were supposed to do satire...
Anthony Weiner is considering a run for mayor. He acted like an idiot, but I still don't think he should have resigned. I also don't think he should run for mayor.
Roll Call reports that the Hawaii Senate race is split along Clinton/Obama lines. It's called a primary, you assholes, it happened in 2008. Find something else real and not baselessly damaging to the Democratic party to report on.
Speaking of Fusion Voting and Working Families Party, did I mention I'm going down to South Carolina to volunteer for Colbert-Busch? I am.
Because her opponent does crazy things like debate cardboard cutouts of Nancy Pelosi.
Oh, and posts the phone numbers of voters who call his office. I'm not gonna say I've never fantasized about doing this, but that's what a GFY list is for.

Advocate from Where You Stand:
Ignore the tone of this article by John Hawkins who once asked me if I was going to "accuse him of patriarchy" after he pointed out that I was the only woman a panel we both sat on. (Well, now I am...) Kid wears shirt with pro-gun slogan on it to school. Kid gets in trouble. Hundreds of classmates wear shirts with pro-gun slogans on them the next day. Good for them. If anything we should be encouraging kids to engage in the process. I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Momsdemandaction.org came up with these moving and provocative ads in response to the absolutely insane failure of the gun control last week. Well, damn.
Everyday Sexism Project launches in the USA. The project gives women a space and a voice to identify the myriad ways that male privilege impacts our lives on a daily basis. I'm already blowing up their twitter feed.

Republican Operatives:
Gingrich campaign worker charged with blackmailing women, dressing up as an elephant. Argh! You're making us look bad!
Former Pawlenty aid supports equal marriage. My friend who tweeted this article editorialized, "If I had a dollar for every Republican staffer or former elected who supports gay marriage..." So, true! It's clear the direction we're going on this issue...now can we just get there?
Because speaking of which...The FEC ruled that same-sex couples can't give to campaigns like straight couples. The FEC's hands were tied. They were just interpreting a shitty, discriminatory law.

And that, my friends, is what I have to say about that. As I signed my email to my volunteers the night before the Iowa caucus, see you in victory!

(Hopefully this goes better...)

Campaign Love And Mine,

Nancy

Let's Mess With Texas

National Democrats are taking steps to create a large-scale independent group aimed at turning traditionally conservative Texas into a prime electoral battleground, crafting a new initiative to identify and mobilize progressive voters in the rapidly-changing state, strategists familiar with the plans told POLITICO.

The organization, dubbed “Battleground Texas,” plans to engage the state’s rapidly growing Latino population, as well as African-American voters and other Democratic-leaning constituencies that have been underrepresented at the ballot box in recent cycles. Two sources said the contemplated budget would run into the tens of millions of dollars over several years - a project Democrats hope has enough heft to help turn what has long been an electoral pipe dream into reality.

Remember when I said Jeremy Bird and 270 Strategies would take on bold, exciting projects? I wasn't just whistling dixie. Behold: Battleground Texas. The idea is not new. For years Texas Democrats have been contemplating how to harness the power of Texas' large and growing youth and minority population, but as this Politico article points out, until now that project has lacked adequate funding and national attention. Enter Jeremy Bird and a “a grassroots organization that will make Texas a battleground state by treating it like one.”

On the one hand, having spent this past election day in Texas, I can tell you this is going to be a tough row to hoe. Reports are not exaggerating when they say the project would take tens of millions of dollars to be successful. On the other hand, if done correctly it could change the electoral map a we know it and force national politics in a more progressive direction as the Republican Party is forced to compete for the youth and Latino vote or die. As ambitious as the project is, as an organizer there is something incredibly sexy to me about saying "Let's take this seemingly impossible task, figure out a plan and do it." And I'm not about to be on the wrong side of underestimating expanding the electorate again.

As a very wise cheerleader once said, Bring it On!