A Broken Promise: Agency-Based Voter Registration in New York City
Executive Summary Voter registration is the number one barrier to the vote. An estimated 51 million eligible citizens,...
Voter registration is the number one barrier to the vote. An estimated 51 million eligible citizens, more than 24 percent of the electorate, could not cast a ballot on Election Day in the 2012 presidential election solely because they had not been registered. Registration and voting rates are particularly low for families with annual incomes below $20,000, voters of color, naturalized citizens, and those with limited English proficiency. Civic engagement levels are even worse in New York State. Fewer New Yorkers registered to vote and cast a ballot in the November 2012 general election than the national average.
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One proven method of increasing voter participation, particularly among underrepresented citizens, is voter registration at public agencies (“agency-based registration”). Well-administered voter registration programs established at public assistance agencies pursuant to federal law have helped register 15 to 20 percent of agency applicants. In 2000, New York City sought to expand voter registration opportunities at municipal agencies by enacting Local Law 29 (“the Pro-Voter Law”), which required 18 city agencies and, under certain circumstances, their associated subcontractors, to offer voter registration forms to all persons submitting applications, renewals, or recertification for agency services, or notifying the agency of a change of address. The law included each of the City’s 59 community boards as well. The last and only evaluation of the Pro-Voter Law, undertaken by the New York City Council over a decade ago, found that agencies were failing to offer voter registration.
In 2014, the Center for Popular Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Citizens Union of the City of New York, and the New York Public Interest Research Group formed the Pro-Voter Law Coalition and launched a new initiative to assess the agencies’ compliance with the law and opportunities to enhance the law’s impact. The Pro-Voter Law Coalition submitted Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to each of the 18 city agencies; met with the Voter Assistance Advisory Committee at the New York City Campaign Finance Board; and, along with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Make the Road New York, launched field investigations at 14 city offices subject to the Pro-Voter Law to measure their compliance with the law.
The FOIL responses and field investigations revealed widespread agency failure to implement the Pro-Voter Law. Specifically, they found:
Inconsistent adherence. Documents provided by the 12 agencies that responded to FOIL requests indicated scattered and inconsistent attention to the Pro-Voter Law; Noncompliance in a majority of interactions. In 84 percent of client interactions, agency officials failed to comply with the Pro-Voter Law’s requirement to offer voter registration application forms; Failure to provide language access. Agency failures extended to bilingual voter registration mandates. Specifically, only 40 percent, or 2 out of 5 agency clients whose primary language was not English were given translated voter registration applications; and No training of agency staff. All 11 of the agency employees who responded to training inquiries admitted that no agency staff receive regular training on voter registration procedures.These findings are particularly significant given that over 30 percent, or 18 of 59 citizen clients interviewed at the agencies required to comply with the Pro-Voter Law’s mandates reported they were not registered to vote.
Agency failure to comply with the Pro-Voter Law marks a lost opportunity to increase New York City voter registration rates and, by extension, voter participation in the city. Expanding opportunities for New Yorkers to register to vote at municipal agencies will require a concerted commitment by the Mayor, City Council, and municipal agency heads. The Pro-Voter Law Coalition is joined by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the League of Women Voters of the City of New York, Common Cause New York, and Make the Road New York in issuing the following 12 recommendations to help ensure that every eligible city resident is registered to vote when interacting with city agencies subject to the Pro-Voter Law.
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Total spending on Colorado campaigns initiatives nears $48 million so far
Total spending on Colorado campaigns initiatives nears $48 million so far
More than $3 million in contributions aided the slate of statewide initiatives in the final campaign finance reporting...
More than $3 million in contributions aided the slate of statewide initiatives in the final campaign finance reporting period before next Tuesday’s election, with more than $1 million in last-minute money bolstering the effort to increase Colorado’s minimum wage.
The two proposals to create a presidential primary and allow unaffiliated voters to participate in primaries also got a healthy infusion of cash, as did the measure that would make it harder to amend the state constitution.
The late flow of contributions pushed the total raised for Colorado’s ballot initiatives to nearly $48 million.
The effort concerning primary elections, spearheaded by Let Colorado Vote, the issue committee funding the campaigns for both Proposition 107 and 108, brought in more than $600,000.
Most of that came from Kent Thiry, who personally gave $300,000, and DaVita Health Care Partners, the company he heads, which pitched in $100,000. Thiry has given nearly $1.4 million of about $4 million that has gone toward those initiatives. Noble Energy joined the effort with a $200,000 contribution.
2016 COLORADO BALLOT MEASURES
Amendment 69: ColoradoCare
Amendment 70: Minimum Wage
Amendment 71: Constitutional changes
Amendment 72: Cigarette taxes
Proposition 106: Aid-in-dying
Proposition 107: Presidential primaries
Proposition 108: Unaffiliated voters
Amendment T: Slavery reference
Amendment U: Property taxes
Ballot Issue 4B: Arts funding
Organized opposition to the propositions has been sparse, with Citizens for Integrity reporting only a total of about $51,000 in non-monetary contributions for the campaign.
More than a half-million dollars rolled into the Raise the Bar campaign supporting Amendment 71, which would make it tougher to get citizen initiatives onto the statewide ballot and require more than a simple majority to pass them.
All but a small slice of that came from energy interests, who put in just shy of $500,000 in this reporting period through Protecting Colorado’s Environment, Economy and Energy Independence, which has given more than $2.8 million over the course of the campaign. After initially anticipating a fight against anti-fracking initiatives that ultimately didn’t make the ballot, Protecting Colorado shifted its resources to Amendment 71, which could make it even more difficult for anti-fracking forces to put measures before voters.
Opposition from the Colorado League of Responsible Voters has pumped nearly $840,000 into a campaign against the measure, including $500,000 from the National Education Association and a $100,000 contribution from the River Habitat Preservation Coalition.
A surge in cash donations supported Amendment 70, which would establish a new minimum wage in Colorado. It received much of the more than $1 million in contributions from unions and other organizations that have been supporting minimum wage increases on ballots around the country.
The Colorado campaign now totals nearly $5 million.
The Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund, based in New York, pitched in $400,000 to push its total for the campaign over $1 million; the National Education Association and Washington-based Service Employees International Union political action committee gave a series of six-figure contributions.
Opponents, who have raised about $1.7 million, brought in $154,920 on the strength of a handful of five-figure donations, including $50,000 from Greenwood Village-based Colorado Citizens Protecting Our Constitution.
Opposition to Amendment 72, the increased tax on tobacco products, has been funded by more than $16 million from Virginia-based tobacco giant Altria, but reported no additional cash contributions — though that campaign remains by far the most well-funded effort among all statewide ballot measures.
The Campaign for a Healthy Colorado, which has backed the tax that would fund a variety of health-related programs and seek to reduce smoking among young people, added nearly $150,000 — most from health-related entities. It also benefited from a $10,000 donation from Colorado Rockies owner Charlie Monfort.
Contributions to the medical aid-in-dying measure, Proposition 106, appeared to be winding down, though it remained a distant second in fundraising to the tobacco tax with about $8 million raised from both sides.
Supporters of the initiative added a little more than $73,000 to their $5.4 million total, with $50,000 of that coming from Aspen’s Adam Lewis, son of the late Progressive insurance chairman Peter Lewis. Opponents, whose $2.6 million in total contributions has been fueled largely by faith-based organizations led by the Catholic church, added about $255,000. The largest contribution came from Washington, D.C.-based The Catholic Association.
The battle over ColoradoCare, the proposed state-run health care option, also calmed on the campaign finance front, with both sides adding relatively modest five-figure contributions. Opponents of the system have raised more than $4 million while those advancing the initiative have raised less than a half-million dollars.
By The Denver Post
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Labor Advocates Ready To Push For Paid Sick Leave, Pay Equity In Maryland
Workers issues aren't just something highlighted on Labor Day. In fact, next year's session of the Maryland General...
Workers issues aren't just something highlighted on Labor Day. In fact, next year's session of the Maryland General Assembly will likely be full of them.
Labor advocates have been rallying around the "Fair Work Week" bill, which would make employers post schedules for workers at least three weeks in advance. Supporters says workers at bars, restaurants, and in the hospitality industry are especially susceptible to sudden schedule changes.
But that will be far from the only bill to help workers that lawmakers will debate next year in Annapolis, according to Montgomery County Del. David Moon.
"We also hope to see paid sick leave, which has been a top priority for a lot of justice advocates, move in the next session. Women's pay equity has been another top priority that didn't move in the last legislative session. And lastly collective bargaining rights at community colleges has been a topic," he says.
Since state lawmakers adjourned for the year in April, the Montgomery County Council enacted a paid sick leave law at the local level, but it doesn't take affect until next year.
Most employers in Maryland's most populous jurisdiction will have to offer workers one-hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The most those workers can accrue is one week of paid sick leave per year.
Source: WAMU 88.5
KKR, Bain Create $20 Million Fund for Toys ‘R’ Us Workers
Toys “R” Us shuttered its last stores at the end of June and its liquidation left more than 30,000 workers without...
Toys “R” Us shuttered its last stores at the end of June and its liquidation left more than 30,000 workers without expected severance payouts. That prompted months of lobbying by the employees, organized in part by advocacy groups linked to the Center for Popular Democracy. Those groups estimate that workers are owed $75 million in severance pay and they have pressed Toys “R” Us creditors Angelo Gordon and Solus Alternative Asset Management to contribute to the fund, but the hedge funds have so far declined.
Read the full article here.
Cities, states seek to protect immigrants' data from federal officials
Cities, states seek to protect immigrants' data from federal officials
Fear is growing in immigrant communities that the federal government might try to obtain the information from local...
Fear is growing in immigrant communities that the federal government might try to obtain the information from local governments, said Emily Tucker, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Popular Democracy, which backs the expansion of municipal ID programs and seeks to help unauthorized immigrants facing deportation.
Read the full story here.
What you can do right now to improve policing in your city
Newsy spoke with Anand Subramanian, the associate director of PolicyLink. Together with the Center for Popular...
Newsy spoke with Anand Subramanian, the associate director of PolicyLink. Together with the Center for Popular Democracy, PolicyLink published a report with recommendations on how communities can improve the way their local police force operates.
Collect more data:
"Police departments need to collect data that's broken down by race, by gender, etc., on who they're stopping, why they're stopping them, whether they were searched, whether there was consent for the search and whether any contraband was found," Subramanian said. "By collecting and publishing that data, communities can really assess whether there are racial disparities or not."
Ban biased policing:
"Every police department should have a policy prohibiting racial profiling and prohibiting biased policing. It allows departments to hold officers accountable if they've been found to engage in biased policing."
Get independent oversight:
"A lot of communities are advocating for policies that institute an independent body that has oversight over the department's policies — an audit function to make sure that the department is complying with its policies, that the policies are up to par and that the department is actually holding its officers accountable for misconduct."
Decriminalize low-level offenses:
"Another area that community advocates may want to look at is decriminalizing certain laws in their community. A lot of times, specific laws tend to be applied in a biased way. One good example of that are so-called status laws like loitering or spitting. But what you find in those communities, if those laws are ever applied, they're only applied in communities of color or vastly disproportionately in communities of color."
Don't fine people for being poor:
"Communities should really take a look at whether there are laws on the books that make it illegal for someone to not pay a fine. So we saw this in Ferguson where the DOJ went to investigate, and what they found was that the city government was really run on the backs of poor people. You may not even know that people are sitting in jail for being too poor to pay a traffic fine, for instance. And so we really urge communities to identify those laws and really advocate for their communities to change those laws."
Enforce the Fourth Amendment:
"A lot of times, police officers will ask someone they stopped whether they consent to a search. What we're finding is that a lot of times what is seen as consent may not actually be true consent. It may be that they don't want to give consent, but they feel scared or frightened, so they give consent under duress. In any case where someone being stopped by a police officer has a right, that right should be expressly shared by the police officer."
Editor's note: Anand Subramanian's interview has been condensed for length
By KATE GRUMKE
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The Left's Fed Up Makes A Naked Power Grab For Control Of The Fed
The left is undertaking an amazing back door plan to dramatically increase its influence over the Fed’s interest-rate-...
The left is undertaking an amazing back door plan to dramatically increase its influence over the Fed’s interest-rate-setting Open Market Committee.
The key activist group, a division of the Center for Popular Democracy, is working to kick the bankers off the boards of directors of the district Federal Reserve banks. Those boards choose the presidents who serve, in rotation, as voting members on the FOMC. Brilliant.
In scope, the left’s plan makes trivial by comparison Auric Goldfinger’s “Operation Grand Slam” to contaminate America’s gold holdings at the US Treasury Depository at Fort Knox. Goldfinger planned to turn them radioactive. Those holdings amounted, in 1964, to about $14 billion. They are now valued at close to $200 billion.
Either way, a tidy sum. Yet it’s just a nickel compared to the Fed’s more than $4 trillion holdings.
Most impressive. The left is undertaking its own Operation Super Grand Slam.
It is doing so proficiently and systematically. Unfortunately for the left, fortunately for America, it has run into a real life James Bond: House Monetary Policy Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga (R-MI). The irresistible force has met its immovable object.
Fed Up, the left’s instrumentality, was repelled during the most recent skirmish. This occurred last week at a hearing of a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee, “Federal Reserve Districts: Governance, Monetary Policy, and Economic Performance.”
Fed Up is a project of the Center for Popular Democracy, which, according to Wikipedia (citing a paywalled article by John Judis from the National Journal) is the successor, at least in part, to the somewhat notorious ACORN. According to the Center’s website:
The Federal Reserve has tremendous influence over our economy. Although our communities continue to suffer through a weak recovery and economic inequality keeps growing, corporate and financial interests are demanding that the Fed put the brakes on growth so wages don’t rise. There is a real danger that in early 2015 (sic), the Fed will cut the legs out from the recovery before the economy reaches full acceleration, costing our communities millions of jobs and workers tens of billions in wages.
True, and fair, enough. Let it be said that I, along with much of the right, also am highly critical of the Fed. I, a dues paying member of the AFL-CIO, am of the wing of the right wing that is in full solidarity with Fed Up’s commitment to wage growth.
We share identification of the Fed as a main perp in the failure of workers to thrive. From the right check out, for example, Put Growth First. Its website is headlined “End the Fed’s War on Wage Growth: Restore Prosperity for the Striving Majority.”
I, while opposing tokenism, am in sympathy with Fed Up’s stand that the Federal Reserve is unacceptably deficient in social, gender, and ethnic diversity. I have great admiration for Fed Up’s tactical proficiency, clarity of message, and decency in presenting that message. I, too, am fed up with the Fed.
That said, I am on record as dubious about the Fed’s power to “set” interest rates outside the trivial, and mostly symbolic, impact of setting the discount rate. I also am not part of the “raise interest rates” cheerleader squad on the right. I’m for allowing the credit markets to organically set interest rates based on … wait for it … supply and demand.
I part company with the left on its proposed solution of taking over district Federal Reserve Bank governance. Hola, Venezuela! Upon encountering Fed Up’s representatives while we were waiting to enter the Congressional hearing I requested the opportunity to engage in further conversation. Waiting, eagerly, to hear back.
Fed Up is a class act. Making the voices of the have-nots heard is commendable. Bring it on.
By Ralph Benko
Source
Democrats Push for More Diversity in Fed Leadership
Democrats Push for More Diversity in Fed Leadership
The first woman to chair the Federal Reserve is being criticized by Democratic legislators demanding more diversity in...
The first woman to chair the Federal Reserve is being criticized by Democratic legislators demanding more diversity in the central bank’s top policymaking positions
The first woman to chair the Federal Reserve is being criticized by Democratic legislators demanding more diversity in the central bank’s top policymaking positions.
According to report from TheHill.com, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen received a letter from 116 House Democrats and 11 senators that complained about the surplus of white men in leadership roles. The lawmakers pointed out that the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is entirely White and called for an emphasis on ethnicity and economic and professional backgrounds as part of the factors in choosing future executive officers.
“The importance of ensuring that such positions are filled by persons that reflect and represent the interests of our diverse country cannot be overstated,” the letter stated. “When the voices of women, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Pacific Americans, and representatives of consumers and labor are excluded from key discussions, their interests are too often neglected.”
The letter was coordinated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI). Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, was among those signing the letter, while Hillary Clinton chimed in her support after the letter’s contents were made public.
For its part, the Fed insisted that it was committed to diversity in hiring.
"We have focused considerable attention in recent years on recruiting directors with diverse backgrounds and experiences," said a Fed spokesperson. "By law, we consider the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers. We also are aiming to increase ethnic and gender diversity."
By Phil Hall
Source
New York City's Undocumented Immigrants Will Get Municipal IDs, Says Mayor De Blasio
Huffington Post - February 10, 2014 - New York City's undocumented immigrants will soon be able to obtain municipal ID...
Huffington Post - February 10, 2014 - New York City's undocumented immigrants will soon be able to obtain municipal ID cards, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.
"We will protect the almost half-million undocumented New Yorkers, whose voices too often go unheard," the mayor said during his first State of the City speech. "We will reach out to all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status -- issuing municipal ID cards available to all New Yorkers this year -- so that no daughter or son of our city goes without bank accounts, leases, library cards… simply because they lack identification. To all of my fellow New Yorkers who are undocumented, I say: New York City is your home too, and we will not force ANY of our residents to live their lives in the shadows."
"La ciudad de Nueva York es el hogar de todos los que vivimos aqui. No dejaremos que ninguno de nuestros residentes viva en las sombras," de Blasio repeated in Spanish, a nod to the city's large Latino population.
A source in the mayor's office told Spanish-language El Diario la Prensa on Monday that de Blasio will officially submit the proposal soon.
The city ID card would not operate as a driver's license, nor would it be accepted as a form of identification by federal agencies.
It does fulfill one of de Blasio's many campaign promises. "These identification cards will also help foster better relations between the police and undocumented people, who often choose not to report crimes out of fear they may be deported," reads a section of de Blasio's campaign website from last year. "In New Haven, Connecticut -- which offers a municipal ID to undocumented people -- crime in the largely-immigrant Fair Haven community declined 20 percent in the two years after the IDs were introduced, even as crime-reporting increased."
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito told Politicker she has “full confidence” that “a universal ID will become a reality as soon as possible.”
Ten other cities across the country including San Francisco, Trenton, and Washington, D.C. have already created their own municipal ID programs.
New York State Senators Adriano Espaillat (D) and Jose Peralta (D), both of New York City, expressed support for de Blasio's proposal in a joint statement. They also took the opportunity to advance another cause: allowing immigrants to apply for drivers licenses. From the statement:
"...it is unacceptable that hardworking immigrants are made to break the law in order to commute to work or take their kids to school," they wrote. "Providing undocumented immigrants the opportunity to obtain drivers licenses will ensure that all New York drivers are properly credentialed, educated and operating registered, inspected and insured vehicles, making our roads safer and benefiting all New Yorkers."
De Blasio himself has previously supported allowing undocumented immigrants in New York to apply for driver's licenses.
Source
Fed says rate hike next month hinges on market volatility
Some top policymakers, including Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, said recent volatility in global markets could...
Some top policymakers, including Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, said recent volatility in global markets could quickly ease and possibly pave the way for the U.S. rate hike, for which investors, governments and central banks around the world are bracing.
With a key policy meeting set for Sept. 16-17, at least five Fed officials spoke publicly in what amounted to a jockeying for position on whether increasing the Fed's benchmark overnight lending rate was too risky amid an economic slowdown in China, a rising U.S. dollar .DXY and falling commodity prices XAU= CMCU3.
"It's early to tell," Fischer told CNBC on the sidelines of the annual central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. "We're still watching how it unfolds." He, along with other Fed officials, acknowledged that the global equities sell-off that began last week would influence the timing of a rate hike, which until only a couple of weeks ago seemed increasingly likely to occur in September.
Concerns about China's economy have whipsawed markets, including Wall Street, even while U.S. economic data has been robust. U.S. stock indexes ended largely unchanged, capping a week that included both the market's worst day in four years and biggest two-day gain since the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
"I think they could settle fairly quickly," said Fischer, a close ally of Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told Reuters he still favored hiking rates next month, though he added that his colleagues would be hesitant to do so if global markets continued to be volatile in mid-September.
The Fed's policy committee "does not like to move right in the middle of a global financial storm," Bullard, a Fed hawk, said in an interview. "So one of the advantages we have is that this storm is occurring now and, at least as of now, we think it will be settled down" by the September meeting.
The comments suggest the next two and a half weeks will be critical for the Fed as well as for global markets. A U.S. rate hike is expected to hit emerging market equities and currencies particularly hard, adding to the sell-offs already seen.
Source: Reuters
22 hours ago
22 hours ago