National Civic Blog

So many choices

Popular political blogger Matt Yglesias seems to be channeling Richard Childs today with his lament about low turnouts in the New York City primaries.

Childs was the guiding force behind the 1915 Model City Charter, which launched the small council/professional city manager plan for local government, now the norm in most small to medium-sized cities and a number of large ones. Not New York.

Childs was also founder of the short lived "short ballot" movement, and I might add, a New Yorker. He believed that "only those offices should be elected which are important enough to attract (and deserve) public examination…."

Youth Votes

Preliminary projections from CIRCLE:

An estimated 21.6 million-23.9 million young Americans voted in Tuesday’s presidential election, an increase of at least 2.2 million compared with 2004, according to national exit polls, demographic data, and projections of total numbers of votes cast. CIRCLE projects the youth voter turnout will be between 49.3% and 54.5%, an increase of 1 to 6 percentage points over CIRCLE’s estimate based on the 2004 exit polls.  The 2004 election was a strong one for youth turnout, reversing a long history of decline. If we compare 2008 with 2000, the increase in youth turnout is between 8 and 13 percentage points. CIRCLE will replace projections with actual vote counts once most precincts have reported, including absentee ballots. Depending on the final vote tally, this year’s youth turnout could be the second highest since 1972 (55.4%).

And 1972, of course, was the year 18-year-olds were first eligible to vote.

Hint, hint to future political office seekers. The 49-54 percent range is definitely an improvement, but there is still potential for growth. The overall average, I belive, was more than 60 percent.

If the youth vote is already helping swing election outcomes (as the CIRCLE projection also suggests) and there’s room for growth, that’s a constituency worth considering.

Implementation: Virginia and Section 7 of the NVRA

Popularly known as the “Motor Voter Law,” the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 was an attempt to increase voter registration numbers (and hopefully turnout percentages). The most familiar part of the law allowed voters to register when they applied for or renewed their driver’s licenses.

But Congress also wanted to address the equity/class issues, so they mandated that states make registration opportunities available at public assistance agencies.

Budget issues and a lack of will prevented many states from fully implementing “Section 7” (the part about public assistance agencies) of the law. Demos has a new report out on how Virginia has stepped up to the plate.

Last April, Demos, Democracy South, the Virginia Organizing Project, and the Virginia Conference of the NAACP alerted the State Board of Elections and the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) that registration numbers in public assistance offices had been declining and that field investigations suggested many office staffers weren’t even aware of the requirement.

According to the report, there has  been an eight-fold increase in voter registrations by VDSS since the state took action to address the concerns of voting rights groups. Report author Scott Novakowski, Senior Policy Analyst in the Democracy Program at Demos, noted in a statement that the results were dramatic but consistent with other states that have taken steps to implement Section 7. "The evidence from Virginia and those of others states shows that agency-based voter registration is proven to work, and all states still not in full compliance with the law are doing a great disservice to their citizens,” Novakowski said. "They should look to Virginia and others with recent successes and work vigorously to adopt similar models.”

Novakowski has an article about provisional voting in the fall issue of the National Civic Review.

You can view the full report by visiting the Demos web site.

Be Prepared

From the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network:

Voter Helplines Fill Election Assistance Gaps

With November 4th only 45 days away, election officials are scrambling to prepare for Election Day's anticipated record turnout numbers.  Nonprofits are rising to the occasion with 800 helplines, websites and by recruiting thousands of election protection volunteers.   

1-866-OURVOTE - The Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights, Advancement Project and partners have organized 1-866 OUR VOTE, the nation's largest voter help line to answer voting questions, get legal help on and before Election Day.  Check out their new website. 

1-888-Ve-Y-Vota is the national Spanish language voter assistance helpline. Sponsored by the National Association of Latino Election Officials (NALEO), National Council of La Raza, Mi Familia Vota, Univision and others. 888-Ve-Y-Vota ("Go and Vote!").