How grass-roots efforts by Georgia's Latinos helped tip the Senate races

Rachel Hatzipanagos

February 03, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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Response Location: United States, Georgia

Black and Latino organizers with the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) knocked on over 300,000 doors in between the general election and Senate runoffs. Canvassing in predominantly Latino neighborhoods, they also reached out to ineligible voters to encourage them to urge their U.S. born family members to vote in their family’s interests. Latino support of Democratic candidates increased in the Senate runoffs adding to narrow Democratic victories. GLAHR also helped elect the first Black sheriff of Gwinnett County, who quickly ended a program that allowed the county jail to collaborate with ICE.

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“What You Share Defines You”: Indonesia Has World's Biggest Fact-Checking Network

Meleva Thorn Sienna Curnow

January 16, 2021 |

The Jakarta Globe |

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Response Location: Indonesia

CekFakta is a collaborative network that fights misinformation with around 6,000 fact-checkers from major Indonesian media organizations, citizens, and academics. The group holds training sessions to help journalists identify doctored images and misinformation, with the idea that participants will pass the skills on to their colleagues. CekFakta impacted 2019 presidential debates with large-scale, real-time, collaborative fact-checking that enabled a quick release of fact-checked information. The collaborative process is key to helping people find high-quality information amid so much online content.

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By backing Raphael Warnock against Kelly Loeffler, Sue Bird and the WNBA helped flip the Senate

Percy Allen

January 16, 2021 |

The Seattle Times |

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Response Location: United States

During her bid for reelection, former senator Kelly Loeffler, also co-owner of a WNBA team, publicly fought with the league for dedicating its season to Black Lives Matters and fighting for racial justice. Players decided collectively to stop talking publicly about Loeffler to limit her media attention. Next, after carefully vetting candidates they decided Raphael Warnock best represented their interests. In a public endorsement, players across the league wore VOTE WARNOCK shirts to nationally televised games. Within days, Warnock gained 4,000 Twitter followers, raised over $250,000, and gained in the polls.

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How Youth Turned the Tide in the 2020 Election

Levi Pulkkinen

December 30, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

A team of young people helped Kirsten Harris-Talley win a seat in the Washington state legislature. The 63 young people, ages 12 to 22, did more than the traditional behind the scenes work, like phone banking and door knocking. Rather, the young campaign workers participated in strategy meetings, ran the campaign’s Instagram account, and shaped the campaign’s climate justice and youth rights platforms. Ten of the young people were given paid fellowships and carried out responsibilities in all aspects of the campaign, such as voter engagement and fundraising.

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Ranked Choice Voting Debuts in 2020 Basalt Mayoral Election

Kathleen Shannon

December 22, 2020 |

KDNK Community Radio |

Podcast |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Basalt, Colorado

Ranked choice voting (RCV) lets voters select multiple candidates in order of preference. If no one gets a majority, there is a second round where the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated and the second choice on those ballots is counted. The process repeats until one candidate gets a majority. More elections use RCV, including Basalt ’s 2020 mayoral race where another RCV-experienced city shared public information materials and election judge training. RCV requires close attention to all ballots and campaigns are more civil because of the incentive to be a voter’s second choice.

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How US cities fixed violations to Asian Americans' voting rights in 2020

Amy Yee

December 22, 2020 |

The Guardian |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Malden, Massachusetts

Violations of the Voting Rights Act during primary and local elections led the city of Malden, where 23% of its 60,000 residents are of Asian descent, to provide voting materials and information - including mail-in ballots, voting instructions, official election websites, and precinct signs - in English and Chinese. The city also hired a trilingual city employee fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin and collaborated with community advocacy groups on voter outreach and recruiting more bilingual poll workers. Advocates see Malden as a role model for other jurisdictions to remedy voter access issues.

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There is no Gen Z ‘enthusiasm' gap

Iliana Hagenah

December 10, 2020 |

Scalawag |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Mississippi

Civic engagement groups creatively encouraged young Black voters to vote. Mississippi Votes ran fellowships where local representatives educated young people on the political landscape of their state and used "geofencing," to share sample ballot links and precinct information on social media when users’ smartphones were within specific geographic locations. Engage Miami reached young people with "Get Out And Vote" TikTok videos, and partnering with social media influencers. In addition to registering thousands of new voters, both groups lent resources to youth voices in Black Lives Matters protests.

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Biden victory in hand, Black church get-out-the-vote workers assess the future

Adelle M. Banks

November 25, 2020 |

Religion News Service |

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Response Location: United States, Georgia

Faith leaders from communities of color mobilized voters to support candidates and policies that empower Black and Brown people. Events such as “Souls to the Polls” and the coalition-run Black Church 75 initiative, registered new voters and urged them to the polls around issues such as police brutality and racial injustices. Support from Black church members is credited with helping elect Democratic candidates, including Democratic senators in Georgia, as well as passing ballot initiatives, such as Measure J in Los Angeles that would decrease police funding in favor of mental health and housing resources.

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Native American votes helped secure Biden's win in Arizona

Felicia Fonseca Angeliki Kastanis

November 19, 2020 |

Associated Press |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Navajo Nation, United States, Arizona

Organizations across the political spectrum increased voter turnout on Arizona’s Native American reservations. The Biden campaign targeted outreach to specific groups, such as Native women and veterans, and held Covid-safe election-related events, such as a parade to the polls. The Trump campaign ran advertising on reservations and featured well-known Arizona Native American Republicans at political rallies. Turnout increased anywhere from 12-14% on the larger Navajo and Hopi reservations (over 17,000 votes) to over 50% on smaller reservations. These increases helped Biden win Arizona by about 10,500 votes.

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Youth advocacy groups kept voters safe and informed on Election Day

Lauren Hernandez

November 13, 2020 |

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Arizona

Civic participation by youth advocacy groups registered tens of thousands of young voters and educated many more on election-related issues, including local and state ballot initiatives. Events held on zoom provided registration information and helped students connect with their peers, where they made pledges and plans to vote. Arizona PIRG Students New Voters Project educated 10,000 students this way, while CALPIRG Students' 500 volunteers registered 10,000 students, provided voter information to over 150,000 students, and made over 90,000 peer to peer Get Out the Vote contacts.

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