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Youth Vote Goes Virtual

Charlotte West Ilyne Castellanos

October 23, 2020 |

Voices of Monterey Bay |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

California Students Vote Project, a public-private partnership, encourages college students to vote. Covid-19-adjusted strategies include sending out multiple emails, using social media, and encouraging peer-to-peer contacts to inform students about how to register to vote and the ways they can actually cast their ballots. Group representatives also visit Zoom classrooms to share information and some students have organized virtual events, such as political trivia night, to foster student engagement. Over 65,000 California students have registered to vote since August, triple the number from all of 2016.

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Botswana's Radical Experiment in National Unity

Bastian Berbner

October 23, 2020 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Botswana

Botswanans have deprioritized deeply held tribal identities, created a national identity, and found societal stability by using the practice of randomly assigning civil servants to different parts of the country. Sending the over 120,000 civil servants to work away from friends and family, immersed in a new culture, has led to intercultural exchanges, new friendships, and even many marriages that resulted in children whose parents belong to different tribes. Increasing contact across tribal groups led to thousands of new personal relationships, which reduced prejudices and created a shared national culture.

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Latinos the targets of election disinformation – but activists are fighting back

Amy Yee

October 22, 2020 |

The Guardian |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States

Civic and advocacy groups fight disinformation targeted at Latinx voters and conduct voter registration and education outreach. Voto Latino encourages young people to help older relatives spot disinformation and trained its staff to spot and report it to the watchdog group, Disinfo Defense League. Social media posts then flag the information as false. Personal relationships are an effective way to counter disinformation and also help encourage people to vote. Voto Latino alone has registered over 500,000 voters since mid-2019, more than the total amount since the organization began in 2004.

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Midwestern Youth of Color Are Using Art and Culture to Build Their Political Power

Cinnamon Janzer

October 22, 2020 |

Next City |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States

The Midwest Culture Lab consists of three organizations working to increase voter turnout among young people, especially young people of color. The partners work with artists, musicians, and other creative people to create messaging and campaigns that are culturally relevant and engage young people in civic participation. One partner, the Ohio Student Association, had artists create an ad that used relatable messaging about a criminal justice reform ballot measure to appeal to young people to vote. The ad brought in over 150 volunteers and contributed to doubling Ohio’s youth voter turnout from 2014 to 2018.

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These groups try to hack the vote – so that real criminals can't

Christa Case Bryant

October 21, 2020 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Cyber security simulations are taking place across the country to help everyone, from government officials to journalists, to identify election-related cyber threats and coordinated disinformation campaigns and make plans to strengthen defenses against them. One company, Cybereason, holds simulation events, sometimes bringing together law enforcement officers from agencies including the Secret Service and FBI, to think through potential security threats and come up with corresponding solutions. Running through security breach simulations helps plan for a quick response to deal with the challenges.

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EdNext Podcast: Teaching the Declaration of Independence with a Video Game

Marty West

October 21, 2020 |

Education Next |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

Nationally, civic courses lack rigor, partly because few states require coursework in civics. A new video game called “Portrait of a Tyrant,” based on the Declaration of Independence, could change that. “Let’s gamify a story,” said Danielle S. Allen, director of the Democratic Knowledge Project. In this episode, the creators of the video game share the challenges that exist for creating civics curriculum and the way this game can bridge that game between students and history.

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Washington state's not new to voting by mail. Here's how we work to keep it safe

Robert Mittendorf

October 21, 2020 |

The Bellingham Herald |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

Since Washington made voting by mail mandatory in 2011, nonpartisan election officials have refined ballot-security procedures to achieve a smoothly run system in which suspected cheating or interference represents a tiny fraction of the millions of votes cast in each election. Those procedures include signature verification, ballot-box integrity, securely blocking Internet access to vote tabulations and voter registration, and other safeguards against electronic or in-person tampering with votes or registrations.

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How Colorado became the model for running an election by mail

Bill Theobald

October 20, 2020 |

The Fulcrum |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

Colorado is a successful model for voting by mail. Anti-hacking security measures, results audits, and frequent updating of the voter database using multiple sources increases confidence in the system. Voting by mail increased turnout, making the state among the top in the country. It also decreased election-related costs by 40%. Ballot rejections remain low (less than 1%) because the state relies on voters’ honesty and does not require a witness’ signature. Voters can also track their ballot and resolve any issues over the phone. Voters can return ballots by mail or at one of the many official drop boxes.

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Their App Sends Free Mail to Incarcerated People. Now They're Helping Prisoners Register to Vote

Emily Nonko

October 20, 2020 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Ameelio is a technology startup launched by Yale students to facilitate free communication between people who are incarcerated and loved ones. In their first six months, the group went from sending 300 to over 4,000 letters a week to facilities in the United States. Their initial goal was to provide a not-for-profit alternative to the oftentimes predatory prison telecommunications industry. Recently they began a voter registration initiative where they send registration instructions, a blank voter registration application, and ballot request form to people who are incarcerated and eligible to vote.

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Citizens' Assemblies let everyday people make important city decisions. Let's bring them to Philly.

Jessica Blatt Press

October 19, 2020 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Citizens' assemblies, where a randomly selected representative sample of people work together to make decisions and find policy solutions to social issues, is an effective approach to decision-making that bridges polarization. It also minimizes the influence of special interests in decision making. America In One Room gathered 500 people in Texas to address topics such as immigration and healthcare, among others, and it showed that people tend to find common ground after deliberative discussions. Citizens’ assemblies have successfully informed policy decisions in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and France.

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