Latest news with #voterengagement
Forbes
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Beyond The Vote: Engaging Students In Civic Action
Columbia Votes student 'voter registration genius' Haley Patton (center) moderates a panel as part of 'Meeting the Moment' in March 2025. When I started Columbia Votes in 2018, the name accurately reflected the mission: increasing student voter engagement. The challenge wasn't voter registration – 83% of our students were already registered to vote. But in the 2016 general election, only 56% had actually voted. Our challenge was instead motivating more students at Columbia College Chicago to learn about the candidates and issues, and then cast their ballots in the upcoming 2020 election. Our solution? Using a peer-to-peer approach. I hired and trained student 'voter registration geniuses' to deliver a presentation to all first-year students about the power and impact voting can have on the issues they care about most. The content presented by the voter registration geniuses helped incoming students register to vote either at their campus or home addresses, provided them with nonpartisan sources of information, and assisted them with finding their polling place or obtaining their vote-by-mail ballot. And it worked. In 2020, 72% of our students voted in the general election. This continued to be our approach for the next four years as we expanded beyond classroom presentations. Columbia Votes adopted a theme of Civic Joy and celebrated the power of the student vote through collaborations and events, from 'Dance for Democracy' to 'Parties to the Polls.' We found numerous ways to connect with campus partners, such as the school library and numerous student organizations, on events where we were able to promote nonpartisan student voting. Through our work, we were able to emphasize the fact that there are no off years for voting; important local elections are happening all the time. This year, we noticed that shifting our focus to local elections wasn't enough to quell students' disappointment in their impact on the general election. Many students told us the outcome of the 2024 elections showed their votes didn't matter, and they wanted to know what they could do to support the issues they cared about. In response, Columbia Votes pivoted to a new theme: Civic Action. Our goal was to expand our students' civic engagement well beyond voting and to help them embrace their roles as positive change agents. The students needed to know that their voices mattered. With this new theme, Columbia Votes held a daylong event called 'Meeting the Moment: Civic Action.' It included four panel discussions aimed at providing students concrete ways to be informed and engaged: Each panel was moderated by one of the voter registration geniuses and featured representatives from organizations on campus and around the city. Between each panel, students stayed for refreshments and conversations with panelists and each other. We also sponsored a know-your-rights training to help students who wished to be better informed and better allies for undocumented people on campus and in our community. And, we launched a book club, where students read and share what they are learning about current events with one another. The last Columbia Votes meeting of the school year. Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin is in the middle. The pivot from voter engagement to civic engagement and from civic joy to civic action had a powerful effect on the campus community. People felt their concerns were heard and that the college was supporting them in their quest for practical ways to be civically engaged. As one voter registration genius wrote: 'College is about so much more than just job training. It's about learning to be critical thinkers in the country and world we all share. I think it is essential that Columbia supports Columbia Votes because it provides students with a peer resource to learn how to be civically engaged in meaningful ways, outside the classroom.' The key to the effectiveness of Columbia Votes has been remaining nonpartisan, both in voter and civic engagement work. Nothing we did favored one party or candidate. It was all designed to give students the tools and information they need to make good decisions at the ballot box and in the actions they take to support what they care about in their communities and in our country. Colleges need to support efforts like these, co-led by a faculty champion who can advocate for voter and civic engagement to be included in the curriculum. When colleges support these efforts, faculty champions are able to build powerful partnerships around campus, while passionate students find creative and effective ways to connect with their peers. Faculty/student collaborations of this kind are rare and powerful – as evidenced by the surge in voting and engagement at Columbia College Chicago. And they pay dividends in student satisfaction with their school: 'Columbia Votes showed me a new side of the school, through students and faculty, that I had not seen before,' one of the voter registration geniuses wrote. 'It was the first time that I got a real sense of the community at Columbia and what makes this school special.' Columbia College Chicago is one of more than 1,000 colleges and universities currently participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. Learn more about ALL IN and support our work here.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
How Miami's city commission gave themselves an extra year in office without voters' permission
Candidates for local office in Miami have been prepping mailers, gathering volunteers, raising money and hitting the street for the last year, with voters expecting to see a robust campaign to replace the city's term-limited, scandal-chased mayor. Last week, Miami's city commission told those voters they'll have to wait an extra year. In a 3-2 vote, the commission changed the city's election bylaws to push the municipal races back to 2026. Commissioners said they made the change in the name of cost savings and increased voter engagement when higher-profile races for Congress or the presidency may be on the ballot. But they gave themselves an extra year in office without asking voters for permission first. And in a moment when the underpinnings of democracy appear to be cracking in America, a cavalier attitude toward an election seems ominous to some Miami residents. 'What worries people about this is, we don't want to give the guy in the White House any ideas,' said John Jackson, a Miami resident and former political operative. There's no real mechanism to try something like this at the federal level, he said, 'but it still kind of makes people a little worried. I don't know anyone on any side of the aisle – Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal – who just thinks that this was a good thing'. Florida attorney general James Uthmeier sent Miami's mayor a warning letter on 26 June, telling the city that the proposal to change election dates without asking permission from voters first violates the city and county's charter and the state constitution. Miami is home 'to thousands of patriotic Cuban Americans who know better than most about regimes that cavalierly delay elections and prolong their terms in power', Uthmeier wrote. 'The City of Miami owes to its citizens what the law requires.' City leaders could have avoided this problem by placing the question on the ballot and accepting a shorter term if voters chose to hold future elections on even-numbered years, said Michael Hepburn, a Miami mayoral candidate. 'The city of Miami is actually still scheduled to have a election this year for other ballot referendums,' Hepburn said. 'So what they're doing is actually just stupid, because you literally still gonna have people come out this year on November 4 and vote for, like, three other questions on the ballot.' By structuring the change this way, however, it permits city commissioner Joe Carollo and Miami mayor Francis Suarez – both term-limited – to remain in office for an additional year. Hepburn said he thinks Juarez wants to use the extra year to his advantage. 'He's started thinking about how he could stay in office and use his current office to parlay that into his next office. He may be running for governor next year. He may be running for US Congress. Who knows? But he'll be able to do it from the office of mayor, which just helps him.' Hepburn and other candidates have either filed lawsuits or are awaiting the actions of the attorney general in response to the ordinance change. 'The decision by city leaders to arbitrarily extend their terms by a full year without voter approval is exactly why so many are up in arms by the chaos and dysfunction of our city government,' said Eileen Higgins, a Miami-Dade county commissioner running to become the city's next mayor. Instead of extending current elected terms, Higgins said she would support shortening a new mayor's term by one year and moving the election to 2028 to achieve optimal voter participation. 'That's why I believe moving forward with the planned elections this November should have been the only decision. More troubling, a run-off in December 2026 will only cost taxpayers more money and result in lower turnout than this year's planned election.' The mayor's office did not respond to requests for comment. 'I support and encourage participation in the electoral process,' said city of Miami commissioner Christine King. 'Voting is the single most important act one can do for their country and in this instance our community. In the city of Miami, voter turnout is historically low for odd numbered year elections. My vote in support of moving our elections to even numbered years was a vote for democracy.' The argument for on-cycle elections makes sense to students of civic participation. Suarez defeated his challenger 21,479 to 3,166 in the 2021 off-year election. In a Miami referendum about residency requirements for the Miami mayor in 2024, with Donald Trump facing Kamala Harris as the marquee matchup at the top of the ballot, 127,460 people cast a vote, more than five times as many voters. 'The upshot is that on-cycle elections … are generally viewed as a win for democracy,' said Matthew Nelsen, an assistant political science professor at the University of Miami. 'On-cycle elections ensure that the media attention and campaigning that comes along with a national midterm or presidential election will also trickle down into local races.' Commissioner Damian Pardo, the author of the election change, argued that holding municipal elections on off years is a form of voter suppression. 'The reason behind this is to boost voter participation,' he told local media. 'When we realized we actually had potentially three votes to get this done, we moved forward. When we can take reform, we take it.' Nonetheless, the commission chose not to let voters make this change. 'Ideally, the voters would have had the ability to vote on this,' Pardo said. 'However, given the situation in this context, where we had the opportunity to pass it … in order to give the voters what they want, you might actually undermine them by putting it to a vote, because by the time that time lapses, you may no longer have those three votes.' Two of the three commissioners who voted for the change – Pardo and King – are Democrats. 'If they can move it, why not the president?' said Marion Brown, a candidate challenging King in the election that the commission postponed. 'Let the president move it, let the governor move it, let everyone in the election do the same thing.' The third commissioner, Ralph Rosado, is a Republican, as is the mayor. Municipal elections are technically nonpartisan in Miami. 'Our county mayor is Democratic. Miami's mayor is Republican. But none of that really matters, because politics is just weird here,' Jackson said. 'To me, it was just entrenched politicians who said 'well, gonna save money and we're gonna raise turnout'. But the reality is, they're term-limited, and now they get an extra term.' Politics in Miami tends to protect a group of four or five politically-powerful families at the expense of the public interest, said Marisol Zenteno, president of the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade. 'People are very irritated. They don't trust in the system. They feel that it's the same people manipulating it and that it's pretty much the same people winning all the time,' she said. 'Voters are just disillusioned.'
Fast Company
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Zohran Mamdani's video explaining his victory is a perfect example of the strategy that helped him win
In the week since the New York City mayoral primary, national news reporters, elected officials, and casual observers have been wondering how a little-known, 33-year old state assemblyman beat a former governor of New York for the democratic nomination. To help them out, that candidate did what he has done best throughout his campaign so far—he made a candid, insightful, charming video explaining how he won. The data-packed video, which was viewed over 4.5 million times on X alone in its first 24 hours, features the candidate breaking down how he managed to get an unusually large number of new and infrequent voters to the polls. As he spends a sunny day amid the lush greenery, soaring skyline and vivid graffiti of New York City, Mamdani recounts how his campaign sought out Trump voters—'not to lecture, but to listen'—reached out to election-abstainers, and crafted a message targeting citizens of all stripes who felt ignored by other politicians. It's an illuminating video, perhaps most notable for its transparency, authenticity, humor, and his knowledge of New York culture—all of which have been evident since Mamdani released his first campaign video, a viral joint about the rising cost of halal food, which he dubbed 'halalflation.' The candidate created his videos with Brooklyn-based agency Melted Solids, run by Debbie Saslaw and Anthony DiMieri, who collaborated with videographer Donald Borenstein, campaign photographer Kara McCurdy, and comms director Andrew Bard Epstein. Together, they made campaign material that was as informative as it was accessible, and primed for virality. A typical video, for instance, illustrated exactly what Mamdani plans to do to help small businesses, and precisely why his plans will work, featuring the candidate making his case from within the quintessential New York small business: a deli. Other videos attempted to defang some of the arguments used against him. In response to attacks on his plan to make city buses free, he put out a video revealing that the famously free Staten Island ferry used to charge its riders a fee. 'When people tell you buses can't be free, don't ask them to take a hike,' he says in the clip. 'Ask them to take a ferry.' Meanwhile, another factor in the candidate's incredible reach has been his willingness to tailor his message to each segment of his audience. 'We ran a campaign that tried to talk to every New Yorker,' Mamdani says in the new video explaining his victory, 'whether I could speak their language… or just tried.' It's a reference to a series of dedicated videos in which he pitches himself to voters by speaking in fluent Bengla and Urdu, and in so-so Spanish. Anyone who doubts whether Americans with international backgrounds really care when politicians take the time to speak to them on their own terms need only watch a video clip of the reaction at Bayo, a recent Caribbean music festival at Barclays Center, when Mamdani briefly took the stage and pronounced 'Haiti' the way French and Creole-speaking Haitians would—ayiti. He then talks about two critical issues to Haitians in New York—its place among 11 other countries on President Donald Trump's travel ban, and the president ending temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants. The masterstroke of Mamdani's campaign, however, may have been when he spent the Friday before the election, June 20, walking the entire length of Manhattan. Over a period of seven and a half hours, he traversed the streets from Inwood Hill to Battery Park, making video content every step of the way. The journey proved a clever opportunity for the candidate to demonstrate how well he knows the city, and how well the city's residents were starting to know him. It's difficult to imagine his key primary opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid several harassment allegations in 2021, and held limited public appearances throughout the primary campaign, being able to replicate this feat. What might be most incredible about Mamdani's videos is the contrast between how the candidate comes across in them and how his loudest critics portray him. Donald Trump, for instance, has taken to calling him a 'Communist lunatic,' adding in a Truth Social post that Mamdani 'looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, [and] he's not very smart.' During a press conference on Tuesday, in which he threatened to have Mamdani arrested if he defies ICE as mayor, Trump threw his weight instead behind Mayor Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent. In the same press conference, he suggested Mamdani, a naturalized citizen born in Uganda, was ' here illegally.' Trump also mentioned having previously 'helped [Adams] out a little bit,' seemingly referring to when the Department of Justice dropped its corruption charges against the mayor back in April.
CBS News
30-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
To help party brand, Democrats prepare "Organizing Summer"
An alliance of leading national Democratic groups is preparing a new effort this summer focused on driving voter engagement as the party tries to regain support following its defeats in 2024. The plans, first obtained by CBS News, fall under the label of what these groups have dubbed "Organizing Summer." While this year has relatively few major statewide elections, such as gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, the 2026 midterms will be a crucial test for a party that is trying to respond to the lessons learned from Republicans' wins in last year's campaigns, including the presidential race. The groups behind the summer organizing effort include the Democratic National Committee, the Democrats' coalition of state parties as well as the campaign arms for House, Senate and gubernatorial contests. The DNC alone intends to initially invest a six-figure dollar amount in the wide-ranging effort, with plans to scale to seven figures as the summer goes on. "For too long, the DNC has been a D.C. institution, and we're trying to get the DNC out of DC and into the states through this program," a Democratic strategist familiar with the plans said. The summer program is focused on voter engagement and registration, particularly with voters who wouldn't otherwise hear Democrats' messaging. The DNC has signed up 16,000 volunteers, twice as many as it typically has in an off-election year, according to a Democratic strategist familiar with the plans. As part of the summer effort, Democrats will urge volunteers to connect with voters in less politically dominated parts of life, with the outline of the plan pointing to community groups, book clubs and social media platforms as examples. The plans include developing a "direct pathway to share feedback they receive from voters, and what they are seeing online, helping the party inform its messaging and strategy on an ongoing basis," according to a Democratic strategist familiar with the program. "We are deploying an army of thousands of volunteers to activate their communities, register voters, and make sure the Republicans who are putting billionaires ahead of working and middle class Americans lose their elections in 2025 and lose their seats in the midterms," DNC chairman Ken Martin said in a statement. National Democrats are also keen on trying to build momentum after party infighting spilled out into the open during the early months of Martin's tenure leading the DNC. An April announcement from activist David Hogg and his political organization, Leaders We Deserve, detailing plans to "start primarying out-of-touch, ineffective House Democrats in solid blue seats" caused a rift with Martin and other party leaders. This eventually led to Hogg losing his position as a DNC vice chair. Soon after that standoff ended, attention grew around two leaders from major labor unions exiting the DNC, bringing about more questions about the direction of the party moving forward. Many Democrats have been uneasy about the infighting, wanting to focus instead on trying to win elections in the coming months and years. In an attempt to help do that, Democrats' summer initiative includes all 35 of the GOP districts the House Democrats' campaign arm is focusing on at this stage, U.S. Senate races in North Carolina and Maine and the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, according to the Democratic strategist familiar with the plans. Democrats are already attempting to use President Trump's wide-ranging "big, beautiful bill" making its way through Congress as a flashpoint in the midterms, and that work will also be a major point of the summer organizing program. The GOP House version of the legislation, which narrowly passed the chamber, continues major parts of Mr. Trump's first term Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Yet it also includes more politically volatile changes, such as enforcing Medicaid work requirements and changes to federal food assistance. Senate Republicans have been working to try and pass their own version of the bill as well. As the process plays out, national Republicans already appear to be centering a major part of the GOP's chances in the 2026 midterms on Mr. Trump's agenda legislation. "The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes common-sense policies supported by a majority of Americans," House GOP campaign arm chairman Richard Hudson wrote on social media recently. "@HouseGOP Republicans are putting Americans first while Democrats defend the waste, fraud, abuse, and illegal aliens." Last year's elections sent Republicans to Washington with unified control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, giving them clear paths to act on Mr. Trump's agenda. Democrats are facing a difficult map to try and reclaim the Senate in 2026, meaning that the left's best hopes at gaining power back in Washington are likely centered on winning back the House next year. Since Mr. Trump's second inauguration, Democratic governors have proven to be a major counter to his actions, meaning that either maintaining or winning governor's offices around the country is a critical goal for the party as well. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for instance, sued Trump and others earlier this month over the federal deployment of state National Guard members following immigration protests. Whether efforts like the summer organizing will be enough to help the party moving forward is likely to be closely watched among politicians and operatives looking to build campaigns not just for the 2026 midterms, but the 2028 presidential election cycle as well. "Our job this summer is to make sure working families know exactly who is responsible for taking food off their table and ripping away their health care," Martin said in his statement.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democratic leaders share vision for party's future in Valparaiso town hall
State and Porter County leaders discussed the future of the state and national Democratic Party during a town hall Saturday at the Laborers' Local 81 in Valparaiso. The town hall was led by Indiana Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Tallian, State Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, State Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage, and Center Township Trustee Jesse Harper. About 45 people attended the meeting, and a handful of them submitted questions on note cards about the future of the Democratic Party in the upcoming midterm elections, voter turnout, party messaging and engaging younger people to run for office. While a lot of people are mad about the current national political landscape, Harper said an equal amount of people are mad at the Democratic Party. 'They are angry and mad at the Democratic Party. We have to take responsibility for our losses. We have to figure out what happened,' Harper said. 'Everything you're concerned about, I'm going to tell you right now it doesn't mean a damn thing. The reason it doesn't mean a damn thing is because we can't do anything about it because we don't have the votes. The only way we get those votes is by getting Democrats elected.' For the midterm elections, Tallian said the state party has been reaching out to all the county chairs, holding town hall meetings and creating a program to focus on candidate recruitment. 'This year, we're in an off year, we need to build and to recruit candidates,' Tallian said. 'We've got 92 counties, and every one of them has down ballot elections. We have township advisory boards, we have county councils, and now we have school boards. All of these down ballot positions need to get filled.' Every precinct committee person also needs to help with voter registration and canvassing, Tallian said. In 2024, 330,000 Hoosiers registered as Democrats but did not vote, she said. 'One of the things we're trying to do this year is to canvas neighborhoods for those people and find out why,' Tallian said. 'We need to get that done this year so that people can be ready for the elections in 2026.' For Democrats to win in Center Township, Porter County and in Indiana, Harper said Democratic candidates need to secure Republican votes. 'It's not this elusive Independent vote … you've got to get Republican votes,' Harper said. 'The way to do that is you are the adult in the room and you talk about issues that people are scared about.' For example, Harper said health care cuts impact the elderly, children and people with disabilities, which is 'a bipartisan issue' that also allows Democrats to be 'the adults in the room.' One of the questions raised concerns about 'watering down' Democratic values to get Republican votes versus 'doubling down' on Democratic issues to encourage more Democrats to vote. If the party were to double down on Democratic issues, 'there aren't enough Democrats' in Indiana to vote on those issues, Harper said. 'It's a question of mathematics,' Harper said. 'We have to decide what our Democratic messaging is, when we use it and how we use it. I think we can have a strong Democratic message.' When it comes to messaging, Moseley said property taxes, future economic stability and health care are major issues that the Democratic Party can focus on. 'People want to vote for something, not just always against something,' Moseley said. Another important issue in Northwest Indiana is the environment, as it's located near Lake Michigan and environmental protections are rolled back, Pol said. Pol said public education is also an important issue the party could focus on because public education in Indiana has been experiencing a 'death by 1,000 cuts' with each passing legislative session. The state's voucher program allows wealthy families to receive a discount for sending their children to private schools, while public education has been eroding through various pieces of legislation, he said. 'It's the funding of defunding public education, is what it is. We'll give you money to send your kids to a private school, so you don't send your money to a public school,' Pol said. As she talks to people at town halls throughout the state, Tallian said the themes she's heard people should focus on are the economy, 'Big Brother' and stability. Under 'Big Brother,' Tallian said Republican Party leaders 'at the state and federal level are telling us what to think, they're telling us what our universities can do and they're cutting who can go to which schools.' 'The 'Big Brother' aspect of what's going on in this country is, to me, one of the scariest things going on right now,' Tallian said. When it comes to stability, Tallian described the constant switch between tariffs being on and off and chaos caused by the deportation methods under President Donald Trump's administration. 'Things keep moving every day in Washington and you can't keep track of anything,' Tallian said. 'We want to have stability.' When it comes to engaging younger people, Tallian, a former state senator, said Pol took over her seat and he's younger than her youngest child. The party needs to 'build a bench,' Tallian said. 'The bench can't just be people who want to burn everything down and start over. We've seen the burn down, start over (with) DOGE,' Tallian said, referencing Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. Indiana's Democratic Party leaders at the county level range in age from 22 to 82, Tallian said, and she wouldn't 'throw out anyone' because they are either too young or too old. 'But building the bench is something that we absolutely need to do, and I'm encouraging that every single place I can,' Tallian said. Pol said when he first joined the Senate he was 37 years old and he was the youngest senator at the time. Pol said he's now 41 years old and he's still the youngest Senator. 'I think that's criminal because there are younger people who are much smarter than I. There are younger people who have a voice that needs to be heard,' Pol said. Pol encouraged young people to get involved in political groups and organizations to have their voices heard and engage in the process. Moseley said anyone coming to town halls or other political events should bring a younger person they know to the event to educate them on the process. 'It's up to us to let them know, 'Hey, you are welcome,'' Moseley said. Tallian has come under fire after an IndyStar opinion piece written by Elise Shrock, sharing her story of being dragged out by sheriff's deputies from an Indianapolis City-County Council meeting earlier this month for seeking accountability for survivors of sexual assault. Shrock shared her disappointment with the state Democratic Party's silence on the issue. In response to a question about the situation Saturday, Tallian said it's 'partially an Indianapolis problem.' Referencing her written statement issued after the op-ed was published, Tallian said just days apart, she saw U.S. Senator Alex Padilla from California shoved to the ground and handcuffed at a news conference in Los Angeles, and in Indianapolis, multiple women were shoved out of a public meeting. 'Forcibly removing people from a public meeting is not the way that we fix our problems in this country,' Tallian said. akukulka@
