Classic.
Late night satisfaction at the O for Terry’s sendoff-
Good luck in law school Terry! We’ll miss you!
Make Your End-of-the-Year Charitable Donation Here
There’s a lot of reasons people give generously every year, but in some cases one of the benefits of supporting a worthwhile cause is the ability to take a federal income tax deduction.
Contribue to our sister organization, the PA League of Young Voters Education Fund, and receive a 2008 receipt for a charitable donation. It’s easy — you can do it online!
Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution today
or feel free to mail a donation by check to:
PA League of Young Voters EF
Attn: Development
6101 Penn Avenue Suite 302
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Everyone knows our Voter Guides rock
Ashley DiParlo at WTAE interviewed our own Carly Dobbins-Bucklad about the League of Young Voters special DIY voter guide website, theballot.org — where you can see all the League non-partisan voter guides (including PA’s!) with information on all of the down-ballot candidates and referendums, as well as upload your own voter guide.
People and organizations can submit guides all over the country, so if you’ve got a friend in another state, pass theballot.org on!
Tags: ballot.org, candidates, DIY, election, election information, League of Young Voters, national, non-partisan, online, Pennsylvania, state representative, vote, voter guides, wtae, YouthNew polling place camera ban is bad for election protection
October 31st, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in From the Field, League News, PA League in the News, Related News
No cell phones, no cameras, a new ban in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties is keeping all cameras out because they will “distract” first-time voters.
This will make election protection efforts, like VideoYourVote, a lot more difficult.
Terry Griffin, Western PA Field Organizer, and Liz Rincon, Executive State Director for the PA League spoke on the drawbacks of this ban…see the news story here
The PA League and the PAVoice Election Protection coalition will still be participating in VideoYourVote, by going to polls to ask voters about their voting experiences. And don’t forget to call 866-OUR-VOTE if you see a problem at the polls to report it right away!
Tags: 2008, allegheny, camera ban, election coverage, election protection, pbs, poll problems, presidential election, videoyourvote, voter rights, westmorelandIt’s an E-Day GOTV Swarm
October 30th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in League News, Photos, Upcoming Events, Volunteers Opportunities
Our office was completely packed for E-Day orientation this week, as dozens of eager volunteers came in to get trained and scheduled to get out the vote on Tuesday.
They ranged in age from 17 years old to over 50. We gave them all a t-shirt and the list of canvasser rules and rights, and got them scheduled for either a whole-day or half-day shift.
IF YOU MISSED THE ORIENTATION… Saturday, Nov. 1st at 1pm in our office you can still get trained and scheduled to push those voters out the door! Call 412-362-7927 with questions.
Tags: election day, orientation, training, volunteers“Unlock the Vote” Poster Contest Winner announced!
October 28th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in League News, PA League in the News, Photos, Uncategorized
(click on image for larger version)
Janel Ganaway, age 12, submitted the winning design for the PA League of Young Voters “Unlock the Vote” poster contest.
Pittsburgh student programs were asked to design a poster that said why it was important to vote. The winner was selected at the last PA League Presidential Debate Watch Party by those in attendance. Janel was part of the Mission Discovery student program at the Hill House.
Way to go, Janel! One thousand copies of your poster have been printed and distributed throughout the city in selected neighborhoods. The poster contest was part of the PA League’s ongoing Unlock the Vote program, which encourages inmate and ex-offender communities to know their rights, get registered, and vote.
Janel Ganaway, in front on the far right, with fellow Mission Discovery students and local hip-hop favorites, Wiz Khalifa (left) and Jasiri X (far right).
Election Results Party-time!
On a historic day like this one, don’t you want to be with your friends and countrymen?
Voting Machines: The Story’s (not) Over
Well, it’s official: The Allegheny County Elections Board has conducted a small random-sample audit of voting machine software. Apparently, they did it last weekend, with no need for a three-month bidding process, nor any guidance from the state of PA with regards to an audit protocol. (Well that wasn’t so hard, now was it?)
This would not have happened were it not for the incredible pressure we all put on the BoE within the last week. Jamming the phones on Thursday must have left an impression, forcing the Board to take action.
Even so, there’s still much more to be done. For starters, the process needs to be far more open and transparent than it was. In this day and age, there’s no reason to only talk about something after the fact, even if it takes place on a weekend — people will disseminate the relevant information virally via electronic communication. We could have known that the audit would take place when it did.
Also, the county needs to go through and check more than 18 out of the 4,700 machines — yes, that’s right, they checked fewer than 0.3% of the machines — that we will be voting on in just one week.
Why is this all so important? The software that our voting machines use was updated a few months ago, but we had no way of knowing that the updated software still complied with state and federal regulations. After a massive public outcry at a County Council meeting in September (see Success!), the Council passed a resolution calling on the Elections Board to audit the software. The Elections Division, in turn, started stonewalling, claiming that the process would take too long — requiring a three-month bidding process before the audit could even start — and that there was no state-established protocol for an audit.
The moral of this story is that, public pressure prompts elected officials to act and do the work. Even though the method that the County decided to use in “verifying” the voting machine software is questionable and insufficient, at best the County Executive and the Board of Elections demonstrated that decisions could have been made in a more timely fashion, and that now the public has the upper hand in demanding a thorough inspection and testing of the voting machines before THEY are up for election in 2009.
If we can’t be confident that our voting machines will count our votes accurately, what’s the point in voting in the first place?
Check our voting machines before the election!
October 20th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Eblasted, League News, Related News, Something said, Uncategorized, Upcoming Events
TOMORROW, Tuesday Oct 20th at 10am there will be a Board of Elections Meeting at the County Courthouse, Conference Room 1. We should arrive en-masse to discuss software auditing as well as any other election issues. No one needs to sign up in advance to speak, but if you’d like to carpool down there or meet up early, email terry@theleague.com!
Terry encouraging Pitt students to call County Executive Dan Onorato and ask him to verify the county's electronic voting machine software before the Nov. 4th election.
In a democracy such as ours, when those who represent our interests to our government fall short of doing the work of the people, to whom do we turn? Each other! The PA League of Young Voters has been calling for the people of Allegheny County to address their concerns about the integrity of the operating software in the electronic touch-screen voting machines to our county officials. When Michelle Obama came to University of Pittsburgh campus on October, 16th, Leaguers passed out some 800 leaflets containing the County Executive’s office phone number, instructions for writing a letter to the editor of the local newspapers, and information about our local government to a crowd of hundreds of eager voters. Everyone pulled out their cell phones, began making calls, and passed the information on to each other.
Terry took to the wall, walking along the line of speech-goers, proclaiming the importance of ratcheting up public pressure to direct the County Executive and the Board of Elections to take all necessary and reasonable steps to ensure that the paperless voting machines record and count each and every vote in Allegheny County on November, 4th, and in every election. Consequently, hundreds of people from around the Pittsburgh area who care to have their voices heard have experienced their collective power and the duty to influence the decisions of our elected officials. The flood of phone calls reportedly tied up County Executive Dan Onorato’s phone line for a good portion of the morning.
Now go the the Board of Elections meeting this Tuesday October 21st, 10am, and be there when the County Executive and the two At-Large County Councilmen make the decision. Our presence will influence!