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, Youth

New polling place camera ban is bad for election protection

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, westmoreland

“Unlock the Vote” Poster Contest Winner announced!

Tags: allegheny county, download, election, Pennsylvania, poster contest, unlock the vote, vote for the future of PA, voter rights, Youth

A day in the life of the League

The League:  Hot in the Streets!

Saturday October 4th was a great day for the PA League! We had so many wonderful volunteers wake up early to go canvassing with us and the Steelworkers in Penn Hills and North Versailles to make an impact on the upcoming election.

Akil Esoon registered Mabel Rose, who is 101 years old and living in Penn Hills.

It was extra exciting because the PA League recently has been getting national recognition for our efforts. On Saturday, CNN brought their film crews out to North Versailles to capture the excitement and the hard work that we have all been doing to reach out to those new and unlikely voters.

You can catch the footage on CNN American Morning showing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week!

Want to be a part of the excitement? Come join us to help make a difference in this year’s election and beyond!

Tags: canvassing, CNN, CNN American Morning, generation, north versailles, Penn Hills, politics, volunteers, voter registration, young leaders

Today’s News: Volunteer with us!

The Post-Gazette gave us a shout out as the place to volunteer this election.  What are you waiting for?  Add your name to the list!  The more volunteers we have the more we can do (obviously), and there’s a lot to do!

Tags: election, post-gazette, volunteer, vote

PA League featured in Post-Gazette

The PA League was recently featured in the series of Right Here columns about 20-something Pittsburghers who work at nonprofit organizations.

“Our goal is not only to engage [voters], but keep them engaged after this election. … I’ve never seen an election with this much enthusiasm,” Ms. Rincon said.

Read the full text of the article here

Tags: election, engagement, new voters, pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, post-gazette, registration, students, volunteers, vote

Registering Voters makes the News!

We got a spot in the Post-Gazette for our jail registration work in conjunction with Just Harvest; Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN; the Community Voters Project; Work for Progress; and Duquesne University nursing and political science students last week!

“Spearheaded by inmate program director Jack Pishke, it was the largest registration effort to date at the jail and the only one jail officials knew of statewide, in anticipation of the last registration day: Oct. 6.

In a dizzying two hours, the group helped to complete 456 new registrations and about 700 absentee ballot applications.

Unlike most of the younger volunteers, Ms. Rabinowitz, 67, of Park Place, had been in jail before. She was locked up with a group of organizers for two separate stretches in 1963, after the group was arrested for registering rural black voters in the south with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Those voters, she said, were scared because “they’d never had the right to vote before and we couldn’t tell them it wasn’t dangerous.”

The jail inmates today were just eager. And hopeful.”

Read the full article

Tags: allegheny county, Allegheny County Jail, disenfranchised, election, ex-offenders, inmates, pa league of young voters, pa league of young voters education fund, Pennsylvania, registration, unlock the vote, vote, voter, Voting

This is how we do it…!

Enough about Rhyme Cal…how bout the afterparty (in front of the Rhyme Cal
room)?! DJ Huggy was spinning some of the classic hip hop hits… You
should’ve seen the look on the cleaning guy’s face! Hey…they had to know
what would happen if they put piles of shredded paper, free alcohol, and
music in the same spot!

…ever seen Mac dance?! Looked like he was having fun to me! Again…this
is how WE do it!! We are all about having a good time as long as we are
getting the work done! (And there is PLENTY to do!) Ya gotta love this
work…

Roxanne

Tags: Afterparty, community, election, event, hip-hop, hot house, Outreach, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Rhyme Calisthenics, vote

Pay Equity Leads Issues Facing City, Workers

Pay Equity Leads Issues Facing City, Workers

Pittsburgh, PA:          PA League of Young Voters State Director Khari Mosley called equal pay an issue of basic humanity at today’s Pay Equity Rally organized by the Women and Girls Foundation downtown in Market Square.

“Pay inequity symbolizes how we value each other as human beings, and we need to actively work to ensure that we value the work of women and men and people of color equally.”

The PA League of Young Voters stated that they were excited to work with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, the Women and Girls Foundation, and other civic leaders to ensure that city workers benefited from pay equity.   With regional efforts to retain young people at the forefront of local concern, pay equity would be a significant measure in this direction.

“Today’s rally is a great beginning,” commented Mr. Mosley.  “We welcome the pledge by the Mayor to increase diversity in his administration and we look forward to helping him achieve these goals along with meeting his pledge for pay equity.”

The PA League of Young Voters engages, educates and empowers young and disenfranchised voters.

Tags: equal pay, pa league of young voters, vote

‘Propel’ Equals Seperate but Unequal Commission

Propel Equals Separate but Unequal Commission

Pittsburgh, PA:  In response to today’s introduction in City Council of the ordinance to establish Propel Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania League of Young Voters calls for the Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh to adopt a meaningful youth policy rather than continuing to create more toothless unfunded commissions.  Young people do need to have a meaningful voice in city governance, but the Propel Pittsburgh Commission is at best redundant and at worst an autocratic attempt to disfranchise already active young Pittsburghers.

Pittsburgh already has several organizations designed to engage and empower young people including The Pennsylvania League of Young Voters, PUMP, and Progress Pittsburgh.  Creating a commission to represent young people not only replicates the efforts of longstanding organizations like Progress Pittsburgh and PUMP but worse yet, it has been done without any attempt at dialogue with these groups.  The creation of this commission has been done in a complete vacuum. 

Rather than create another commission we ask that the Mayor, who should understand the priorities of young people, pledge to appoint a diversity of young people to all city commissions, boards, and authorities.  Creating a commission on women, youth or people of color is not the same thing as integrating women, young people and people of color into government and making policy decisions based on their best interest.

We should not be creating a separate and unequal commission because the interests of young Pittsburghers span the already existing boards and commissions.  The City Planning Commission, the Ethics Hearing Board, the Citizens Police Review Board, the Housing, Parking, Water and Sewer Authorities, and all the commissions, boards and authorities hold relevance for the city’s young population. More importantly retaining and attracting young people depends on the decisions these bodies make every day. Having a separate commission to make recommendations further distances, disenfranchises and alienates the very people it is meant to include.  Should the Mayor decide to prioritize youth representation on all commissions, the League of Young Voters, would be happy to assist in the nomination process.  We would urge the Mayor to consult Progress Pittsburgh and PUMP for their recommendations as well.

Should this commission be created we suggest rethinking the make-up as well.  The unwieldy size, 35 members, will impact the ability of the commission to meet and come to a consensus.  Beyond the size, we strongly urge the members are more proportional appointed. As it stands, 75% of the members will be appointed by the mayor.  A better structure would be to have equal number of nominees from each city council member and the Mayor’s office.  Two nominees, one female and one male, from the Mayor and from each city council member would create a commission of twenty members guaranteed to represent the city geographically.  We also strongly urge members to reflect the city’s diversity in other areas as well. 

Tags: pa league of young voters, Pittsburgh City Council, Propel Pittsburgh