The Hot Sheet

Important City Council update!

ACTION ALERT! Pittsburgh City Council plans to vote TOMORROW on a package of legislation that deals with lobbyist and campaign finance disclosure and no-bid contracts, introduced by Councilman Bill Peduto.

#1 Campaign Finance Reform bill would:

• limit Council campaign contributions to $1,000 for individuals, $2,000 for PAC’s
• limit Mayoral contributions to $2,000 for individuals, $4,000 for PAC’s
• require the creation of a searchable database of all campaign contributions and city contracts.

#2  No-bid contracts bill would eliminate no-bid contracts with the city valued at more than $30,000

#3 Lobbyist Disclosure Act would require all Request-For-Proposal responses to disclose finder’s fee or payments to lobbyists or consultants.

#4 Lobbyist Registration Act would require anyone engaging in more than 30 hours of paid lobbying during a three-month period to register as lobbyists with the city.
The vote is scheduled for TOMORROW, Wednesday April 29th. This would be a major step for Pittsburgh towards good government practices and policies.

Call your city councilperson and ask them to VOTE YES for Councilman Peduto’s proposed good government legislation!

http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/council/

Tags: campaign finance, city council, legislation, pittsburgh, reform, transparency, vote

Informed voters are better.

We got candidates to answer a lot of questions to help people make a better decision at the polls on Election Day.  But now we need to tell people about this information so they know where to look!

Help us pass out our voter guide! Next Saturday, we are going south of the city.  Email Adam Schloss, our Field Coordinator, if you want to help get out the informed vote!

• Saturday, April 25th
  1pm - 4pm
  Meet at the Westfield T stop in Beechview

Email adam@paleague.com

Tags: beechview, canvass, pittsburgh, volunteer, voter guide

Get Early Voting signatures in Sen. Pippy’s District

On Saturday March 21st we will head to Mt. Lebanon to collect our last signatures in support of Early Voting.

Mt. Lebanon is in Sen. John Pippy’s district.  Sen Pippy is a member of the Senate State Government committee, where the early voting bill is currently under review.

We need volunteers to help canvass door-to-door for petition signatures!

Email adam@paleague.com to join us this Saturday, from 11-2 or 3-6pm.

Thanks!

Tags: canvassing, early voting

Last chance for early voting

We’re nearing our deadline to collect Early Voting petition signatures.  We’re about to box ‘em up and ship them off to the state Senate to make sure they know that their constituents want to see greater accessibility and accountability at the polls.

Combining information about the candidates with making voting easier is the recipe for the kind of informed, consistent civic participation that we’ve always hoped for.

*Click here to sign the petition and add your name to the list of supporters!*

Click here to read the proposed legislation, SB 445, introduced by Senator Daylin Leach of Montgomery County.  SB 445 was referred to the State Government committee on Feb. 24th, 2009.

The Senate State Government committee members are as follows:

McIlhinney, Charles T., Jr. , Chair (Bucks & Montgomery Counties)
Folmer, Mike, Vice Chair (Berks, Chester, Dauphin, Lancaster and Lebanon Counties)
Williams, Anthony H. , Minority Chair (Delaware and Philadelphia (part) Counties)
Scarnati, Joseph B., III, ex-officio (Cameron, Clearfield, Elk, Jefferson, Mckean, Potter, Tioga and Warren Counties)

Brubaker, Michael W. (Chester and Lancaster Counties)
Corman, Jake (Centre, Juniata, Mifflin, Perry and Union Counties)
Pippy, John (Allegheny and Washington Counties)
White, Donald C. (Armstrong, Butler, Clearfield, Indiana and Westmoreland Counties)

Dinniman, Andrew E. (Chester and Montgomery Counties)
Tartaglione, Christine M. (Philadelphia County)
Washington, Leanna M. (Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties)

Tags: early voting

League Book Fair at Joseph Beth Saturday!

Come to Joseph Beth Booksellers in the South Side Works this Saturday, March 14 for a book fair and fundraiser. When you present our coupon (which you can find here) at the register, they will donate 20% of your purchase to us! How cool is that?

They’re open between 10 AM and 10 PM, and we’ll be there tabling and giving away baked goods between 12pm and 9pm that day. So come on down after the St. Patrick’s Day parade, buy books, and help empower the youth vote at the same time.

Tags: book fair, fundraiser, joseph beth

Canvass Opportunity: Mexican War Streets, this Thursday

Join us as we canvass the Mexican War Streets, on the North Side, to build support for Early Voting in Pennsylvania!

We will meet at Beleza Community Coffeehouse, at 1501 Buena Vista Street, at 3:30 PM. Let us know that you plan to come help by RSVP’ing on the Facebook event page.

Of course, you should sign the petition yourself, if you haven’t already.

Tags: canvassing, early voting

Early Voting in Pennsylvania

So Pennsylvania might finally join the 31 other states in having the option to cast an early ballot for elections.

Early voting legislation recently introduced by Rep. DePasquale in the state House and parallel legislation in the state Senate by Sen. Leach seeks to make counties offer times for people to cast their ballot on at minimum the weekends and possibly some weekdays starting two weeks before an election.

The legislation would allow those whose work schedules or other commitments or constraints to make sure they can get their ballot cast.  It would also allow get-out-the-vote efforts more time to mobilize voters, and help reduce long lines and machine errors on election day from keeping voters away.

This legislation is partially necessary because the state constitution does not allow absentee ballots to be used for anything other than the specific reasons listed.  (And heck, even Iraq has early voting.)

The PA League of Young Voters is collecting petition signatures to give to the Senate committees indicating the support for this legislation.

Support Early Voting in PA

SIGN THE PETITION ONLINE

Volunteer to help with the petition drive — join our canvassing efforts or request copies of the petition to distribute yourself. Email mac@paleague.com.

Tags: absentee, disenfranchised, early voting, pa league of young voters, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, voters, Voting

Volunteer opportunity to protect our votes

The Pittsburgh City Paper’s Marty Levine reported this week on our work to catalog and explain Phantom Ballots that have been appearing at some Allegheny County polling locations.

Read the story here.

Phantom Ballots occur when more ballots are cast in a precinct than there are voters. We have seen the problem in a number of precincts already, but without checking more results there is no way to know how prevalent the problem is.

That is why we need your help. We will be Downtown at the County Office Building, 542 Forbes Avenue, to investigate this spooky occurrence on the spookiest day of the year, Friday February 13th from noon until three.

Email mac@paleague.com to let us know you are coming. With ten people, we can check half of the votes in Allegheny County and take a big step toward explaining why our votes aren’t being counted properly.

You can see how easy it is to check these ballots in this YouTube Video:

We will see you next Friday!

Tags: phantom ballots, volunteering

Event Update: 1/21/2009

EMPOWER:  CANVASS VOTERS THIS WEEKEND
We’re turning out voters for the city council special election in District 2!  Help us canvass this Saturday and next Saturday, from 10am-2 or from 2-6pm.  Read why special elections are important.  Help get out the vote! 
Sign up here, or email  mac@paleague.com to volunteer for a shift

ENGAGE: “SIGNS OF CHANGE” political activism art exhibit
Opening this Friday at 6pm: Admire the posters, photographs, audio clips, and ephemera of over 40 years of political activism from around the world.  Visit our table there  PA League on Thursday, Jan 27th and Friday Feb 27th from 3pm - 6pm as we register voters and pass out voter rights information at the “Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now” art exhibit at CMU’s Miller Gallery.  Learn more about the exhibit and see some of the art at their website,

LEAD:  GRASSROOTS ORGANIZER INSTITUTE
Save the date:  The PA League is back with its series of grassroots organizer trainings that are free and open to the public.  If you’ve always wanted to do more for your community’s political situation, there are three dates coming up this spring that will give you the skills and insight you need to be a leader for change.

Click above to sign up to receive additional agenda information for any of the trainings above (space is limited to 24 attendees per training)

Tags: art, Carnegie Mellon University, Civic engagement, grassroots organizer, green jobs, pittsburgh, political activism, registration, rights, Upcoming Events, voter, young, Youth

Come join the League all over town!

TURNOUT:  DISTRICT 2 SPECIAL ELECTION

As you may not know, Pittsburgh’s city council District 2 is having a special election in a couple weeks to fill the vacant seat left by now-Representative Dan Deasy.  On February 3rd the special election will decide the district’s representative for the next eleven months, in which time the council will be make decisions about the City’s finances that will have repercussions for years to come.

Unfortunately, special elections are notorious for having a low-profile and even lower turnout, so help us turn out registered voters in Mt. Washington and Duquesne Heights!

We’re canvassing for the next three Saturdays to give people information on the candidates running and remind them to vote Feb. 3rd.  We need at least 4 more volunteers for each of these shifts, so sign up below!  We always pair people up, so feel free to bring a friend and do the canvass together.

Click here for the schedule.

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