The Hot Sheet

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

Reasons to Vote

At the Allegheny County Jail today, we registered inmates and asked them why it was important to them that they voted in the next election. Here are a few of their answers!

I am voting because:

“I want to see change” — George

“I am voting, more people need to” — Richard

“because I want my vote to count” — Thomas

“It’s a right and I [would] like McCain to win!” — Floyd

“the economy is not what it was and it needs to improve.” — Jabbail

“I want change for the people and my children!” - David

“many people died for me to have the right to vote (I am African American)” — Vaughn

“cause I’m tired of the bulls**t!” — Clinton

“WE NEED CHANGE!” — Douglas

Opinions expressed belong solely to the individuals and are not necessarily those of the PA League.

Tags: election, inmates, jail, reasons to vote, rights, vote

Fighting (in court) for the constitutional right to educate voters!

We’re still locked in a court battled with the Port Authority over their refusal to let us advertise ex-offender voting rights on buses. But the ACLU has our back, and we’re waiting for our jury trial to be scheduled to see if they think the Port Authority acted constitutionally by rejecting the ad.

Here’s a summary, taken from Judge McVerry’s opinion against partial summary judgment in our favor:

“Plaintiffs, Pittsburgh League of Young Voters Education Fund (“Fund”) and American Civil Liberties Foundation of Pennsylvania (“ACLU”), brought this lawsuit on December 8, 2006 by filing an amended complaint pursuant to 42 U.S. C. § 1983 alleging that defendants violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution by refusing to accept and display their proposed ex-offender voter-education advertisements.

Plaintiffs have filed the instant motion for partial summary judgment in which they contend that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the issue of the defendants’ liability because 1) Port Authority designated its bus-advertising space as a public forum, 2) Port Authority acted unreasonably and committed viewpoint discrimination by refusing to run their advertisements despite having run similar advertisements in the past, and 3) Port Authority’s advertising policy is unconstitutionally vague.”

(Read the rest if you’d like…)

Tags: ACLU, advertising, allegheny county, American Civil Liberties Union, constitution, constitutional, court opinion, ex-offender, pa league of young voters, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, Port Authority, rights, United States Constitution, Voting