ValorUS’ Post

SPRING BREAK HOMEWORK: Register to vote! Your right to vote is not a freedom to squander.   President Shushok has signed the #PresidentsCommitment with @allintovote to encourage nonpartisan student voter engagement this presidential election year. Visit allintovote.org to find out how to register and vote in your state or territory, take the Pledge to Vote, and put Roanoke in the running for Most Engaged Campus.   If your primary residence is in one of the following places, you can also vote in a SUPER TUESDAY presidential primary or caucus on March 5: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and American Samoa.   Learn more at allintovote.org. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!

It's Election Month in California. I've loved being part of the team iterating on our flagship election service, Voter Game Plan, every election since I got to LAist , and this one is no exception! We re-upped our popular race-specific guides that go all the way down ballot and explain not just who the candidates are but what the offices they're running for actually are. But we've done a lot of work this election to support the type of voter who isn't going to spend hours researching their ballot, and might not care about voting in every race. In service of that, you'll notice that we've made the guides much more skimmable, with district "fast facts" and bulleted takes on the candidate's platform highlights. Brianna Lee also experimented with two new types of guides: 1. A series of issue-based guides that cater to a voter that knows what issues they care about and offers that as a jumping off point for making sense of everything they see on their ballot. We also turned these into a zine that will be distributed at public libraries and on community college campuses. 2. A guide that highlights the 4 races that most affect people's daily lives to help people prioritize their research if they know they don't have the time – or don't care enough – to research every race. (Links to both in the comments) Plus, the digital guide is just so much more dynamic than in the past, thanks to Erin Hauer's great work. I love how the redesigned landing page allows people to thumb through the FAQs and lets us have a little more fun with the language we use to describe everything that is on offer. Check it out at laist.com/vote.

Are you a college or graduate school student? Know someone who is? Take 30 seconds to find out the relative value of their vote in their home state or their school state. College students can register in either state. And here is what they say about why it is worth being strategic about the choice: "Your vote counts more in a swing state because it can swing the election. Swing states are states where the election is close and a small number of votes can change the outcome. For example, in 2020, Biden won the state of Georgia by a razor-thin margin of just 11,779 votes — and there are more than 300,000 college students in Georgia!" #collegestudents #classof2025 #classof2026 #classof2027 #classof2028 #2024elections #democratsdeliver https://countmore.us/

Early voting has begun for the Michigan State Primary Election, which will take place on August 6, 2024 - not to be confused with the Presidential Primary Election that took place in February 2024. Why is the primary important? Because many local races are decided in the primaries. During the upcoming August primary election, voters can select candidates for various offices, such as the U.S. Senate and local city council positions. Additionally, voters can weigh in on local ballot initiatives and millage proposals throughout Michigan. (The presidential primary in February involved the selection of Democratic and Republican candidates for the presidential election.)
 Visit the link for more information about early voting, how to register to vote, absentee voting, finding your clerk's office, locating ballot drop boxes and polling places, checking your voter registration status, seeing what is on the ballot, understanding the voting process, and voting with an accessible machine. More info here: https://loom.ly/hXZ-WpM #Election2024 #Michigan #CreativeWashtenaw

Today I went to vote. The staff at the polling station were lovely, but had never used the tactile voting guide before. If you're blind, you get a guide with braille numbers down the side. The staff read you the candidate list, and then you lift the flap of the one you want and put your cross in the box. After I’d voted, they mentioned that they’d stuck the guide on the paper so the flap only covered part of the box, meaning I wouldn't have to lift it. But I already had, so I was left with no idea whether I’d voted how I wanted to. I feel bad for the polling station volunteer, because I think I pulled an annoyed face. It's not their fault. But a lack of training has consequences for blind voters like myself. We need truly accessible options so blind people can vote in secret and not have to wonder whether volunteers are receiving the correct training with devices they will rarely use. It sounds so silly, but I almost felt like crying when I left. I’m just one voter. If my vote didn’t get recorded correctly, it likely won’t change the outcome for the area I live in. But it's not the point. How many of us is this happening to? I feel that it's really important to go out and vote so that your voice does get heard. In this situation, as in so many others, I felt powerless because of a system that was not designed to consider people like myself. This is why #AccessibilityMatters. Inaccessible systems and processes take away our power, our autonomy, our ability to participate in one of the most important democratic processes.

HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY KNOWS … THE U.S. IS ON THE BRINK OF DISASTER IN 2024. As the only college or university in America to ever host three consecutive nationally and globally televised "live" U.S. Presidential debates on campus (2008, 2012, and 2016), of course Hofstra University is an early-voting location for our forthcoming New York Primary on April 2nd, 2024. People have come to expect this kind of grass-roots involvement from Hofstra University and that's what America invariably gets. Because we at and from Hofstra know from experience that the inevitable face-off of Trump vs. Biden in 2024 is truly unique in U.S. history (for so many unprecedented reasons) and the stakes couldn't be higher, i.e., democracy vs. aristocracy. Moving forward or going backward is the question. More Hofstra 2024 news to follow in the remaining months ahead. 😎

In 2011 Christopher Bryan at Stanford University tried to get Californians to vote. In particular, he reached out to folks who were eligible to vote in the 2008 election but had not yet registered. Participants were asked to complete surveys about their plans for polling day. There were two surveys: 1️⃣ = short series of questions referring to voting using a noun. E.g. "How important is it to you to be a voter?" 2️⃣ = questions referring voting using a verb. E.g. "How important is it to you to vote?" Here's what happened 👇 Follow my (free) newsletter for more tips like this: https://buff.ly/3sVQYLY

Hey – I’m Byron Donalds.  The Republican National Committee named me the Co-Chairman of their most important initiative for the next election.  I have a plan for a CONSERVATIVE LANDSLIDE in 2024 – here’s the gist: If the Democrats vote early, we should push early voting too If they can ballot harvest, we should ballot harvest even better Invest in an 80,000-person team to ensure your vote is protected Mobilize GOP voters through neighbor-to-neighbor contact Expand voter contact efforts to connect with young Conservatives Fight BAD ballot harvesting laws – let’s make it easy to vote but hard to cheat I am proud to lead these efforts and help Conservatives WIN BIG up and down the ballot. These efforts will not only allow us to confront bad actors and stop cheating but will help our Party appeal to younger voters and swing-state independents. There’s just one problem: campaign operations like these are EXPENSIVE. It’s not cheap running ads, printing flyers, recruiting volunteers, and expanding voter contact efforts.

Before you head to the polls, it's important to make sure you're prepared. Below, we've assembled a guide for Missouri residents to getting registered to vote, finding what's on your ballot, locating your polling place, and more.

Election Day is 85 days away. Just as I have done for the past four presidential elections, this Fall I will canvass neighborhoods, help register voters, and put up political yard signs. I have canvassed with a friend and done it alone. I’ve also made phone calls on behalf of candidates, but I find it less effective and don’t care for that as much as meeting people in person. Some candidates in North Carolina, for offices from Governor to Attorney General and U.S. House of Representatives to Superintendent of Public Instruction, have radical views on important issues that will impact all of us. It’s important to become informed on these issues and familiar with candidates’ positions. The voter registration deadline in North Carolina is at 5:00 PM on October 11th. The easiest thing any of us can do is put up yard signs to let our neighbors know who we support. Studies show that they do have an impact in close races. Per NC law, signs are permitted beginning on the 30th day before the beginning date of "one-stop" early voting and ending the 10th day after Election Day. (In-person early voting starts on October 17th and ends at 3:00 PM on November 2nd.) No campaign sign should exceed six square feet in area or 42" in height. It is a Class 3 Misdemeanor for a person to steal, deface, vandalize, or unlawfully remove a political sign that is lawfully placed. Do your homework, decide who you want representing your interests in Raleigh and Washington D.C., and take the time to vote. Better yet, work on behalf of those candidates to organize, strategize, and mobilize. Democracy is not a spectator sport. #becomeinformed #vote #democracy