Ranked Choice Voting Debuts in 2020 Basalt Mayoral Election

Kathleen Shannon

December 22, 2020 |

KDNK Community Radio |

Podcast |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Basalt, Colorado

Ranked choice voting (RCV) lets voters select multiple candidates in order of preference. If no one gets a majority, there is a second round where the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated and the second choice on those ballots is counted. The process repeats until one candidate gets a majority. More elections use RCV, including Basalt ’s 2020 mayoral race where another RCV-experienced city shared public information materials and election judge training. RCV requires close attention to all ballots and campaigns are more civil because of the incentive to be a voter’s second choice.

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5 Years Later, Santa Barbarans Reflect on Goals, Outcomes of Switch to District Elections

Joshua Molina

December 16, 2020 |

Noozhawk |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Santa Barbara, California

In 2014, activists enlisted the help of attorneys and filed a lawsuit against the city of Santa Barbara for violating the California Voting Rights Act by diluting Latino votes. To avoid a costly legal battle, the city agreed to switch to district-based elections where local officials are selected by the actual neighborhoods they will represent rather than the city at-large. These elections ensure neighborhoods will be represented by officials that have intimate knowledge of the area’s needs and have led to dramatic increases in the diversity of elected officials in terms of ethnicity, age and gender.

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There is no Gen Z ‘enthusiasm' gap

Iliana Hagenah

December 10, 2020 |

Scalawag |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Mississippi

Civic engagement groups creatively encouraged young Black voters to vote. Mississippi Votes ran fellowships where local representatives educated young people on the political landscape of their state and used "geofencing," to share sample ballot links and precinct information on social media when users’ smartphones were within specific geographic locations. Engage Miami reached young people with "Get Out And Vote" TikTok videos, and partnering with social media influencers. In addition to registering thousands of new voters, both groups lent resources to youth voices in Black Lives Matters protests.

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Biden victory in hand, Black church get-out-the-vote workers assess the future

Adelle M. Banks

November 25, 2020 |

Religion News Service |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Georgia

Faith leaders from communities of color mobilized voters to support candidates and policies that empower Black and Brown people. Events such as “Souls to the Polls” and the coalition-run Black Church 75 initiative, registered new voters and urged them to the polls around issues such as police brutality and racial injustices. Support from Black church members is credited with helping elect Democratic candidates, including Democratic senators in Georgia, as well as passing ballot initiatives, such as Measure J in Los Angeles that would decrease police funding in favor of mental health and housing resources.

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Native American votes helped secure Biden's win in Arizona

Felicia Fonseca Angeliki Kastanis

November 19, 2020 |

Associated Press |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Navajo Nation, United States, Arizona

Organizations across the political spectrum increased voter turnout on Arizona’s Native American reservations. The Biden campaign targeted outreach to specific groups, such as Native women and veterans, and held Covid-safe election-related events, such as a parade to the polls. The Trump campaign ran advertising on reservations and featured well-known Arizona Native American Republicans at political rallies. Turnout increased anywhere from 12-14% on the larger Navajo and Hopi reservations (over 17,000 votes) to over 50% on smaller reservations. These increases helped Biden win Arizona by about 10,500 votes.

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How faith leaders organized to win two major environmental victories in Louisiana

Sara Sneath Carly Berlin

November 13, 2020 |

Southerly |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Religious leaders in Louisiana successfully mobilized their communities to vote against a state amendment that would give manufacturers a tax break at the expense of local governments. The interfaith network of 250 religious organizations took on the role of educating their congregations and neighborhoods. Plans for a large plastics manufacturing plant have also been delayed due to the efforts of religious groups.

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Youth advocacy groups kept voters safe and informed on Election Day

Lauren Hernandez

November 13, 2020 |

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Arizona

Civic participation by youth advocacy groups registered tens of thousands of young voters and educated many more on election-related issues, including local and state ballot initiatives. Events held on zoom provided registration information and helped students connect with their peers, where they made pledges and plans to vote. Arizona PIRG Students New Voters Project educated 10,000 students this way, while CALPIRG Students' 500 volunteers registered 10,000 students, provided voter information to over 150,000 students, and made over 90,000 peer to peer Get Out the Vote contacts.

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In Brazil, Women Candidates Find Strength in Numbers

Isabela Dias

November 12, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Brazil

Collective, or shared, candidacies, where groups of candidates to run for a single elected position in Brazil, has helped elevate women and other marginalized groups with progressive platforms to rise to power. From 2016 and 2018, 22 of the 98 groups that ran were elected. In 2020, 41% of the joint candidacies were led by women. A national bill to formalize collective candidacies has stalled since 2017, so one member of the group is formally elected, and is the one to cast votes and give formal speeches, while the others are hired as advisers but still are empowered to write and propose bills.

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Twitter Keeps Some Measures It Says Slowed Election Misinformation

Shannon Bond

November 12, 2020 |

KALW |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States

To reduce the spread of disinformation, Twitter labeled about 300,000 tweets with warnings that they contained "disputed and potentially misleading" information about the election between October 27 and November 11. The tweets were from removed from recommendation algorithms, extra steps were needed to reply to or share a tweet, and almost 500 had an additional warning that users had to click past to read. Twitter says it saw a 29% reduction in quoting the tweets that had the warnings and, while several election related changes will end, users will still have to quote tweets rather than simply retweeting.

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City Limits made a voter guide for judicial elections — and readers loved it

Ben DeJarnette

November 12, 2020 |

Nieman Lab |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

City Limits, a nonprofit newsroom in New York City that specializes in longer-form journalism, created a judicial election voter guide that received nearly 81,000 page views, more than six times that of the site’s other top-performing posts. The company also partnered with Gotham Gazette and WNYC to create an interactive voter guide that gives users a breakdown of election races in their area. The collaboration filled an information void for readers, expanded City Limits’ reach, and allowed it to benefit from the resources of the larger organizations, such as a tech team to build a custom embeddable widget.

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