"THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS"

In his Editorial New Rule, Bill Maher cautions young voters against characterizing the choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as picking between "the lesser of two evils."

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

CHRISTIE VETOES VOTING BILL

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation Monday that would have added 1.6 million new voters to the state’s rolls and made New Jersey the third state in the country to adopt automatic voter registration.

After sitting on the “Democracy Act” for almost five months, the governor and Republican presidential candidate vetoed his second voting rights-related bill in three years, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Christie has previously said that he does not support making it easier for residents of his state to vote.

“In New Jersey, we have early voting that are available to people,” he said in June. “I don’t want to expand it and increase the opportunities for fraud.”

But Analilia Mejia, the director of New Jersey Working Families, which spearheaded the initiative to have lawmakers introduce the legislation - said earlier this year that the bill would not be “reinventing the wheel.”

“Most of these things have been moved and adopted in other states successfully,” she said. “It’s just mind-bending that a governor of a state would be against every single one of his citizens having full ease and access to participate in the voting process.”

New Jersey currently ranks 39th in the country in both percentage of eligible voters who are registered and percentage of voters who actually case a ballot, according to NJWF. The state does not allow in-person early voting, but requires citizens who want to cast an absentee ballot early to apply for one at an election official’s office. New Jersey also does not permit online voter registration, something that is allowed in 33 other states.

The Democracy Act would have also solved another problem plaguing New Jersey elections — the need to accommodate non-English speakers. Currently materials only have to be printed in Spanish if 10 percent of the county or voting districts speaks it as their primary language, but the bill would require election materials to be made available to voters in multiple languages without other stipulations, according to NJ Advance Media.

NJWF said in June that if Christie vetoes the legislation, the group plans to bring the issue directly to the voters on the next ballot. The move wouldn’t be unique for New Jersey voters — most notably, they previously acted without the governor’s support to raise the minimum wage through a constitutional amendment.

California and Oregon are the only two states that currently have automatic voter registration but iVote, a group led by President Obama’s 2012 voter turnout director, has said it will spend $10 million on a push to make voter registration automatic nationwide.

[cross-posted from thinkprogress]




NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

SUCCESS FOR TRUMP, LATINOS DESPISE HIM

A new poll from NBC News, the Wall Street Journal, and Telemundo found that Donald Trump is very unpopular with Latinos. This is in spite of Trump’s claims that he has significant Latino support. Trump still holds a wide lead with GOP primary voters ahead of the campaign’s first debate Thursday. He remains in the lead at 19 percent, compared with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at 15 percent and Florida Governor Jeb Bush at 14 percent.

Trump faced controversy from day one of his campaign, when he called Mexican immigrants ‘rapists’ in his announcement speech. The poll found that a majority of Latinos found those remarks to be “insulting and racist.”

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

FERGUSON MISSOURI HAS A LARGE INCREASE IN VOTER REGISTRATION

Voter registration jumped 30 percent in Ferguson, Missouri between August 9 — the day unarmed teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Darren Warren — and September 30. As protests and clashes with police continue, the town’s residents want to see more race representation in their local government in the near future.

Approximately 3,300 citizens in the town of 21,000 registered to vote after Brown’s death, totaling two-thirds of new voters in St. Louis County. Currently, 5 of 6 Ferguson council members are white, but roughly 70 percent of the city’s population is black. And Ferguson’s mayor is white Republican James Knowles.

Recent voter registration is due, in large part, to community efforts to boost civic engagement. Organizations like the NAACP and League of Women Voters, in addition to sororities and fraternities, are actively involved in registering the city’s residents. Other community members are handing out registration cards for voters to mail them in.

But some are not pleased with the surge of registered voters. In August, Matt Wills, the executive director of Missouri’s Republican Party, denounced protesters’ voter registration efforts, saying, “If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is. I think it’s not only disgusting but completely inappropriate…Injecting race into this conversation and into this tragedy, not only is not helpful, but it doesn't help a continued conversation of justice and peace.”

Nevertheless, residents are bracing for elections on November 4. The most important race for voters is between Republican State Representative Rick Stream and Democrat County Councilman Steve Stenger, who are both vying for the St. Louis County’s executive position. Elections next April are also on new voters’ minds, with 3 open seats on Ferguson’s city council.

Despite a black majority, black voter turnout in Ferguson was significantly lower than white voter turnout in 2013. Only 6 percent of eligible black voters participated in municipal elections. In contrast, 17 percent of eligible white voters took to the polls. This trend persists in part because Ferguson’s white residents are older, and older voters generally outnumber younger voters come Election Day, according to a Pew Research Center study.

Ferguson’s black residents also tend to rent homes, and voter participation strongly correlates with home ownership. The current political landscape also reflects a national pattern in which white leaders govern cities with black majorities.

But in light of Brown’s death, and a history of racial tension between white and black citizens, election day turnout will likely see a significant demographic shift.

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER