Author: catalyzingimpact

Our movement to increase student voting and improve political equity is about to get bigger and stronger! To meet the unprecedented challenges our democracy is currently facing, The Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF) is expanding our Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere Network to help activate and mobilize more young citizens to vote and participate in making decisions that will affect their futures.

For the past five years, our signature Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere program has proved effective at empowering student leaders to engage their peers in participatory democracy by removing voting barriers and advocating with faculty and administrators to institutionalize voter engagement. Since 2014, Andrew Goodman Campuses have increased their voter registration rates by as much as 25%, voter turnout rates among registered students by 38%, and voter turnout rates by as much as 23%.

To build on this success, AGF is launching new levels of engagement in 2020. The three levels—Member, Partner, and Leader—will receive varying degrees of ongoing advising and financial support, access to AGF’s online student voting portal my.VoteEverywhere, training, swag, and other civic and voter engagement resources. These new pathways of engagement will enable increased peer-to-peer learning and collective action in our national network, which we know is at the heart of real change.

We will soon begin recruiting new institutions as Members in 10 states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. As we focus on Minority Serving Institutions, Community Colleges, and institutions in Southern, competitive, or historically disenfranchised states, we will expand the Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere Network to 140 campuses and double our potential reach to 2.5 million students in time for the 2020 Presidential Election.

We are also proud to announce that we have selected five Andrew Goodman Campus Teams as Leaders, which will allow them to organize themselves with less support from AGF and to function as thought leaders and mentors who strengthen our Network. We expect to add Leaders as more of our Partners can demonstrate a long-term commitment to student political engagement, embrace AGF’s promising practices, and become more independent. We congratulate our first Leaders: 

• Binghamton University
• Bowling Green State University
• Stony Brook University
• University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
• Western Carolina University

This new expansion strategy will allow us to build on our successes and help to realize the promise that the youth vote holds for strengthening our democracy—in 2020 and beyond!

Onwards and upwards,
Karena Cronin
Program Director, The Andrew Goodman Foundation 

Today, The Andrew Goodman Foundation filed an amended complaint and a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the state of Wisconsin from enforcing the most stringent student voter identification law in the country ahead of the 2020 general election. 

Wisconsin joined the nation in ratifying the 26th Amendment in 1971, making it unconstitutional to deny or limit the right to vote on account of age for those eighteen and older. Unfortunately, that’s precisely what happened when the state passed the voter ID law in 2011, imposing the strictest limitations on the use of student ID for voting in the country.

Prior to the passage of this law in 2011, Wisconsin boasted one of the highest turnout rates for young people in the country. However, the last 2 election cycles have seen the state’s rank in student voter turnout plummet. Data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement by the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University shows that in 2016, the first year the strict student voter ID law was in place, the state saw the second-largest decline in student voter turnout in the country. While nationwide student voter turnout rose to record levels in that election, some areas of Wisconsin reported declines in student voting of more than 11%. Similarly, on-campus student turnout in Wisconsin lagged 6.5 percentage points behind national trends in 2018.

This motion for a preliminary injunction is part of ongoing legal action taken by The Andrew Goodman Foundation against Wisconsin’s student voter ID restrictions. The Foundation filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on November 19, 2019, which seeks a declaration that the restrictions on the use of student IDs for voting are unconstitutional and seeks to enjoin the law.

A student ID is only accepted in Wisconsin if it contains the issuance date, an expiration date no more than two years after the issuance date, and the voter’s signature. Additionally, student voters who wish to use a student ID to vote must also prove current enrollment at the college or university issuing the ID. With no other forms of permissible voter ID subject to the same onerous requirements and no reports of student voter fraud, the goal of this law is clear—to make it more difficult for students to vote.

The Andrew Goodman Foundation’s mission is to make young people’s voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. A vital part of our work is ensuring that students’ access to the ballot is free of discrimination. That’s why we remain committed to stopping this law from repeating recent history in 2020 and suppressing the youth vote in Wisconsin.

You can read the amended complaint here and the motion for a preliminary injunction here.In solidarity,

Yael Bromberg
Chief Counsel for Voting Rights, The Andrew Goodman Foundation

Check out this article by Jimmy Tobias, a writer for the Nation. Tobias writes about a group of activists in Lancaster, Pennsylvania who created a grassroots group called, Lancaster Stands Up to shake up the political establishment in their city. If you are interested in reading more, click here. If you are interested in getting involved in this organization consider donating to our fundraising campaign for them or check out other opportunities on the Lancaster Stands Up website.

https://www.lwv-fairfax.org/facts-for-voters/

Virginia Board of Elections
https://www.elections.virginia.gov/voter-outreach/upcoming-elections.html

1/16/18 Smyth County
Member, Town Council – Chilhowie
(Special for vacated seat, regular term expire date 6/30/2020.)
Deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration, is Tuesday, January 2, 2018.

Deadline to request an absentee ballot to be mailed to you is Tuesday, January 9, 2018. Your request must be received by your Registrar by 5:00 p.m.

2/6/18 Loudoun County
Member, Town Council – Leesburg
(Special for vacated seat, regular term expire date 12/31/2020.)
Deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration, is Tuesday, January 23, 2018.

Deadline to request an absentee ballot to be mailed to you is Tuesday, January 30, 2018. Your request must be received by your Registrar by 5:00 p.m.

5/1/18 May General
Deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration, is Monday, April 9, 2018.

Deadline to request an absentee ballot to be mailed to you is Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Your request must be received by your Registrar by 5:00 p.m.

11/6/18 General Election and Special Elections
Deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration, is Monday, October 15, 2018.

Deadline to request an absentee ballot to be mailed to you is Tuesday, October 30, 2018. Your request must be received by your Registrar by 5:00 p.m.