Support Voters by Giving to CVF for Big Day of Giving!

May 2, 2023

Hi Folks,

This week we are celebrating Big Day of Giving along with hundreds of other nonprofits in the Sacramento region! We hope you will join in by donating to the California Voter Foundation and supporting our work improving the voting process to better serve voters through Big Day of Giving, via PayPal or by check. 

Here’s a quick look at CVF’s current programs:

  • Supporting and Defending Election Officials and Election Administration

Election officials in California and across the country are facing an increasingly hostile and threatening public. CVF exposed this crisis in its landmark 2021 report, Documenting and Addressing Harassment of Election Officials and facilitates a nationwide network of leaders across several sectors that meet monthly to defend and build a community of support for election officials and election administration.

  • Ensuring voting systems are accessible, secure and accurate in Shasta and other California counties

CVF is working with several other California-based nonprofit, nonpartisan voter advocacy groups to ensure voters in Shasta County and elsewhere continue to benefit from accessible, secure and accurate voting systems as that county and potentially others reconsider their voting system vendors and ballot counting plans based on false information about current systems and vendors. CVF and its allies have sent two letters to Shasta supervisors and testified at public meetings to communicate the legal responsibility to provide accessible voting systems and the potential dangers of attempting to accurately and securely hand count tens of thousands of California ballots in future elections. 

  • Protecting California election workers through privacy protections

CVF co-sponsored legislation (SB 1131) with the Brennan Center for Justice to strengthen California laws to protect California election workers’ security and safety by allowing them to enroll in address confidentiality programs. The bill was signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 26, 2022 and included an urgency clause, so the protections went into effect immediately and before the November 2022 election.

  • Promoting "Peace at the Polls" to prepare for potential conflict at the polls

CVF is helping keep voters safe by ensuring election officials and law enforcement officers have open lines of communication. In 2022, CVF hosted “Peace at the Polls CA”, an online briefing to help local and state election officials, law enforcement officers, and nonprofit election observers prepare for potential conflict in and around voting sites and election offices. The event provided de-escalation tips to help prepare to effectively handle potential confrontations and aggressive poll monitoring. Over 100 local elections office staff and law enforcement officers from 29 counties attended this briefing. A list of the resources shared with attendees is available on CVF's Peace at the Polls CA Resources web page, as well as a video recording of the event.

  • Addressing long vote counts 

Mis- and disinformation flourishes in a vacuum. California's long vote counts contribute to confusion and distrust about the election process. For the November 2022 election, CVF produced research using historic live election returns data from the California Secretary of State's web site to show how vote counting takes longer with expanded use of vote-by-mail balloting, and undertook a project to help the public monitor close contests through CVF's Close CA Contests Tracking Sheet. CVF is also working on legislation (AB 626/Pellerin) that, if enacted, will allow California voters to return their voted mail ballots at voting sites instead of placing them in envelopes to be signature-verified and processed later. 

Please support CVF with your tax-deductible donation and be part of our work keeping democracy safe and secure for everyone!

-- Kim Alexander, CVF President & Founder, and CVF's Board of Directors: Cathy Darling Allen, Tommy Gong, Jack Lerner, Steve Levine, Susan Roth, Mindy Romero and Pam Smith 

 

 

 

 

 

About the California Voter Foundation

The California Voter Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working through research, oversight, outreach and demonstration projects to improve the election process so that it better serves the needs and interests of voters. CVF-News is a free, electronic newsletter featuring news and updates about the California Voter Foundation's projects and activities.

Support CVF's work with a tax-deductible contribution!