Articles by CA Fwd

Last weekend’s brief shutdown of our federal government pointed to the hyper-partisanship and paralysis that plagues our federal government. “Why,” wonder many people, “can’t these people just stop arguing and start doing the people’s work?” Ironically, just this week the National Association of Non-Partisan Reformers (NANR) announced its launch. It’s a group of individuals and election reform organizations dedicated to increasing electoral competition and voter choice. CA Fwd, which has work...

This was just one of the compelling statistics discussed on Wednesday, February 1 at the very first forum hosted by the newly-founded California Latino Economic Institute (CLEI), which is a collaboration between the California Legislative Latino Caucus and the California Business Roundtable. The event kicked off in Sacramento’s historic Sutter Club and featured an impressive program including Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra, former Speaker John Perez, former Mayor...

A new era of voting in California is fast approaching. Why, you might ask, in a world where information and services are accessible at the tips of our fingers almost any time of day, is voting so ”old fashioned”? As comedian Chris Rock famously observed, “They don’t want you to vote. If they did, we wouldn’t vote on a Tuesday. In November. You ever throw a party on a Tuesday? No. Because nobody would come.” There's even an election reform organization called Why Tuesday? which is dedicated to ...

California’s glorious history is fueled by our tradition of “direct democracy,” most notably our initiative and referendum process which allows people to shape state policy via the ballot. That passion was historically accompanied by a similar interest and participation in the workings of our local governments. But this great California tradition of public engagement is at risk. Voter turnout at the November 2014 general election hit a record low and Californians are decreasingly engaged in the...

The governor recently signed a collection of election reform laws in California, including the “New Motor Voter” Act which automates voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles, and a measure that makes rejecting ballots for technical errors more difficult. With a significant amount of focus aimed at breaking down the barriers associated with the voter experience, many are wondering about the next step in the process -- getting people to the polls. Why don’t more Californians v...

Californians, including the estimated 6.6 million eligible Californians who aren’t registered, will soon have fewer excuses for not registering to vote. Governor Brown signed a landmark measure into law over the weekend that will allow eligible Californians to be automatically registered to vote when they go to the Department of Motor Vehicles office to obtain or renew a driver’s license. "In a free society, the right to vote is fundamental," California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who had...

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIF. -- In this age of smartphones, touch-screens and the Internet, Los Angeles County’s 50-year-old voting system of punch cards and user guides ranks closer to the era of chalk marks and blackboards. Now, the most populous county in the U.S. is less than one year away from completing the design stage of an overhaul that could mark the beginning of a new way of voting in California and beyond. Dean Logan, the registrar-recorder for Los Angeles, where five million voters c...

CALIFORNIA -- It is hard to believe that the first state in the country's history to have two women serving as U.S. senators at the same time might have a problem attracting women to run for public office, but that's the situation in California. Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer were the first women ever to be U.S. senators from the same state at the same time. New Hampshire and Washington now can also make that claim. A recent study of local government in California showed there's been an inc...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZkICn8qfDE California's work to modernize its elections has been gaining some national attention lately. And last month, elected officials, election experts, and interested Californians gathered in Sacramento to look back at how the state's nonpartisan, or "Top Two" primary election reform is doing. We asked people there about the effects of Top Two, which allows voters to vote for any candidate on the primary ballot regardless of party, with the top two vote-g...