Nonprofit Voter Engagement

New Posts

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

  UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Alabama Halts Prison Voter Registration Drive

Sep 26, 2008 by Lateefah Williams*

Alabama Prison Commissioner Richard Allen halted voter registration drives inside state prisons after receiving complaints from Alabama Republican Party officials. According to the Associated Press, Alabama Republican Chairman Mike Hubbard told Commissioner Allen in a September 26 letter that "the party supports the idea of registering more people to vote. But he says that doesn't extend to prisoners." Various groups began registering prisoners inside Alabama state prisons earlier this week, so that the prisoners could cast absentee ballots in the November elections.

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Criminal Prosecutors Will Not Be Stationed at Polls on Election Day

Sep 25, 2008 by Lateefah Williams*

Following complaints from civil rights groups, the Justice Department announced on September 23 that it will not station criminal prosecutors at polls on Election Day. The civil rights groups fear that the presence of criminal prosecutors may intimidate minority voters. According to the Associated Press, "[t]he move reverses a decades-long practice that put prosecutors on the lookout for voter fraud, ballot access violations and other polling problems."

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Voter Intimidation Bill Stalled

Sep 24, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

According to electionline.org the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Act (S. 453) is stalled in the Senate. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said they are working with the Senate on the bill and encouraged advocates to get in touch when they identify cases of deceptive practices and voter intimidation. "Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., said he agreed with the need to combat deceptive practices but expressed his disappointment that the deceptive practices bill has languished in the Senate since October 2007."

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IRS Will Review Complaint Concerning ADF's Pulpit Freedom Sunday

Sep 23, 2008 by Lateefah Williams*

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has agreed to review a complaint by three former top IRS officials that the Alliance Defense Fund's (ADF) "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" violates federal tax law. Pulpit Freedom Sunday is part of an initiative asking churches to defy the IRS's prohibition against partisan politicking by preaching sermons that support or oppose a candidate for political office. ADF distributed information about "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" at the Value Voters Summit 2008, which was held on September, 20.

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Voter Purging Allegations Arise as November Election Nears

As the November elections near, more allegations of voter purging are cropping up. Michigan, a closely watched swing state in the presidential election, has been a hotbed of voter purging issues in recent weeks. Florida, another swing state, also finds itself in the midst of voter purging issues. Nonprofit organizations, individual citizens, and political parties have recently filed lawsuits alleging that voters are being unlawfully removed from the eligible voter pools.

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Veterans Administration Again Reverses Itself to Allow Some Voter Registration Drives

Over the past several months, support has been growing to allow voter registration efforts at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities. In a reverse of policy, the VA will no longer ban voter registration drives for veterans living at federally operated nursing homes, shelters for the homeless, and rehabilitation centers across the country. A week after this change, the House passed the Veterans Voter Support Act to legislatively protect such activity and to ensure that the VA allow voter registration drives by nonpartisan groups. However, the VA told a Senate committee that it opposes the legislation in its current form.

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House Passes VA Voter Registration Bill

Sep 18, 2008 by Lateefah Williams*

A bill passed the House yesterday that will ensure that non-partisan groups and election officials have the right to register voters at VA facilities. H.R. 6625, the Veterans Voting Support Act, passed by oral vote. According to an AlterNet article, "[i]t requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to accommodate non-partisan groups seeking to register veterans living at VA facilities, and also allows top state election officials to designate the VA as a voter registration agency like state motor vehicle departments."

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Congress Advancing Legislation Despite VA Directive To Allow Voter Registrations

Sep 16, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

The Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a hearing on S.3308, the Veterans Voter Support Act. And the Committee on House Administration voted out of committee the companion bill, HR 6625.These events occurred a week after the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) reversed a ban on third party voter registration drives at its facilities. The legislation would allow nonpartisan voting registration on VA property.

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V.A. Changed Policy Again, Will Allow Voter Registration at Facilities

Sep 11, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that it will no longer ban voter registration drives for veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country. The VA did not however decide to designate VA facilities as voter registration agencies. For the fourth time in six months, the VA has changes its policy on allowing voter registration drives at VA facilities. This announcement came the night before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on S.3308, the Veteran Voting Support Act.

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Home Foreclosure May Equal No Vote

Sep 11, 2008 by Lateefah Williams*

In Michigan, there is an effort underway to deny individuals whose homes have been foreclosed on the right to vote. According to the Michigan Messenger, James Carabelli, chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, is "planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP's effort to challenge some voters on Election Day." Carabelli told the Michigan Messenger that, "[w]e will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses."

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Large chemical companies a...

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Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

New scientific research shows that the current levels of...

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