election – kimi blog

2020091120200911

18 drop boxes for vote-by-mail ballots will be stationed around Bergen County

HACKENSACK – By order of Gov. Phil Murphy’s, the November general election will be carried out by mail-in ballot only, and each New Jersey county must have secure ballot drop boxes. The Bergen County Board of Elections will have 18 drop boxes located throughout the county and your vote-by-mail ballots can be deposited in them.

The drop boxes will be outside the following locations:

Bergenfield 198 North Washington Ave (Borough Hall in Rear)
Demarest 118 Serpentine Road (Borough Hall)
Englewood 2-10 North Van Brunt Street (City Hall)
Fair Lawn 8-01 Fair Lawn Avenue (behind Borough Hall)
Fort Lee 1355 Inwood Terrace/Anderson Avenue Circular Drive (Fort Lee Community Center)
Hackensack One Bergen County Plaza (County Administration Building)
Hasbrouck Heights 320 Boulevard (behind Borough Hall)
Hillsdale 380 Hillsdale Avenue (Borough Hall parking lot)
North Arlington 214 Ridge Road (Borough Hall)
Oakland One Municipal Plaza (Borough Hall, across from Library)
Old Tappan 227 Old Tappan Road (Borough Hall)
Paramus 1 Jockish Square (Borough Hall, outside main entrance)
Ramsey 30 Wyckoff Avenue (Rear of Library)
Ridgefield 725 Slocum Avenue (Ridgefield Community Center)
Ridgewood 131 North Maple Avenue (Village Hall)
Rutherford 176 Park Avenue (Borough Hall)
Teaneck 818 Teaneck Road (Municipal Building, North Entrance)
Wyckoff 340 Franklin Avenue (Municipal Building)

Drop boxes provide a secure and speedy alternative to sending vote-by-mail ballots through the USPS, which has been experiencing delivery delays. The drop boxes were paid for by the State of New Jersey. read more

20181029

Free or Discounted Rides to Polls on Election Day (Nov. 6th) by Uber & Lyft

By Olivia Rizzo of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

For some people half the battle of voting is getting to the polls, but this year voters can get some relief from a slightly unexpected source: Uber and Lyft.

Both ride share companies are offering free or discounted rides to voters on Nov. 6, and both companies are partnering with voting organizations that encourage people to register and then go out to vote.

According to Pew Research, 3 percent of registered voters who did not vote in 2016 cited “transportation problems” as the main reason they didn’t vote. Additionally, 14 percent of people cited that they were “too busy or conflicting schedule,” and “inconvenient hours or polling places,” which are issues that tend to affect low income communities.

This is why Lyft in particular said it wants to offer free rides to underserved communities.

Uber said in a press release it is partnering with When We All Vote to get people registered and with #VoteTogether and Democracy Works to offer free rides to polling places.

Uber is also sharing voter registration resources with users in the app.

In order to get a free ride to the polls on Elections Day, users will need to open the app, search for their polling place using the “get to the polls” button, and order a ride.

It appears that users will not be able to use the free ride for another location as the polling place search bar is separate from the standard location search bar.

Lyft announced its Election Day initiatives back in August, partnering with Vote.org, Turbo Vote, Nonprofit Vote, and other organizations which will distribute promo codes for 50 percent off rides to polling places. Lyft has also partnered with Vote Latino, the National Federation of the Blind, and Urban League affiliates to provide free rides to underserved communities.

Like Uber, Lyft is also encouraging its users to register to vote through the app, and partnered with When We All Vote and National Voter Registration Day to amplify their get out the vote efforts.

More information about how to get a free or discounted ride to your polling location can be found on Uber and Lyft’s websites.

In New Jersey, the deadline to register to vote was Oct. 16.

Uber’s website is www.uber.com
Lyfts’ website is www.lyft.com

Link to nj.com article

2016100220161002

For healthy and non-GMO foods, vote for House and Senate candidates like Josh Gottheimer

Josh Gottheimer v Garrett in NJ's 5th CD — Source: foodpolicyaction.com

In November, vote for the House and Senate candidates who believe in good, healthy and GMO-free food. Food Policy Action compares the food positions of 12 sets of candidates.

Here’s the scoop on Rep. Scott Garrett vs. Josh Gottheimer – New Jersey’s 5th District Congressional candidates:

Josh Gottheimer supports a strong federal safety net for seniors and food insecure families with children. He also supports fair wages and working conditions for food and farm workers. Incumbent Scott Garrett has voted repeatedly to cut hunger reduction and nutrition programs like SNAP; and he opposed measures that would reduce the misuse of antibiotics in food.

2016060120160609

PoliticalCompass tracks the US presidential candidates & only Bernie Sanders is on The People’s side

Political Compass Screenshot — Source: PoliticalCompass.org

Political Compass tracks the socio-political positions of politicians in democracies and in political races. The above graphic shows where 2016 presidential candidates stand on the left to right scale.

All the GOP candidates are on the far right and are furthermore, committed to Authoritarianism. Hillary stands firmly on the right. Only Bernie Sanders is a progressive candidate with loyalty to the needs of the American public.

The organization describes its mission as:

The enduring appeal of The Political Compass lies in its universality, and the fact that it’s not a fly-by-night election-time survey, but a continually accessible profile of a political personality applicable to all democracies. Although we’d like the time to develop more updates than we can sometimes offer, we remain a tool for comparing the politics of countries and well-known political figures, past and present…

Our essential point is that Left and Right, although far from obsolete, are essentially a measure of economics. As political establishments adopt either enthusiastically or reluctantly the prevailing economic orthodoxy — the neo-liberal strain of capitalism — the Left-Right division between mainstream parties becomes increasingly blurred. Instead, party differences tend to be more about identity issues. In the narrowing debate, our social scale is more crucial than ever. read more

2016032720160327

Clever, informative and interactive election results by The Guardian

Washington state election results — Source: The Guardian election results 2016

The Guardian has created my favorite election results page, which is both cute and informative. It displays up to date information refreshed often and results show all the important information: a map of districts and a bar graph which displays the percent of districts reporting; total number of districts per county and statewide; number and percentage of votes for both districts and state … and what’s more, the whole shebang is interactive! You can see results for any district by mousing over it on the map.

Plus, the winning primary candidate (today that’s Bernie Sanders) moves around and sporadically makes entertaining statements about his campaign positions and accomplishments.

See the pledged delegates each Dem candidate has won by state here.

All graphics screenshot from Guardian Election Results page

20150420

Want to make sure you’re still registered to vote?

Craig Newmark (Craigslist) wants to make sure you can vote and reminds us, “In 2008, 6 million Americans didn’t vote because they missed a registration deadline or didn’t know how to register!

Do you know that if you did not vote in two consecutive federal elections, your name is removed from the voter registration roll? Thousands of voters are not registered and don’t even know it. But learning your voter registration status is this simple: Visit CanIVote.org and select ‘Am I Registered?’

Not registered? No problem. Residents of any state can remedy this problem by visiting registertovote.org or stop by an elected official’s office and fill out a voter registration form. New Jersey residents can also visit their County Clerk‘s Office or Election Board.

All New Jersey residents can now also Vote by Mail (used to be called absentee voting) just by filling out a simple one-page application to receive your ballot through the mail. If you’re busy, homebound or just feel like doing it, fill out a Vote by Mail application to get an early voting ballot mailed to you via USPS at any address you specify. Just fill the ballot out and pop it back into the mail at your convenience. It will count just the same as an in-person vote does.

The deadline for registering to vote in the 2015 New Jersey primary elections is May 12.

Please note:

The voter registration deadline to vote in New Jersey primary elections is May 12, 2015.
Overseas service men and women can get help with voting and registration issues at FVAP.gov
Please note that if you’ve moved, you need to notify the election board of your change of address, which in New Jersey is done on the voter registration form.

2013102720131213

GOTV tools & voting options for NJ Election Tues Nov 5 2013

I have developed some tools to help motivate people to vote in this important election. In this post are Vote Pledge Cards you can download – they are a major component of the toolkit. And this is the GOTV plan in a nutshell (as of 10 days before the election):

The goal for this week is to get people thinking and talking about voting in New Jersey. Talking about putting a governor and other elected officials in office who will help us bring back our cities … about how and where they’re going to cast their vote … and about how WE CAN VOTE OURSELVES A RAISE this election. Voters who are busy or have children to watch, might want to consider which voting option makes most sense for them.
To find out where your vote polling location is, check your voter registration card, Look it up online or call your town/city clerk.
Do you need a ride or can you give one?
Here are the voting options New Jersey voters have:

Voters can mail applications to Vote by Mail until Monday Oct 28. Mailed applications need to be in their County Clerk’s office by Tuesday Oct 29.

Download a Vote by Mail application online for Bergen County, Essex County, Passaic County or anywhere in NJ.

Through Monday Oct 28, voters can mail in Vote by Mail applications. If the application arrives at the County Clerk’s office by Tuesday Oct 29, a BALLOT will be mailed to their home.

Through Tuesday Oct 29, voters can drop Vote by Mail applications off to their County Clerk and get a BALLOT mailed to their home.

Until 3pm on Monday Nov 4 (day before Election Day) voters can obtain Vote by Mail BALLOTS at the County Clerk’s office;

And through Tuesday Nov 5 (Election Day) Vote by Mail BALLOTS obtained in person or through the mail can be handed in at the County Board of Elections office.

Remember, a Vote by Mail BALLOT vote is counted as a regular vote in exactly the same way a vote cast in a polling place voting machine is counted.

Voters can vote at the polls on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov 5.

2012110620131213

2012 fixed voter machines and intimidation

All hell has broken loose in conservative political camps this week. The stronger President Obama’s position has become, the more determined GOP extremists have become to defeat him at all costs – including the sacrifice of a favoured son, and just about all of whatever formerly passed for these people’s morality. God save them. At some Pennsylvania polls, voters were being told they had to have IDs and were turned away if they didn’t

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 12:10 p.m. EST: Report: Pennsylvania voters illegally turned away: Civil rights group the Advancement Project tells The Root that it’s investigating and addressing what seems to be a pattern in Pennsylvania of poll workers turning away voters if they don’t have voter ID, which violates a recent court order stipulating that voters do not need ID for this election. “It’s not surprising, because despite the judge’s ruling, the state continued to run ads telling voters to get ID,” an Advancement Project representative says. read more