CVF-News

CVF-News is a free, electronic newsletter featuring news and updates about the California Voter Foundation's projects and activities.

Updated Proposition Song video now playing

October 31, 2018

Yesterday the California Voter Foundation debuted our new "Proposition Song" music video covering the 11 propositions on California's ballot.prop song recording session

On one of the propositions, Prop. 11, we had the "yes" and "no" vote meanings backwards - once this was brought to our attention we re-recorded the audio and corrected the text in the video and in the song lyrics to make sure our information is accurate.

Because it is not possible to edit a video once it is published on YouTube or Facebook, we had to take down the videos we posted yesterday and publish new ones at new urls. The links for the video on CVF's site have all been updated, but the prior links to the video shared on YouTube and Facebook no longer play the Proposition Song. 

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New "Proposition Song” Music Video Released!

October 30, 2018

Today a new “Proposition Song” music video was released by the California Voter Foundation (CVF), designed to give voters an informative, impartial and entertaining overview of all 11 measures on California’s ballot in just five minutes. 

The song and video can be accessed at www.calvoter.org or on YouTube at https://youtu.be/PuWd4FVuM5Q. It was recorded live on October 25 at Two Rivers Cider in Sacramento. 

“Every election needs a song,” said Kim Alexander, CVF’s president and founder, who wrote, performed and produced the new Proposition Song, set to a traditional blues melody, with the help of numerous friends. This is the 7th Proposition Song produced by the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, which is dedicated to improving the voting process to better serve voters.

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Announcing the launch of CVF's new web site featuring updated voter resources

Visit www.calvoter.org to find reliable election information online

October 16, 2018

Hi Folks,

We are very pleased to debut our newly redesigned web site!

Please visit www.calvoter.org and have a look - we are excited to debut our new logo as part of the site redesign as well.

CVF has been serving voters online continuously at www.calvoter.org since 1996. As you might imagine, organizing 22 years' worth of content, projects, studies and newsletters took quite a bit of work. We managed to do this by creating new menus to navigate our content by topic and also by creating and linking to archived content in a new "CVF Archive" web site. 

The new site also featured CVF's newly adopted Program Goals, focused on treating voters equally, promoting funding for elections and advancing voting security. 

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How you can help Sacramento County find a new Registrar of Voters

August 8, 2018

Do you or someone you know have what it takes to lead a county's election program? Sacramento County is seeking to hire a new Registrar of Voters. The county has been advertising this position for several months and produced a detailed promotional brochure to help potential candidates become familiar with the position, requirements, salary and benefits.

Visit http://www.personnel.saccounty.net/Documents/RegistrarOfVoters-RecruitmentBrochure.pdf for more details.

This is an exciting time for Sacramento County as it is one of five counties piloting the Voters Choice Act this election year, a new voting model for California. The county is accepting applications until August 31. 2018.

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Helping Californians Get Ready to Cast Ballots

May 31, 2018

Finding Voting Information Online

Voters need access to trustworthy information to make informed decisions. Luckily, California voters can turn to a wealth of voting information online. CVF's nonpartisan voter guide helps voters quickly locate the best resources for following the money and learning about the candidates and measures on the ballot.

Visit CVF's Online Voter Guide 

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Voting Alert: Your local polling place may no longer exist

Five California counties - Napa, Nevada, Madera, San Mateo and Sacramento - are experimenting this election with a new voting model.

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Sacramento County moving ahead with Voter's Choice Act implementation

County announces it will notify voters with problem signatures on mail ballot envelopes and give them an opportunity to submit a valid signature

April 5, 2018

The Voter's Choice Act is a new California election law that counties can implement if they choose to do so. Five counties - Madera, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento and San Mateo - are piloting this new approach to voting starting with the upcoming June 2018 statewide primary.

Participating counties will mail every registered voter a vote-by-mail ballot and provide secure ballot drop-off locations and vote centers where voters can return their ballots in person, or they can return voted ballots by mail. 

All vote centers are available to all voters county-wide and will open for business ten days prior to Election Day. They replace traditional polling places and will offer additional services to voters such as the ability to register to vote, get a replacement ballot, receive language assistance or vote using an accessible device. 

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Governor Jerry Brown proposes spending $134.3 million on new voting systems

2018-19 state budget proposal includes major funding to improve California election security

January 11, 2018

In a major departure from his previous budgets, California Governor Jerry Brown's new state budget includes $134.3 million to fund new voting equipment. 

"This is a welcome development and will help build California voters' confidence in the integrity and security of our voting systems," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which has consistently supported increased state funding to help pay for California's election costs since 2013. 

Since taking office in 2011, Governor Brown has repeatedly suspended funding for mandated election programs in state budgets. While that policy is likely to continue, the addition of $134.3 million to the budget to help pay up to 50 percent of counties' costs to acquire updated voting equipment respresents a signficant influx of election-related funding to counties. 

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Legislative Update: CVF Urges Governor Brown to Veto AB 840

Bill would weaken California's election verification law if enacted

October 10, 2017

In the final weeks of this year's legislative session, last-minute amendments were made to Assembly Bill 840, authored by Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) which would weaken California's post-election verification law.

Known as the manual tally, this 52-year old law is designed to give voters the ability to verify the accuracy of automated vote counts. Counties are required to select one percent of their precincts at random and recount the ballots in those precincts in public, by hand, and verify that the hand-counted totals match the software-counted totals.

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Sacramento County is making plans to implement the Voters Choice Act

Public meetings scheduled for Aug. 16 & 17

August 15, 2017

This past June, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted to implement the Voter's Choice Act, giving Sacramento County Registrar of Voters Jill LaVine and her staff the green light to move forward on a new plan for voting county-wide.

The Voters Choice Act, or VCA, was enacted in 2016 as Senate Bill 450. This new law allows counties to replace neighborhood polling places with a new voting process where every registered voter is sent a vote-by-mail ballot and provided with county-wide drop boxes and vote centers prior to and on Election Day. 

Voters will be allowed to vote at any vote center within the county and receive other voting services at vote centers such as obtain replacement ballots, register to vote, cast regular ballots, use accessible voting devices, obtain language assistance, or receive any needed assistance.

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CVF supports postage-paid mail ballot envelopes, March Presidential Primary 

California election bills to watch 

April 20, 2017

The 2017-18 California legislative session is well underway, and the California Voter Foundation is supporting several bills this year:

  • AB 216: Authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), this bill would require counties to provide postage-paid envelopes to vote-by-mail voters. The bill passed out of the Assembly Elections Committee last month, and CVF president Kim Alexander testified in support. 

As stated in CVF's support letter, this bill is needed to reduce voter confusion about postage costs and to ensure younger voters less familiar with the postal service are not disadvantaged when voting by mail, especially given the likely increase in mail balloting with the implementation of the Voter's Choice Act beginning in several counties next year.

  • SB 568 and AB 84: SB 568 is authored by Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and is sponsored by Secretary of State Alex Padilla. The bill, which if enacted would move California's presidential primary to the third Tuesday in March, passed out of the Senate Elections Committee this week on a bipartisan, unanimous vote. To avoid the risk of other states leapfrogging their primaries ahead of California's, the bill also includes a provision that would allow the governor to set the primary date before the third Tuesday in March at least 240 days prior to that date. 

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