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Thursday, June 28, 2012 | ||
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Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture
President Barack Obama delivers remarks regarding the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the “Patient Protection and 
What cartoons can do for your country … Union of Concerned Scientists
Reminder: 2012 UCS Science and Democracy Editorial Cartoon Contest Deadline is Sunday, July 1
Want to start celebrating America‘s birthday early?
If so, be sure that you’ve submitted your entries for the 2012 UCS Science and Democracy Editorial Cartoon Contest before the Sunday, July 1, deadline passes by and it’s too late!
Your creative insights can help ensure that science continues to support our democracy for another 236 years.
Not convinced yet? Check out the top ten reasons that you or your friends should try your hand at becoming one of our 12 finalists (such as having U.S. senators not only see your work, but tweet it).
If you haven’t entered yet, you can get all the information you need on our contest web page, including details about submitting your cartoons, guidance on relevant topic areas, and a selection of some of the best entries from our previous contests.
And if you are not the best artist in your circle, please spread the word.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Sincerely,
Michael Halpern Program Manager UCS Scientific Integrity Program
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$9 for Title IX …Fatima Goss Graves, National Women’s Law Center
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Provisional Ballots … Know about your right to VOTE
A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there is some question about a voter’s eligibility. Provisional ballots may be utilized when the voter’s name is not on the voter list, the voter’s eligibility is challenged pursuant to state law, the voter is in the wrong polling place, or the voter cannot provide the ID required by federal or state law.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (“HAVA”) guarantees that any voter who shows up at the polling place, anywhere in the country, who is not able to cast a regular ballot is given a provisional ballot. After the election, the appropriate state or local election entity will determine if the voter was eligible using the information on the provisional ballot envelope, voter registration records and any other available source. If the election entity determines the voter was eligible, it will count the vote and notify the voter of the outcome. Additionally, under HAVA, any time polling hours are extended, voters are required to vote using provisional ballots.1
In the 2004 election, 1.9 million U.S. voters cast provisional ballots. However, only 1.2 million (64.5%) of these provisional ballots were counted.2
Provisional balloting allows voters to meaningfully exercise their right to vote on Election Day, but there are problems. First, many poll workers are not trained properly with regards to provisional balloting. They frequently fail to inform voters of their right to cast a provisional ballot give voters incorrect ballots and misinform voters about how to use provisional ballots or whether and under what circumstances their provisional ballot will count. Second, there is a lack of clear and uniform standards for counting provisional ballots, especially on the issue of whether or not to count provisional ballots cast outside a voter’s assigned precinct. Twenty-seven states do not count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct, while seventeen states count provisional ballots as long as they are cast in the correct county. The issue of whether to count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct has a tremendous effect on election results. A study conducted after the 2004 election indicates that jurisdictions that count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct count almost 72% of provisional ballots cast in the jurisdiction, while jurisdictions that only count provisional ballots cast in the right precinct count only half of all provisional ballots cast.3
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Here’s how to know if you’d qualify for refinancing
| Hello —President Obama’s plan to give mortgage relief to responsible homeowners boils down to one important principle. He wants to simplify the refinancingprocess.And the very first step is to let people know if they would benefit from the President’s proposal — so we’ve built a tool to help answer that question.Just enter a few basic facts about your mortgage, and this tool will help you figure out if you currently qualify for easy, low-cost refinancing — or whether, like millions of families, you need Congress to act to help you lower your interest rate.
As tens of thousands of people have spoken up and written in to the White House, we’ve heard one message loud and clear: The refinancing process is anything but easy to navigate. Even homeowners who have done everything right and made all their payments on time are getting caught up in unnecessary red tape. Sitting down and reading through some of these stories is a powerful reminder of why it’s so important that we get this done right away. One mom in Maryland, raising two teenage boys by herself, wrote in to say that she’s working 15 hour days to make her mortgage payments and keep current on her bills. Another family from Illinois is hoping to lower their mortgage payments so they can help pay for college for their kids. One woman in Arkansas called the President’s plan a “no brainer” and talked about how much good it would do for the broader economy. So if you are like these people and think that both you and our economy could stand to benefit from the President’s refinancing plan, give the tool a try, then take a moment to share it with your friends: http://www.whitehouse.gov/refi Thanks, Brian Brian Deese |
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