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Voting & Elections 02.1.2015

Getting to 100%: How changing the election date can improve voter turnout

One of the greatest barometers for waning civic engagement in American politics is declining voter turnout in federal, state, and municipal elections. There are many potential contributing factors: general cynicism about government and elected officials, a decline in investment in civics education, and an increasingly transient society. Yet there is one major contributing factor to low voter turnout – the timing of elections – that could be addressed with a relatively simple policy change. The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 350 California cities and found that simply moving an election to be synchronized with the even year state elections can result in a 21-36 percent boost in voter turnout for municipal and other local elections.

Politics, Power and Presents

This report examines gifts provided and travel-related payments made to state legislators from special interest groups and includes ethics reform recommendations to prohibit or limit many of these activities.

Gifts, Influence and Power

This report examines gifts provided and travel-related payments made to state elected officials from special interest groups and includes ethics reform recommendations to prohibit or limit many of these activities.

Money & Influence 05.9.2010

Taking Elections off the Auction Block

Californians’ approval rating for their legislature has fallen to a historically low nine percent. Why then, don’t voters unelect them? Part of the reason may be that powerful interests who benefit from the current system have perfected techniques of directing huge sums of campaign funds toward candidates whose election will benefit them. As a result, candidates who aren’t favored by the donor class don’t raise much money and don’t win elections. When donors matter more than voters, low voter approval ratings don’t translate into electoral upheavals. This stark reality no doubt keeps many qualified candidates from even running in the first place.

Media & Democracy 01.2.2009

Sacramento Television Coverage of the February 2008 Primary Election

An affiliate of California Common Cause, the Sacramento Media Group comprises community members who represent the League of Women Voters of Sacramento County, Access Sacramento, the community access cable television station, and faculty members from local colleges. SMG, along with numerous state and national public interest organizations, has long expressed concern about the quantity and quality of television news and public affairs coverage. This report directs its attention to local broadcast television stations and how they carried out their public interest obligations while playing a role in the 2008 primary election cycle.

Media & Democracy 09.1.2006

Content Analysis: The Fear and Fluff of LA’s Nightly Local News

What type of news gets covered in Los Angeles on local television newscasts? And how much of it is even local? To answer these and many other questions, a media reform group associated with California Common Cause monitored the local Los Angeles late-night television news broadcasts for a snapshot of news content.

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