Monday, July 2, 2012

Countdown to November. Voting Rights


Check your local voting commission.  
Ensure your friends, family members, senior citizens, disabled, homeless, all you can reach are able to practice their U.S. right to vote.   

Register to vote!

Charles D. Sharp


Charles D. Sharp
Chief Executive    

 




"I Care...."
The National Popular Vote (NPV) plan guarantees election of the presidential candidate who earns the greatest number of votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. NPV does not dispense with the Electoral College, and is not a constitutional amendment. Rather, the plan is based on two clear powers given to the states under the Constitution: the power under Article 2 Section 1 to choose how to allocate its presidential electors, and the power under Article 1 Section 10 to enter into interstate compacts. States in early U.S. history often exercised the power to change rules for allocating electoral votes. While today, 48 states and the District of Columbia award their electoral votes to the winner of that state’s popular vote, the founders did not originally contemplate this type of system, as James Madison explained in 1823. Read More

Alaska election officials should not be barred from implementing the new redistricting plan because a requirement that the plan be approved by the federal government is unconstitutional, attorneys for the state contend. A federal three-judge panel is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday in the case brought by several Alaska Natives, who want the state barred from implementing the plan until the U.S. Justice Department weighs in on it. Justice has about a month yet to do so. Alaska's primary is scheduled for Aug. 28. A divided Alaska Supreme Court in May approved use of the plan for this year's elections, but any plan must pass muster both with the courts and Justice. Read More

The Supreme Court’s split decision on Arizona’s immigration law gave President Barack Obama an important legal victory Monday while upholding just enough of the statute to keep the issue alive as he pursues Latino voters in advance of the November election. Indeed, the president’s advantage on the issue was clear given that top Republicans either declined to respond or, in the case of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, issued statements that vaguely supported states rights without commenting on the specifics of the tough Arizona law. The controversial “papers please” section of the law requiring police officers to try to ascertain the immigration status of people they suspect to be illegal immigrants was upheld, while the rest of the law adding state criminal penalties for immigration violations was gutted in a 5-3 ruling written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. With the states constrained, the onus is squarely on Congress to fix the nation’s immigration system, but nothing beyond partisan posturing is likely on that front before November. Read More

A low-key primary election day in Colorado took on an even more muted tone Tuesday: Destructive wildfires are dominating the public's attention, and candidates were loath to campaign amid the smoke and flames. Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs, the only sitting member of Congress from Colorado facing a primary challenge, spent the days before the election meeting with firefighters and seeking federal resources to battle a quick-moving fire that forced thousands to evacuate the Manitou Springs area. Lamborn's opponent, Colorado Springs businessman Robert Blaha, canceled get-out-the-vote phone calls for all of El Paso County, which makes up some 70 percent of the voters in the 5th Congressional District. "Now is a time to respect other priorities for sure," Blaha spokeswoman Tamra Farah said. Read More

Gov. Rick Scott insists Florida's voter rolls must be scrubbed carefully to remove any non-U.S. citizens, but his administration is keeping secret a list of more than 180,000 voters whose citizenship may be in question. Scott's elections agency is refusing numerous requests from voter advocacy groups and news outlets to release the list, months after the state released an initial list targeting 2,625 potential noncitizens. Many people on the first list turned out to be citizens. The larger list has the potential to cause a bigger political controversy than the smaller one. "I want to be very careful," said Scott's chief elections official, Secretary of State Ken Detzner. "It's individuals' names on there, and I want to make sure that people are treated respectfully. I want to be abundantly cautious about that." Read More

Officials conducting the 3rd District Lake County Commissioner recount already have found apparent voting irregularities in the first day of the new tally. James Wieser, an attorney for the county elections board, said North Township Board member Richard J. Novak is expected to contest a number of votes that apparently were cast after regular voting hours ended during the May 8 Democratic primary. He said the list of challenged ballots include eight cast in Dyer, two in East Chicago and four cast in Hammond's 1st City Council District, for a total of 14 possibly questionable votes. Wieser said the recount still must proceed through Hammond's five other City Council districts as well as precincts in Highland, Munster, St. John and Whiting. The recount began early Monday when technicians took the locks off of the first batch of voting machines. Novak and County Councilman Michael Repay were present in the voting machine garage as the three-man, court-appointed recount commission began its work to go over more than 9,800 votes cast in the May 8 Democratic primary race. Repay was declared the official winner by 74 votes. Novak is challenging that outcome. Read More

A shortage of voter registration cards on hand at the Maine Secretary of State's office is frustrating some groups and candidates who are launching drives to enroll new voters. The Maine Democratic Party says the secretary has dispensed up to 1,000 cards at a time in the past. Now that number has dropped to 50. Officials at the Secetary of State's office say they are merely updating their forms and that new cards should be available next month. Colleen Lachowicz showed up at the Secretary of State's office last week to pick up some voter registration cards. As a Democratic state Senate candidate from Waterville, she thought might use some of her campaigning time to register new voters. Although the Secretary of State's Office commonly allows candidates such as Lachowicz to take up to a 1,000 cards, she says that's not what she got. "I was told they only had 250 left so they said they could give me 20," she says. "And I said, 'Could I have 50?' And so I was able to get 50 of them. And they had me sign a paper saying they could give me 50." Lachowiscz says she can't help but wonder about the effect the state's current rationing system is having statewide. "I'm just concerned that if there's only 250 of these things left, I'm sure there's more than 250 people that want to get registered to vote at this time."

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling Monday that allows Maryland to count prison inmates at their last known addresses - rather than their prison addresses - for redistricting purposes, and upholds the map approved by the General Assembly last year. Activists had sued the state, saying that the newly drawn congressional districting map violated the U.S. Constitution. The map was developed by a committee appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley and based on census data and statewide input. It was also drawn to reflect a 2010 Maryland law that counts prisoners at their last known addresses, which differs from the U.S. Census Bureau’s policy of counting inmates at their prison addresses, used by most states. Read More

Minnesota’s current Election Day registration system lies in the hands of a federal judge, who on Friday heard arguments from a conservative activist group seeking to strengthen procedures for determining voter eligibility. Erick Kaardal, attorney for the Minnesota Voters Alliance and several political candidates, argued that state election officials are not adequately ensuring that felons and wards of the state who are ineligible to vote are turned away from the polls. This so-called “vote dilution” from counting allegedly ineligible ballots could have had a significant effect on the extremely close elections in Minnesota during the last two cycles, he said. And the alliance is concerned about voter verification procedures for the November election, which includes the presidential race and the fate of constitutional amendments on Voter ID and on marriage. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and elections officials from Ramsey, Chisago and Crow Wing counties are all named defendants in the suit, which U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank heard on Friday. Read More

Lawmakers start their last week of work for the legislative session tonight. As legislators look to wrap up unfinished business, a key House leader says its unlikely that a new voter ID bill will be forthcoming this year. "It's gone," said Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, who chairs the committee which oversees election laws and would have been the point person to shepherd a new voter ID bill through the House. Under current law, most voters do not have to show ID when they come to the polls. Under a version of voter ID bill that Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed last year, most voter would have to provide photo identification before casting a ballot. Proponents of the measure say voter ID would help make sure people don't vote in the name of others or cast ballots when they're not qualified to do so. Opponents say there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and ID laws would disproportionately keep poor, elderly and college-age voters from casting ballots.

Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R) said that the voter ID law passed by the legislature would help deliver the state for Mitt Romney in November.
“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation - abortion facility regulations - in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done,” Turzai said at this weekend’s Republican State Committee meeting , according toPoliticsPA.com.
A spokesman for Turzai confirmed the accuracy of the quote for TPM but argued that people were reading too much into it. “The fact is that while Pennsylvania Democrats don’t like it to be talked about, there is election fraud,” Turzai spokesman Stephen Miskin told TPM. “Protecting the integrity of an individual vote is the purpose of any election reform. So was Turzai suggesting that Democrats had won previous elections through voter fraud? Read More

Innocent utterance or a major political Freudian slip? Either way, a top House Republican has come under fire for comments he made over the weekend regarding Pennsylvania's new voter-ID law - comments that critics say prove their contention that the law was motivated by the GOP's desire to skew presidential elections in its favor. At a state Republican Party meeting in Harrisburg Saturday, House Majority Leader Mike Turzai of Allegheny County listed legislative victories since Republicans regained control of both chambers and the governor's office. Among them, he said: requiring voters, starting in November, to show an acceptable form of identification at the polls. Turzai then framed the effort in the context of November's presidential election. "Voter ID, which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania - done," Turzai told the crowd, which promptly broke into applause. His comments swiftly began made it onto YouTube, and since then have called into question his - and his party's - motives in supporting the measure. Read More

The odds of Racine's recall recount winding up in court increased Tuesday, as Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard's campaign said it may challenge canvassers' decision to accept ballots from voters who did not sign the poll book. The recount is in its second week after Wanggaard's campaign requested canvassers review an 834-vote victory that favored Democratic challenger John Lehman in the June 5 recall. Republicans' latest contention of voting irregularities in Racine targets election workers who failed to ask voters to sign poll books as required by state law. The Wanggaard campaign also disputes the Government Accountability Board's recommendation that canvassers accept the votes. Once canvassers certify the recall, the campaign could challenge the recount in court, potentially delaying Democratic control of the state Senate for weeks. The results of the recount will determine whether Republicans keep the majority or if Democrats take control of the Senate between now and the November general election. Since 2011, a new voting law requires that poll workers have voters sign a poll book. Read More

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Webinar: CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEVELOPING AN OPTIMAL INDIVIDUAL REENTRY PLAN: BALANCING OFFENDER NEEDS, COMMUNITY FACTORS AND PRACTICAL REALITIES


National Reentry Resources Center



Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Time: 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET
To register for this webinar, click here.


In recent years, researchers and practitioners have learned a great deal about properly addressing offender risks to improve post-incarceration outcomes. By conducting actuarial assessments of each individual’s risks and needs and coupling this diagnostic information with clinical judgment, practitioners can develop reentry plans that increase the likelihood of improved outcomes for both the individual and the community. 

In addition, practitioners can further increase the likelihood of success when factors such as employment, educational levels, and vocational aptitudes, as well as community factors (e.g., access to healthy social activities or access to pro-social individuals) are addressed in individual reentry plans.

This webinar will focus on developing optimal individual reentry plans. The presenter will discuss organizational considerations that can greatly influence how offender risk and needs are measured and addressed, and system considerations including the extent of planning and collaboration with other government and community organizations that is needed to improve the likelihood that a person will succeed after release from prison and jail. Attention will be given to resource limitations, staff training, and the availability of supports and services within communities.

The webinar will also include brief discussions about:
  • Appropriate cognitive-behavioral treatment interventions that address assessed criminogenic needs;
  • Improving life skills (e.g., financial literacy or interacting with employers and peers in a non-confrontational manner);
  • Addressing basic education and vocational training deficits;
  • Measuring and capitalizing on an individual’s strengths;
  • Ensuring that the transition from living in a prison/jail to the community is as smooth as possible (e.g., How will the individual leave the institution and get to the area he/she will live? Where will he/she go immediately after release? Does the individual have suitable clothing and resources for food and other necessities?);
  • Establishing pro-social “hooks” for a given individual (e.g., mentors, community organizations, employers willing to help the ex-offender avoid falling back on anti-social habits);
  • Attendees can ask the presenter questions about any of these or other related topics in the last 30 minutes of the webinar. 

The presenter for this webinar is Kathleen Gnall, an independent consultant with extensive experience working with criminal justice professionals, policymakers, community and business leaders, social service providers, and members of faith-based and non-profit organizations to enhance public safety while improving individual outcomes. Ms. Gnall spent 17 years with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC), where she served as executive assistant to the Secretary of Corrections; the Director of Policy, Planning, Research, Evaluation and Grants; and the Deputy Secretary for Specialized Programs and Reentry.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

How to Establish a CERT in Your Jurisdiction



How to Establish a CERT in Your Jurisdiction


By: Demetrius A. Kastros on June 05, 2012




“Have a kit, make a plan, stay informed.” All good advice, but what the national message lacks is an emphasis on the need for every family to have solid emergency skills training. They can get that from a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training course.

CERT training teaches emergency first-aid, basic rescue techniques, assessing a building to determine if it’s safe to enter, basic firefighting, disaster psychology, securing utilities, operating with a team and neighborhood search. CERT-trained citizens learn to work with other CERT members to form a team, go into their neighborhood after a disaster and “do the most good for the most people.”

The basic CERT curriculum is available to anyone. Among the many things the federal government does well is provide a well designed, easy-to-access curriculum for instructing CERT classes in your community. Lesson plans, video clips and PowerPoint slides are all available for easy download at no charge on the Citizen Corps website.

Developing an effective CERT program in a community involves more than simply instructing classes. The initial curriculum takes about 25 to 30 hours and is merely the foundation upon which a CERT Community must be built. Student enthusiasm begins with making the class worth a participant’s time. Minimize classroom lectures — CERT is about learning hands-on emergency skills.


The Team Concept


Because CERT is a team concept, we here in Monterey, Calif., initially form the students into five-member teams. The teams select their own team leaders for each skill practice, such as splinting and bandaging, and rotate the leader position for each segment. Everyone takes turns being a victim and rescuer. A critical disaster function and role for CERT members is to assemble, assess their neighborhood and proceed as a team to perform safe actions without any help or initial support from traditional first responders, such as the fire department. Beginning their basic training with a sense of team operations greatly supports this primary function.

CERT members should be taught to use materials that they find in an average home. Clean linens, diapers, sanitary napkins and a host of other household items make excellent dressings and bandages for wounds. Cardboard boxes can be quickly fashioned into a splint. Blankets can be an effective stretcher to move the injured. Materials in a backyard fence, such as pieces of lumber, make good prying tools to remove debris from a trapped person. A roll of duct tape has countless uses including securing a splint or reinforcing cracked windows.

CERT skills are essential for family members to learn even if they never venture out into their neighborhood to help others.

Once your solid foundation of ongoing basic training is established, you now can build on this foundation to establish your CERT Community. Quarterly drills are very effective in maintaining member skills, enthusiasm and participation. Make those drills realistic and minimize classroom instruction. Monthly email newsletters, Facebook pages and a website are effective, low-cost methods for disseminating new information and maintaining contact. Setting up a website should be neither complicated nor expensive. There’s usually someone in your membership who has the skills to set these things up for your program. In addition, most IT departments in a city or county can provide this setup service.



The Monterey CERT is organized into nine zones or team areas throughout the community. Each zone has a storage container that is solidly anchored to a foundation in the ground. These are somewhat similar in size to a larger portable on-demand metal storage container. Basic inventories include: first-aid supplies, hand tools, pry bars, fire extinguishers, body bags, tarps, generators, stretcher boards (backboards), ropes, yellow isolation tape, water, portable sanitary facilities and a host of other equipment. These storage caches provide an excellent supplement to teams working on extended incidents, examples of which, such as tornadoes in the Midwest, seem to pepper the nightly news.

Each zone has team members from the surrounding neighborhoods. Teams select their own leaders and those leaders have keys to access the storage containers, thus enhancing the independent nature of CERT. The containers also typically serve as the neighborhood staging area for team members during an emergency. 


Under the city disaster plan, one critical role for Monterey CERT members is initial damage assessment reports immediately after an emergency occurs. These reports are made directly from the CERT zones to the city EOC. Since CERT teams live in the neighborhoods, we are ideally suited to this reporting role. Critical to this function is a VHF radio system consisting of handheld radios that are supported by three base stations. The radio system is just now being updated to comply with FCC narrowband requirements. This radio system is a simplex or line of sight system that does not rely on automatic repeaters to boost signals, such as are common to police and fire departments’ radio systems. Because the handheld radios are battery operated, they remain unaffected by the common maladies of a disaster such as power outages and cellphone interruptions. These handheld radios operate with a proprietary battery or AA battery packs. All three CERT base station radios, one of which is in the EOC, are located in buildings with back-up generators. The base radios are all staffed by CERT members to provide continuity with teams in the field.

This radio system allows for more than damage assessment reports. It enables the EOC to remain in direct contact with the various neighborhoods across town, getting constant updates on conditions. The radios also allow efficient tracking of CERT members operating in an area, and they enable teams in the field to instantly request professional assistance, such as from the local fire department, for a situation beyond the role of the CERT. Always remember at every phase of CERT training that an important component of your program must be safety awareness and instructing members about what they can attempt to do and more importantly, what their limits should be. 

If cellphone systems remain operational after an emergency, an effective method for the EOC to assess community conditions is to establish a simple email address to which CERT members in the field can send pictures of damaged buildings from their cellphones and mobile devices.


CERT Radio System


Another essential component of your CERT Community is the ability to contact your team members rapidly, giving them instructions on what the needs are following an occurrence. Not all disasters or community emergencies are as obvious as an earthquake, tornado or hurricane. Monterey CERT teams were activated during the March 2011 tsunami alert following the Japan earthquake. In this instance, after activating the EOC, city officials decided it would be prudent to post personnel in safe areas to warn citizens to remain clear of the beaches. 



Monterey uses a commercially available service, called E-Sponder, to mass call city personnel. E-Sponder is an Internet-based system that allows anyone with access codes to send a message from an Internet capable computer. The sender accesses the service, types a message on the screen similar to an email and then sends that message to a predesignated group stored in the system. The typed message is instantly voice digitized and received by the designated person in the form of a recorded voice message. The messages can be sent to land lines or cellphones, and the recipients simultaneously receive the same message in text and email format. The system allows for storing multiple sub-groups such as EOC personnel, fire department members, CERT members, etc. The sender can transmit an all-call message or select one or more sub-groups for notification. Hundreds of personnel can be contacted through the calling system at the same time.


During the West Coast Tsunami alert, Monterey CERT team members were directed to a single staging area using E-Sponder. At 5 a.m. that morning within 30 minutes we fielded a group larger than twice the size of the on-duty fire department. Teams were then organized, given a radio and sent to seven locations above the shorelines. Team members gave tsunami warnings to dozens of unknowing people who were approaching the beaches. Using the CERT radio system, close contact was maintained with the teams in the field. Members were kept advised of the estimated arrival time of the tidal surge. The Monterey Marina rose three feet at the anticipated time, but there was no significant damage. Santa Cruz, Calif., is across the bay, about 15 miles straight line from Monterey. A visible tsunami hit the small Santa Cruz harbor, causing $25 million in damage to moorings and boats. This from an earthquake that occurred 5,000 miles away!

Our CERT team members know that if all forms of communication fail during a disaster, they presume that a call-out of CERT members occurred and report to their neighborhood staging area to assemble as a team. CERT members are taught to care for their family and immediate neighbors first and then report to staging. Members are discouraged from conducting independent actions beyond their immediate family and neighbors.

Monterey CERT instruction is done entirely by volunteers. We receive minimal funding from the city for trademark helmets and vests. Some money is also provided for training tools and equipment. There is a separate 501(c) nonprofit group that obtains charitable donations that can be transferred to the program.

Having a CERT Community in your jurisdiction is an essential element of any disaster plan.


Demetrius A. Kastros is a retired, career member of the California Fire Service. He is the lead instructor for the Monterey, Calif., CERT program and lives in that city. He can be reached atdemekastros@msn.com.

Countdown to November......REGISTER TO VOTE


  • United States Election Assistance Comittee

Register to Vote!

Use the National Mail Voter Registration Form to register to vote, update your registration information with a new name or address, or register with a political party.

Note: If you wish to vote absentee and are a uniformed service member or family member or a citizen living outside the U.S., contact the Federal Voting Assistance Program to register to vote.

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Register to Vote

The National Mail Voter Registration Form can be used to register U.S. citizens to vote, to update registration information due to a change of name, make a change of address or to register with a political party. Note: After filling out this form, you must send it to a state or local election office for processing. See state-specific instructions included in the form for additional information.
The national form also contains voter registration rules and regulations for each state and territory. For more information about registering to vote, contact your state election office. Also, read our frequently asked questions about moving and registering to vote and using the National Mail Voter Registration form.
 
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National Voter Registration Act
Every two years, EAC reports to Congress on the impact of National Voter Registration Act on the administration of Federal elections and provides information to states on their responsibilities under that law. Read NVRA Studies and Commission decisions regarding the NVRA.

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