Monthly Archives: June 2012

June 4, 2012 | 5:24 PM | By

Everything You Need to Know for Tuesday’s Primary

Will you get your "I Voted" sticker? Photo: Denise Cross/Flickr

Let me guess, you’re planning on voting but you lost the mailer that tells you where your polling place is (who can blame you, what with all the campaign mail and J. Crew catalogs you’ve received in recent weeks). Or perhaps you meant to spend the weekend learning about the state propositions, but the weather was nice and your friend invited you out to Dolores Park, yadda yadda. Well fret not. Here’s a list of resources that should get you through Tuesday’s primary, and back to the park in no time.

Polling Place Look Up

Smartvoter.org‘s polling place finder is the easiest to use that I’ve seen. Simply enter your address and it will not only tell you where to go, but will also show you the races that will appear on your ballot.

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FILED UNDER: Ballot Measures, June 5, 2012, Reforming Government, Voter Resources
June 4, 2012 | 11:58 AM | By

Progressive Coalition Woos Infrequent Voters

A worker at a callaing bank.

Workers at a California Calls phone bank in San Diego reach out to potential voters. Photo: Amy Isackson/KQED

By Amy Isackson

Twenty people wearing headsets sit at makeshift plywood calling stations – they’re lined with carpet – in a non-descript office space in San Diego. The callers hunch over computers.

20,000 phone numbers of new and infrequent voters around San Diego County have been loaded into sophisticated calling software. The hope is to call 4,000 people in the next five hours and talk to about 1,000 of them. The goal is to get them to vote in Tuesday’s primary.

“We’re talking to voters that people don’t care about,” said Chris Wilson, who directs civic engagement at Equality Alliance in San Diego. It’s one of the progressive organizations participating in a California-wide coalition that is bucking conventional wisdom and putting occasional voters at the core of its strategy.

“Low income communities, we’re talking to people of color, we’re talking to infrequent voters,” said Wilson. “And so, we are empowering people who have been left out of the equation.”
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FILED UNDER: Reforming Government
June 4, 2012 | 10:28 AM | By

Quick Look: Calif.’s Top 100 Political Donors Give $1.25 Billion

KQED’s news partner California Watch takes a look at the power of a small group of wealthy donors:


In a state with nearly 38 million people, few have more influence than the top 100 donors to California campaigns – a powerful club that has donated overwhelmingly to Democrats and spent $1.25 billion to influence voters over the past dozen years.

Read more at: californiawatch.org

June 4, 2012 | 8:45 AM | By

Field Poll: Voters Support Props 28, 29

By Ben Adler

Supporters of Proposition 29 say additional cigarette taxes help people quit. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The big battle in the June 5 primary is Proposition 29, which would raise the tobacco tax to pay for cancer research. Ads are all over the airwaves, particularly from the measure’s opponents. And the Field Poll suggests they may be having some effect: the measure holds a 50-42 percent lead among likely voters. But among Californians who plan to vote at their polling place on Election Day, it only has a five-point lead. Those are voters who have not cast their ballots yet, and the advertising could be leading to the drop in support.

The other measure is Proposition 28, which would reduce the overall number of years state lawmakers can serve, but would let them spend the entire time in either the Senate or the Assembly. That initiative holds a much wider lead, 50 percent favoring to 28 percent opposed. Nearly a quarter of those polled say they’re undecided.

FILED UNDER: Ballot Measures, June 5, 2012, Taxes, Prop. 29