Democracy Agenda
Times change – and the way we interpret and defend democracy must adapt to these changes.
Democracy North Carolina advocates for an agenda of desired policy changes for every 2-year legislative cycle. This agenda includes the reforms we believe our state needs in order to address critical challenges and opportunities affecting NC’s democracy. We call these legislative goals our Democracy Agenda.
To make it onto our Democracy Agenda, a goal must pass numerous tests. We first examine the issues surrounding proposed policy changes, including the feasibility of implementation, if it empowers voters and improves accountability of government, if it has been effective elsewhere, the potential effect on voting, implications for related policies and other factors. We also evaluate potential partners for an issue, the resources needed to advocate for a goal and the reform’s chances of becoming real within a set time period. If a goal passes all of these screens, we put it to a final litmus test and ask:
If the answer is yes, then the goal becomes part of our Democracy Agenda.
Our 2011-2012 Democracy Agenda
Our main goal for the 2011 - 2012 General Assembly session is to protect North Carolina's hardwon recent advances in campaign finance reform, voting rights, lobbying and ethics reform. A change-over in leadership threatens these important new laws and we intend to fight to preserve them:
VOTER-OWNED ELECTIONS
Creating an alternative, “clean” source of funding for candidates is one way that we, the voting public, can reclaim our democracy. North Carolina is a national leader in pioneering voluntary publicly financed programs for candidates. We believe we must protect our current programs for statewide appellate courts and selected Council of State races more than ever as huge flows of big money overtake our campaign system. We also strongly support federal efforts to create viable public financing for Congressional races as well as initiatives to overhaul and modernize the Presidential campaign financing program.
DISCLOSURE & OPEN GOVERNMENT
The Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates on corproate money in politics, making it more important than ever that the public demand electronic disclosure and better disclosure of contributions to General Assembly candidates, political parties, PAC’s and other independent issue groups. We also need to require expanded disclosure of campaign donations and fundraising by large contractors and by the appointees to major policy-making boards. Current rules have loopholes in them. Finally, we urge local governments to enact and enforce codes of ethical conduct for local officials.
PROTECT & EXPAND THE RIGHT TO VOTE
We believe that every voter must be respected and every vote must count. That's why we advocate for more, not less, “one-stop” voting locations (including on Election Day), an expansion of early voting hours on weekends and the banning of restricted early voting polling sites. We also think we need to protect Same-Day Registration, and improve Same-Day rules for college students and military personnel. We would also like to increase the training and testing of poll workers, particularly when it comes to the issue of provisional ballots -- the usage of which must be retained as is to protect our democracy. We would also like to see improved administration and education for people convicted of felonies or misdemeanors so that they fully understand both their voting rights and their civic responsibilities. Finally, while we are making progress, military men and women still need better access to the voting process.
INCREASE YOUTH VOTER ENGAGEMENT
Young people ages 18 to 24 continue to vote at a low rate. We are delighted with NC's youth pre-registration program and will vigorously defend it, but we would also like to see our state explore strategies to boost registration and turnout even more, including possible use of DMV offices and high schools to strengthen civics education, more use of advance registration for 16- and 17-year-olds and a greater focus on engaging teenagers in the political process.
CHANGE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTING
Giving all of a state’s electoral votes to the Presidential candidate who wins by even a slim margin disenfranchises voters. We believe it is time to change how North Carolina allocates its electoral votes,either by abolishing the Electoral College or by enacting the National Popular Vote, which awards NC’s electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote nationwide.
CONTINUE INSTANT RUN-OFF VOTING
While Instant Run-Off Voting is not appropriate in all instances, we believe many costly, low turnout run-off elections could be eliminated in favor of Instant Run-Off Voting (if your first choice is not among the top vote-getters, your vote goes to your second-choice candidate). Third party candidates don’t become “spoilers” because their votes are re-allocated if they do poorly. We also advocate for the right of local governments to try IRV and believe it should be used in statewide primaries.
All Democracy Agenda Downloads
Winning Same-Day Registration
A Democracy Agenda win requires us to be strategic about how we use research, organizing and advocacy resources. For example, when our research documented that NC ranked among the worst 15 states for voter turnout for the period of 1980–2000, and that 1 million citizens were not even registered to vote, and that barely 2% of young adults knew the cutoff to register was 25 days before Election Day, we knew our state could do better. When we also learned that “Same-Day Registration” in other states had proved effective in increasing turnout, especially among youth and people of color, we decided to make Same Day Registration a priority on our Democracy Agenda.
We began promoting a bill in the NC legislature in 2003 to allow citizens to go to an Early Voting site, show proper identification, then register and vote – all in one day. We gained support from elections officials, mobilized our grassroots Advocates, co-led a 4-year campaign and won passage of a bill allowing Same-Day Registration in 2007! As a result: 253,000 North Carolinians used Same-Day Registration in 2008 and NC ended up ranked in the top 20 states for voter turnout and was the #1 state in the nation for the highest turn-out increase over 2004.
