Minnesota Participation Project

Supreme Court sidesteps question of Voting Rights Act constitutionality

On June 22nd the Supreme Court issued an surprising 8-1 ruling that did not address the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, as was expected. Section 5 mandates that certain states and localities with histories of voter discrimination and disenfranchisement get federal approval before making changes to their voting procedures. Although Section 5 was left intact, voting rights proponents interpreted the ruling and the majority opinions to be a clear indication that unless Congress modifies Section 5, the court will invalidate the statue next time it hears such a case. Read more about the case at the NY Time blog .

House passes CJS Appropriations bill, approves Census funding

The House passed the Commerce, Justice, and Science spending bill for FY 2010 (HR 2847) Thursday June 18 by a final vote of 259-157 after the measure had been stalled for days over a partisan procedural dispute. The legislation includes $7.1 billion for the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly $206 million less than President Obama’s budget request.
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Urge the Minnesota Congressional delegation to fully fund 2010 Census

We know that adequate funding for the 2010 Census is crucial to its success. Independent Sector (IS) reported yesterday that the House Appropriations Committee has adopted legislation fully funding the Census at the level requested by President Obama. The bill is yet to come to a floor vote, and now is the time to ask your Congressional representative to support the bill. IS has provided the following talking points to use when making the call:

Join the Minnesota Nonprofit Complete Count Committee

The Minnesota Participation Project, as part of its work with the Minnesota Democracy Network's other core partners (TakeAction, Common Cause MN, and the League of Women Voters) is convening a Nonprofit Complete Count Committee to help members conduct Census outreach in a low-resource, effective way. Dates for the first convening of the group in the Twin Cities, Mankato, and Duluth will be posted shortly. Your commitment in joining the committee is simply that you will incorporate some form of Census outreach in your work; the extent and breadth of your efforts are up to you, and we will work with you identify concrete ways to do outreach commensurate with your resources and goals.

Webinar: Census Update for Nonprofits

NVEN's Nonprofits Count! campaign provided a wonderful webinar on on the role of nonprofits in the 2010 Census on June 4th. If you missed the presentation or want to review materials, check out the PowerPoint presentation or listen to an archived recording.

Omnibus elections bill vetoed

The Governor has vetoed another piece of election reform legislation, this time the omnibus elections bill. Among other changes, this bill would have moved primaries from September to the second Tuesday in August, required MnSCU schools to provide expanded housing lists for students to use to register, establish local absentee ballot boards to handle absentee ballots instead of election judges, provide a way for voters to check on the status of their absentee ballot, provide a way for voters to check online if they are registered to vote, and other administrative changes, many of which would help keep the registration list up-to-date and accurate. The Governor again cited lack of bipartisan support as his primary motive for the veto.

Governor vetoes improved registration provision

Governor Pawlenty has vetoed another election reform bill, the 'motor voter' automatic registration. Current motor voter registration enables people to check a box on a drivers license application to register to vote; this bill would automatically register them unless they opt-out on the application. Names would then have been checked against a database for eligibility.
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