Fast-food giant Burger King announced this week that it fired two employees who posted libelous comments to public Web sites about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), an organization pressing the company to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes to boost pay for farmworkers. The company also told the News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla. that it has stopped using an investigative firm to spy on farmworker advocates.

The company would not identify the fired employees. But earlier this year, the News-Press reported that Steven Grover -- Burger King's vice president of food safety, quality assurance and regulatory compliance -- used his daughter's online alias to make false and derogatory comments about CIW. Last month, the paper also revealed that Cara Schaffer, the owner of the investigative firm Diplomatic Tactical Services, infiltrated the Student/Farmworker Alliance, a CIW ally.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who held hearings last month on exploitive working conditions for tomato pickers, slammed Burger King's behavior and called for further investigation, according to the paper:

"I'm delighted that the corporation has fired those people involved in those despicable actions, but we should make sure that we find out how high up the corporate ladder this scheme went."

Labels: bernie sanders, burger king, coalition of immokalee workers, farmworkers, Florida, Student/Farmworker Alliance

A new study confirms what other studies have documented: workers who don't have unions lose out in their paychecks.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research finds [pdf] that the "union premium" is 11.9% for employees nationally -- meaning, those who are part of a union take home almost 12% more in their paychecks each month than those without a union.

If you single out low-wage workers, boost is even higher: 20.6%.

The findings are especially relevant in the South. Of the 10 states without the lowest number of workers represented by unions, eight are in the South.

The report estimates that in North Carolina -- the state with the lowest rate of union representation -- union membership boosted the wages of low- to middle-income workers by between 11% and 14% from 2003 to 2007.

Labels: center for economic and policy research, labor, unions

Reports continue to surface nationally about problems with Women's Voices Women Vote, in the wake of Facing South's investigation two weeks ago after concerns about deceptive election practices in North Carolina.

This week's Willamette Week -- a paper in Portland, Oregon -- looks at Women's Voices in its "Rogue of the Week" column with a report on what's happening in that state, which has a primary on May 20:

Women’s Voices, Women’s Vote is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that aims to register single women to vote across the country.

So Portlander Jennifer Elder and her husband of 11 years, Paul Collins, were surprised when she got two WVWV letters April 29, the last day to register for the May 20 primary, saying: “If you have moved, you must update your voter registration in order to vote.”

“My first impression was, ‘Oh, are we not registered?’” says Collins, who opened the mail. “I could swear we were registered for this address. And of course we were.”

Thousands more registered Oregon voters have been just as confused by WVWV letters since last year, according to Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. His office has been calling and sending “please-stop-doing-this-you’re-insane” letters since then to WVWV, according to Bradbury spokesman Scott Moore.

The message is, “Assuming your intentions are good, you’re causing more harm than good,” Moore says.

“They’ve been completely unresponsive,” Moore says. “It’s an absolute nightmare.”

Labels: facing south, oregon, voting rights, women's voices women vote

I'm in New Orleans this week with The Isaiah Funds, a new inter-faith effort to boost long-term rebuilding in the Gulf Coast. Faith groups were the unsung heroes of the Katrina response. It's difficult to find a storm victim in New Orleans or coastal Mississippi who didn't in some way benefit from the work of faith institutions, when help was hard to find from government and other channels.

Churches, synagogues and mosques deployed tens of thousands of volunteers, shipped truckloads of supplies, delivered millions of dollars worth of services, and raised vast sums of money to help a region in need. Faith leaders have also been among the Gulf Coast's most effective advocates, holding officials accountable and pressuring government to fulfill its obligations to the region.

The Gulf Coast is still facing major obstacles to recovery. The pace of people returning to New Orleans has slowed again, with about 70% of the city back [pdf]. A report this month found that only 25% of New Orleans residents affected by the storms consider themselves to be "mostly recovered."

Congress heard testimony this week about Mississippi, where Gov. Haley Barbour is under fire for diverting $600 million in funds earmarked for housing into rebuilding a shipping port.

The Isaiah Funds aim to build on the credibility that faith groups earned in the wake of the storms, channeling faith resources into long-term rebuilding projects. Jeffrey Dekro of the Jewish Funds for Justice says they have received commitments totaling $4.5 million towards their goal of $10 million by 2009.

Today they've announced their first low-interest loan: $500,000 to the Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, which is the process of constructing 1,000 new homes.

Labels: Hurricane Katrina, isaiah funds, jewish funds for justice, new orleans

The controversy that recently erupted in North Carolina over confusing, misleading and at times illegal voter registration tactics used by Women's Voices Women Vote has not discouraged the D.C. nonprofit from continuing similar efforts in Appalachian states with primaries this month.

Officials in West Virginia and Kentucky, which hold primary elections today and May 20 respectively, tell Facing South that the group is causing similar confusion among the prospective voters it's contacted in those states -- many of whom are already registered to vote.

As documented in our recent investigation into the group's activities in North Carolina, Women's Voices racked up official complaints from elections officials in Arizona and Colorado as long ago as November 2007. In February, the group was the target of a police investigation in Virginia that resulted in Women's Voices promising to stop making anonymous robo-calls. But two months after making that promise, the group showed up in North Carolina and again made anonymous robo-calls in the week and a half before the primary, telling people they'd receive a voter registration packet in the mail.

The calls and mailers raised concerns among North Carolina voting rights advocates because they gave registered voters the impression that they were not properly registered. In addition, the robo-calls were illegal under the state's laws because they did not identify the group making them, leading North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper to issue a cease-and-desist order. The N.C. NAACP filed a formal voter-suppression complaint with Cooper and notified the U.S. Department of Justice, in part because of the differences in the calls that went to black voters (listen to the call here) vs. white voters (audio file here).

Now Facing South has learned that Women's Voices Women Vote has gone on to engage in some of the same problematic behaviors in West Virginia and Kentucky.

In West Virginia, Secretary of State Betty Ireland issued a press release [pdf] on Thursday, May 8 cautioning voters about Women's Voices "potentially misleading" registration efforts. The warning came after the organization began mailing voter registration forms to more than 16,000 unmarried women across the state right before the primary election, but after the April 22 deadline to register for that election had already passed.

"I do not want registered voters to be confused by this mailing," Ireland said in the press release. "If you were already registered to vote, you do not need to re-register. If you were already registered but recently moved, it is best to contact your county clerk to make sure you vote in the correct precinct on Election Day."

Secretary of State spokesperson Sarah Bailey told Facing South her office had received about 300 returned forms as of May 7 -- but many of them from people who were already registered. The same problem has occurred in many of the 24 states where Women's Voices is working, and in North Carolina the resulting confusion led some to believe it was was an attempt to suppress votes -- a charge that Women's Voices has denied.

Chaos in Kentucky

In Kentucky, Women's Voices has been causing problems for elections officials for about eight months now. Last week, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson issued a warning that the nonprofit's confusing materials risk leading registered voters to mistakenly think they're not.

The Kentucky official also noted that Women's Voices was conducting confusing robo-calls, two and a half months after they had pledged to end the practice:

The State Board of Elections has also heard from voters and from county clerks that WVWV have been sending automated calls encouraging people to register to vote which does not explicitly state that the voter registration deadline has passed for the May primary election.

"We are unfortunately familiar with this group," Sarah Ball Johnson, executive director of the Kentucky State Board of Elections, told Facing South. "We started communicating with Executive Director Joe Goode last year to help them understand what it's like on our end, but it hasn't helped."

Johnson first encountered Women's Voices prior to the state's gubernatorial election last November, when the group began sending out voter registration mailings. In fact, Women's Voices established a mail permit in the board's name, making the state office a target for confused and angry recipients.

"The mailer looked like it came from us," Johnson reported.

After the elections board complained, Women's Voices stopped using its name. But the nonprofit hasn't always been so willing to cooperate with frustrated local officials. For example, Johnson says she has repeatedly asked to preview Women's Voices materials before they're mailed out out but was told no. She's concerned because the materials contain misleading language -- that, for example, "federal law requires you to fill this out to vote," which is not true.

Johnson observed that many of the forms that are returned are not even properly completed but instead contain "hateful messages" or are simply left blank, presumably because the recipient wants to cost the group postage.

Another "unfortunate coincidence?"

The boilerplate letter [pdf] that Women's Voices Women Vote sent to West Virginia election officials -- identical in almost every respect to letters it has sent in other states -- reads in part:

Unfortunately, West Virginia residents will receive this [Women's Voices voter registration letter] after the deadline for registering to vote to participate in the upcoming primary election. [...]

We hope this unfortunate coincidence of timing does not lead to any confusion or aggravation for either your state's voters or registrars.

But given the mayhem that has transpired in 12 other states -- including national controversy from their North Carolina experience -- Women's Voices is well aware that their oddly-timed mailings will lead to "confusion and aggravation."

It's no mistake or "coincidence" -- so why do they keep doing it?

Women's Voices states on its website that it "started with one goal in mind: Improving unmarried women's participation in the electorate and policy process." Working closely with Catalist -- makers of a large, widely-used voter database created by Harold Ickes, a lead strategist for Sen. Hillary Clinton -- Women's Voices says its mission has expanded to target a wide range of unregistered voters, including African-American and Latino families.

But in the states Women's Voices works, other nonprofits registering voters are baffled by the group's tactics. Facing South spoke to representatives of over a dozen groups with decades of experience registering voters in Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia; not one endorsed the methods used by Women's Voices.

"Operation Chaos," was how one elections watchdog described their tactics. "They're at 30,000 feet, bombing away with these calls and mailings" and unconcerned about the consequences on the ground, said another. "I couldn't think of a worse way to register voters if I tried," said another.

In the 12 states where Women's Voices' tactics have generated controversy, the group has typically responded by "apologizing for the confusion," chalking it up to "mistakes." In recent statements, however, Women's Voices seems to acknowledge their approach is deliberate -- and claims that it won't confuse voters. In an interview at DailyKos, Women's Voices president Page Gardner compared their approach to "Motor Voter" registration that happens at state agencies: "We do not believe this confuses people that are already registered to vote," she said.

Voting rights advocates don't buy it. "Anonymous robo-calls and confusing mailings have nothing in common with a guy at DMV offering you a voter registration form," said a long-time voting rights advocate in North Carolina.

Indeed, in North Carolina the confusion generated around the state's critical May 6 primaries was especially baffling given that the state had a much simpler alternative: one-stop registration and voting, the method advocated by every state voter registration operation Facing South contacted.

Women's Voices says the confusion and controversy is worth it in the end because they get results. A recent statement claims Women's Voices has registered 600,000 voters since 2004, making it "among the top two or three voter registration organizations in the country."

The voting rights advocates Facing South spoke to doubt whether the use of deceptive and even illegal tactics justify the ends. But even the voter registration numbers that Women's Voices points to are in question.

Guy Zeigler, clerk of the Franklin County Board of Elections in Frankfort, Ky., estimates that about half of the forms from Women's Voices that are returned to his office come from people who are already properly registered to vote -- raising questions about how the nonprofit measures its success.

"They apparently judge their effectiveness by how many mailing forms are used by voters, but that's a false positive," said Johnson in Kentucky. "Time and time again, we've told them there are many duplicates."

Of the remaining 2008 primaries, Women's Voices has efforts underway in three of them aside from West Virginia: Kentucky, Oregon, and South Dakota.

-- Sue Sturgis and Chris Kromm

UPDATE I: Over at DailyKos, Adam B notes that, in his recent interview with Women's Voices president Page Gardner, she said all of the group's robo-calls nationally were conducted April 24 and 25. Furthermore, on May 3, the group said in a statement that:

We have concluded that, in this context, we will not in the future mail or call during the window between close of registration for the primary and the primary election.

The first statement doesn't specifically reference mailings, and it's unclear what the phrase "in this context" refers to in the second. But it is important to note that, if the WVWV letters in Kentucky and West Virginia were sent by Women's Voices before May 3 -- which is very likely -- they would have held to their pledge. This would be different than their pledge in February to stop robo-calls, which was not honored.

Some follow-up questions: In North Carolina, WVWV worked with Democracy North Carolina to pull some of the confusing mailings before NC's May 6 primary, with some success. Did Women's Voices attempt similar efforts to ensure confusing mailings did not reach voters in WV and KY, and were they successful?

Also, in WV and KY, Women's Voices had much more time to pro-actively take steps to clarify their efforts and avoid confusion among voters. What steps did they take before the WV and KY primaries?

UPDATE II: I just spoke with a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State's office in South Dakota, who forwarded the below press release. She said a key problem in SD is that WVWV's mailing "was deceptive because it said voters must re-register if they move," which is "not the law in South Dakota." She believes the mailing was sent in late April.

For Immediate Release: May 7, 2008

Contact Chris Nelson, 773-3537, for further information.

Secretary of State Chris Nelson is warning South Dakotans that a Boston, Massachusetts, organization called the “Voter Participation Project” is sending mailings into South Dakota telling our citizens that under “state law” they need to re-register to vote. The mailing lists the Secretary of State’s address, adding the appearance of credibility.

Nelson says, “The language in this mailing is not true. This organization is misleading our citizens into thinking they need to fill out another voter registration form in order to vote. Many South Dakotans have complained to me about receiving these mailings. Some mailings have gone to folks who are deceased asking them to register to vote. My elderly mother received a mailing and was concerned that she needed to fill it out in order to vote.”

“Any South Dakota voter can check to see their voter registration status by going to www.sdsos.gov and clicking on the Voter Information Portal. That site will show where you are registered, where your polling place is located, and show you your sample ballot for the primary election.”

“Voters are not required by law to re-register when they move. We encourage re-registration upon a move, but it is not required by law.”

Labels: facing south, kentucky, primary, voting rights, west virginia, women's voices women vote

The recovery of Louisiana's people from Hurricane Katrina is far from complete.

That's the conclusion of a report released today by the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, a Baton Rouge-based nonprofit that helps families and individuals recover from storm-related losses. Titled "Progress for Some, Hope and Hardships for Many," the report examines the obstacles still faced by many Louisiana residents and highlights what officials can do to help.

"Just like our state's levees, roads and homes, the lives of our people still need our attention and resource commitments," says Recovery Corps CEO Raymond Jetson. "Some residents are on the road to recovery and some are facing roadblocks."

The report was based on a survey of more than 2,100 storm-impacted residents in Calcasieu, Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes. About 45 percent of the households surveyed were black while about 51 percent were white. About 60 percent of the households surveyed were made up of adults without children, 20 percent were single adults with children, and 17 percent were married couples with children.

Among the report's key findings:

* Only one-third of impacted residents consider themselves mostly recovered from the disaster.

* Residents of Orleans Parish report the greatest challenges and slowest progress toward recovery.

* Black households report much greater impacts than white households. For example, nearly half of black households live someplace different than before the disaster, compared to only 20 percent of white households. This holds true even for black households with higher incomes.

* Only 20 percent of residents feel there are adequate resources to aid in recovery.

The report offers a number of broad policy suggestions that include confronting the emerging disparity in access and interest in training and employment opportunities, homeownership and stress management; initiating interventions that are "culturally competent and relevant"; and creating services to provide one-time financial help to impacted residents.

As the report concludes:

The human voice in recovery has been often overpowered by the sound of progress in rebuilding buildings, repairing levees, or even the silence of barren neighborhoods once full of life. The collective future of Louisiana is tied to the way in which we continue to approach recovery, particularly human recovery. The voices of people, our people, are shouting loudly to all that can hear. Are you listening?

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina, louisiana, Louisiana Family Recovery Corps

In the ongoing controversy surrounding Women's Voices Women Vote and deceptive voter registration tactics, Adam Bonin of DailyKos conducted an interview with Page Gardner, founder and president of WVWV. As he notes in his introduction, "Ms. Gardner was able to answer some of my questions, but not all of them."

1. Your latest press release states that "We do not believe that people who are in fact registered to vote jump to the conclusion that they can't vote simply because they are offered another opportunity to register." Given that there were published news reports and statements from elections officials in multiple states that already-registered voters were in fact confused by hearing phone calls and receiving new registration applications which suggested that without filling out new forms they couldn't vote, what was the basis for that belief?

Every state's Department of Motor Vehicles is tasked under the so-called "Motor Voter" law with providing registration for anyone coming in for a driver's license or other DMV service. They do that every day they are open for business. They don't have a voter file there to look up whether or not you are registered when they offer you the opportunity to register and they offer the opportunity to everyone that comes in. We do not believe this confuses people that are already registered to vote. Moreover, this occurs whether the primary is more than 25 days away or less than 25 days away. Similarly, when people are approached at a shopping center and offered the opportunity to register, they are offered the opportunity whether they are already registered or not, and the groups conducting these registration efforts are not generally accused of confusing those people that are already registered to vote.

2. After Virginia, WVWV promised to stop placing robocalls anonymously and didn't. Your spokesperson said this was a "mistake". How did this mistake occur?

[No response.]

3. When was the Board made aware of the complaints as to voter confusion and the anonymity of your robocalls?

[No response.]

4. How did you arrive at your list of target states? What criteria were used? And on what dates were voters in each state called?

Target states were arrived at using criteria that included the number of unmarried women in a state that were not registered to vote or were registered to vote and had not voted compared to the same criteria for married women. In other words, what was the marriage gap in electoral participation between married and unmarried women in the state. We also wanted states from every region of the country, as well as states that have same day registration and states that do not. We also wanted some states with women elected officials at high levels (governor, US Senator) and states without. All of the pre-calls drawing people's attention to our mail and its voter registration form were delivered on the same two days, Thursday and Friday, April 24 and 25.

[According to her 5/5 diary these states were Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.]

5. Your April 24 letter to Gary Bartlett (NC Board of Elections) speaks exclusively of your work with unmarried women, not men. Why is that?

[No response.]

6. After the NC situation became public, what steps did WVWV take to inform NC voters (a) that if they were already registered, they could vote without a problem and (b) if they were not registered, they could still register and vote in person via the one-stop process? If no such steps were taken, why not?

[No response. However, in her May 5 diary, Gardner stated, "WVWV offered to make corrective follow-up calls, but upon further consideration and consultation with individuals in the state, concluded that additional calls should not be made."]

7. Are African American males the only group covered by the Voter Participation Center not already covered by WVWV? In what states has VPC (or WVWV) attempted to register male voters?

The Voter Particpation Center attempts to register under-represented demographics including African American men, African American married women and married Latinas so these are the other targets for our voter registration other than all unmarried women regardless of ethnic or racial background.

The Voter Participation Center attempts to register these under-represented demographics in every state that WVWV operates, so in the most recent mailing that meant 24 states from coast to coast.

8. For how long has VPC been involved in registering male voters? Are there print materials, or materials sent to (potential) contributors, reflecting this?

The Voter Participation Center was created as a project of WVWV by the Board of Directors in 2007 following the testing of using our direct marketing techniques to register other under-represented demographics in 2006.

9. How is VPC funded?

As a project of WVWV, the VPC is not separately funded. It is funded out of WVWV funds.

10. Was your husband's company involved as a vendor for these projects? If yes, through what kind of process was this contract awarded, and was the Board made aware of the potential conflict of interest and involved in approving such contracts?

[No response.]

Labels: adam bonin, dailykos, facing south, robo-calls, voting rights, women's voices women vote

The Sierra Club announced this week that it's sending formal notices of intent to sue to about 30 new coal plants across the country in an effort to force them to better control emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants. The states where the targeted plants are located include Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

"We want to give moms across the country some peace of mind this Mother’s Day," says Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign. "That’s why we’re taking action today to ensure that these coal plants make every effort to keep their toxic mercury pollution out of our communities."

A recent study from the University of Texas found that children's risk of developing autism, a brain disorder that impairs communication and social interaction, increases with proximity to coal-fired power plants. According to the researchers, a child living 10 miles from a coal-burning power plant has a 2 percent higher risk of developing autism than a child living 20 miles away.

Coal-fired power plants are the single largest man-made source of mercury pollution in the United States. When the plants release mercury into the air, it rains down into lakes, rivers and streams and builds up in the bodies of fish -- and the people who eat the fish.

In February of this year, a federal appeals court struck down the Bush administration's mercury regulations for coal-fired power plants, saying they failed to adequately protect public health. The Sierra Club is asking the coal plant developers to come up with new plans to control mercury and other toxic pollution before the facilities are built.

"There are affordable technologies widely available today that can substantially reduce mercury and other toxic pollution," says Pat Gallagher, director of the Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program. "In their rush to build new coal plants, developers have turned a blind eye to these technologies, and correspondingly the health of children everywhere."

For a map that shows all of the planned coal plants in the United States and their current status, click here.

Labels: autism, coal, energy policy, mercury, public health, Sierra Club

It was a hard-fought primary, but a big day for democracy. Some odds and ends from last night's results in the North Carolina primary:

* At 36% voter turnout, the 2008 primaries set a new record -- beating the previous mark of 31% set in 1988.

* Big interest in the Democratic presidential contest changed the dynamic of the state's down-ticket races. For example, high African-American voter turnout inspired by Barack Obama's campaign likely helped candidates endorsed by African-American PACs and groups in places like Durham and Mecklenburg counties. Durham County, with the highest percentage of African-American voters in the state, also had the 2nd-highest turnout.

* John McCain only won 74% of the GOP primary vote, despite having already sewn up his party's nomination. Mike Huckabee, who has dropped out, got 12%.

* Hillary Clinton might have lost, but it was an otherwise good day for women candidates, notes Under the Dome. The U.S. Senate contest will be between Sen. Elizabeth Dole and challenger Kay Hagan. Janet Cowell (state treasurer), Beth Wood (state auditor), June Atkinson (state superintendent) and Mary Fant Donnan (labor commissioner) also won their primaries. (UPDATE: Donnan didn't win -- she was the lead vote-getter at 28%, and will go into a runoff with John C. Brooks, 24%)

* Clinton also picked up a superdelegate: Rep. Health Shuler, who promised to give his vote to whoever won his 11th Congressional district. Clinton won 55-42.

* Republican incumbent Rep. Walter Jones (3rd District) -- targeted by Republicans because of his vocal opposition to the Iraq war -- comfortably survived his primary challenge, winning 60% of the vote.

* Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend reflects on the campaign of Jim Neal, one of the highest-profile runs by an openly gay man in North Carolina, who lost in his bid to compete for the U.S. Senate.

* Ah, to be young and 59 again. In spelling out the three "keys to Obama's win" in NC, the News & Observer had this item:

YOUNG PEOPLE: Obama overwhelmingly won the support of voters under 30 years old. He also won in every other age group except those over 60. (emphasis added)

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, north carolina, north carolina primary

Exit polls are showing that today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina are headed towards predictable results: Clinton taking Indiana, Obama winning N.C.

Meaning, today's primaries will likely settle nothing in the Democratic presidential contest, making the role of superdelegates all the more important.

So where do North Carolina's superdelegates stand? Under the Dome has a useful list:

Clinton

Gov. Mike Easley
Susan Burgess, Charlotte Councilwoman

Obama

U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield
U.S. Rep. David Price
U.S. Rep. Mel Watt
Everett Ward, former Democratic Party director
Dannie Montgomery, N.C. Democratic Party vice chair
Joyce Brayboy, public policy lobbyist
Jeanette Council, Cumberland County commissioner

Uncommitted

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler
U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre
U.S. Rep. Brad Miller
U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge
Jerry Meek, chairman of state party
Carol Peterson, Buncombe County commissioner
David Parker, Statesville attorney
Dr. Jeanette Council
Muriel K. Offerman
Two delegates to be named at the state convention.

Labels: barack obama, democratic party, Election 2008, hillary clinton, north carolina primary

The winners of the 12th Annual Webby Awards have been announced, and the winner in the Charitable Organization - Nonprofit category is Katrina: An Un-Natural Disaster, a website created to showcase the work of fellows of the Open Society Institute.

OSI has done an excellent job to help keep the story of the post-Katrina Gulf Coast in the media spotlight. The investigative reporting -- including pieces done in collaboration with the Institute's Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch project, like this one -- radio pieces and documentary photography created by the Katrina Media Fellows have been invaluable in keeping the story alive.

Congrats to OSI and the Katrina website team for a well-deserved honor.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina, open society institute, webby awards

Yesterday, Pam Spaulding -- who runs the popular blog Pam's House Blend, and also blogs for sites like FireDogLake and BlueNC -- posted the following comments on Facing South's investigation into voting rights in North Carolina and Women's Voices Women Vote. Full disclosure: Pam is a board member of the Institute, although we concluded this wasn't improper given that WVWV board members have been given a forum on blogs like Huffington Post and OpenLeft. The piece can be found here.

There has been a strong progressive defense of the actions of WVWV. What seems to be difficult to swallow is that an organization has, like it or not, engaged in the illegal robo-calls in multiple states that affect a specific slice of potential voters. And as Facing South pointed out, in North Carolina, it occurred yet again. An unknown number of low-information minority voters are left confused, and possibly deterred, from voting, whether or not it was ineptitude by the organization.

We should hold our organizations to an extremely high standard. Blacks (and whites) died to ensure that blacks had right to vote in the South; the call for further public investigation is both necessary and relevant to 1) get to the bottom of the illegal calls and 2) reassure voters that this cannot happen again. I don't care who is on the board or running the org, or how much good work was/is being done by WVWV in other arenas, if this were a Republican-run organization, we'd be tearing it to shreds.

If silence on this for "the good of the party" is more important than investigating a illegal practice affecting an individual's right to vote (on purpose or repeatedly by mistake), it's a sad state of affairs. Just because the Republicans do it more, or have a more systematic interest in doing it doesn't change the fact that this was wrong on so many levels -- and airing dirty laundry is the least of the issues in my mind. Apologies are meaningful, but given the spotty history of WVWV robo-calls, there is a stench still in the air, and that's why the investigation is moving forward.

There seems to be an undercurrent out there that registering more voters, particularly single, low-information women of all colors using illegal methods multiple times (why didn't WVWV care enough about its rep to clean up its "administrative problems" after so many official red flags?) is worth the potential result of confusing an unknown number other, low-information voters in a way that could deter them from voting.

WVWV could have as an emergency corrective measure, embarked on a second set of robo-calls to inform those voters that they received incorrect or confusing information; that seems like a logical thing to do. The action taken, to try to stop the mailing of the registration packets, does little to directly inform call recipients waiting for those packets to arrive to fill them out and send back before voting.

Chris Kromm and the Institute for Southern Studies dove into investigating this robo-call not knowing what they would find. ISS continued to dig regardless of the organization and made those results public. When wagon-circling occurs because of bruised egos on our side takes precedence over focusing on those targeted by the robo-calls, many belonging to a demographic historically disenfranchised time and again, it's problematic. If we're going to say every vote must count, then we have to mean it.

What I fear most is that this WVWV debacle will unravel into a feminist vs. black issue (the underlying assumption that it is also a Clinton-supporter vs. Obama-supporter issue). The left has such discomfort dealing with color-arousal or race matters (not racism, mind you, since that word is nuclear), that it will largely go undiscussed because of fear of getting shocked by the third rail. Sometimes naming the unmentionable tension can clear the air, but it requires cool heads. We're in a world of intertubes hotheads on all sides of the equation, with raw nerves exposed.

The bottom line is to take responsibility, clean house, move forward. Sunlight is the best disinfectant -- on the left and the right.

(Emphasis in original)

Labels: facing south, north carolina, robo-calls, voting rights, women's voices women vote

One of the key stories heading into today's North Carolina primary: the dramatic increase in African-American voters.

* African-American voters have registered in record numbers in North Carolina -- 45,000 in the first three months of 2008, compared with just over 11,000 in the same period four years ago.

* The Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies notes today that, while African-Americans make up 22% of the state population, they have made up nearly 40% of early voters in 2008. Here's the demographic breakdown of early voting as of this morning

Men 38.7%
Women 60.8%

White 56.5%
Black 39.9%

White Women 33.2%
White Men 23.1%

Democrat 84.1%
Unaffiliated 15.8%

* Peter St. Onge of The Charlotte Observer suggests that if 35% of Democratic primary voters today are African-American, Obama will score a victory of over 5%. Less than that, "Clinton will be celebrating."

Labels: african-american voters, barack obama, hillary clinton, north carolina primary

Earlier this year, the national board of the Sierra Club voted to suspend the organization's Florida chapter for four years. That meant the immediate dismissal of a 27-member executive committee elected by the state's membership -- and its replacement by a body appointed by the national board of the prominent environmental group.

The chapter's sin? Well, that depends on who you ask. The national body says the problem was in-fighting on the state board, which members dispute. They in turn charge that the real problem was that the Florida chapter took positions at odds with the national organization, including bucking its pro-biofuels agenda and opposing the national board's paid endorsement of a new line of home cleaning products from Clorox, a major corporate polluter.

Today's Grist magazine has a terrific overview of the controversy. The article by Emily Gertz captures the anger the group's former Florida leaders are feeling at their national overseers, as reflected in this quote from former state chapter secretary Pedro Monteiro:

"This suspension process is rife with the same problems that plagued the misguided invasion of Iraq and Panama, and the illegal holding of citizens in Guantanamo Bay," he wrote in his email, comparing the board's actions to "the crimes of the Bush Administration." He continued, "If there really are problems in the Florida Chapter, allow the voters to express their will and elect a new leadership at the next regularly held election." In a follow-up email, Monteiro called the chapter's new interim steering committee "a national staff-appointed junta."

Read the full story online here.

Labels: Clorox, environment, environmental politics, Florida, Sierra Club

After weeks of planning, polls and punditry, the North Carolina primaries are here. This letter in today's Raleigh News & Observer captures the excitement in a state that hasn't had a primary count on the national stage in a long time:

No matter which candidate people support, this is a great election in North Carolina. I can't remember a time when what we think actually mattered! It's about time that we got a voice, and it should be like this all the time. Who says Iowa and those other "early" states get to choose the presidential nominees for the whole country!? Changes need to be made so every election is like this one.

Jeannie Inskeep
Raleigh

Some odds and ends from the campaign trail:

* Weather is beautiful across the state -- high turnout!

* Clinton has gained ground on Obama, but RealClearPolitics averages the last seven polls in the state and finds Obama up 8 points.

* McCain is in North Carolina today as well. With the GOP nomination in the bag, Under the Dome speculates he's here to (1) raise money, and/or (2) stay in the public eye, and/or (3) land a few blows on the Democrats.

* Democracy North Carolina has set up a very useful website with info on voting and your rights at the polls. They are also partnering with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to staff a toll-free hotline if you have problems voting: 1-888-OUR-VOTE

* The Charlotte Observer predicts up to 2 million voters could cast ballots in the primary (1.5 million Democrats, half-million Republicans) -- 34% turnout.

* The State Board of Elections is reporting that 471,000 North Carolinians voted at One Stop voting centers, and 24,900 had mailed in absentee ballots.

* North Carolina primary election results here.

Labels: democracy north carolina, Election 2008, north carolina, north carolina primary

It has been six days since Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies published our first investigation into the mysterious "Lamont Williams" robo-calls (listen to the audio file here) that blanketed North Carolina on the eve of the state's critical primary elections.

Over the past week, our ongoing investigation has ignited a national firestorm. We'd like to take a moment to reflect on what brought us here, and offer our best sense of where the issue stands.

First, a little background. Voting rights has always been a special focus for us. Since our founding by civil rights veterans in 1970, we have published dozens of ground-breaking investigations into African-American voter suppression and other threats to democracy, including a series looking at the role of the Department of Justice's "voting integrity" policies in the 2004 elections (see an example here [pdf]).

When we started looking into the North Carolina robo-calls a week ago, they had generated widespread complaints from African-American and other voters -- and outrage from voting rights advocates and the progressive community nationally -- who believed the tactics were, at the very least, confusing and deceptive. At worst, many saw in them the elements of a sophisticated voter suppression campaign.

That's why we were as surprised as anyone to learn from the Virginia State Police -- who had investigated similar anonymous robo-calls made in that state last February -- that they had identified the source in Virgina as a D.C. non-profit with a strong voter registration track record named Women's Voices Women Vote.

When Facing South contacted Women's Voices about their voter outreach efforts in Virginia and North Carolina, the group seemed reluctant to provide information. When asked about the content of their robo-calls, for example, spokeswoman Sarah Johnson said she "didn't know," because "they were handled by an outside vendor" -- a puzzling answer, especially given that Women's Voices had been using the same 20-second robo-calls since November 2007.

We were eventually able to confirm, however, that Women's Voices Women Vote was the source of North Carolina's now-infamous "Lamont Williams" robo-calls, and we published our findings on Wednesday, April 30.

The response to our investigation was sudden and dramatic. In North Carolina alone, our investigation had immediate impact:

* That same day, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper denounced the robo-calls as illegal, called on Women's Voices to stop conducting them, and held out the possibility of legal sanctions. His investigation is still ongoing.

* Election advocacy group Democracy North Carolina pressed Women's Voices to pull 276,000 confusing mailings out of the mail stream, although it's believed that about 100,000 still made their way to voters.

* This weekend, the N.C. NAACP filed a formal voter suppression complaint to N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, and notified the federal Department of Justice of their concerns.

The story also launched a national debate about election tactics and voting rights, with major stories based on Facing South's investigation appearing on ABC News, CNN, The Economist, NPR, Time, TPM Muckraker, The Washington Post, The Week, Wired and other major media outlets. Groups like the Center for Investigative Reporting followed up with reporting that expanded on themes raised in Facing South's coverage.

The blog world also erupted, bloggers drawing their own conclusions from the facts presented in our investigation. Opinions gravitated towards extremes: One side quickly concluded that Women's Voices was part of an official, orchestrated effort by Sen. Hillary Clinton to suppress African-American voters, who have disproportionately supported her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.

An opposing faction leaped to Women's Voices' defense, echoing the group's line that the "confusion" their efforts had created in multiple states was merely an "oversight," at worst constituting a "stupid mistake" or "screw-up" resulting from "incompetence."

To be clear: In the course of our investigation, we have not found evidence that would substantiate either of these claims.

Our original investigation laid out four basic sets of facts -- facts that, to date, have not been refuted, and in fact have been buttressed by subsequent coverage at Facing South and elsewhere:

(1) ILLEGAL ROBO-CALLS IN NC: Our investigation last Wednesday revealed that Women's Voices Women Vote was the source behind illegal, anonymous and misleading robo-calls in North Carolina. It's important to remember that this was a major revelation at the time. As of late Monday, April 28, the Raleigh News & Observer was reporting that the State Board of Elections was still "hunting [the] robocaller," and Women's Voices had not stepped forward to claim or clarify the calls.

Since we revealed that information, Facing South has uncovered other important facts. One of the most surprising was that, after similar robo-calls in Virginia were investigated by state police last February, Women's Voices had pledged to not use the tactic again, anywhere. As the Virginian-Pilot reported February 9:

Sarah Johnson, communications director for the organization [Women's Voices Women Vote], said Friday that not including information about the source of the voter registration effort was "absolutely an accidental omission."

She said the group was changing its nationwide phone alerts to make clear who is coordinating the effort.

Yet two and a half months later, Women's Voices began the illegal "Lamont Williams" calls in North Carolina.

Johnson's statement to The Virginian-Pilot also came three months after Women's Voices had used nearly identical confusing robo-calls in Ohio -- making their claim that the anonymous nature of their Virginia calls were an "accidental omission" clearly untrue.

(2) PROBLEMS IN 11 STATES: Facing South also revealed that North Carolina wasn't an isolated incident; that Women's Voices had been charged with carrying out confusing, legally questionable, and deceptive voter registration tactics in 10 other states. It has since been reported that there were also concerns in Oregon.

It is important to acknowledge that many of the problems associated with Women's Voices' efforts are the kind that plague any voter registration operation, especially issues that result from voter registration lists that are notoriously riddled with errors.

But our research found that Women's Voices has also consciously decided to employ tactics that are unique in their potential to mislead and discourage voters. Their decision to use anonymous, confusing robo-calls first surfaced in Ohio in November 2007. Their failure to communicate and coordinate with state election officials and local advocacy groups has cropped up in several states. They've been rebuked by state officials for mailing voter registration packets that in some cases wrongfully stated that returning the forms was "required" -- a tactic that, in addition to being legally untrue, confused and angered voters who received them after the voter registration deadline.

Women's Voices hasn't addressed these drawbacks in their public statements, except to apologize for the "confusion" and point to the number of people they've registered. The implication is that their controversial tactics are a necessary evil in the quest to register more voters; the ends justify the means.

That is a matter of opinion, but we'll note that the voting rights advocates Facing South talked to have serious concerns about the potential of Women's Voices' tactics to discourage and possibly disenfranchise voters. As the legal battle over the North Carolina robo-calls demonstrates, it also opens them to legal challenges.

(3) IMPACT ON NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA PRIMARIES: Facing South has also documented that Women's Voices' tactics have had an especially disruptive role in the Virginia and North Carolina primaries.

In at least these two states, Women's Voices' approach has been to wait until after the voter registration deadline has passed, and then -- as the day of the election primary approaches -- pump out hundreds of thousands of anonymous robo-calls, followed by voter registration packets in the mail. They have consciously used this strategy despite knowing from experience that their lists contain numerous errors and will result in confusing many already-registered voters.

Women's Voices has defended this practice in various forums by saying that, with public interest in elections high during primary elections, that is an ideal time to register voters.

But that doesn't explain their use of anonymous robo-calls and confusing mailings -- especially in North Carolina, where every other voter registration group that Facing South contacted had been encouraging voters to use One-Stop Registration and Voting.

The availability of that easier and less disruptive voter registration option in N.C. makes it especially curious that Women's Voices continued with the robo-calls and mailings, which Women's Voices president Page Gardner seemed to acknowledge would cause problems in a letter to the N.C. State Board of Elections dated April 24 (pdf) -- but not faxed to the SBOE until 5:50 p.m. on April 28, after the robo-calls had been made and the mailings had been sent:

Unfortunately, North Carolina residents will receive this mail after the deadline for registering to vote to participate in the upcoming election ... We hope this unfortunate coincidence in timing does not lead to any confusion or aggravation for either your state's voters or registrars.

But of course, Gardner and Women's Voices must have known from their experience in other states -- most recently Virginia -- that this "unfortunate coincidence" of timing would have the precise effect of leading to "confusion" and "aggravation" of voters and election officials alike -- which is exactly what happened.

(4) TIES TO SEN. HILLARY CLINTON: Although not the focus of our original investigation, Facing South has documented several close connections between Women's Voices Women Vote and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Since then, National Public Radio, the Center for Investigative Reporting and other media have done further reporting and identified more close relationships between Women's Voices and the Clinton family, including Women's Voices' founder/president and the executive director (you can find the Center's chart here, which looks at 10 such connections).

As Facing South clearly stated last Thursday, "We don't suggest, and have no evidence to suggest, that Women's Voices is formally connected to the Clinton campaign." We have strenuously avoided drawing any conclusions regarding this relationship. We have also reported that a smaller number of individuals associated with Women's Voices are supporters of Sen. Barack Obama (four board members).

We find it odd that some have criticized Facing South, NPR, the Center for Investigative Reporting and others for documenting the connections between Women's Voices and the Clintons. When a right as fundamental as voting is at stake, we believe the public is entitled to know all of the evidence. No group, no matter how well-connected or well-intentioned, should consider itself above scrutiny. If anything, groups like Women's Voices have a special obligation to ensure their efforts safeguard voter's rights and avoid the appearance of impropriety.

We are encouraged that our investigation has helped bring greater attention to the critical issues of controversial election tactics and voting rights this hotly-contested election season. We will continue to follow these vital issues closely in the coming months.

-- Chris Kromm and Sue Sturgis, Facing South

Labels: facing south, voting rights, women's voices women vote

In the wake of national controversy surrounding Facing South's investigation into the use of illegal and deceptive robo-calls in North Carolina by Women's Voices Women Vote, actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus -- who had appeared in a Public Service Announcement for the group -- issued a widely-circulated statement this weekend clarifying her role with the group.

In the statement, Louis-Dreyfus states:

The news reports [of Louis-Dreyfus' involvement] came about because there was evidence that an individual or a small group of individuals affiliated with WVWV may have issued misleading robo-calls in North Carolina designed to suppress voter turnout in African American neighborhoods. I find these activities appalling and hope WVWV will immediately disassociate themselves from such individuals and denounce such actions.

Louis-Dreyfus also stated that "I am not affiliated with WVWV in any way other than participating in this PSA campaign," and noted that she is "proudly supporting" Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Labels: facing south, julia louis-dreyfus, north carolina, robo-calls, voter suppression, voting rights, women's voices women vote