Spotlight on CVF

By Tim Foster & John Howard, Capitol Weekly, April 20, 2020

Following the harrowing scenes of voters braving long lines and exposure to the coronavirus during Wisconsin’s primary election last week, there is a renewed discussion of the importance of vote-by-mail options.

California has long been a leader in this area, but could we see an all mail-in election by November? Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation joins the Capitol Weekly Podcast’s Tim Foster and John Howard to chat about the positives and negatives of vote-by-mail, and she offers some surprises — including the high number of rejected mail-in ballots and the lowdown on voter fraud.

(Listen to podcast)

By Saul Gonzalez, KQED's California Report, March 5, 2020

Many voters in Los Angeles County had to stand in line for hours to vote on Super Tuesday. There were reports of glitchy equipment and confused staff, even though L.A. County was using new touch screen machines that were supposed to make voting faster and more convenient.

Guest: Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation (audio)

By Rebecca Plevin, Desert Sun, March 4, 2020

Excerpts:

Chuck Yates arrived at his Palm Springs polling place on Super Tuesday, prepared to vote by paper ballot as he always has. But things didn’t go as he had planned.

“I showed up, I gave my name and they said, ‘you voted by mail,’’ he said. “I said, ‘no, I didn’t.’”

A poll worker handed him a provisional ballot, which he begrudgingly filled out.

Two other longtime Coachella Valley voters told The Desert Sun they had similar experiences. They said they went to their polling places on Election Day, intending to vote in-person, only to be told they had received a mail-in ballot at home. They said poll workers offered them the option of casting a provisional ballot.

By Aaron Mendelson, LAist, March 4, 2020

Excerpt:

Combined with more than half a million votes that the registrar has received through the mail, that would already represent a 13% turnout for L.A. County, if all the votes cast so far are counted.

The new system has its advantages, says Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation, a voter outreach and research nonprofit. She said there have been bumps as the new system has been rolled out, but called the vote centers “a good fail safe for a place like Los Angeles where we have millions of voters.”

There are nearly a thousand voting centers to choose from, but many longtime polling places won’t be open this year.

I caught up with Alexander while she was driving between vote centers in Watts and Culver City to see how the new system was working.

She said she saw lines growing this morning, which could signal long waits tomorrow.

By Kitty O'Neal, March 3, 2020

Kim Alexander is president of the California Voter Foundation (CVF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization she re-founded in 1994 and dedicated to improving the voting process to better serve voters, online at www.calvoter.org. CVF is a longtime leader in advancing the responsible use of technology in the democratic process, by pioneering online voter education, online campaign finance disclosure, and voter-verified paper ballot records and auditing requirements for computerized voting systems.

By Michael Krasny, KQED, March 3, 2020

Excerpts:

For the first time since passing a 2017 law moving California's primary election date from June to March, the state's nearly 20 million registered voters are able to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday. California is one of 20 states allowing same-day voter registration where citizens can cast a provisional ballot. We'll take your voter registration and Election Day questions and we'll check in on how smoothly the voting process is going in the Bay Area.

Need to contact your county's election office with any questions, including about your polling place or voter registration status? (Full Audio)

By Tim Foster and John Howard, Capitol Weekly, October 9, 2019

California Voter Foundation President Kim Alexander is celebrating 25 years since the organization was ‘relaunched’ in 1994 – she sat down with John Howard and Tim Foster of the CW podcast to talk about the history of CVF and what her top concerns are a quarter century after the kickoff. (listen here

 

 

By Foon Rhee, Sacramento News and Review, April 11, 2019

Excerpt:

Skeptics might call them do-gooders. But in today’s world—when we could surely use as much good as possible—what’s wrong with that?

To highlight the 30th anniversary of SN&R, we want to recognize 30 people who embody our mission: To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live.

On purpose, the vast majority on this list are not high-profile politicians, the rich and powerful or other bold names. Many come from the nonprofit world, not well-known to the general public but working every day to help the less fortunate and to make public policy smarter and more humane. Some have been in the trenches for many years, while others are just emerging as leaders.

Like any list like this, it’s rather subjective. There are many others in the Sacramento region who are doing yeoman’s work and also deserving of praise.

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Kim Alexander

President of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, she’s a strong advocate for more informed voters having a bigger say, and for voters across the state having equal access to participate. Her group is particularly focused on making sure that technology helps—not harms—our democracy.

(full story)

By California Groundbreakers November 8, 2018

On November 8th, two days after the November General Election, CVF president Kim Alexander participated in a candid post-election discussion hosted by California Groundbreakers at Ruhstaller Brewing in downtown Sacramento. A podcast of the event is available online

 

 

 

Interview with Michael Krasny, KQED's "Forum" program, November 6, 2018

Nearly 20 million Californians are registered to vote in Tuesday's election. That's more than 78 percent of eligible voters and it's the highest number of registered voters ever in the state. Forum takes your voter registration and Election Day questions and we'll check in on how smoothly the voting process is going in the Bay Area. (31 minute audio program)

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