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Did you know you could pre-register to vote when you are 16?  Your registration becomes active on your 18th birthday.

Check out the Secretary of State's website for information to register and much more!

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Students examine the history of political art. They then create their own murals, political cartoons or posters, demonstrating an understanding of social justice issues.
Teaching Tolerance Lesson

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Students create a voter’s guide including information about voters’ rights, important voting dates and deadlines, and an overview of what to expect at the polls. Students share the voter’s guide with friends, families and community members and ask them to sign the Teaching Tolerance Voting and Voices pledges, committing to use their voice or vote in the upcoming elections.
Teaching Tolerance Lesson

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Lesson plan: Civic engagement and how students can get involved

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Lesson plan: Civic engagement and how students can get involved

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What rights and abilities do you have as a U.S. citizen when it comes to advocating for issues you believe in? Use the lesson plan below to discuss civic engagement and the role citizens play in making our voices heard.
PBS LESSON PLAN

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Listen and keep track of the twists and turns.
The Daily Podcast

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KQED’s Youth Media Challenge: Let’s Talk About Election 2020

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KQED’s Youth Media Challenge: Let’s Talk About Election 2020

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They might not be able to vote yet, but they will be affected by the policies decided this fall. Get inspired by their powerful commentaries, covering everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change and immigration.
KQED Challenge

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Multiple perspectives podcast.
Left, Right and Center Podcast

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How can you be a good voter? Use your information literacy skills!

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How can you be a good voter? Use your information literacy skills!

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Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle

If you're like me and many other Californians, you probably have strong feelings about why the number of unhoused people is on the rise here and what to do about it. Combine those feelings with another issue voters tend to get riled up about - legalized sports gambling - and you get Proposition 27.

Debates about how to make housing more equitable across the state are nothing new. Finding long-term solutions for unhoused people is a complex issue, and policymakers, advocates and citizens alike all have strong opinions about it. Despite our collective efforts to be more informed, the emotionally charged debates over Prop. 27 this election season can make it feel like clarity about a viable solution is further away now than ever.

So how do you decide which way to vote? Do your research.

Unfortunately, these days, with the onslaught of ads and rampant misinformation, that task may be easier said than done. Parsing out the facts seems to be getting harder every year. But developing news literacy skills, or the ability to find credible information and tell fact from fiction, is critical to ensuring your decision is an informed one.

There are some simple ways you can begin to boost your news literacy skills so that when you head to the voting booth, you make the decision that is best for you, your family and your community.

Consider who is behind the message. Be mindful of who is producing (and funding) each position. Political advertisements are required to disclose information about their funding sources - use this to your advantage to better understand how bias can creep into critical decision-making.

Compare sources. Where you get your news and information can be just as important as what news you read - different sources can prioritize certain viewpoints over others. If you get all your news from one or two sources, consider broadening your scope and seeking out alternatives.

Similarly, familiarize yourself with local reporters, journalists and news outlets. Local news sources often have access to perspectives that larger news outlets do not. By getting to know your local news outlet's approach to reporting, you can learn more about the nuances of important issues like Prop. 27 and come to a more informed decision.

Pause before you share. Amid all this info gathering, you might be tempted to share something you find to get a second opinion or something that elicited a strong reaction. Sharing is good, but before you hit that retweet or post button, take a pause and ask, "is what I'm sharing verifiable?" Open a new tab and search for what other sources have said about the issue to make sure that the claim you're about to amplify is accurate.

These tactics can help you know what information to trust when it comes to Prop. 27 or any other ballot initiative this election season. Developing a news-literate mindset - one that helps you determine the credibility of news and other information - is one of the most powerful safeguards against misinformation.

To learn about any of the measures on the ballot this November, start by visiting the California Secretary of State's ballot measures guide. My organization, the nonpartisan nonprofit, News Literacy Project, also has a list of credible sources of election information, including about where and how to vote.

A healthy and thriving democracy cannot happen without an informed public. That is something you can bet on.

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Not sure how to vote on ballot measures? Do your research. Here's how

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If you're like me and many other Californians, you probably have strong feelings about why the number of unhoused people is on the rise here and what to do about it. Combine those feelings with another issue voters tend to get riled up about - legalized sports gambling - and you get Proposition 27.

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UPDATES COMING SOON!
NYT Civil Conversation Challenge

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"Jubilee's Middle Ground series is a fan favorite because we bring together people of opposing views to debate and talk through serious issues. We address all things including poverty, wealth, immigration, pro-choice & pro-life (abortion), atheism and christianity (religion), police and criminal relationships, war (veterans and peace activism), gun rights (pro gun vs anti gun), whether college is worth it, and trump supporters and immigrants."
YouTube video series Middle Ground

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Formal letter writing is an effective advocacy tool with the potential to create change while building student confidence. Writing for social change encourages writers to use their own voices and promotes literacy skills.
Teaching Tolerance Lesson Plan

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Ted Talk: The fight for the right to vote in the United States - Nicki Beaman Griffin

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Ted Talk: The fight for the right to vote in the United States - Nicki Beaman Griffin

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Ted Talk  - Fight for the Right to Vote

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Ted Talk: Does your vote count? The Electoral College explained - Christina Greer

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Ted Talk: Does your vote count? The Electoral College explained - Christina Greer

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Ted Talk: Does your vote count

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Get students involved in the democratic process through Future Voters Project!
Future Voters Project

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Facebook Moves to Limit Election Chaos in November

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Facebook Moves to Limit Election Chaos in November

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The social network said it would block new political ads in late October, among other measures, to reduce misinformation and interference.
NYT Article

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Published 9/3/2020 this NYT article explains Facebooks's decision to block new political ads towards the end of October. Could be a great discussion in your class!

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The social network said it would block new political ads in late October, among other measures, to reduce misinformation and interference.

President Trump, left, and Joseph R. Biden Jr., right. Facebook is taking steps to minimize misinformation and election confusion as the two men vie for the presidency. Credit... Photographs by Erin Schaff/The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook on Thursday moved to clamp down on any confusion about the November election on its service, rolling out a series of changes to limit voter misinformation and to prevent interference from President Trump and other politicians.

The social network, in one of its most sweeping sets of election actions, said it planned to bar any new political ads on its site in the week before Election Day. It said it would also strengthen measures against posts that try to dissuade people from voting. Postelection, Facebook said it would quash any candidates' attempts at claiming false victories by redirecting users to accurate information on the results.

Facebook is bracing for what is set to be a highly contentious presidential election. With two months to go, President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. have ratcheted up their attacks against each other, clashing over issues including the coronavirus pandemic and racial unrest. Even when the results are in, Mr. Trump has suggested that he may not accept them and has questioned the legitimacy of mail-in voting.

"This election is not going to be business as usual," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, wrote in a post. He said he was concerned about the challenges that people could face when voting in a pandemic and how the count might take days or weeks to finalize, potentially leading to more unrest. As a result, he said, "we all have a responsibility to protect our democracy."

Facebook has become a key battleground for both Mr. Trump's and Mr. Biden's campaigns. Mr. Trump's campaign has run ads on the social network featuring false corruption accusations about Mr. Biden. Mr. Biden's campaign has criticized Facebook for allowing lies, while also spending millions of dollars to buy ads on the service to appeal to voters.

The social network is striving to prevent itself from being misused. It also wanted to keep either Republicans or Democrats from saying that it unduly influenced voters. In particular, the Silicon Valley company wants to avoid a repeat of 2016, when Russians used the service to sway the American electorate with divisive messaging to promote Mr. Trump.

At the time, Mr. Zuckerberg shrugged off the idea that his social network had influenced the election and Mr. Trump's victory. After evidence of Russian meddling through Facebook became overwhelming, Mr. Zuckerberg spent billions of dollars to secure the social network, hired thousands of employees to focus on security, and worked with intelligence agencies and other tech companies to guard against foreign meddling.

Even so, Facebook has continued to face criticism as domestic misinformation about this year's election - including from Mr. Trump - has proliferated. Mr. Zuckerberg has declined to remove much of that false information, saying that Facebook supports free speech. Many of the company's own employees have objected to that position.

On Tuesday, Facebook said the Kremlin-backed group that interfered in the 2016 presidential election, the internet Research Agency, tried to meddle on its service again using fake accounts and a website set up to look like a left-wing news site. Facebook said it was warned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the Russian effort and removed the fake accounts and news site before they had gained much traction.

Thursday's changes, which are a tacit acknowledgment by Facebook of how powerful its effect on public discourse can be, are unlikely to satisfy its critics. Some of its measures, such as the blocking of new political ads a week before Election Day, are temporary. Yet they demonstrate that Facebook has sweeping abilities to shut down untruthful ads should it choose to do so.

Facebook said it would begin barring politicians from placing new ads on Facebook and Instagram, the photo-sharing service it owns, starting on Oct. 27. Existing political ads will not be affected. Political candidates will still be able to adjust both the groups of people their existing ads are targeting and the amount of money they spend on those ads. They can resume running new political ads after Election Day, the company said.

In another change, Facebook said it would place what it calls its voting information center - a hub for finding accurate, up-to-date information on how to register to vote, and when and where to do so - at the top of its News Feed, which is seen daily by millions, through Election Day. The company had rolled out the voter information center in June and has continued promoting it to users, with a goal of registering four million people and encouraging them to vote.

To curb misinformation about voting, Facebook said it would remove posts that tell people they will catch Covid-19 if they take part in voting. For posts that use the coronavirus to discourage people from voting in other, less obvious ways, the company said it would attach a label and link to its voter information center.

Facebook also plans to remove posts that both explicitly and implicitly aim to disenfranchise or prohibit people from voting; previously, the company removed only posts that actively discouraged people from voting. Now, a post that causes confusion around who is eligible to vote or some part of the voting process - such as a misstatement about what documentation is needed to receive a ballot - would also be removed.

The company also said it would limit the number of people that users can forward messages to in its Messenger app to no more than five people, down from more than 150 people previously. The move mirrors what WhatsApp, the messaging app also owned by Facebook, did in 2018 when it limited message forwarding to 20 people from a previous maximum of 250.

Misinformation across private communication channels is a much more difficult problem to tackle than on public social networks because it is hidden. Limiting message forwarding could slow that spread.

To get accurate information on the election's results, Facebook said it plans to partner with Reuters, the news organization, to provide verified election results to the voting information center. If any candidate tries to declare victory falsely or preemptively, Facebook said, it would add a label to those posts directing users to the official results.

Mr. Zuckerberg has said publicly that Facebook exists to "give people a voice," and that "voting is voice." On Tuesday, he and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, donated $300 million to support voting infrastructure and security efforts.

Facebook teams have worked for months to walk through different scenarios and contingency plans for how to handle the election. The company has built an arsenal of tools and products to safeguard elections in the past four years. It also invited those in government, think tanks and academia to participate.

In recent months, Facebook also turned more to postelection planning. Mr. Zuckerberg and some of his lieutenants had started holding daily meetings about minimizing how the platform could be used to dispute the election, people with knowledge of the company have said.

In his post on Thursday, Mr. Zuckerberg said the period after the election "could be a period of intense claims and counterclaims as the final results are counted."

The chief executive was personally involved in the new election-related changes, according to two people familiar with the company, who declined to be identified because the details are confidential. He pushed the team working on the changes to come up with new ways to tamp down on misinformation and voter suppression, they said.

"It's going to take a concerted effort by all of us - political parties and candidates, election authorities, the media and social networks, and ultimately voters as well - to live up to our responsibilities," Mr. Zuckerberg said.

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Facebook Moves to Limit Election Chaos in November

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The social network said it would block new political ads in late October, among other measures, to reduce misinformation and interference. SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook on Thursday moved to clamp down on any confusion about the November election on its service, rolling out a series of changes to limit voter misinformation and to prevent interference from President Trump and other politicians.

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Engage students to improve their news literacy with these lessons.

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Engaging, interactive lessons help educators equip their students with the tools to evaluate and interpret the news and to learn how to decide what news and other information to trust, share and act on.

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Engaging, interactive lessons help educators equip their students with the tools to evaluate and interpret the news and to learn how to decide what news and other information to trust, share and act on.

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A non-profit founded by Justice Sandra Day O'Conner to help students become enthusiastic citizens.

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In this new Private i History Detectives unit, Elementary students analyze primary sources to discover how Constitutional Amendments attempted to address slavery's wrongs, how the courts challenged unfair laws, and how individuals and groups fought for civil rights.

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In this new Private i History Detectives unit, Elementary students analyze primary sources to discover how Constitutional Amendments attempted to address slavery's wrongs, how the courts challenged unfair laws, and how individuals and groups fought for civil rights.

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Aljazeera's fact-checking of Trump's RNC speech.

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President Donald Trump opens the first day of the Republican National Convention with a speech peppered with falsehoods and distortions [Evan Vucci/AP Photo]

President Donald Trump closed the Republican National Convention with a 70-minute speech at the White House in Washington, DC, that was full of half-truths, exaggerated claims and outright falsehoods.

Here are eight of the president's latest suspect assertions as Trump campaigns for re-election in November:

Biden will shut down for COVID-19

Claim: Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden wants to shut down the US economy.

"Instead of following the science, Joe Biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country. His shutdown would inflict unthinkable and lasting harm on our nation's children, families, and citizens of all backgrounds," Trump said in his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Republican convention event at the White House on August 27.

Fact: No one knows what the pandemic will look like in January 2021, although experts fear there could be a second wave of coronavirus infections. Biden has publicly said he would only shut down the nation's economy if scientists and public health advisers recommend he do so. In other words, he said he would follow the science, not disregard it.

In an ABC News interview on August 23, Biden said he would be "prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives".

"I would listen to the scientists," the former vice president said.

US has low fatality rate

Claim: Trump says the US has one of the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates of any country.

"The United States has among the lowest case fatality rates of any major country anywhere in the world. The European Union's case fatality rate is nearly three times higher than ours," Trump said in his convention speech.

Fact: Trump is using questionable statistical comparisons between countries to suggest the US is somehow doing better than others in handling the virus.

The US sits right in the middle when it comes to COVID-19 mortality rates in the 20 nations most impacted by the pandemic, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Of the top 20, Mexico has the highest mortality rate at 10.8 deaths for every 100 confirmed COVID-19 cases, followed by Ecuador at 5.8. Saudi Arabia had the lowest rate of the 20 nations at 1.2. The US is 10th lowest of the top 20 nations, with a mortality rate of 3.1.

When Johns Hopkins University looked at the data another way, analysing the COVID-19 death rate for every 100,000 residents, the US fares worse. Only three nations - Brazil, Chile and Peru - posted higher death rates.

Many factors are at play in shaping death toll numbers besides how well a country responded to the pandemic, such as the overall health or youth of national populations and the rate of testing to confirm actual COVID-19 cases.

US has most advanced testing

Claim: The US has a superior testing system for COVID-19.

"We developed from scratch the largest and most advanced testing system anywhere in the world. America has tested more than every country in Europe, put together, and more than every nation in the Western Hemisphere combined," Trump said. "Think of that: we've conducted 40 million more tests, than the next closest nation, which is India."

This is a dubious claim. The US repeatedly stumbled with testing in the early weeks of the outbreak, as the virus spread. Government experts say the US is still nowhere near the level of testing needed to control the virus.

Dr Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently testified that health officials are still working to significantly increase testing capacity, calling such expansion a "critical underpinning of our response".

The US currently is conducting nearly 750,000 tests a day, far short of what many public health experts say is needed to control the spread of the virus. Some experts have called for four million or more tests daily, while a group assembled by Harvard University estimated that 20 million a day would be needed to keep the virus in check.

Worse, frequent shortages of testing capacity spurred the CDC to quietly issue new guidance on testing on August 24 to reduce demand. While in the early months of the outbreak Trump repeatedly insisted that "anybody" who wants a test can get a test (which was not accurate), Redfield issued a statement this week saying that, "Everyone who wants a test does not necessarily need a test."

Mail-in ballots

Claims: Democrats are trying to rig the 2020 election by sending out millions of mail-in ballots.

"With this whole 80 million mail-in ballots that they're working on. Sending them out to people that didn't ask for 'em. They didn't ask. They just get them. And it's not fair and it's not right. And it's not going to be possible to tabulate, in my opinion, it's just my opinion. We have to be very, very careful. and you have to watch, every one of you, you have to watch," Trump said in a speech opening the Republican National Convention on August 24 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Fact: Voting by mail is already widely available in 30 US states governed by Republicans and Democrats. Safety concerns about the risk of coronavirus infection, especially for older voters and people with health conditions, are the impetus for greater use of mail ballots. There is no evidence that use of mail ballots, when properly handled using modern procedures, results in fraud. Further, there is effectively no distinction between voting by mail and "absentee" voting, which is common in all states.

Pandemic response

Claim: Trump's White House task force has done an "incredible job" battling the coronavirus.

"If we didn't shut it down at that point, we would have had millions of people dead, millions of people. You see the numbers. The job that Mike Pence and the task force, and all of us together have done has been incredible, what we've done, what we've achieved," Trump said on Monday.

Fact: Trump initially ignored and downplayed the risk of the coronavirus and did not shut down the US economy. It was US business leaders and state governors who first issued decisions to shut down. Trump subsequently urged early reopenings despite recommendations of public health authorities. The total US death toll exceeds 177,000, the highest in the world, and continues to climb as the infection resurges in what experts warn is close to a worst-case scenario.

Obama, Biden Spying on Trump

Claim: Obama, Biden "spied on my campaign" and got caught.

"I watched, President Obama last night and I watched him talking about everything and I had to put it out. I said, 'yeah but he spied on my campaign and he got caught.' You know that's about as bad a thing as you can imagine. If that happened to another campaign on the other side, they would have 25 people in jail for many years already, many many years. It's a disgrace," Trump said in a campaign speech in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, on August 20.

Fact: Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden did not initiate or direct the FBI's counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, which several government reviews have concluded was fully justified. A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report confirms that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election with the goal of helping Trump get elected. Both the Senate investigation and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe found Trump welcomed Russia's help and sought to coordinate with WikiLeaks through Roger Stone on the release of stolen Democratic emails, something Trump has denied.

Biden, Democrats are anti-religion

Claim: Democrats took the word "God" out of the US Pledge of Allegiance recited at the Democratic National Convention.

"I can promise you a few things. Number one, we will not be taking the word 'God' out of the Pledge of Allegiance, OK. Like they did a number of times at their caucuses so ... they took the word 'God' out. I heard it. I was listening. I said, 'Isn't that strange.' It was sort of weird. You've heard it all your life, right. Under God, under God," Trump said in Charlotte.

Fact: Trump is facing an erosion of support among evangelical voters in the US and is distorting what happened at the Democratic National Convention in order to falsely portray Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Democratic Party as anti-religious. During each of the four nights of live streaming of the Democratic convention, the traditional Pledge of Allegiance was recited using the phrase "under God". In two smaller assemblies of the Muslim Delegates and Allies and the LGBTQ Caucus, that were not part of the main programme, the phrase was left out. Some Americans who do not practise religion believe the pledge may be recited without reference to God. Joe Biden is a practising Catholic and attends church on Sundays regularly.

Protecting Americans health insurance

Claim: Republicans are protecting American's right to health insurance for pre-existing conditions.

"So, we protected your pre-existing conditions, very strongly protected pre-exist. And you don't hear that, but we've very strongly protected your pre-existing conditions. So, we got rid of the horrible individual mandate which cost everybody a fortune. And we strongly protected, every Republican is sworn to protecting your pre-existing conditions. It's very important. You won't hear that. You won't hear that from the fake news," Trump said Monday.

Fact: This claim is false. Under Trump, Republican majorities in Congress repeatedly tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act passed during former President Barack Obama's administration which prevents health insurance companies from refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions. The Trump Justice Department is challenging the constitutionality of the law, known as "Obamacare", in federal court.

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Fact-checking President Donald Trump's false campaign claims

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President Donald Trump closed the Republican National Convention with a 70-minute speech at the White House in Washington, DC, that was full of half-truths, exaggerated claims and outright falsehoods. Here are eight of the president's latest suspect assertions as Trump campaigns for re-election in November: Claim: Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden wants to shut down the US economy.

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Another global perspective of the US Presidential race.

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The US has recorded more than 52 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people - according to Johns Hopkins University - but there are a handful of countries that have recorded more on this measurement, including the UK and Italy.

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DNC 2020: Joe Biden convention speech fact-checked

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The US has recorded more than 52 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people - according to Johns Hopkins University - but there are a handful of countries that have recorded more on this measurement, including the UK and Italy.

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A course for those 18-22 who are getting ready to vote for the first time. Hosted by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

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Voting can be complicated, especially if it's your first time. Are you properly registered? What's up with mail-in voting? And perhaps most importantly, how do you know that you're voting based on facts, not fiction?

This free fact-checking course from the MediaWise Voter Project (#MVP2020) will help you earn that "I Voted" sticker. Thanks to instructional videos from #MVP2020 friends like John Green, online sleuthing challenges, and lessons in being a social media detective, you will feel more confident and empowered casting your vote in 2020.

This is a four-part course that dives deep into all things fact-checking. Each part takes about one hour and ends in a quiz that advances you to the next level. Once you complete all four levels, you will earn a MediaWise Voter Project Fact-Checking Certificate to prove to everyone you are MediaWise and know how to find accurate information.

Level 1: Fact-checking 101 for first-time voters

Level 2: All about that research

Level 3: Follow that coin!

Level 4: Deepfakes, bots and seeing the future

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MediaWise Voter Project Fact-Checking Certificate - Poynter

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Voting can be complicated, especially if it's your first time. Are you properly registered? What's up with mail-in voting? And perhaps most importantly, how do you know that you're voting based on facts, not fiction? This free fact-checking course from the MediaWise Voter Project (#MVP2020) will help you earn that "I Voted" sticker.

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One election night or an election week with mail-in ballots?

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Heavy reliance on slow-to-count mail balloting due to the pandemic might make this more like an election week.

Experts say the proper functioning of democracy is at risk because of the complications raised by holding elections during a pandemic. Elements of concern include new voting procedures, heightened political polarization, and a deluge of misinformation on social media.

Poynter will convene experts and journalists online to discuss these issues and best practices over the course of two days. The webinar will include four panels in the mornings and afternoons of Sept. 9 and 10. Participation is free to the public but an RSVP is required. Register here by Sept. 2.

Remember Florida's presidential election recount in 2000, with the hanging chads, the magnifying glasses, and the weeks of courtroom battles about how to count the votes? There could be post-election vote-counting chaos again in the 2020 election - maybe in Florida, maybe some other state, or even in several states at the same time.

The reason is the heavy reliance this year on slower-to-count mail balloting during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, it might not even be an election "night" at all. Depending on how close the election is in key states, the confusion, and even mischief, it could be more like election week.

To minimize the risk of coronavirus spreading, many states (though not all) have eased the process of mail voting, often by eliminating the need for an "excuse" to vote by mail. A few states are going so far as to send ballots to every active registered voter in 2020 - California, Nevada, New Jersey, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. They join five states that were already effectively vote-by-mail states: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah.

Experts say that these decisions about how to run state-by-state elections are just one element of a toxic brew that poses a risk to the proper functioning of democracy. The other elements include concern about the pandemic, heightened political polarization, and a deluge of misinformation on social media.

"Americans can no longer take for granted that election losers will concede a closely fought election after election authorities or courts have declared a winner," wrote a panel of election experts on ensuring public confidence in the 2020 elections. "Current American politics feature severe hyperpolarization and an increasingly partisan media and social media environment. Mistrust is high. It is harder for voters to get reliable political information. Incendiary rhetoric about rigged or stolen elections is on the rise, and unsubstantiated claims of rigged elections find a receptive audience especially among those who are on the losing end of the election."

Here are some of the specific challenges facing the elections process:

Voting by mail raises a host of questions that voters may find unfamiliar.

What are your state's rules and deadlines for requesting a ballot? If you still want to vote in person, what is the availability of in-person polling places in your state? How do you fill out the ballot correctly and avoid it being thrown out? And can the U.S. Postal Service, which has money problems and has undergone a staff shakeup, be counted on to deliver the surge of mail ballots?

Counting ballots may take longer than previous years.

Ballots cast by mail require extra steps to verify a voter's identity, including comparing signatures to prevent voter fraud or double counting. This takes time. Some states allow ballots postmarked prior to Election Day to be counted even if they arrive in the mail several days after the polls close. So it may be impossible to call the winner of the presidential race, or other key contests, on election night.

Partisan patterns may be revealed when ballots are counted.

Not only is mail balloting expected to be used much more heavily this fall due to the pandemic, but surveys suggest that Republican voters are following President Donald Trump's skepticism about mail voting and will prefer to vote in person. If this holds, it means that the election night returns might skew Republican, with mail ballots that arrive later skewing Democratic. In some cases, this trend is reinforced by rural, more Republican areas having their ballots tallied first, while urban, more Democratic areas with heavier ballot loads are counted later. While some states had already demonstrated this pattern in past elections, the expected increase in mail ballots this year is expected to magnify the impact of differences in vote tabulation patterns. Voters need to keep these patterns in mind as they wait for the ballots to be counted.

The media will need to be vigilant against misinformation and baseless claims.

The media will need to reinforce the broader context of vote counting and keep voters from jumping to inaccurate conclusions. A panel of voting experts has published a report that warns that "mistrust is high. It is harder for voters to get reliable political information. Incendiary rhetoric about rigged or stolen elections is on the rise, and unsubstantiated claims of rigged elections find a receptive audience especially among those who are on the losing end of the election."

Social media still has problems with misinformation.

Voters, as well as journalists, will need to adopt a skeptical eye toward claims on social media. This has become especially important given efforts by Trump and his allies to paint mailed votes as broadly fraudulent, even though such claims are inaccurate. On the other side, claims of voter suppression have increased due to fewer Election Day polling places in some states, but such complaints sometimes soft-pedal the steps made to expand early voting and vote by mail.

If you're someone who enjoys gathering around the TV with your family and friends on election night, there are some of the key takeaways before you settle in the night of Nov. 3:

Early leaders may not ultimately win.

Shifts in which candidate is ahead as the counting progresses are natural and aren't "nefarious," experts agree.

"It just means that different parts of states, with different political and demographic profiles, will be reporting at different points in the process, said Drew McCoy, the president of Decision Desk HQ, which reports election-related data to media outlets, political organizations, and private companies.

Beware of "percentage of precincts reporting" numbers.

The metric was long used in TV chyrons and online databases to indicate how much of the vote has been counted. But in an election conducted heavily by mail, the "precincts reporting" percentage is almost meaningless. The percentage of precincts counted may be close to 100% yet not take into account a large number of untallied mail ballots.

"We should never see a '100% of precincts reporting' language again when there are thousands of absentee ballots yet to count and include in the totals," said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California-Irvine.

Networks say they have transitioned to "percentage of expected vote," but "that of course poses its own challenges when you are changing the nature of how people vote as much as so many states are," said Rick Klein, ABC News' political director.

Beware of political spinning.

Early leads for one candidate can be hijacked by partisan commentators and then amplified on social media. For instance, more partisan-aligned media outlets may be comfortable "coloring in" the map quickly with the leads as they stand, regardless of whether or not the states have counted enough votes to justify a final call, said Edward B. Foley, an election law specialist at Ohio State University.

Widespread sharing of misleading maps on social media could "generate a narrative that one candidate already has prevailed when, in fact, there are lots of votes still left to count," Foley said.

Allowing such claims to spread could damage public trust in the election if the other candidate is ultimately declared the winner, "Political leaders should come together and speak out against candidates or groups who declare victory early or raise false claims about ballot tampering," said the report.

Be judicious about your news sources.

Seek out political coverage that takes pains to explain the ballot-counting process to voters. For instance, trustworthy media sources will use the phrase "too early to call." Reliable media outlets will also make clear that slow counts or shifts in leads are not a sign of fraud or failed processes, and they will debunk viral misinformation, especially if it's amplified by political figures.

Vote early if you can.

Voters can help streamline the ballot-counting process by not waiting until the last minute to mail in their ballots, said Matthew Weil, director of the elections project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "When I talk to voters I tell them to do it earlier in the process, so-called 'flatten the curve' of absentee voting so we don't have to overwhelm the system," he said.
Poynter will convene experts and journalists online to discuss these issues and best practices over the course of two days. The webinar will include four panels in the mornings and afternoons of Sept. 9 and 10. Participation is free to the public but an RSVP is required. Register here by Sept. 2. This article was originally published by PolitiFact, which is owned by the Poynter Institute, and is republished here with permission. See the sources for these facts checks here and more of their fact-checks here.

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Here's how to prepare for the weirdest election 'night' ever - Poynter

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Heavy reliance on slow-to-count mail balloting due to the pandemic might make this more like an election week. Experts say the proper functioning of democracy is at risk because of the complications raised by holding elections during a pandemic. Elements of concern include new voting procedures, heightened political polarization, and a deluge of misinformation on social media.

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Crowdsourced evaluation of news. Interactive and engaging for students. This link goes directly yo their Election 2020 coverage, but the site has tons of topics to explore.

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Find balanced news from the Left, Right and Center covering 2020 Election.

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Mail in Voting from Multiple Perspectives 

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Mail in Voting from Multiple Perspectives 

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How do "all sides" view the mail in voting controversy?

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Find balanced news from the Left, Right and Center covering mail-in voting.

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The website headquarters for the Democratic party

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We're fighting for a brighter, more equal future: rolling up our sleeves and organizing everywhere to build a better America for all.

What We Do

The DNC is dedicated to building on our wins from 2020 and 2022. We're working hard to elect Democrats up and down the ballot by empowering grassroots activists, mobilizing voters, and organizing in every ZIP code.

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Democrats are fighting for a better, fairer, and brighter future for every American: rolling up our sleeves, empowering grassroots voters, and organizing everywhere to build a better America.

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The web headquarters of the Republican Party.

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The 2020 Republican National Convention - Republican National Convention

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August 24, 2020 | Charlotte, North Carolina REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 00 Days : 00 Hours : 00 Minutes : 00 Seconds Welcome to the official website of the 2020 Republican National Convention! Marcia Lee KellyPresident and CEO2020 Republican National Convention Dear Friends, This resource will provide you with the latest news and information about the [...]

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Associated Press coverage of the 2020 elections. Articles explore a variety of aspects related to this election season.

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Updates, visuals and in-depth reporting on the 2020 U.S. election from The Associated Press.

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Gallup experts explore how this election is different compared to those in the past in this 32 minute podcast. Pretty advanced...preview first.

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How does this election year compare with past elections? What do Gallup's historical measures suggest about today's political landscape -- and what does this mean for President Donald Trump's reelection prospects? Gallup's Director of U.S. Social Research Lydia Saad and Senior Editor Jeff Jones join the podcast to discuss presidential approval ratings, satisfaction with the direction of the U.S. and more.

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Gallup Experts on How Election 2020 Is Different

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How does this election year compare with past elections? What do Gallup's historical measures suggest about today's political landscape -- and what does this mean for President Donald Trump's reelection prospects? Gallup's Director of U.S. Social Research Lydia Saad and Senior Editor Jeff Jones join the podcast to discuss presidential approval ratings, satisfaction with the direction of the U.S.

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Data and polling around current public opinion regarding election 2022.

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Research and data on Election 2022 from the Pew Research Center

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Gallup's 2022 Presidential Election Center with polling data around the mood of the nation and trending topics.

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The last page of this doc published by the ALA has dozens of links to resources. Worth a look.

“At a time when we are searching everywhere for community, for connection, for a sense of belonging, for the engines of democracy that will revitalize our civic life, we have . . . the most amazing social infrastructure that designers could ever build and it’s called the library.” —Eric Klinenberg, professor, author

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"When We All Vote is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that is on a mission to increase participation in every election and close the race and age voting gap by changing the culture around voting, harnessing grassroots energy, and through strategic partnerships to reach every American.

Launched in 2018 by co-chairs Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monae, Chris Paul, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, When We All Vote is changing the culture around voting using a data-driven and multifaceted approach to increase participation in elections."

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When We All Vote Co-Chairs, Ambassadors, Supporters, Join Mrs. Obama in Fight for Senate to Pass the For the People Act
Read their letter here >

Your contribution will help us build a team to get people registered and out to vote. We can't do it without you.

When We All Vote is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible to the full extent provided by law.

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When We All Vote Co-Chairs, Ambassadors, Supporters, Join Mrs. Obama in Fight for Senate to Pass the For the People Act Read their letter here > Your contribution will help us build a team to get people registered and out to vote. We can't do it without you.

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All-thing around engaging youth in elections include polling data, research, and engagement outlets.

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Campaign contact, digital outreach, young people engaging their peers, and action on racial justice all contributed to higher youth voter turnout.

Youth electoral participation in 2020 was high and could be even higher if we support young people, who have varied priorities for the new administration.

The full report of our study of civic education in the Commonwealth highlights challenges and recommendations for more inclusive and equitable K-12 civics.

The data suggests outreach to young Black voters worked, and their overwhelming preference for the Democratic candidates may have been decisive.

The runoff elections for both Georgia seats will determine control of the Senate, and mobilizing Black youth in the state may be a decisive factor.

Campaign contact, digital outreach, young people engaging their peers, and action on racial justice all contributed to higher youth voter turnout.

Youth electoral participation in 2020 was high and could be even higher if we support young people, who have varied priorities for the new administration.

The full report of our study of civic education in the Commonwealth highlights challenges and recommendations for more inclusive and equitable K-12 civics.

The data suggests outreach to young Black voters worked, and their overwhelming preference for the Democratic candidates may have been decisive.

The runoff elections for both Georgia seats will determine control of the Senate, and mobilizing Black youth in the state may be a decisive factor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Campaign contact, digital outreach, young people engaging their peers, and action on racial justice all contributed to higher youth voter turnout. Youth electoral participation in 2020 was high and could be even higher if we support young people, who have varied priorities for the new administration.

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Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government, a service of the Government Publishing Office (GPO), is designed to inform students, parents, and educators about the Federal Government. Ages 4 and up.

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Engaging young people through pop culture, music, art, etc. to vote for over 30 years!

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Young voters rocked the midterms in 2022 - and with more young people turning 18 every day, they can do it again if we invest in them. Join us as we kick off this important campaign - 2024 starts now!

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Dedicated to building the political power of young people. Register to vote, check your registration status, and more. Fast, easy, secure, nonpartisan.

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Explore local and state politics by navigating through our Secretary of State's website.

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Translated Election Information

Welcome to the California Secretary of State's official webpage. Our office is dedicated to making government transparent and accessible in the areas of elections, business, political campaigning, legislative advocacy, and historical treasures. And as your Secretary of State and Chief Elections Officer I am committed to modernizing the office, increasing voter registration and participation, and strengthening voting rights.

Alex Padilla California Secretary of State Learn More About the Agency

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Translated Election Information Welcome to the California Secretary of State's official webpage. Our office is dedicated to making government transparent and accessible in the areas of elections, business, political campaigning, legislative advocacy, and historical treasures. And as your Secretary of State and Chief Elections Officer I am committed to modernizing the office, increasing voter registration and participation, and strengthening voting rights.

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NYT 11 Ways to Engage Students From Now Until November

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NYT 11 Ways to Engage Students From Now Until November

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Predicting the unpredictable, adopting an issue and other ideas for teaching and learning about the election.

Related Article Credit... Illustration by The New York Times; logos, via TikTok

Updated: Aug. 20, 2020
Though election news will dominate the headlines throughout 2020, the global pandemic has impacted everything from how the candidates campaign to how the conventions work to the ways we'll vote in November.

Whether your students are in school this fall, learning at home or experiencing some kind of hybrid, we have ideas for how they can get involved now and stay involved until November - and, perhaps, cope with feelings of helplessness during this crisis as they do.

A recent Washington Post Opinion piece by two education professors argues that, right now, teenagers are learning "profound civics lessons" as they watch Washington respond to the Covid-19 crisis. We don't have to convince them that what happens in politics affects their lives - they're seeing the evidence of that every day. As the essay puts it:

The coronavirus pandemic lays bare two major weaknesses in traditional approaches to teaching civics and history - what students are expected to learn and how we measure that learning. Too often, these subjects are taught as a barrage of isolated facts disconnected from the realities young people face daily.

The essay goes on to recommend approaches that encourage young people to "lean into the discrepancies they see between civic ideals and their civic realities." This summer, we'll be working on a suite of ideas that we hope can help do just that.

As we plan ahead, we invite you to share with us how you plan to bring the election, and the issues at stake in November, into your own classroom. We'd also like to hear from you how The Learning Network can help.

In the meantime, here are 11 ways students can keep up with the candidates, campaigns, conventions and controversies, make their opinions heard, and take action.

Listen to 'The Daily': Biden's Campaign in Isolation

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is struggling to attain the same visibility as the president. But is that a good thing?

Back to The Daily

transcript

Listen to 'The Daily': Biden's Campaign in Isolation

Hosted by Michael Barbaro; produced by Alexandra Leigh Young and Eric Krupke; with help from Neena Pathak, Rachel Quester, Robert Jimison and Asthaa Chaturvedi; and edited by M.J. Davis Lin, Theo Balcomb and Lisa Tobin

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is struggling to attain the same visibility as the president. But is that a good thing?

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is "The Daily."

[music]

Today, Joe Biden is the first candidate in U.S. history to wage a presidential campaign in quarantine. Alex Burns on the strange new reality of the 2020 race. It's Thursday, April 30.

Alex, the last time that we spoke with you, Joe Biden had just become the de facto Democratic nominee. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race, and the pandemic was just really beginning to wash over the United States. Now, of course, the coronavirus is very much here, so I wonder if you could describe the state of the Biden campaign.

alex burns

Well, the state of the Biden campaign is super weird, which is a technical term.

michael barbaro

Of course.

alex burns

You know, since the last time we spoke, Joe Biden has not held one public event in person as a candidate, and his campaign has been really restricted to the telephone and to Zoom and FaceTime, like so much of life for so many Americans. He is campaigning, he likes to say, from his basement, kind of as a joke, but it's true that he has a video uplink in a refurbished rec room in his enormous house in Delaware. But he is basically unable to do almost any of the traditional activities of a presumptive candidate. There was no unity rally with his defeated primary opponents, and there are certainly no in-person fundraisers.

michael barbaro

So what does the virtual element of this campaign actually look like, the part where he's on Zoom in his basement with all those books behind him?

alex burns

Right. It's kind of a work in progress.

alex burns

So they've tried a bunch of different formats.

alex burns

They have done what they call virtual rope lines, where Biden gets on his video stream and talks to a succession of voters the way he would if he were greeting them at the end of an event.

alex burns

Except it didn't quite work that way, because on an actual rope line, you talk to a voter for, you know, maybe 10 or 15 seconds, a minute if it's a really important conversation.

alex burns

His first virtual rope line, I spoke to one of the voters who was on it. Voters said that it went for more than an hour, right?

michael barbaro

What?

alex burns

So this is not - yeah, exactly. These became very involved conversations.

archived recording

And will you prohibit animals from being hunted and brought into this country for trophies?

archived recording (joe biden)

Yes and yes.

archived recording

Oh, I love you.

archived recording (joe biden)

But look, I want to say something beyond that. One of the things that I -

michael barbaro

Right. The whole point of a rope line, as I've observed them, is that the minute you bump into someone you don't want to talk to, you literally just turn your head and you are done with them.

alex burns

Right.

michael barbaro

And here, it feels like you would be locked into a Zoom conversation with somebody and it would be hard to get out of it.

alex burns

That's right.

alex burns

The campaign has tried other formats. Virtual town halls. He has held virtual endorsement events.

alex burns

There is definitely a stilted and sometimes artificial quality to these events.

alex burns

Getting Bernie Sanders's endorsement, you ended up with these two guys pushing 80 on a livestream talking to each other, and there is something about it that - you know, it doesn't have the same kind of emotional kick that a unity rally would, for instance.

archived recording (joe biden)

I'm looking forward to working with you, pal. I really, genuinely mean it from the bottom my heart. Thank you for being such a gentleman. Thank you for being so generous, and I give you my word, I'll try my best not to let you all down.

archived recording (bernie sanders)

Thank you very much, Joe.

archived recording (joe biden)

Thanks, pal.

archived recording (bernie sanders)

Say hello to -

archived recording (joe biden)

I will.

archived recording (bernie sanders)

Jane and I say hello to Jill, as well.

archived recording (joe biden)

I will.

alex burns

He has started a podcast -

alex burns

- where he does these, I think, rather charming interviews with other prominent Democrats -

alex burns

- where they talk in a fairly unstructured-seeming way about just sort of what's on their minds, what their lockdown experience has been.

alex burns

What sort of their big policy agendas are and their ideas are.

michael barbaro

Hmm.

michael barbaro

Alex, do you have the sense that the virtual components of this campaign that have been cobbled together - the podcast, the town halls, the rope line - do you sense that any of these are really breaking through and that the voting public is actually consuming them?

alex burns

You know, I think they have done some things that have broken through.

alex burns

He has begun doing local TV hits in swing states, in markets like Milwaukee and Detroit and Pittsburgh.

michael barbaro

Interesting.

alex burns

And that is an important way to get in front of people, especially at a time when so many people are staying at home and watching television all day.

michael barbaro

And in that sense, it feels like fundamentally not quite an even playing field when you think about his opponent, the incumbent president of the United States. Because incumbency has always carried massive advantages for publicity, right, and commanding the spotlight. But here, we have an incumbent in the middle of a national crisis with daily news briefings.

michael barbaro

And on the other side is Joe Biden at home in isolation, trying to get on TV or do an online event.

alex burns

Right. You know, Donald Trump is also stuck at home doing video and television appearances from his residence, but his residence is the White House, and he's the incumbent president.

michael barbaro

Right.

alex burns

And that commands a different level of public attention. And this is something in the course of our reporting on, you know, Biden's life in lockdown, is that he has been frustrated with not so much the differential between the attention he gets and the attention Trump gets, but with the criticism he has gotten for being so much less visible than the president. Because I think the view among people close to Biden is, you just can't put yourself on an equal footing with the president in a national crisis when you're not allowed to leave your house.

michael barbaro

Right. And that frustration, I imagine, reflects a fear that this crisis is just going to make it much harder for Joe Biden to win.

alex burns

You know, I'm not sure that that's exactly right.

michael barbaro

Hm.

alex burns

I think the view in the Biden camp, and I think increasingly the view as well among a lot of senior Republicans, is that the huge differential in media exposure in the president's favor is maybe not working so much in the president's favor.

alex burns

He is out there, yes, getting tons of eyeballs on him every single day, but his numbers have steadily fallen, not just overall in terms of where he is in the election, but in how the public feels about his handling of the crisis.

alex burns

A lot of people are looking at him very closely. They don't really seem to like what they see. On the other hand, people are paying far less attention to Joe Biden, but let's think back on the Joe Biden who we knew during the Democratic primaries, who was not exactly mister crisp, clean, and confident when it came to delivering a public message every single day out on the campaign trail.

michael barbaro

Right. There were a lot of gaffes. There were a lot of missteps, a lot of misspoken words and thoughts.

alex burns

Right. There were arguments with voters.

archived recording

You're selling access to the president just like he is.

archived recording (joe biden)

You're a damn liar, man. That's not true, and no one has ever said that, no one has proved that.

archived recording

The hell it ain't. I see it on the -

alex burns

This is not a candidate with a really flawless performance as a public campaigner, so there is a trade-off here. And right now, I think on balance, it seems to be working for Biden to be this largely unseen figure who people basically have a favorable impression of. So to have him more offstage at a moment when the president is struggling at least creates the possibility that he continues to gain relative political strength mostly by default.

michael barbaro

So there is a version of this where Joe Biden meaningfully benefits from being the candidate of isolation.

alex burns

Yes, and that is the scenario that we are living in right now.

[music]

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

So Alex, you have just described what the Biden candidacy looks like in isolation. I want to turn to the broader campaign. What does that start to look like under these very strange circumstances?

alex burns

You know, I don't think anybody knows the answer to that for sure, but I think that what we can say today, with half a year left in this campaign, is that it is going to be a shadow of the kind of presidential campaign that we are used to.

michael barbaro

Hm.

alex burns

We don't know whether either of these candidates will ever hold a conventional campaign rally again.

michael barbaro

Wow.

alex burns

We still don't know whether either party will hold any semblance of a national convention, and these are restrictions driven by a public health catastrophe with a very, very uncertain trajectory ahead of us.

michael barbaro

It's really hard to imagine presidential campaigns without conventions. We've both attended these conventions, and they are these really important moments in a campaign, right? I mean, in many ways, a candidate is introduced to the country - their biography, their story. There are the slickly produced videos, family members come out. You know, elaborate tributes are made, and without those, kind of, when does the general election really even kick off?

alex burns

Well, that's the big question. I think right now, if one of the parties is going to forge ahead with a convention, it will clearly be the Republicans. The president has said to be very determined to hold a convention -

michael barbaro

Interesting.

alex burns

- in Charlotte, but he is a prisoner to circumstance and public health as much as anybody here. Biden has gone much further in suggesting that it may need to be some kind of virtual convention, and it's hard to imagine a virtual convention getting the same kind of attention as the spectacle that you just described.

michael barbaro

Mm-hm.

alex burns

And if you are deprived of that opportunity, you know, not just to introduce yourself to the country, but to introduce yourself to the country with your running mate, and your ideas, and your general election slogan and message, it is a much, much bigger challenge of political stagecraft to make it really count the way I think both campaigns would really like it to this year.

michael barbaro

Well, so I'm curious whether we end up having anything resembling a normal convention or not. How are you seeing the pandemic start to influence the kind of visions that both of these candidates are going to be running on in the next few months?

alex burns

I don't think that I can recall another presidential campaign where the two parties' eventual nominees end up having to move so far away from the message that they set out to deliver at the beginning of the campaign.

michael barbaro

What do you mean?

alex burns

Look, President Trump came into this election season expecting to run on four more years of peace and prosperity, and a booming stock market, and economic growth. That is obviously not a viable message at this point. Joe Biden entered the presidential race with, essentially, a message of returning to normalcy, where, "You all remember what the Obama years were like, and we can do, you know, more of that." That also seems like a pretty defunct message under current conditions.

michael barbaro

Right. Well, what is it starting to mean for those two kind of assumed visions for the campaign? I mean, what are you seeing Joe Biden do to pivot away from the, "I want to return to normal" because there kind of is no normal anymore, and what are you seeing from President Trump, who wanted to campaign on a record stock market and economic expansion?

alex burns

It is a huge question mark for both of them even at this point, and I think the eventual answers are going to be heavily driven by the external realities of the campaign. If President Trump winds up in a position next fall to make the case that, you know, you are seeing the green shoots of an economic recovery, then that will be his message. If he doesn't have that, I think it's really hard to see what kind of positive, forward-looking message he can deliver. What we have seen from his campaign the last few weeks is a combination of attacking congressional Democrats -

alex burns

- for being very liberal and not being cooperative enough with him, and attacking Joe Biden personally.

alex burns

And then, you have seen the president at a number of points revive the red meat issue of immigration as sort of a stimulus to his political base.

alex burns

I don't know that that adds up to a cohesive message about, "Look at all the things I accomplished. Here are all the things I will accomplish for you with the second term." I think the closest we heard President Trump get to that kind of message was when he said, somewhat off the cuff, in one of his briefings a few weeks back that we built the greatest economy in the world.

alex burns

We'll do it again.

archived recording (donald trump)

So I'm very proud of this country, I have to say. I'm very proud to be your president, and I'm very proud of this country. Thank you very much everybody.

[APPLAUSE]

michael barbaro

OK. So that's Trump. What about Biden?

alex burns

Biden has increasingly begun to talk about the next presidency not as a return to normalcy kind of event -

alex burns

- but as really a national emergency presidency.

alex burns

He has talked about doing much more in terms of investing in economic stimulus, income support, business rescues, infrastructure spending. We just haven't seen it all come together in some kind of big, "Joe Biden's National Rescue Plan." This is what the Joe Biden version of a 21st century New Deal would look like. I can't tell you that, from my own reporting on the Biden campaign, they are moving in that direction. They are having those conversations, and I think it is generally the view, not just in the Biden camp, but among Democrats more broadly. That the party needs to offer something much bigger than the Joe Biden primary season agenda, an agenda that many Democrats found totally worthy based on the conditions they knew about in February, but that doesn't match the severity of the moment today.

michael barbaro

Alex, I want to turn now to the state of the race, Trump versus Biden. What exactly are polls telling us at this point, with the enormous caveat that it's six months before election day?

alex burns

Well, with that enormous caveat, the picture is quite clear at this point that Biden has an early upper hand over the president.

michael barbaro

Hm.

alex burns

In terms of the head-to-head between the two of them, Biden has an advantage of some size in basically everything that we consider this year a swing state.

michael barbaro

And when you mention swing states, which ones?

alex burns

Well, there are the big three from 2016, the historically Democratic Midwestern states that flipped to Trump's column and delivered him the presidency: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. As of today, Republicans feel very pessimistic about Michigan, somewhat less pessimistic but still pretty pessimistic about Pennsylvania, and they see Wisconsin as a real nail biter, a place where Biden probably has a sliver of an advantage, but you know, not a state that has swung back to the Democrats decisively by any means. The shortest path for any Democrat to 270 electoral college votes is winning those three states, and holding the rest of the states that Hillary Clinton won.

michael barbaro

So at this point, Biden has real electoral advantages, but Alex, doesn't a president in charge in the middle of a national crisis almost by definition benefit politically from the spotlight? From people rallying around the flag, even if he is seen to be screwing up?

alex burns

The short answer is yes, and we did see that initially with President Trump. Not in a really pronounced way, but at the end of March, the middle of March, he was a couple points higher in the polls than he had been previously.

michael barbaro

Mm-hm.

alex burns

There is a precedent for a president initially getting a political bounce in a national crisis, and then watching it fade rapidly and disastrously for his own re-election as it becomes clearly he has mismanaged the crisis. That's Jimmy Carter. It all started with the Iranian hostage crisis, when Iran seized the American embassy, took American hostages. There was a rally around the flag effect for Jimmy Carter as he got kind of that aura of, not exactly a wartime president, but a crisis president. And as the crisis dragged on and on, and as the president seemed more and more impotent to resolve it, it really doomed him politically.

michael barbaro

Right. And Carter would go on to lose to Ronald Reagan, and he would become a one-term president because of that crisis.

alex burns

That's right. And that was an election that was really just about one thing, and that was the country's perception that the president was weak.

michael barbaro

Right.

alex burns

I think for those of us who are covering this election, we can't say today that that is how voters will make up their mind in November. Something could come up that changes the entire framing of the race for either candidate. Take the allegation of sexual assault by a former Biden aide, which he denies, but that could get traction. Progressives in the Democratic Party have already pushed him to address the allegation. He has so far been silent on the matter. But we do have to contemplate the possibility that this election is ultimately just about one thing, and that's the pandemic, and what voters think of the president's role in marshaling a government response. And if the conditions that exist today exist in the fall, that is a very, very hard campaign for the president to win. And if those conditions change very substantially, then maybe Trump has a chance to run some version of the campaign he was hoping to run in the first place. But all of that is contingent not on the choices the candidates make and not on the tactics and strategy of the campaigns, but on this overwhelming external event that none of them is in a position to control.

[music]

michael barbaro

In other words, it becomes up to the virus.

alex burns

[LAUGHS] That's a very dark way to put it, but I think that's basically true.

michael barbaro

Well, Alex, thank you very much.

alex burns

Thank you.

michael barbaro

The Times reports that President Trump has become increasingly frustrated with polling that shows him trailing behind Joe Biden in crucial swing states, and that last week, he berated his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, over the situation. During a phone call, the president insisted that the polling was incorrect, blamed Parscale for his poor standing, and threatened to sue Parscale. It was unclear if the threat was serious.

We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today. A large-scale clinical trial sponsored by the U.S. government has shown that treatment with an experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, can speed recovery from the coronavirus.

michael barbaro

The trial found that the recovery time for patients using the drug was 11 days, compared with 15 days for those who did not receive the drug.

michael barbaro

As a result, President Trump said that the drug is likely to receive emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration and become the first federally-approved treatment for Covid-19.

michael barbaro

That's it for "The Daily." I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

Visit The New York Times's Guide to the 2020 Election to find the latest articles and a summary of updates on the presidential and congressional elections.

Sign up to get the free On Politics With Lisa Lerer newsletter of political news and analysis every weekday.

Curate your own stream of political news and opinion on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or any other social platform, but make sure to choose reliable sources from a variety of perspectives. To get out of your " political filter bubble" and help surface information from sources that will challenge your thinking, seek out information from a range of places and points of view, and from around the world. This three-step process can help you craft a better "news diet."

Listen to a political podcast. You can search " The Daily" for episodes related to the election or politics, or choose from many other sources, like " The NPR Politics Podcast," " FiveThirtyEight Politics" or KCRW's "Left, Right & Center."

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Image

Our Summer Reading Contest offers an easy weekly opportunity to do this. We invite you to post your thoughts on any Times article, Op-Ed, image, video or graphic from June 12 to Aug. 21. You can participate any or every week, and judges from the Times newsroom will choose favorite responses, which we'll celebrate on our site.

Back in the summer of 2016, we called that year "one of the most unpredictable election seasons in modern memory." Little did we know then how much uncertainty a global pandemic could add.

What will the coronavirus mean for 2020? How will we vote? Will the election be postponed? Will President Trump's response make him a one-term president - or earn him another four years?

In " Covid-19 Is Twisting 2020 Beyond All Recognition," Thomas B. Edsall, an Opinion columnist, writes:

Crises can provoke extreme responses. The 2008-9 recession produced both Barack Obama and the Tea Party. On a grander scale, the Great Depression produced both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler.

No one is suggesting that the country is at such a point now, but, then again, no one suggested in January of 2015 that the country was on the verge of electing Donald Trump president.

The current pandemic shows signs of reshaping the American political and social order for years to come.

Make five to 10 predictions about what you think will happen before Election 2020 is over, and post or save them somewhere - perhaps challenging your friends or classmates to do the same. Then follow the news to see how close you come, and analyze what you got right and wrong.

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What party best expresses your beliefs? These quizzes can help you figure that out:

Which candidate do you support? Though some of the quizzes below were created when the field was much larger, answering their questions can still help you think through where you stand on key issues:

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Your first step: the candidates' own websites:
Joe Biden Donald Trump
Your second: the Times candidate pages for each:
Joe Biden Donald Trump
For a side-by-side comparison of their statements and stances on key issues, check out ProCon.

But in the midst of this pandemic, voters are not only looking for someone whose positions they support, but also someone who can lead us through this crisis. Saharsh Satheesh, a student from Collierville High School in Tennessee, wrote this in response to our Student Opinion question " What Makes a Great Leader? ":

A good leader isn't just someone who tells people what to do; they have to set an example themselves and quite literally "lead" the people down the correct path. They must be upstanding and a good role-model. We need effective leaders now more than ever to be an example to everyone around them.

Do you agree? What qualities do you think our next president should have? Why? Do either of the candidates demonstrate these qualities? Share your thoughts on our question, which will be open for comment all summer.

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Video

Back

transcript

Highlights From the Democratic National Convention: Night 3

Kamala Harris made history in accepting her official nomination for the vice presidency: She became the first woman of color to join a major party's national ticket.

"Hey, everybody, it's me, Kamala." "Tonight we are going to hear from so many phenomenal women who are working to help us build that more perfect union." "Tonight I'm thinking of the girls and boys who see themselves in America's future because of Kamala Harris - a black woman, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and our nominee for vice president. This is our country's story: breaking down barriers and expanding the circle of possibility." ♫ "I'm in love with my future, and you don't know ..." ♫ "Donald Trump's ignorance and incompetence have always been a danger to our country. Covid-19 was Trump's biggest test. He failed miserably. Today America has the most Covid deaths in the world and an economic collapse." "My mom worked hard and paid taxes, and the Obama administration told her she could stay. My dad thought you would protect military families. So he voted for you in 2016, Mr. President. He says he won't vote for you again after what you did to our family." "The wife of a U.S. Marine veteran was deported to Mexico." "Instead of protecting us, you tore our world apart." "My mom is a good person, and she's not a criminal." "Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job, because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone, while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before. But more than anything, what I know about Joe, what I know about Kamala, is that they actually care about every American, and that they care deeply about this democracy. They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballots, not harder. They understand that in this democracy, the commander in chief does not use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on our own soil. This president and those in power, those who benefit from keeping things the way they are, they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can't win you over with their policies. So they're hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote does not matter." "With only one nomination received and pursuant to our rules, I hereby declare that Kamala Harris is elected as the Democratic candidate for vice president." "She is the first black woman, first South Asian woman to be named on the Democratic ticket." "This is a historic pick." "Someone who looks like us on a presidential ticket, that's crazy." "That I am here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me: women and men who believed so fiercely in the promise of equality, liberty and justice for all. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. And we celebrate the women who fought for that right. Yet so many of the Black women who helped secure that victory were still prohibited from voting long after its ratification. But they were undeterred. Without fanfare or recognition, they organized and testified and rallied and marched and fought, not just for their vote, but for a seat at the table. My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. And oh, how I wish she were here tonight, but I know she's looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman, all of five feet tall, who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, Calif. On that day she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now and speaking these words: I accept your nomination for vice president of the United States of America. Make no mistake: The road ahead is not easy. We may stumble. We may fall short. But I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths, and we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America." [music and applause]

Kamala Harris made history in accepting her official nomination for the vice presidency: She became the first woman of color to join a major party's national ticket. Credit Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Updated, Aug., 2020
Covid-19 has upended both the The Democratic and Repubican National Conventions, but both parties may be facing an even more fundamental question, one that was playing out before the pandemic: What role do conventions have in elections today?

In " Both Parties Wonder: How Much Do Conventions Even Matter Anymore?," Adam Nagourney and Matt Flegenheimer write:

For all the organizing, money, time and energy poured into a four-day extravaganza of parties, speeches, forums, lobbying and networking, there is a strong argument that they have become among the less consequential events on the political calendar.

Yes, candidates get their prime-time perch to speak to the nation. Party delegates debate obscure bylaws and approve a platform that is likely to be forgotten the moment the final gavel is dropped. The events can provide a lift in the polls, but there is no shortage of convention nominees, John McCain and Michael S. Dukakis among them, who can attest to just how ephemeral that boost is.

For all the talk of brokered conventions, it has been a long time since delegates had anything more to do than ratify a presidential candidate selected by primary voters and a running mate chosen by the nominee. As the drama has slipped away, so have the television networks, systematically cutting back on the hours of prime-time coverage devoted to events that have become little more than scripted advertisements.

When we first published this post, back in May, we posted the following questions:

How much do you think conventions matter today? Are they an important marker for the beginning of the general election, for introducing the candidates to the public, for demonstrating party unity? Or have they lost their value as the rules of politics have changed, particularly over the last four years? How do you think the parties should adapt them this summer, both to respond to the pandemic and to be as relevant as possible to 2020 voters?

As we update this post, the Democratic National Convention has just concluded its third night of virtual programming. If you watched it live, or read about the highlights, how would you answer those questions now? Do you agree with Op-Ed columnist Charles Blow that this "convention without convening" has succeeded, and that, perhaps, some elements of it should be kept even when party gatherings can be live again?

The Republican National Convention will take place beginning Aug. 24., and The Times will cover it live. Once you have watched some of both conventions, draw some conclusions: in general, what worked and what didn't? If you were in charge of programming in order to engage more people your age as viewers, what would you add, subtract or do differently? Why?

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What are the candidates and campaigns saying? How much of it is true? What platforms and mediums are they using? What messages have worked? What missteps have they made?

You can keep track of political advertising via this page or subscribe to the On Politics With Lisa Lerer newsletter to see the "Ad of the Week" analysis, like this one.

While candidates have traditionally relied on TV commercials to get their message out, today's campaigns are taking place largely online. Read more about each party's strategy in this 2019 analysis, " Trump Campaign Floods Web With Ads, Raking In Cash as Democrats Struggle," in which Matthew Rosenberg and Kevin Roose write:

While the Trump campaign has put its digital operation firmly at the center of the president's re-election effort, Democrats are struggling to internalize the lessons of the 2016 race and adapt to a political landscape shaped by social media.

Then, analyze the messages coming from the candidates, campaigns and parties using the following questions as a guide:

Describe this message. What do you see and hear? How do you engage with it?

Where did you see this message? Why do you think the creators chose this platform? Is there a chance your data will be collected from engaging with it?

Who is the target audience? How do you know?

Who sponsored this ad? What party or organizations are they affiliated with?

What persuasive techniques does the message use to connect with viewers?

What are the creators trying to get you to think and feel? What emotions are they playing on?

Over all, do you think this advertisement is effective? Why or why not?

But, as we saw in the 2016 election, we need to be extra careful of hoaxes, fake news and misinformation. If you see something dubious in a political message, practice these good media literacy habits:

First, read laterally to evaluate the source of the information you're viewing.

Then you might fact-check the message's claims using a fact checker like FactCheck.org or Snopes.com.

Notice propaganda techniques, such as name-calling, "glittering generalities" or logical fallacies.

Read the "About Us" section to find out more about the creators of the content you're viewing.

Watch out for your own confirmation or disconfirmation bias when you come across claims that either reinforce or challenge your existing beliefs.

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An election may look very different in the middle of a global pandemic, but there are still plenty of ways for young people to participate in the democratic process. Youth Service America suggests the following ways and more to get involved in the 2020 election while staying safe and healthy:

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Update: Aug., 2020
We had previously announced this as a photo contest, but in the intervening months we've decided to go much bigger. We'll now be running a multimedia contest called "Coming of Age in 2020" that invites you to show or tell us, via writing or images, video or audio, about what you have experienced during this tumultuous year.

While these submissions don't specifically have to focus on politics, we suspect that as students react to the pandemic, the protests for racial justice, and the coming election, many of them will. You can find details linked here as they are released.

Keep in mind that what you create can, of course, be quite small, local or personal - for example, pandemic journal entries, or photos taken in your home, neighborhood or community - as long as what you submit touches on the larger thing of the teenage experience of living through these historic times.

One good example of how a theme can be interpreted in many ways can be seen in the results of our 2018 and 2019 challenge toteenagers to analyze media and adult stereotypes about their generation, then take photos to counter them. In her artist's statement about the photo above, a 2018 winner, Rawan Saleh, wrote:

I'm a lot of things, I'm also American.

In this terrible moment, all I want is to be a plain old American teenager. Who can simply mourn without fear. Who doesn't share last names with a suicide bomber. Who goes to dances and can talk to her parents about anything and can walk around without always being anxious. And who isn't a presumed terrorist first and an American second.

But that's only one answer to the challenge. To get inspired, check out the work of the other student winners of our 2018 and 2019 contests to see how many different creative ways participants found to respond to that same prompt. Then start thinking about how you'll respond to our 2020 contest, whether via photos, essays, videos, audio, illustration, comics, political cartoons, or anything else you can digitally upload to show us.

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Election 2020: 11 Ways to Engage Students From Now Until November

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Predicting the unpredictable, adopting an issue and other ideas for teaching and learning about the election. Updated: Aug. 20, 2020 Though election news will dominate the headlines throughout 2020, the global pandemic has impacted everything from how the candidates campaign to how the conventions work to the ways we'll vote in November.

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Ballotpedia is the digital encyclopedia of American politics and elections. Our goal is to inform people about politics by providing accurate and objective information about politics at all levels of government.

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See your ballot based on address & relevant facts to help you decide.

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Get the facts before you vote.

Use your address to get a personalized ballot.

Get info on candidates, measures, and who supports them.

Keep track of your choices and use them to vote.

Register by October 19 to vote in the November 3 General Election

Every registered voter will receive a ballot in the mail this year. Check your registration status

To get voting materials in a language other than English, make that choice at voterstatus.sos.ca.gov.

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Voter's Edge California Voter Guide | Get the facts before you vote.

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Get the facts before you vote. Use your address to get a personalized ballot. Get info on candidates, measures, and who supports them. Keep track of your choices and use them to vote. Every registered voter will receive a ballot in the mail this year.

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The Official Voter Information Guide for the March 5, 2024, Presidential Primary Election will be available in January 2024.

To view voter information guides from previous statewide elections, please visit our Voter Information Guides page.

The last day to register to vote online for the March 5, 2024, Presidential Primary Election is February 20, 2024.

To apply to register to vote, please visit RegisterToVote.ca.gov.

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Official Voter Information Guide, March 5, 2024, Presidential Primary Election.

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Vote Smart's mission is to provide free, factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials to ALL Americans.

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Vote Smart provides free, unbiased, in-depth information about current officials, candidates, issues, legislation, and voting. Non-partisan and nonprofit since 1988.

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November 8, 2022, General Election - Contra Costa County

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Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District - Measure G

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Election Guide from this nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom committed to explaining California policies and politics.

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California Election 2022 Voter Guide - CalMatters

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The 2022 California elections were held on November 8.

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League of Women Voters of California Voter Guide

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League of Women Voters of California Voter Guide

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A user-friendly guide to voting (including a special spotlight on justice), and ballot measures, with great graphics students can easily read.

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The Schools & Communities First initiative will raise $12 billion every year for California's schools, essential workers, and local governments. This will come by ensuring that all corporate properties worth more than $3 million pay their fair share of property taxes - while protecting homeowners and renters, small businesses, and agriculture. This money is needed now more than ever and is critical to California's recovery and reinvestment.

Vote YES on Prop 15

A YES vote on Prop 25 is a vote to replace the money bail system with the use of pretrial risk assessment tools that focus on safety and flight risk. It is estimated that almost 46,000 Californians, a disproportionate number of whom are Black and Latinx, are being held in jail because of their inability to afford bail. Cash bail both criminalizes poverty and reflects the systemic racism that plagues our criminal legal process.

Paid for by League of Women Voters Supporting Schools and Communities First - Yes on Prop 15 (Nonprofit 501(c)(4))

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The Schools & Communities First initiative will raise $12 billion every year for California's schools, essential workers, and local governments. This will come by ensuring that all corporate properties worth more than $3 million pay their fair share of property taxes - while protecting homeowners and renters, small businesses, and agriculture.

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Our local newspaper, the East Bay Times, has released its list of endorsements for both elected offices and ballot measures.

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Have your ballot in hand and wondering how to vote in statewide and local races? There's much to decide, from enshrining reproductive freedom to legalizing gambling on sports. Plus, it's your chance to vote for governor, senator, mayor, council members and other important local and statewide offices.

Here are our Bay Area election stories so far on races and measures on the Nov. 8 ballot. Bookmark this page and return to view additional articles on local, regional and statewide races and ballot measures as they are published.

Read our Editorial Board recommendations in more than 100 races and check out everything you need to know about voting by mail or in person on election day Nov. 8.

What to do if you are having trouble accessing this article on your mobile device.

Statewide

State races - Who's running in California's key legislative races.

Propositions - California voters weigh seven propositions this November.

California Senate race - Incumbent Alex Padilla faces Meuser, again.
U.S. Congress
15th Congressional District - With a double-digit lead, is Kevin Mullin a shoo-in for congress? David Canepa says "not yet."
Legislature
Assembly District 20: Democratic faction rivalry defines the race in a district that stretches from Hayward to Dublin.

Santa Clara County

Los Gatos - Council candidates talk business, housing at Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce forum.

Santa Clara - Mayoral candidates battle over future of Santa Clara. City Council members Chahal, Hardy face newcomers and the 49ers, real estate are pouring money into the council elections race.

Santa Clara County Supervisor - Candidates for Santa Clara County's D1 have similar priorities, but starkly different approaches. and find out who is starkly ahead in post-primary fundraising.

Santa Clara County Sheriff - Two career law-enforcement leaders are vying to succeed Sheriff Laurie Smith.

San Jose - Cindy Chavez, Matt Mahan face off for mayor's seat. *** Moneyed interests, from 49ers to Realtors, wage shadow campaigns. *** Find out how much money the 49ers have spent on Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara elections. *** Homelessness and public safety dominate mayoral debate *** COVID economic recovery, and homelessness are top of mind for San Jose council candidates.

Saratoga - City Council candidates talk finances and affordable housing.

Silicon Valley Water District - Drought, new dams, and discord dominate the election for Santa Clara Valley Water District.

Milpitas - Milpitas mayor candidates promise a cultural change from the top.

Mountain View - Five candidates running for three open City Council seats.

Palo Alto - Seven candidates vie for three seats on the Palo Alto city council.

Sunnyvale - City Council candidates want to fix city's housing, transportation and climate issues.

San Mateo County

Redwood City - These six candidates are running for three open seats on city council.

Alameda County

AC Transit, BART board: Elections to decide key leaders to navigate post-COVID ridership and fiscal crisis.

Alameda - Public safety, housing top issues in Alameda council, and mayoral elections. *** School board candidates differ on curriculum and funding.

Alameda County District Attorney - Alameda DA race is an important test for progressive prosecutors following Chesa Boudin recall.

Alameda County Supervisor - Rebecca Kaplan, Lena Tam seek late Wilma Chan's Alameda County supervisor seat

Berkeley - coming soon

Berkeley Measures - Will Berkeley voters support a $650 million bond for housing, infrastructure and climate this November?

Dublin - Three candidates are facing off for two Dublin City Council spots; the mayor is running unopposed.

Fremont - Eight candidates vying for Fremont City Council seats

Hayward - Eight candidates vie for two city council spots.

Livermore -Educators to battle it out in Livermore City Council election.

Oakland - Check out the mayoral candidate bios and what sets them apart. *** City Council seats are up for grabs in Districts 2, 4 and 6. *** What voters need to know about the city's 9 ballot initiatives. *** School Board - coming soon

Piedmont - Council candidates share views in online forum. *** Three mothers with children in Piedmont schools are running for two school board seats.

Pleasanton - Water is on top of the agenda for Pleasanton City Council hopefuls.

Contra Costa County

AC Transit, BART board: Elections to decide key leaders to navigate post-COVID ridership and fiscal crisis.

Antioch - Seven candidates are competing for two seats.

Brentwood - Seven vie for two seats on Brentwood City Council and the city will ask voters to protect open space

Concord - Hoffmeister, McGallian face political newcomers for Concord City Council

Contra Costa County Supervisor - Law enforcement drama could shape Contra Costa County supervisor race

Martinez - How Martinez mayor, council candidates stand on future of housing, downtown and marina

Oakley - Three vie for two seats on the Oakley City Council.

Pittsburg - One incumbent, four others look to fill three Pittsburg council seats

Richmond - These are the City Council candidates vying for a seat and Richmond residents will vote on lower rent control rates in November

Walnut Creek - How Walnut Creek might change - or stay the same - if these city council candidates were elected

And don't miss why Lafayette and Danville scrapped their local elections
Local tax and bond measures
Contra Costa County - Measure O sales tax and Measure J school bond in Walnut Creek and Measure K school bond in Martinez.

Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Los Gatos and Oakland are eyeing completely new or revamped business taxing tools to shore up budgets slashed amid the pandemic and future economic uncertainty.

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2022 Bay Area Voter Guide - Local, regional and statewide races and ballot measures

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Have your ballot in hand and wondering how to vote in statewide and local races? There's much to decide, from enshrining reproductive freedom to legalizing gambling on sports. Plus, it's your chance to vote for governor, senator, mayor, council members and other important local and statewide offices.

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SF Chronicle- How pandemic alters, but does not stop, our election endorsement process

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SF Chronicle- How pandemic alters, but does not stop, our election endorsement process

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An article looking into how this newspaper is going through its endorsement process during this pandemic.

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The coronavirus pandemic and the dramatic expansion of mail-in voting in California has certainly altered our editorial board's timeline and process for producing endorsements for the Nov. 3 election. What it has not changed is our commitment to do our research on ballot measures, interview candidates and provide readers with judgments to consider when they get ready to vote.

Even before the state decided this year to mail ballots to all eligible voters - look for them the week of Oct. 5 - we've been determined to complete our endorsements a month before election day. It didn't take a pandemic for many voters to conclude they would rather complete a ballot at home rather than stand in line at a polling place.

To give a sense of the trajectory of the trend, just 20.25% of Californians voted by mail for the 1996 general election, my first as editorial page editor, when we followed our traditional target to finish our endorsements a week before election day. By 2016, mail-in ballots accounted for 57.8% of the vote.

We intend to have our recommendations out by Oct. 6, when our Voter Guide goes live on SFChronicle.com.

I recognize there can be confusion about why and how a newspaper makes endorsements - and whether that conflicts with its commitment to cover the races and issues in an impartial manner. It's worth pausing to explain our approach before every significant election.

First and foremost, we maintain a solid line between our news operation and opinion pages, not just for elections, but in our editorial positions throughout the year. We call it the "separation of church and state" in the news business. This is the case at nearly every major U.S. newspaper. Reporters and editors on the news side are charged with covering campaigns without regard to our endorsements. And they do. I take it as a sign of the strength of the firewall when I see a news story that contains unflattering information about a candidate we just endorsed.

How do we maintain that distance? It starts with the chain of command. The editor in chief, who oversees the news operation, and I report separately to Publisher Bill Nagel. I don't make the call on what goes on Page One, and the editor in chief does not dictate what we should write on the editorial page. The editorial board consists of the publisher and the writers and editors on my opinion staff. No one from the news operation participates in deliberations on endorsements.

Also, my colleagues and I on the editorial board are responsible for our own research in making those ballot recommendations. We began doing interviews on the state propositions in late August, and by the end of the weekend we will have published editorials on seven of the 12. We'll be diving into local measures and selected competitive races in the next three weeks.

The pandemic has forced us to change from in-person meetings to interviews on Zoom, which has its pros and cons. I do miss the chance to size up candidates and drill down on the substance of ballot measures in the boardroom at 901 Mission St.

Yet the Zoom technology facilitates enhanced transparency. We have been recording most of our endorsement interviews, and plan to include links to them in the upcoming Voter Guide. This will give voters a chance to not only get an in-depth look at some of the candidates and advocates on ballot measure but - equally important to the value of our endorsements - you can judge us. Were our questions substantive and on point? Were we fair to each side?

The question of why we do endorsements is one that has been a subject of industry debate as long as I've been in the business. Some newspapers have abandoned them, both because of the concern about the confusion they cause about whether they are infecting or driving news coverage - and doubts about their influence. The Arizona Republic is the latest to declare that it no longer will endorse political candidates in 2020.

Studies have shown that readers are less likely to be swayed by an endorsement in presidential, gubernatorial or other high-profile race. But where they can have impact is with lower-profile races or with those ballot measures that are complex or even deceptive. Or readers are more likely to pay closer attention when a newspaper makes an endorsement that surprises them.

In my view, it comes down to whether a newspaper has an obligation, separate and apart from covering the news, to identify and champion solutions to the challenges of our time, whether it's homelessness on the streets or the threat of climate change to the planet. If we do, it makes no sense to walk away when it comes to electing people to act in our interest.

I'll look forward to your feedback as we roll out our recommendations for Nov. 3.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicle's editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnDiazChron

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How pandemic alters, but does not stop, our election endorsement process

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Just 20.25% of Californians voted by mail for the 1996 general election, my first as editorial page editor, when our traditional target was to finish our endorsements a week before election day. This year, all eligible voters will receive a ballot in the mail.

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Did you know that voting-by-mail dates back to the Civil War? Check out this history.com article to learn more.

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Voting by mail can trace its roots to soldiers voting far from home during the Civil War and World War II. By the late 1800s, some states were extending absentee ballots to civilian voters under certain conditions, but it wasn't until 2000 that Oregon became the first state to move to an all-mail voting system. Here is everything you need to know about the history of absentee voting and vote by mail.

What Does the Constitution Say About Voting?

There is no step-by-step guide to voting in the United States Constitution. Article 1, Section 4 says that it's up to each state to determine "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections." This openness has enabled the voting process in the United States to evolve as the country's needs have changed.

The Founding Fathers voted by raising their voices-literally. Until the early 19th century, all eligible voters cast their "Viva Voce" (voice vote) in public. While the number of people eligible to vote in that era was low and primarily composed of land-owning white males, turnout hovered around 85 percent, largely due to enticing voting parties held at polling stations.

The first paper ballots appeared in the early 19th century and were originally blank pieces of paper. By the mid-1800s, they had gone to the other extreme: political parties printed tickets with the names of every candidate pre-filled along party lines. It wasn't until 1888 that New York and Massachusetts became the first states to adopt pre-printed ballots with the names of all candidates (a style called the " Australian ballot " after where it was created). By then, another revolution in voting had taken place: Absentee voting.
READ MORE: Elections in Colonial America Were Huge Booze-Filled Parties
The Civil War and Absentee Ballots

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The first widespread instance of absentee voting in the United States was during the Civil War. The logistics of a wartime election were daunting: "We cannot have free government without elections," President Abraham Lincoln told a crowd outside the White House in 1864, "and if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."

"Lincoln was concerned about the outcome of the midterm elections," says Bob Stein, Director of the Center for Civic Leadership at Rice University. "Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, pointed out that there were a lot of Union soldiers who couldn't vote, so the president encouraged states to permit them to cast their ballots from the field." (There was some precedent for Lincoln's wish; Pennsylvania became the first state to offer absentee voting for soldiers during the War of 1812.)
WATCH: Lincoln on HISTORY Vault
In the 1864 presidential election between Lincoln and George McClellan, 19 Union states changed their laws to allow soldiers to vote absentee. Some states permitted soldiers to name a proxy to vote for them back home while others created polling sites in the camps themselves. Approximately 150,000 out of one million soldiers voted in the election, and Lincoln carried a whopping 78 percent of the military vote.

By the late 1800s, several states offered civilians the option of absentee voting, though they had to offer an accepted excuse, most commonly distance or illness. The passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870 and 19th Amendment in 1920 expanded the number of eligible voters in the United States, but it would take another war to propel absentee voting back into the national spotlight.

Absentee Voting in World War II

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Absentee voting re-entered the national conversation during World War II, when "both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman encouraged military voting," says Stein. The Soldier Voting Act of 1942 permitted all members of the military overseas to send their ballots from abroad. Over 3.2 million absentee ballots were cast during the war. The act was amended in 1944 and expired at war's end.

Legislation passed throughout the next few decades made voting easier for servicemen and women and their families: The Federal Voting Assistance Act of 1955; the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act ( UOCAVA) in 1986; and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment, or MOVE Act, signed by President Barack Obama in 2009.
READ MORE: These Black Female Heroes Made Sure U.S. Forces Got Their Mail During WWII
States Expand Vote by Mail

"Before the civil rights movement., it was largely members of the military, expats and people who were truly disabled or couldn't get to their jurisdiction who were permitted to vote absentee," says Stein. While most historians cite California as the first state to offer no-excuse absentee voting, Michael Hanmer, research director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland, says it was actually Washington state that made the switch in 1974.

Other Western states soon followed: "Western states are newer, have the biggest rural areas, the most land and are doing the most pioneering work," says Lonna Atkeson, Director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections, and Democracy at the University of New Mexico. "Their progressive values played a role in their political culture."

Oregon became the first state to switch to vote by mail exclusively in 2000. Washington followed in 2011.

Did You Know? It took The Vietnam War for the voting age to be lowered to 18 with the ratification of the 26 th amendment.
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2020 Election: Which States Offer Voting by Mail?

The 2020 presidential election takes place in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, when concerns about virus transmission in crowds caused lawmakers to rethink rules around appearing in person to vote. For the first time in history, at least 75 percent of Americans are able to vote absentee.

In the 2020 election:

· Thirty-four U.S. states offer no-excuse absentee voting or permit registered voters to cite COVID-19 as their reason to vote absentee.

· Nine states and Washington, D.C. mail all ballots directly to voters: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, New Jersey, Utah, Vermont and Washington.

· Seven states-Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas-require voters to give a reason other than COVID-19 to vote absentee.

How to Vote by Mail

Ballots that go through the mail can be divided into two categories: Absentee ballots, typically requested by people who are unable to vote in person for physical reasons, and mail-in ballots, which are automatically provided to all eligible voters in states with all-mail voting systems.

The rules around voting by mail vary from state to state.

"When are ballots due? Postmarked? Federalism is a beautiful thing, but it's complex because each state does something different," says Atkeson. "In the end, access and security make for a well-run election and makes people feel that their vote is counted."
Read More: How Americans Have Voted Throughout History: From Voices to Screens

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Vote-by-Mail Programs Date Back to the Civil War

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Voting by mail can trace its roots to soldiers voting far from home during the Civil War and World War II. By the late 1800s, some states were extending absentee ballots to civilian voters under certain conditions, but it wasn't until 2000 that Oregon became the first state to move to an all-mail voting system.

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