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VOA: From immigration to citizenship: When is an immigrant allowed to vote in a US election?

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VOA: From immigration to citizenship: When is an immigrant allowed to vote in a US election?

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From immigration to citizenship: When is an immigrant allowed to vote in a US election? | VOANews

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Pro Literacy: Interactive Voting Guide Online Course

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Pro Literacy: Interactive Voting Guide Online Course

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Voting rights have changed a lot over the years. Whether you are a first-time voter or want to learn more about the election process, we can help.

Voting is a personal choice and it's important to make decisions based on the issues that matter most to you. This free, interactive voting guide comes to you from our easy-to-read weekly newspaper and website News for You. The guide explains:

Who can vote. You can vote in the U.S. if you meet a few basic requirements. Ensure you are registered to vote and familiarize yourself with the rules in your area. This includes knowing the location of your polling place and understanding the voting process.

Why does every vote count? When you vote, you make the government work for you. It is your chance to make your voice heard and to protect your interests. You can hold politicians accountable.

How people in the US choose their leaders. Presidential elections get a lot of attention. But did you know elections happen every year? Learn about presidential elections, congressional elections, state and local elections, and ballot measures and propositions. Follow the presidential process from primaries and caucuses through the general election.

How to register to vote and cast your ballot. Most states require you to register before voting in an election. Depending on where you live, you may be able to vote online, in person, and by mail. States decide where and when you will vote, what the ballot looks like, and how you will vote.
By the end of this course, you'll be equipped to:

Identify what is "fake news" and what is truthful, accurate information.

Explain how local elections allow you to influence changes that directly affect you, your family, and your community.

Get help if you or someone you know has questions about voting rights, is facing discrimination, or is experiencing voter intimidation.

This course is ideal for:

Adult learners

Teachers and tutors

Anyone interested in participating in the democratic process

"The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy."

-Former Representative John Lewis, June 2019
Download and print a copy of the complete Election 2024 Voting Guide. Download

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Election 2024 Interactive Voting Guide - ProLiteracy

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Voting rights have changed a lot over the years. Whether you are a first-time voter, or want to learn more about the election process, we...

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American English @ State: Election Vocabulary graphics (Facebook Album)

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American English @ State: Election Vocabulary graphics (Facebook Album)

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American English at State: Election Vocabulary 1

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American English at State: Election Vocabulary 1

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MUST READ: The Danger In Believing that You are Powerless: A citizen’s guide to defending the 2024 election By Anne Applebaum

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MUST READ: The Danger In Believing that You are Powerless: A citizen’s guide to defending the 2024 election By Anne Applebaum

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Help Out on Voting Day—In Person

Join Something Now

Talk With People

•Do talk about local issues: Americans are bitterly polarized over national issues, but have much higher levels of trust in their state and local officials.

•Do talk about what your state and local leaders are doing to ensure a safe election.

•Do emphasize our shared values—the large majority of Americans still feel that democracy is preferable to all other forms of government—and our historical ability to deliver safe and fair elections, even in times of warfare and social strife.

•Don’t, by contrast, dismiss people’s concerns about election irregularities out of hand. Trump and his allies have repeatedly raised the specter of widespread voter fraud in favor of Democrats. Despite a lack of evidence for this notion, many people may sincerely believe that this kind of electoral cheating is real.

•Don’t rely on statistics to make your case, because people aren’t convinced by them; talk, instead, about what actions are being taken to protect the integrity of the vote.

•Finally, don’t inadvertently undermine democracy further: Emphasize the strength of the American people, our ability to stand up to those who assault democracy. Offer people a course of action, not despair.

As a Last Resort, Protest

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The Danger Is Greater Than in 2020. Be Prepared.

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A citizen’s guide to defending the 2024 election

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Adult Education: Building Media Literacy in an Election Year

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Adult Education: Building Media Literacy in an Election Year

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Also watch:

1) Developing Media Literacy in the Adult Ed Classroom: No More Fake News

2) AI Literacy Navigating the Election Frenzy Truth or Trickery

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NEW PADLET: Media, News, and Info Literacy Resources for Adult Education

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NEW PADLET: Media, News, and Info Literacy Resources for Adult Education

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I have off-loaded all non-election media, news, and information literacy resources at bit.ly/ae-mediali t

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Media Literacy Resources for Adult Education

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The latest breaking news and analysis about United States politics, elections and government

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Native American Rights Fund: Native Voices, Native Vote: The Road to Voting Rights in Arizona

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Native American Rights Fund: Native Voices, Native Vote: The Road to Voting Rights in Arizona

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Native Voices, Native Vote: The Road to Voting Rights in Arizona

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This isn't a popularity contest™

It will take 270 electoral votes to win the 2024 presidential election. Click states on this interactive map to create your own 2024 election forecast. Create a specific match-up by clicking the party and/or names near the electoral vote counter. Use the buttons below the map to share your forecast or embed it into a web page.

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270toWin - 2024 Presidential Election Interactive Map

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Create your own forecast for the 2024 presidential election

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A Starting Point is a civic engagement video-based app that helps voters better understand the issues of the day.

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Daily polls and discussions

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Track major news, updates, poll data, and examples of media bias with this daily blog.

Balanced News about 2024 Presidential Election on AllSides from the Left, Center and Right

From the Left

From the Center

From the Right

Balanced News about 2024 Presidential Election from Across the Web Powered by Google. Enhanced by AllSides.

AllSides Balanced Search™ gives you recent news from outlets on all sides of the political spectrum so you can get the full picture.

Looking for results from think tanks and policy groups? Try the Balanced Think Tank Search.

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Find balanced information and learn how the Left, Right and Center think differently about 2024 Presidential Election.

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Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that has the potential to both help and hurt our democracy.

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Center for Tech and Civic Life: Election Official Stories

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Center for Tech and Civic Life: Election Official Stories

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Election Official Stories

We share stories from election officials doing fantastic work.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, we encourage election officials to adopt best practices from other jurisdictions and learn from their successes.
Sign up to receive our monthly ELECTricity newsletter

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Harnessing the promise of technology to modernize the American voting experience

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American English at State: Election Vocabulary 2

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American English at State: Election Vocabulary 2

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The Change Agent is a biannual magazine for adult educators and learners published by the New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC) at World Education.

Download level 10 version for advanced learners.
Download level 6 version for intermediate learners.

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Forgot your password?

Current Issue

Donate

To make a donation, send a check made out to World Education to 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA, 02210 or click the button below to donate online. Your donation to The Change Agent is tax deductible and greatly appreciated!

Announcements

"We Take Action," the latest issue of The Change Agent co-published with Essential Education, is now available!

(more...)

The recording of Teaching with the Immigrants and Immigration Series (Issues 56-58) webinar is now available! View the recording and slides below.

More big changes! We are making our offerings even more accessible by organizing The Change Agent content to come out more often with more easy-to-use lesson packets and with more beginner-level adaptations. Find out what we have in store!

Copyright © 2023

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The Change Agent | An Adult Education Resource for Social Justice

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Forgot your password? To make a donation, send a check made out to World Education to 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA, 02210 or click the button below to donate online. Your donation to The Change Agent is tax deductible and greatly appreciated!

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Misinfo 101: Help students steer clear of misinformation

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Educators: Join our free webinars, assign a Checkology® course and draw on a wealth of classroom resources, all designed to help you teach about misinformation in an election year.

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Readers follow protagonists Rachel and Andre as they discover that a command center in Russia is using a network of troll farms to spread false narratives about elections to American voters. With the elections coming up, Rachel and Andre follow the trail of synthetic media and stop the cyber assailants from causing chaos, confusion, and division.

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Poll Worker application: https://pollworker.sos.ca.gov/s/

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Promote Democracy: Serve as a Poll Worker

Before each statewide election, thousands of Californians sign up to help put on the single most important event we hold in a democracy. County elections officials depend on reliable, dedicated teams of poll workers to make every Election Day run smoothly.

Who can be a poll worker?

To serve as a poll worker you must be:

What does a poll worker do?

Sets up and closes a polling place

Helps voters understand their rights

Protects ballots and voting equipment

Why be a poll worker?

Get involved and assist voters

Contribute to your community

Earn extra money (amount varies by county)

How do you apply?

Visit pollworker.sos.ca.gov to complete the poll worker application. It only takes 2-3 minutes!
If you are interested in working as a Poll Worker either in addition to or in a county other than the one you currently reside in, please contact that county's elections office directly. For a list of county contacts, please visit our California County Elections page.
ATTENTION: If you would like to serve as a poll worker and you live in one of the counties listed below, please click on the link for your county or contact your county elections office directly.

For more information, contact the county elections offices directly. Contact information for all county elections offices is available at: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting-resources/county-elections-offices

High School Poll Workers

California Elections Code section 12302 allows eligible high school students to serve as poll workers on Election Day. Student poll workers learn firsthand how elections are run, and provide much needed support at polling place locations. They end their day with a better understanding of the importance of voting and the vital role poll workers play in making our elections run smoothly.

County elections officials may assign up to five high school students to serve as poll workers in each election precinct. Students work under the direct supervision of appointed adult poll workers.

What does it take to be a high school poll worker?

To serve as a high school poll worker, a student must:

A United States citizen or legal permanent resident

Be at least 16 years old on Election Day

Attend a public or private high school

Have at least a 2.5 grade point average

Get permission from your parents and school

Attend a training session

Students in high school are allowed one excused absence per year for a civic or political event, such as poll working.Students may also be eligible for a stipend ranging from $65 and $150, and are encourage to contact their county elections official for more information.

To encourage high school students to serve as poll workers, the Secretary of State invites students, teachers, school activities directors and others to post, email or hand out the High School Poll Worker recruitment flyer.

State Employees

Government Code section 19844.7, allows state employees to take time off, without loss of pay, to serve as poll workers on Election Day.

Regulations:

Employee shall be eligible for both regular state compensation and the fee paid by the Registrar of Voters for serving as a poll worker.

Eligibility of a state employee to serve at the polls is subject to approval by the employee's manager or supervisor.

Employee seeking release time to work at the polls shall provide sufficient notice to allow the department to maintain adequate coverage and meet operational needs.

Verification of service as a poll worker on Election Day may be required by the appointing authority by requiring the employee to provide written verification of service from the Registrar of Voters, including the name of the employee serving and the date of the election.

For more information, please contact your county elections official.

Poll Worker Training Standards

Elections Code section 12309.5, requires the Secretary of State to adopt uniform poll worker training standards. These revised standards reflect lessons learned and changes in state law that have taken effect since the original standards were published in 2006.
Poll Worker Training Standards Historical Information on Poll Worker Training
Bilingual Poll Worker Recruitment

In 2017 the California State Legislature passed the California Voting for All Act. This legislation updated the language service requirements for county elections officials and established a new reporting process directing the California Secretary of State to collect data related to the recruitment of bilingual poll workers from county officials.

In response, the California Secretary of State conducted a survey of county elections officials regarding their recruitment of bilingual poll workers. This report provides information and analysis of the data collected in the survey. The responses from each county have also been posted.

Bilingual Poll Worker Recruitment Report - November 8, 2018, General Election
Bilingual Poll Worker Recruitment Report - November 3, 2020 General Election Bilingual Poll Worker Recruitment Report - November 8, 2022, General Election

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Before each statewide election, thousands of Californians sign up to help put on the single most important event we hold in a democracy. County elections officials depend on reliable, dedicated teams of poll workers to make every Election Day run smoothly.

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CISA.gov Resilience Graphic Novels: Real Fake (misinformation about elections)

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CISA.gov Resilience Graphic Novels: Real Fake (misinformation about elections)

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Disinformation is an existential threat to the United States, our democratic way of life, and the critical infrastructure and functions on which it relies. CISA's Resilience Series (of which Real Fake is its first graphic novel) communicates the dangers and risks associated with dis- and misinformation through fictional stories that are inspired by real-world events.

CISA encourages everyone to use care when consuming information they receive or come across. Practicing media literacy-including verifying sources, seeking alternative viewpoints, and finding trusted sources of information-is the most effective strategy in limiting the effect of disinformation.

The Resilience Series highlights the importance of evaluating information sources to help individuals understand the risks from foreign influence operations on our society and democracy.

Graphic Novel: Real Fake

First in the series, Real Fake demonstrates how threat actors capitalize on political and social issues (especially around election cycles) to stealthily plant doubt in the minds of targeted audiences and steer their opinion.

Readers follow protagonists Rachel and Andre as they discover that a command center in Russia is using a network of troll farms to spread false narratives about elections to American voters. With the elections coming up, Rachel and Andre follow the trail of synthetic media and stop the cyber assailants from causing chaos, confusion, and division.

Graphic Novel: Bug Bytes

Second in the series, Bug Bytes demonstrates how threat actors use social media and other communication platforms to spread inaccurate information for the sole purpose of planting doubt in the minds of targeted audiences to steer their opinion.

Readers follow protagonist Ava, a graduate, who uses her wits and journalism skills to uncover a disinformation campaign set to damage Fifth Generation ( 5G) critical communications infrastructure in the United States.

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Disinformation is an existential threat to the United States, our democratic way of life, and the critical infrastructure and functions on which it relies. CISA's Resilience Series (of which Real Fake is its first graphic novel) communicates the dangers and risks associated with dis- and misinformation through fictional stories that are inspired by real-world events.

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Common Sense Media: News Literacy Lessons to Help Students Understand Election Media

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Common Sense Media: News Literacy Lessons to Help Students Understand Election Media

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Politics and elections come with a confusing media landscape. But elections, and the media's coverage of them, also offer valuable opportunities for students to learn and practice media literacy skills. Whether it's a presidential election, a midterm election cycle, or a smaller state or local race, students can use these authentic opportunities to engage with election-cycle news.

Use these lessons and activities to help students practice seeking nuanced context for the stories they're seeing in the news and on social media. These free, ready-to-teach lessons will help students apply critical news and media literacy skills on the platforms they use every day.

News Literacy and Elections: Free Lesson Plans for Grades 8-12:

The internet and social media give us tools to find out what's happening almost instantly -- sometimes even in real time. But how much can we trust the breaking news we see online? Use this lesson plan to help your students consider the unique challenges social media presents to finding credible, accurate information. View the lesson plan.

During an election season, we might take political ads for granted. From roadside billboards and yard signs to wall-to-wall TV and radio commercials, we might be able to tune them out. But can we simply ignore the targeted political ads that show up in our social media feeds? Use this lesson plan to help your students think critically about the impact of targeted advertising on social media -- both during an election season and in general. View the lesson plan.

From Snapchat filters to TikTok productions, teens engage with countless images and videos that have been edited or digitally altered. But are your students aware of -- or have they thought deeply about -- disinformation online, including the phenomenon of deepfake videos? Use this lesson plan to have your students consider questions like: Why are faked images and videos so popular? How might AI or deepfake technology subvert or threaten a democratic election? And perhaps more universally: How does the existence of this new technology change the way we see the world? View the lesson plan.

While most students aren't yet of voting age, it's still important for them to recognize and analyze news events leading up to elections. One key election-season phenomenon is the "October surprise," a bombshell news and media event that dominates discussion and debate in the last fast-paced weeks -- or days -- before November elections. Teach students how to recognize and analyze this curious election-season phenomenon. View the lesson plan.
Top photo credit: Richard Burger, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

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News Literacy Lessons to Help Students Understand Election Media | Common Sense Education

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Politics and elections come with a confusing media landscape. But elections, and the media's coverage of them, also offer valuable opportunities for students to learn and practice media literacy skills. Whether it's a presidential election, a midterm election cycle, or a smaller state or local race, students can use these authentic opportunities to engage with election-cycle news.

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Great newspaper for adult ESL classrooms published by New Readers Press. Requires subscription. **Note: News for You is looking for student stories about the 2024 Election

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Easy-to-read news stories that can help you learn to read, write, speak, and understand the English language.

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Carnegie: Voting Stories from Across the U.S.

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Carnegie: Voting Stories from Across the U.S.

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For nearly three decades I have documented and interviewed people as they participate in the foundations of our democracy: voting and helping others to vote. Registering voters, knocking on doors, canvassing voters, attending rallies, administering elections, working the polls, watching the polls, counting ballots, and standing in line and voting - people exercising their belief that each and every voice matters. As a photojournalist and as an active voter, they inspire me.

I was in the first wave of 18-year-olds eligible to vote. My college made it easy with a polling station set up in the student union. I didn't give much thought to the idea that my experience as a voter might differ from that of people in other parts of the country. That is, until I went to Selma to photograph the efforts of a group who came down to register voters, two decades after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

I returned to the South, this time to Mississippi, twice in subsequent decades. The first time for a documentary that focused on the history of people struggling and dying for the right to vote. The second time was for the closely contested 2018 Senate runoffs. I wanted to see whether voter participation in the Magnolia State had changed. And it had.

I became inspired to learn more. That trip launched my nonpartisan photojournalism project, Documenting Democracy, which tells the stories of those who work to advance, protect, and participate in the vote. Throughout 2020, much of it during the height of the COVID pandemic, I traveled more than 24,000 miles across two dozen states as well as the District of Columbia. I photographed that election cycle from the start of the Iowa caucus through the Georgia runoffs right up to Inauguration Day. I consciously focused on voters and election workers in both swing and fly-over states and in states where battles for representation and voting rights have been - and continue to be - fought.

The photographs that follow are selected from my most recent travels, which have continued through the 2022 midterms. I returned to several of the states I had photographed earlier to learn how voting protocols now differed due to legislative or public health changes. I wanted to hear how views on voting and democracy may have been impacted by the barrage of news stories focused on skepticism about the integrity of our elections.

My photographs attempt to capture the actions of individuals who believe in the power of the vote and the importance of participating in ways large and small to strengthen our democracy.

Sue Dorfman is an independent documentary and human rights photojournalist, media strategist, and educator. She produced the documentary short Dying to Vote, and her photos have appeared in outlets such as ABC News, CNN, the Guardian, and the Wall Street Journal. She also photographs for ZUMA Press. Dorfman has been traveling across the country for nearly three decades - most recently in an RV nicknamed Doc-cy, short for her current photography project titled "Documenting Democracy."

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People Participation: Voting Stories from Across the U.S. | Carnegie Reporter Winter 2022 | Carnegie Corporation of New York

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Photojournalist Sue Dorfman has traveled the country documenting individuals as they exercise their right to vote - from Arkansas to Ohio, from Maryland to Mississippi. The visual stories she's captured are as varied as they are inspiring

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PBS: How AI-generated misinformation threatens election integrity

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PBS: How AI-generated misinformation threatens election integrity

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From robocalls to deep fakes, artificial intelligence is already playing a role in the 2024 election. Last week the Federal Communications Commission made AI-generated voice calls illegal. Laura Barrón-López has been covering AI's impact on the upcoming election and discussed the latest with Amna Nawaz.

View the transcript of the story.

News alternative: Check out recent segments from the NewsHour, and choose the story you're most interested in watching. You can make a Google doc copy of discussion questions that work for any of the stories here.

WARM UP QUESTIONS

1. What companies say they have committed to "limiting misleading AI content on their platforms"?

2. Why did the Federal Communications Commission rule that robocalls ( =automated political ads over the phone) that used AI content were illegal?

3. How have political campaigns been using AI already in the past year?

4. What are some of the ways AI might be used in the coming election to confuse or misinform voters?

5. Who might have more difficult jobs because of AI, according to expert Katie Reisner?

FOCUS QUESTIONS

What do you think is the greatest threat posed by AI against free and fair elections? What do you think is the best way to address that threat?

Media literacy: Who else would you want to hear from to better understand how AI will affect U.S. elections (and elections around the world)?

Alternative: See, Think, Wonder: What did you notice? What did the story make you think? What would you want to find out more about?

FOR MORE

What students can do: In this story, correspondent Laura Barrón-López suggests that if you suspect a source online might be fake, to look to see if you can find confirming information from another source. This is a strategy known as "lateral reading." To learn more about lateral reading, watch the following video from MediaWise's Teen Fact-Checking Network.

Teachers: You can find full lesson plans on navigating misinformation in this collection of media literacy lessons!

Fill out this form to share your thoughts on Classroom's resources. Sign up for NewsHour Classroom's ready-to-go Daily News Lessons delivered to your inbox each week.

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How AI-generated misinformation threatens election integrity

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Discuss how new technology including AI might impact coming elections in the U.S. and around the globe

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Slate: This Creepy Trump Pic Shows Why Our Elections Are Doomed

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Slate: This Creepy Trump Pic Shows Why Our Elections Are Doomed

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"Holz told users at that meeting that “this moderation stuff is kind of hard.” It’s not that hard. Donald Trump might think he’s president, but Midjourney should know better."

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Who is the president of the United States? It's Joe Biden, of course. But one popular artificial intelligence app thinks otherwise.

While A.I. models have been known to hallucinate (i.e., make stuff up), they typically don't mess up extremely simple things like name the president. If you ask OpenAI's ChatGPT who the U.S. president is, it'll give you the correct answer, a short bio, and links to the White House website and Biden's Wikipedia article. The same is true for Anthropic's Claude and Meta AI, while Google's Gemini straight-up refuses to answer the question because it's related to politics. "I can't help with responses on elections and political figures right now," it told me. "I'm trained to be as accurate as possible but I can make mistakes sometimes. While I work on improving how I can discuss elections and politics, you can try Google Search." Good grief.

But that hesitation to engage with anything political is rooted in legitimate concerns about how artificial intelligence can be weaponized to influence elections, spread disinformation, and scam people. There are often more safeguards for text-to-image models than your standard chatbots-and for good reason. Fake images of political figures could create mass chaos and confusion. If you thought Pope Francis really did wear a white puffer coat, you might be more likely to believe that deepfaked pics of Trump with Black voters are real.

When I asked DALL-E, OpenAI's text-to-image generator, to generate images of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, it flat-out refused, citing the company's usage policy. When I asked it to generate a model of the "president of the United States," it manufactured a cartoonish white man with a chiseled jaw who looks like he could be the president in a mid-aughts rom-com set in Washington, D.C. No Biden, no Trump, just a hunky POTUS cosplayer.

The image generator Midjourney has similar rules. When I asked it to make an image of the candidates, it gave me an error message: "Sorry! The Midjourney community voted to prevent using 'Donald Trump' and 'Joe Biden' during election season." Since June 2023, according to screenshots recorded on the Internet Archive, Midjourney's community guidelines have stipulated, "You may not use the Services to generate images for political campaigns, or to try to influence the outcome of an election."

But in early March, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a British nonprofit, released a report showing how Midjourney and other image generators could be used to reliably generate deepfake political images-such as Biden in a hospital gown, Trump getting arrested, and a dumpster full of voting ballots. A week later the company started banning images of the two nominees, the Associated Press reported.

But that was nearly four months ago.

This week, when I asked Midjourney for images of the president of the United States (specifically, "Please make me an image of the president of the United States"), it produced a stream of pictures of ... Donald Trump. I kept repeating the prompt ... more Trump. Midjourney spits out four images at a time to give users options. I kept getting four images of Donald Trump-some looked hand-painted, some like photographs, some moody, some smiling, all showing Trump with the trappings of his former office.

One of the 16 images I generated on Midjourney showed Barack Obama. None showed Joe Biden-or anyone else. Midjourney did not respond to multiple requests for comment about its content policies and why its image generator not only violates its own rules but also shows Trump as the current president.

There are good reasons why Midjourney may spit out images of Donald Trump when prompted. Trump is surely one of the most photographed people in human history-his face is slapped all over the web alongside the word "president." Wherever Midjourney is gobbling up images, it can't really avoid the ubiquity of Trump's countenance.

1. These Weird Pics of Donald Trump Have a Much Darker Backstory

2. What Is a Safe Amount of E. Coli for a River?

3. Millions of Women Have Them. They've Radically Improved. Why Do Many of Us Understand So Shockingly Little About How They Work?

4. Apps Were Supposed to Make Life Easier. What Happened?

I've played around with image generators for a year-Midjourney routinely takes a more laissez-faire approach to content moderation than DALL-E. "I don't really care about political speech," founder David Holz told users in a meeting in March. "That's not the purpose of Midjourney. It's not that interesting to me. That said, I also don't want to spend all of my time trying to police political speech. So we're going to have [to] put our foot down on it a bit."

Without government regulations placing constraints on how artificial intelligence applications safeguard against deceptive content, companies have to figure it out themselves‍-something they're surely thrilled about.And Midjourney reportedly has only a dozen employees-a tiny force compared with thousands working at OpenAI or A.I.-focused employees at Silicon Valley behemoths.

Holz told users at that meeting that "this moderation stuff is kind of hard." It's not that hard. Donald Trump might think he's president, but Midjourney should know better.

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These Weird Pics of Donald Trump Have a Much Darker Backstory

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We asked A.I. who the president is-and immediately regretted it.

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VOA News: Generative AI threatens voter confidence in what's real (4/24/2024)

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VOA News: Generative AI threatens voter confidence in what's real (4/24/2024)

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Generative AI threatens voter confidence in what's real

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Generative AI threatens voter confidence in what's real | VOANews

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American English at States: About the USA

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American English at States: About the USA

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Voting: Duties of a Citizen pg 126-135

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All states except North Dakota require that you register before voting in an election. Select your state or territory from the dropdown menu to find the rules that apply to you.

U.S. citizens living outside the U.S., including U.S. service members and their families, can register to vote and request an absentee ballot by completing the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA). U.S. military family members, like everyone else, must meet U.S. voter eligibility requirements to register and request a ballot. For more information, visit the Federal Voter Assistance Program .

There is no national voter registration deadline. Voters in each state and territory must follow their voter registration laws. Select your state or territory from the dropdown menu to find your voter registration deadline.

Every state except North Dakota requires citizens to register if they want to vote. Some states require voters to register up to 30 days before an election, while others allow registration up to and on Election Day. It's important you know the rules in your state.

Select your state or territory from the dropdown menu to check your registration before your state's deadline. That could be up to 30 days before the election.

Also check to see if your registration is marked "inactive." You may become "inactive" if you did not vote in at least two federal elections and did not respond when election officials tried to reach you.

An inactive status does not necessarily mean that you need to re-register. It means that you may have to take extra steps before you can vote. Your state's election website can help you move your registration status back to active.

Make sure you are registered with the correct name, address, and political party affiliation. Visit your state's registration page to re-register or make corrections.

Select your state or territory from the dropdown menu to check your voter registration, including your political party if you have one. Visit your state's election registration website to make changes.

Depending on your state, you may be asked for your party affiliation when you register to vote.

The voting process is the same no matter which party you choose. You may always vote for a candidate from any party in a general election, which is when candidates are elected to offices. Your party affiliation only impacts who you can vote for in primary elections and caucuses .

When you register to vote, you'll be sent a voter registration card. This card confirms that you are registered and ready to vote. Your voter registration card typically includes your name, your home address, and the address of the polling station where you'll vote.

If your name or address changes, you may no longer be ready to vote. Once you've updated your information and re-registered, if necessary, you may receive a new voter registration card, depending on your state.

You do not usually need to have your voter registration card with you in order to vote, but you may need to present another form of ID to vote . Learn more about voter registration .

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Check Voter Registration Deadlines and Laws in Your State

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All states except North Dakota require that you register before voting in an election. Select your state or territory from the dropdown menu to find the rules that apply to you. U.S. citizens living outside the U.S., including U.S. service members and their families, can register to vote and request an absentee ballot by completing the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA).

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The latest reports and analysis from BBC News on the 2024 US presidential election.

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VOA News: Can Reforming Social Media Save American Democracy?

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VOA News: Can Reforming Social Media Save American Democracy?

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When social media exploded in the mid-2000s, retweeting, sharing and liking posts appeared to give average citizens the power to share their opinions far and wide. The problem, according to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, is that online social networks didn't really end up giving everyone the voice that many thought it would.

"It empowered four groups who take advantage of the viral dynamics of social media. That is the far right, the far left, trolls and Russian intelligence," says Haidt, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.

"So, these four groups have had a great time since 2009, using the new viral dynamics of Twitter, Facebook and other platforms. At the same time, the middle 80% of the country feels intimidated and attacked and discouraged and disgusted. And so, they speak up less."

Successful democracies are generally bound together by strong institutions, shared stories, and wide social networks with "high levels of trust," but social media weakens all three, according to Haidt.

"You go from having a merely polarized democracy, which we had in the early 2010s, to one in which the norms change to be all-out war everywhere, all the time," he says.

"You can't have a deliberative democracy when there is no room for deliberation. And you can't have a liberal democracy when the illiberal left and the illiberal right dominate their respective factions."

Samuel Abrams, a professor of politics and social sciences at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, agrees that social media has been bad for democracy.

"This stuff has been as dangerous as can be. It's been incredibly bad for the country, and incredibly bad for free speech and dissemination of ideas and real discourse and democratic norms and civility. It's been a disaster," says Abrams. "It's absolutely contributing to our polarization because you're not getting multiple views. You're not getting viewpoint diversity. It's very hard to hear the other side."
Making change
If he had to venture a guess, Haidt envisions a future America that looks a lot like a Latin American democracy - that is, "an unstable democracy built with flawed institutions that command little popular respect."

"I think we'll have many more constitutional crises, declining trust and increases in political violence and political ineffectiveness," he says, "unless we make these major changes."

The changes he'd like to see include replacing traditional partisan primaries, which tend to reward politicians who cater to the extremists in their party, with single contests that are open to all candidates regardless of political affiliation. The top four finishers advance to the general election. It's already happening in Alaska, where residents voted in November 2020 to adopt open primaries and ranked elections.

The second step is to make social media less toxic to democracy, he says, by requiring identity verification. People could still post anonymously or with a fake name, but they'd have to show that they are a real person in a particular country.

"Right now, anyone in the world, including Russia, could just create hundreds of thousands of accounts every day, and many of them will not be taken down and they can do what they want. That's insane," Haidt says. "It's insane that we allow our public square to be so full of fake people with bad motives."

Twitter says it is working to combat fake accounts and misinformation. Last month, CEO Parag Agrawal posted that the social media platform suspends a half-million spam accounts daily and locks millions of suspected fake accounts each week. He said Twitter constantly updates its systems and rules to remove as much spam as possible and that fake accounts make up less than 5% of its users. Meanwhile, the company's head of safety and integrity announced Twitter's new crisis misinformation policy aimed at elevating credible information, and slowing the spread of misleading content, during crises.

Facebook removed 1.6 billion fake accounts in the first three months of 2022, according to the quarterly transparency report the company released in May. The social media company has said its goal is to remove as many fake accounts as it can, prioritizing accounts that seek to cause harm through spam or financial motivations. In its quarterly report, Facebook said it continues to refine its oversight processes.
New generation
In the meantime, Abrams has some hope for the future. Fifteen years ago, he used to see a lot of political polarization among his students in classroom discussions, he says, but noticed that started to fade away a few years ago.

"They don't like these competing narratives. They recognize they're there. They recognize they're dangerous or are unhappy with them. Data shows this is true on the left and the right," Abrams says, referring to members of Generation Z - people born between 1997 and 2012, the oldest of whom are 25 in 2022.

"They're also the least politically partisan of any cohort we have right now in the nation. They're overwhelmingly centrist. They're overwhelmingly pragmatic, and they are not as interested in identity politics. So what they're trying to do is find common ground ... I think this group has come of age and woken up during [the Donald] Trump [era] and they're like, 'This is crazy.' They don't like it."

Haidt holds a different view of Gen Z, characterizing them as "depressed, anxious and fragile." Either way, he says that as long as the system remains the same, it doesn't matter if young people are increasingly interested in building consensus.

"As long as a small number of people can intimidate the majority, as long as a small number of people can intimidate the moderates on their side, things will not moderate, even if the average person gets more moderate," Haidt says. "As long as social media is the way it is, our country is going to fail."

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Can Reforming Social Media Save American Democracy?

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When social media exploded in the mid-2000s, retweeting, sharing and liking posts appeared to give average citizens the power to share their opinions far and wide. The problem, according to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, is that online social networks didn't really end up giving everyone the voice that many thought it would.

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Center for Civic Education: Campaign Finance

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Center for Civic Education: Campaign Finance

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Voting, Elections, and Representation

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4W3bC8eWAuUolmnJzC0L6-fR2-EZeFel&si=IeM4gv62DPzRm3pi

More playlists about voting and elections https://www.youtube.com/@CenterforCivicEducation/playlists

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Crash Course: Election Basics: Crash Course Government and Politics #36

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Crash Course: Election Basics: Crash Course Government and Politics #36

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This week Craig is going to give you a broad overview of elections in the United States.

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Election Basics: Crash Course Government and Politics #36

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Also check State and local election offices

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Get answers to questions about voting. Learn how to register to vote and where to vote. Learn about local, state, congressional, and presidential elections.

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Change Agent Packet 33: Advocate, Organize, Vote (Aug 2024)

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Change Agent Packet 33: Advocate, Organize, Vote (Aug 2024)

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Issue 62 of Change Agent: Advocate, Organize, Vote (Aug 2024) is available via subscription. Packet 30 features Voting Rights. Packet 33 includes activities for the upcoming election. More is available at changeagent.nelrc.org

1. Be an Informed Voter

2. Participate in the Elections — Citizens and Non-Citizens

3. Share Your Story of Leadership

These resources are available free via Skillblox: The Change Agent

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In honor of our 20th Anniversary, we are creating lesson packets with Change Agent articles from across issues. Check back to see as new packets are added. Have you mined The Change Agent for interesting groupings of articles? Send us your ideas! If your lesson idea is selected, we would like to share it with others and give you a free one-year individual subscription in return. Is there a topic you would like to see us explore? Contact us and let us know about it.

These lesson packets are freely available for you to download, edit, and use. We hope that you'll sign up for our mailing list so that we can notify you when new lesson packets or other resources are added to the site.

Lesson Packets

1. Learn Writing by Studying a Writer

2. Exploring Ratio by Looking at Prison Statistics

3. Thinking About Becoming a CNA?

4. Workplace Safety - Learn It and Teach It

5. Reading Partners

6. Celebrating Freedom on Juneteenth: Reading Closely, Studying Further, and Learning Mechanics at Three Levels

7. Joys and Challenges of Holidays: Gathering Evidence from the Text

8. Write to the Writer by Gale Czerski

9. Making Sense of Extreme Inequality (and Scaffolding to Complex Text)

10. Taking Action at Work

11. Race and Voting Rights in 2016: Lesson Ideas

12. Facing Racism

13. Women Dealing with Domestic Violence

14. Homework Swap

15. Hair Care Recipes

16. Using Math to Start a Poultry Farm

17. Indigenous People's issue: Beginning Literacy Adaptations

18. Summer Reading Log

19. Become a Census 2020 Ambassador

20. Help Someone Understand the Census (beginner, intermediate and advanced)

21. How to Fill Out the Questionnaire

22. Avoid Hoaxes, Scams, and Rumors

23. Become a Voting Ambassador - in Print and Google Slides

24. Voter Suppression vs. Fraud - in Print and Google Slides

25. "Pandemic Haircut" - in Print, Google Slides, and Audio

26. Teach about Race in the Adult Ed. Classroom - 4 Google Slide Presentations

27. Stories from Mental Health: Learning, Coping, Healing - Google Slide Presentation

28. Career Exploration Packets - nursing, peer counseling, and transferable skills

29. What Pushes and What Pulls Immigrants to the U.S.? - includes a collection of articles and an adaptable graphic organizer for taking notes

30. Teach about the Upcoming Elections (2024)

31. Climate Change Refugees - Numeracy, Literacy, and Science

32. Including LGBTQ Voices in the Classroom

33. Lesson Packets 33

PACket 1: Learn Writing by Studying a Writer

Our first in a new series of teacher resources is an exploration of three articles written by Timothy Lovett published in three different issues of The Change Agent (Good Jobs, Not Just Any Jobs; All About Food; and Prisons and Justice?) The articles are accompanied by a lesson plan that is aligned to the College and Career Readiness Standards. This lesson plan zeroes in on writing anchor standards 1-5, breaking them down into plain English, providing you with a way to teach them to students, and offering student writing that models the anchor standards for your learners. You, as the teacher, get a clear-cut way to address standards, and your students get the added motivation of learning the standards not from an expert, but from someone just like them - a student who is modeling increasing mastery of writing skills - and at the same time writing about interesting topics in a sometimes humorous and always compelling way.
Download Packet 1: Teach Writing by Studying Writers
Packet 2: Exploring Ratio by Looking at Prison Statistics

This lesson is meant to supplement instruction on ratio and is aimed at those who are comfortable or getting comfortable at Level C in the CCR standards. This lesson first explores ratio and then offers students the opportunity to think critically about ratio in the context of socially relevant data presented in two kinds of charts. Answer sheets are provided - for the teacher's reference only or to share with students - your choice.
Download Packet 2: Exploring Ratio by Looking at Prison Statistics
Packet 3: Thinking About Becoming a CNA?

This lesson is designed to provide CCR-aligned activities in the context of content that provides information about work as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). The readings are GLE 5-8.
Download Packet 3: Thinking About Becoming a CNA?
Packet 4: Workplace Safety - Learn It and Teach It

This lesson is designed to increase reading, math, and presentation skills in the context of materials that explain health and safety laws as well as specific practices that workers - particularly those in environmental services or housekeeping - can use to stay safe on the job. Since one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it, this lesson plan includes the opportunity for students to teach what they have learned.
Download Packet 4: Workplace Safety - Learn It and Teach It
Packet 5: Reading Partners

This rich lesson packet provides relevant reading and writing opportunities, builds relationships between immigrant students and other receiving community members, and helps English Language Learners connect with community resources. In "Reading Partners," English language learners and members of receiving communities read one or two selected articles from The Change Agent and then use the writing prompts to engage in an exchange of ideas, experiences, and perspectives about the article topic. There are eight articles to choose from - articles about moving to a new community, work, health, schooling and parenting.

The aim of this activity is to use text as a way to get people from different communities talking (through writing) about topics of common interest. Programs that have partnerships with local organizations can use the activities to bring students into conversation with these partners (health care providers who want to connect with immigrants about health, employers who are interested in hiring immigrants, etc.). However, there are many opportunities to communicate across communities right in our own programs: this activity could be carried out by ABE and ESL classes that partner to read and correspond about the same articles, by program volunteers that partner with students, or by diverse student pairs in one classroom.
Download Packet 5: Reading Partners Packet 5 Tech Tip: Converting a Lesson to Integrate Technology
PACKET 6: celebrating freedom on juneteenth: Reading closely, studying further, and learning mechanics at three levels

"Juneteenth" is the celebration of June 19, 1865, when slaves in Texas learned they were free - two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This activity includes text (at three different grade level equivalents or GLEs) and art work. The text shares a family's oral account of being slaves in Texas in 1865 when word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached them, a description of Juneteenth celebrations in Texas, and the ways an artist has preserved family history with her artwork. Students also have a chance to look at and analyze two full-color paintings by Sonia Sadler. The text is available at three different levels (GLE 4, 7 and 10). The aim of this activity is to provide students with an engaging, relevant text that allows them to develop key reading and writing skills and knowledge about U.S. history.
Instructions for Lesson packet #6 Download one or more texts for Packet 6: GLE 04, GLE 07, GLE 10
Packet 7: Joys and Challenges of Holidays: Gathering Evidence from the Text

Use the graphic organizer we provide (p. 36) or create your own to help students analyze four essays about holidays. They will investigate the text to find what the author says are "fun aspects" of the holiday as well as "challenging aspects" of the holiday, and they will write a paragraph based on the essays. The four essays are: "Christmas Changed" (also available in audio on The Change Agent website) by Diana Solorzano, "Taking the Good with the Bad" by Gregory Parker, "Celebrating Eid" by Nuzhat Jahan, and "My Diwali" by Sue Byman. The holidays also represent diverse religious traditions - Christmas (Christian), Eid (Muslim), and Diwali (Hindu) - so these texts also lend themselves to social studies explorations, such as geography, world religions, immigration patterns, and more. The texts used are levels 7-8 (grade level equivalent). CCR standards addressed are Level D (GLE 6-8.9). The aim of this activity is to provide students with engaging, relevant stories that help them practice the important CCR skill of using evidence from the text to be able to explain what the author is saying.
Download Packet 7: Joys and Challenges of Holidays
Packet 8: Write to the Writer by Gale Czerski

This lesson packet provides students with the opportunity to write back to Change Agent writers.

Find a description of Lesson Packet 8 here with downloadable articles and worksheets.

Packet 9: Making sense of Extreme Inequality (and Scaffolding to Complex Text)

Use these four articles from The Change Agent to examine extreme inequality and to consider the policy changes over the past 50 years that have increased wealth and income inequality. During the course of this lesson, students will be scaffolded to read a fairly complex text.
Download Packet 9: Making Sense of Extreme Inequality
PACKET 10: Taking action at work

Use this selection (or a subset of the selection) of multi-level articles written
(mostly) by students to teach reading skills and to spark discussion about the role of workers in determining what happens in the workplace.
Download Packet 10: Taking Action at Work
Packet 11: Race and Voting Rights in 2016: Lesson Ideas

Use the context of this election year to explore voting rights in the past and present. This packet includes pre- and post-activities, the hands-on History of Voting Rights activity, a link to a history of voting rights video, an article by Andy Nash on race and voting rights, and more stories and facts and figures about current voting restrictions.
Download level 10 version for advanced learners.
Download level 6 version for intermediate learners.
Packet 12: Facing Racism

White supremacist rallies, anti-immigrant jargon, and acts of racism, islamophobia, and anti-semitism - these frightening realities mark the beginning of the school year in 2017. As your program gets back into full gear this fall, please consider ways to infuse these high-quality, relevant materials into your classroom. They will help provide a safe and welcoming culture in your program, and they are effective ESOL and ABE teaching tools. These teacher-designed materials are associated with the "Talking about Race" issue of The Change Agent (Issue #42). To access that issue, you need a Username and PW, which you can get be purchasing an online subscription. To teach the lessons provided below, however, you don't need to do anything except click on the link. All the materials are freely provided.

"Existing While Black": A Worksheet for ESOL Learners by Lisa Gimbel
A 4-page worksheet with pre-reading activities (including definition of expressions and practice with expressions, vocabulary, and slang) and post-reading activities (including basics, language review, and comprehension).

"Best Practices for Talking about Race" by Lisa Gimbel and Riva Pearson
A collection wide-ranging tips from personal practice to curriculum to program and community-wide ideas.

"Teaching to Unlearn Racism" by Judy Hofer

"Who Paved the Way?" by Kathleen Budway
Pre- and post-activities (plus handouts) you can use with a short film made by an ESOL teacher in which her students talk about how it affected them to study African-American history and current events.

"Preparing My Students to Write about Race" by Hazel Robin
A teacher shares how she introduced The Change Agent "Call for Articles" on the theme of race. Rather than starting out by asking students to speak from experience, she asks them to conduct research and learn some science behind race. Creating an evidence-based context, she then invites them to respond to The Change Agent writing prompts.

"Exploring Racism: Police, Stereotypes, and the Possibility of a Better World" by Manny Reynoso
A teacher-created lesson that explores the definition of racism and incorporates a first-person story by someone who grew up afraid of the police. Finally, the lesson explores the possibility of a better world - using a video and discussion prompts.

"The Construction of Race in the U.S.: An Early History" by Cynthia Peters
This is a GLE 10 version of the GLE 6 article by the same name that appears on p. 22 of the "Talking about Race" issue. It includes CCR-aligned activities at the end.

"Using Sources: Unpacking a Well-Researched Article" by Kathleen O'Connell
This activity, based on "The 'Chief Illiniwek' Half-Time Show" on p. 8 of the Race issue, helps students examine and assess sources.

"Race and Voting Rights in 2016: Lesson Ideas" - by Andy Nash and Cynthia Peters
Use the context of this election year to explore voting rights in the past and present. This packet includes pre- and post-activities, the hands-on History of Voting Rights activity, a link to a history of voting rights video, an article by Andy Nash on race and voting rights, and more stories and facts and figures about current voting restrictions. Two versions are available:
- Race and Voting Rights in 2016 for advanced learners (Level 10)
- Race and Voting Rights in 2016 for intermediate learners (Level 6)

New! Two students discuss why we should talk about race in the adult education classroom

Packet 13: women dealing with domestic violence
Download Packet 13: Women Dealing with Domestic Violence
This packet contains three articles from Issue #19 of The Change Agent, "Women and Literacy." Two of the articles by practitioners reveal the effect of violence and domestic abuse on women learners. A third article, written by a learner, tells a story of trauma and resilience.

Packet 14: Homework swap
Download Packet 14: Homework Swap
The activity in this packet is modeled after the famous "Yankee Swap" party game. In this version, participants draw an assignment and then can swap assignments if there's one they prefer - so there are lots of opportunities for students to talk to each other as they navigate all the swapping.

Packet 15: Hair Care RECIPES
Download Packet 15: Hair Care Recipes
Use this collection of homemade of hair care recipes to practice reading, writing, and math. Take it further by creating a class recipe book of DIY personal care products and perhaps making some in class to use and/or share as gifts.

Packet 16: using math to start a poultry farm
Download the article with discussion questions and math problems and the solutions and extensions. Get the adaptable Excel spreadsheet here and the adaptable worksheet (in Word) here.
This true story about starting a poultry farm, written by an immigrant learner in Colorado, is a great way to teach math, reading, writing, and spreadsheet skills in a real-world context.

Packet 17: indigenous people's issue: beginning literacy adaptations
Download Packet 17: Beginning Literacy Adaptations
This 13-page packet contains five pieces, all written at about a fourth grade equivalency level. All the pieces (except for the first) are adapted from articles that appear in the "Indigenous Peoples" issue of The Change Agent. If your class is multi-level, you can teach from different levels of the same piece.

Packet 18: summer reading log
Download Packet 18: Summer Reading Log
Keep your students engaged with reading this summer by sharing this resource with them: a log of Change Agent articles that they read and listened to using our online audio.
Download Packet 19: Become a Census 2020 Ambassador
Packet 19: Become a 2020 Census ambassador

Census Planning and Tracking Grid. - Download Word doc and adapt as needed.

Packet 20: help someone understand the census

The purpose of this packet is to teach census basics, so that a student could explain what they learn to someone else. Thanks to the National Coalition for Literacy for generously supporting the development of these materials.
Download Packet 20: Help Someone Understand the Census (beginner, intermediate, or advanced)

The beginner packet has articles that have been adapted to be accessible for students reading at grade-level-equivalent 4. The After-You-Read activities are designed for beginners.

The intermediate packet has a mix of articles from Level 4 to Level 6. The After-You-Read activities are modified to be intermediate level.

The advanced packet has the same readings as the intermediate packet, but it includes the option to do additional research and learn more about how to evaluate the credibility of online sources, and it has more options for how to present the information learned.

Packet 21: how to fill out the questionnaire
Download Packet 21:How to Fill Out the Questionnaire
This beginner-level lesson packet supports students to fill out the 2020 census questionnaire in three different ways. Both the PDF and online questionnaires are near exact replicas of the Census Bureau's versions, except they are shorter. The paper copy has vocabulary and explanations on p. 2 of this packet. The online version has vocabulary and explanations embedded in the web pages.

Packet 22: avoid hoaxes, scams, and rumors
Download Packet 22: Avoid Hoaxes, Scams, and Rumors
This intermediate-level lesson packet gives students a chance to work on reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills in the context of relevant, timely information about protecting against fraud during the 2020 census.

Packet 23: Become a Voting Ambassador

This 10-page packet guides teachers to train students to be Voting Ambassadors. Students learn basics about voting - the issues and the procedures - and decide whether they'd like to take on the project of supporting others in their community to register and vote. Special attention given to carrying out this project-based learning opportunity safely during the pandemic. And we include a special article about voting during uncertain times. It is mostly intermediate- to advanced-level, and it gives students a chance to work on reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills in the context of a highly (!) relevant civics moment.

Packet 24: voter suppression vs. Fraud

During the 2020 election, we are hearing a lot about both voter suppression and voter fraud. What are they? How should we evaluate the claims about them? This 5-page lesson packet offers some definitions and activities on this topic, and asks students to develop their own questions and then research the answers.

PACKET 25: "PANDEMIC HAIRCUT" IN PRINT, SLIDES, AND AUDIO

Even though the pandemic has been catastrophic for so many people, student writers in the Pandemic issue of The Change Agent note the ways it has brought gifts. In this example, a student from Rhode Island says the pandemic makes her feel like "we are in a war." Yet she goes on to describe how she and her husband found an opportunity to "laugh and be joyful." For her, it happened when her husband asked her to cut his hair. She watched some tutorials on YouTube and then sat her husband on a stool in the bathtub where he got his first pandemic haircut. For your classroom, mix and match these three ways of accessing the article and activities.

PACKET 26: Teach about race in the adult education classroom

These four Google Slide Presentations were developed by Riva Pearson (JVS) and Cynthia Peters (World Education) for teachers to copy and adapt and use in their remote or in-person classroom.

1. Black Lives Matter - high intermediate ESOL

2. Talking to the Police - high intermediate ESOL

3. Introduction to Racism in the U.S. - high intermediate ESOL

4. Equality vs. Equity - can be adapted for various levels

PACKET 27: Stories from Mental Health - Learning, Coping, Healing

This Google Slide Presentation was developed by Cynthia Peters and Ebony Vandross (World Education) for teachers to copy and adapt and use in their remote or in-person classroom. Three more Google Slide presentations from the "Mental Health" issue (#52) are available, but you need an online subscription to access them.

"No Sick Days? That's Bad for Your Physical and Mental Health"

PACKET 28: career exploration packets - nursing, peer counseling, transferable skills

These four packets are collected from Issue #53 plus other issues of The Change Agent.

PACKET 29: what pushes and what pulls immigrants to the U.S.?

This packet of four articles from Issue #56 of The Change Agent explore various reasons why immigrants leave their country of origin and what draws them to the U.S. The last page of the packet is a graphic oranizer, where students can take notes about what "pushes" and what "pulls" immigrants to the U.S. (To extend this activity to include a digital literacy component, use this Google doc version of the graphic organizer. This version is "view only." To adapt it and/or to share it with your students, you must make a copy of it or download it.)

PACKET 30: Teach about the upcoming elections (2024)

Train Students to Become Voting Ambassadors
Training students to be Voting Ambassadors is a great way to engage in civics, practice speaking and listening in relevant and authentic contexts, learn digital skills, gain transferable skills, and develop leadership. This activity is aligned with IELCE requirements and other standards. Use this set of Google slides to get started. (It includes a link to a Google doc worksheet that helps students plan, take action, and reflect on their work.) More materials forthcoming in early 2024.

Teach the History of Voting Rights
This 9-page PDF includes a dynamic activity and video that teach the history of voting rights, an article about race and voting rights, and a worksheet that helps the student assess what they've learned and take it further.

Explore the Difference between Voter Suppression and Fraud
See Lesson Packet #24 above.

PACKET 31: Climate Refugees - numeracy, literacy, and science

This packet includes two articles by students about how climate change is a factor in creating refugees, one article giving background on how carbon affects our atmosphere, and a Google slideshow (developed by two math specialists) that teaches numeracy in the context of evaluating claims about climate change. Mix and match these resources for your own teaching purposes:
1.Climate Refugees by Efren Macias Ojeda - 2-page PDF with colorful data maps, and pre- and post-reading activities
2.Better Future: At Home, There Are No Jobs, The Cities Are Unsafe, and The Rivers Run Dry by Hortensia Reza - 2 page PDF with reading, writing, and pronunciation activities
3.The Earth's Atmosphere: Thinner than the Skin of an Apple - 1 page PDF picture story that explains how carbon affects the atmosphere
4.Climate Refugees - an adaptable slideshow that combines the content from #1 and #3 above and presents it (with more images and activities) in the Google slides
5.Math in Text: Hortensia's Story - a Google slides numeracy lesson that uses excerpts from "Better Future" (#2 above) to create a lesson around reading and understanding numbers in text
ALSO...check out The Change Agent's Issue #27, "Making Sense of Climate Change"

PACKET 32: Including LGBTQ voices in the classroom

Many of our students are LGBTQ, but they don't often see themselves reflected in the reading materials we bring into the classroom. This collection of three articles takes a step towards correcting that. Note: the levels are grade-level equivalents (GLE).

1. "What Would You Do If I Was Gay?" My Brother Said He Would Disown Me
by Anonymous - GLE 5

2. Fight on 'Til the End
by Annette Bowen - GLE 7

3. Different from Other Girls
by Sun Young Kim - GLE 6

For ideas about how to respond to homophobia if/when it shows up in your classroom, check out these two Change Agent articles written by teachers ("Coming Out to Students" by Deborah Schwartz, and " Homophobia in the Classroom" by Cynthia Peters). In each, they share their strategies for handling challenging situations. The best practices for talking about race in the classroom offered by Lisa Gimbel and Riva Pearson in this article are also excellent best practices for talking about gender and sexuality. As always, teachers are the best judge of when and how to bring up topics that may bring a range of responses in the classroom.

PACKET 33:

1. Be an Informed Voter

2. Participate in the Elections - Citizens and Non-Citizens

3. Share Your Story of Leadership

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In honor of our 20th Anniversary, we are creating lesson packets with Change Agent articles from across issues. Check back to see as new packets are added. Have you mined The Change Agent for interesting groupings of articles? Send us your ideas!

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CA State Elections and Voter Information

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CA State Elections and Voter Information

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Also see CA County Elections Offices (aka Registrar of Voters)

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Jennifer ESL: U.S. Politics: Vocabulary & Pronunciation for the 2020 Election Season

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Jennifer ESL: U.S. Politics: Vocabulary & Pronunciation for the 2020 Election Season

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U.S. Politics: Vocabulary & Pronunciation for the 2020 Election Season

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VOA News: Campaign Ads Blitz Television and Social Media

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VOA News: Campaign Ads Blitz Television and Social Media

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Campaign Ads Blitz Television and Social Media

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LINCS.ed.gov: Supporting the Voting Rights of People with Disabilities

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LINCS.ed.gov: Supporting the Voting Rights of People with Disabilities

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Additional Disability Voting Rights Resources:

AAPD.com: Disability Voting Rights Week: September 9 to 13

AAPD.com: REV UP Voting Campaign

ACLU.org: I am a voter with a disability

ADA.gov: Ballot Drop Box Accessibility

ADA.gov: Checklist for Polling Places

ADA.gov: Solutions for Five Common ADA Access Problems at Polling Places

ADA.gov: The Americans with Disabilities Act and Other Federal Laws Protecting the Rights of Voters with Disabilities

Many more resources

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LINCS Community | Adult Education and Literacy | U.S. Department of Education

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 9/12 Supporting the Voting Rights of People with Disabilities

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9/12/2024 Supporting the Voting Rights of People with Disabilities (Updated 9/16)Mike Cruse, Moderator: LINCS Community Learners with Disabilities GroupJennifer Gagliardi, Moderator: LINCS Community Civics Education and Citizenship GroupPurpose:

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Khan Academy lecture on Electoral College

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In the US, we don't directly vote for our president or vice president. Instead, we use something called the Electoral College. So when you show up to vote on Election Day-- and an election day will happen in November of an election year. And it could happen as early as November 2, and it could happen as late as November 8. And it's going to be the Tuesday after the first Monday in the month. So it'll be November 2 if the first Monday is November 1, and it'll be November 8 if the first Monday is November 7. And so you go on election day, and you will see a ballot that will have the presidential candidates. It'll have their parties there. It will have the vice presidential candidates, and you'll vote for one of them. But in actuality, when you are voting for Candidate A-- and let's say Candidate A is a Democrat-- you're not actually voting for Candidate A. You're actually voting for a slate of electors who promise to vote for that candidate. And it isn't in most states proportional based on what proportion of people vote for one candidate or another. In most of the states, except for Maine and Nebraska, it is a winner take all system. So what do I mean by that? So right here, you have the breakdown of the United States, by state, of how many electors words each state gets. And the number of electors is essentially the number of congressmen that that state has. For example, California has two senators. Every state has two senators. California has two senators and 53 congressmen. And those of you who aren't familiar with it, every state gets two senators, and the House of Representatives is dictated by population. California is a huge state, two senators, 53 representatives. You have Texas, two senators and it has 32 representatives. You go to Louisiana, you have two senators and you have seven representatives. So the electors per state is based on the total number of congressmen, so the number of senators plus the number of representatives. That's what gives us 55 in California, nine in Louisiana, 34 in Texas. But what's interesting here is it's a winner take all system in every state except for Nebraska and Maine. In every other state, if I get 51% of the vote in Texas, I get all 34 electoral votes in the Electoral College. If I get 51% or even if I get 50.1%, just a slight majority of the votes in California, I will get all of the votes for California in the Electoral College. And in general, or in actuality, the president is whoever gets the majority of the electoral votes in the United States. And right now, that threshold is, or that magic number-- you could think of it that way-- is 270 Electoral College votes. If no candidate is able to hit this threshold of 270 Electoral College votes, then it will go to the US Congress. And in the US Congress, it's interesting, because it isn't one congressman, one vote. Or actually, I should say the US House of Representatives. It'll go to the US House of Representatives. And it won't be one representative, one vote. What will happen is the representatives in each state will vote together, and each state will get only one vote. So in a tiebreaker, the big states really, really lose out, because in a tiebreaker, Texas will get only one vote. California will get one vote. And Alaska will get one vote, and Rhode Island will get one vote. So Rhode Island will have just as much say in a tiebreaker as California will over who will be president. Then they'll just keep voting until someone gets a simple majority of the votes by state. Now, there's one other twist here. It's that the District of Columbia-- Washington, DC right over here-- in Congress gets no representatives. They have no senators, and they have no representatives. But they do get three electoral votes when it comes to deciding who is going to be president. Now, you might already be getting a sense here that maybe this winner take all system might lead to some distortions, and the biggest distortion of all is you can imagine a candidate who wins the popular vote and loses the election or loses in the Electoral College. And you might think, well, gee, how can that happen? And the way to think about it is, imagine someone-- let's say someone gets-- with the states that they win, they get huge majorities. So let's say there's a conservative candidate, and he or she gets huge majorities in the states they win. 80% in Texas. They get 80% in Mississippi. They get 80% in Oklahoma. The get huge majorities in the states that they win. And the states that they lose, they barely lose. And they barely lose those really big states. So let's say in Florida, that candidate gets 49% of the vote. So they had a lot of votes in Florida, but not enough to win it. The other person, let's say, gets 51%. All 27 go to the other candidate. Let's say the same thing happens in California. That candidate got 49% of the vote. The opponent, let's say, gets 51% of the vote. All 55 go to California. You get no credit for that 49%. You get no credit for that 49% in Florida. So in this situation, this candidate might actually end up with the majority, barely losing the states they lose, and trouncing the other candidate in the states that they win, but despite that, actually getting fewer Electoral College votes. Now, there's a few clarifications I want to make, especially ones that have confused me in the past. One of them is because you have the same number of Electoral College votes as you have US representatives plus senators, there's kind of this feeling that maybe each district sends its own elector to the state capital to decide who the president is. And it doesn't quite work that way. So this right here is the panel of electors for Louisiana in 2008. And you can see right over here, each of the parties have their own slate of electors. And these are either decided by the party themselves, or they're decided by the candidates' teams. And even though you have someone here for each district and then you have these at-large candidates, it's not like-- let's take a situation. This actually happened in Louisiana, where John McCain got a majority of the state. So John McCain and Sarah Palin got a majority of the state. It's not the case that-- let's say in the second district, which is New Orleans, let's say that the second district, a majority of the people actually voted for Barack Obama. It is not the case that Kenneth Garrett in 2008 would have been the chosen elector. Even though they divide things by district and they have these at-large candidates, it is actually a state-wide election. So they don't look at who won each of the districts. They just say, look, John McCain and Sarah Palin won the entire state. So all of these electors are the ones that are going to go to the state capital in December and decide who they want to pledge their vote for. So even if Obama won just the Second Congressional District, that's not how it's thought about in the Electoral College. It's just a state-wide election. McCain got the majority of the state. All of the electors will be chosen from McCain's slate or from the Republican Party slate. And then they're going to go to the state capital. In the case of Louisiana, it would be Baton Rouge. And they will decide who they want to pledge their votes to. And all of the electors in all of the states go to their designated location, usually the state capital, on the same day. And usually that is some day in December. And they pick the president, although by that point, everyone knows who the president is, because the actual election was in early November. And people know which way the votes went and which way the actual Electoral College votes went. Now, I did mention that there are two states that don't do this winner take all, Nebraska and Maine. And in Nebraska and Maine, when you go vote, it really is by congressional district. Nebraska has three congressional districts. So in those three congressional districts, if one of them goes to the Democrat and two goes to the Republican, then they'll have one electoral vote for the Democrat and two for the Republican. And then they have two at-large votes that are decided the same way, in kind of the winner take all basis. If you get 51% of the vote on a statewide basis, you get the two at-large votes. Same thing for Maine, but Maine has two congressional districts. So two of the congressional districts could go either way. And then the at-large are based on a state-wide vote. Now, you could imagine the other kind of unfair thing here, other than the popular vote versus the Electoral College vote. You could imagine it makes some states better represented than others. So if you just divide population by the number of electors, you see the larger states, each elector is representing many, many more people. This is California right here. Each elector is representing over 600,000 people. And in the smaller states-- this is Wyoming right here-- each elector is representing under 200,000 people. So in Wyoming, people are getting kind of three times the representation as they would in California on a per capita vote. But what makes it even a little bit more skewed, because it's winner take all and the candidates aren't silly and they want to make sure that they spend their money and their visits and their time in the most leveragable way, it actually creates this weird scenario where candidates will often ignore huge parts of the population. And they ignore them because those huge parts of the population are unlikely to swing one way or the other. So for example, California is very reliably Democratic and Texas is very reliably Republican. So this right here-- this is a fascinating graph, at least in my mind-- it shows where George W. Bush and John Kerry spent the last five weeks of the 2004 election. Let me close that right there. This top graph shows where they actually spent their time, so each of these little hands here is a visit in those final five weeks. And each of these dollar signs is a million dollars spent on marketing and advertising, on ads and whatever else, in those states. And you can see, California and Texas, the two biggest states, they didn't spend enough money to the threshold to get dollar a sign written there. So they didn't even spend $1,000,000 on these huge states. They only had a few visits to California, and Texas had no visits in the final five weeks. So what happens is that candidates spend a disproportionate amount of attention and money in the states that are more likely to swing one way or another. So the people in Florida or in Ohio-- so this is Ohio and Florida-- got a ton more attention, especially on a per person basis, than the people in Texas did.

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The Electoral College (video) | Khan Academy

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In the US, we don't directly vote for our president or vice president. Instead, we use something called the Electoral College. So when you show up to vote on Election Day-- and an election day will happen in November of an election year.

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Bow Valley College Literacy Readers: Ali Chooses a Leader (Canada--adapt for the US)

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Bow Valley College Literacy Readers: Ali Chooses a Leader (Canada--adapt for the US)

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See all readers at https://globalaccess.bowvalleycollege.ca/learners/readers.php

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This resource toolkit is designed for programming at American Spaces to define the values of democracy and explain the function, principles, and significance of America’s democratic system of government.

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RESOURCE TOOLKIT FOR AMERICAN SPACES
This resource toolkit is designed for programming at American Spaces to define the values of democracy and explain the function, principles, and significance of America's democratic system of government.

DEFINITIONS

Popular Sovereignty: the authority and legitimacy of a government come from the consent and will of the people it governs.

Natural/Individual Rights: fundamental freedoms and protections that every person inherently possesses, including freedom of speech and the right to life, liberty, and property.

Checks and Balances: a system in government where different branches (executive, legislative, and judicial) have distinct powers and roles to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful or abusing its authority.

Political Pluralism: the presence of multiple political parties, ideologies, and perspectives in a society, allowing for diverse viewpoints and choices in the political process.

Transfer of Power: the peaceful and orderly shift of authority from one government or leader to another, often occurring through elections or established constitutional processes.

Self-governance: the ability of a group or community to independently make decisions, establish rules, and manage its own affairs without external control.

Representative Democracy: a system of government in which citizens elect representatives to make decisions and create policies on their behalf, ensuring broader participation in governance.

Public Participation: the involvement and engagement of the general public in decision-making and civic activities.

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

Democracy ideology, at its core, is a set of principles and beliefs that form the basis of democracy as a system of governance. It supports the idea that political authority and decision-making power should reside with the people, emphasizing the values of individual rights, equality, and the rule of law.

AMERICA'S DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

America's democratic system is characterized by a representative democracy where citizens elect officials to make decisions on their behalf. At its core is the belief in popular sovereignty, individual rights, and the rule of law. The United States operates with a federal system of government, dividing powers between a national government and individual states, which allows for both centralized and decentralized decision-making.

Free and fair elections, including presidential, congressional, and state-level elections, are central to the democratic process, ensuring the peaceful transfer of power. The system is underpinned by a strong commitment to civil liberties, political pluralism, and a system of checks and balances among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. This complex interplay of democratic principles has been a defining feature of U.S. governance for centuries, shaping the nation's political landscape and commitment to democratic values.

BIRTH OF U.S. DEMOCRACY

The Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776, was a revolutionary assertion of the right to self-governance, asserting that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. It not only declared independence from British rule but also laid the philosophical groundwork for democracy by affirming the fundamental principles of equality and individual rights.

The United States Constitution, ratified in 1788, was a blueprint for democratic governance. It established the framework for a federal democratic republic, with checks and balances among the three branches of government, a Bill of Rights to safeguard individual liberties, and a system of representation that allowed for citizen participation in decision-making.

MORE RESOURCES

Videos and Digital Media

Articles

Public Websites about 2024 Elections

The Inter-American Democratic Charter, adopted in 2001, is designed to promote and protect democracy in the Western Hemisphere. The Charter emphasizes respecting human rights, the rule of law, political pluralism, and other key democratic principles. It also advocates for public participation and fair elections, which include secret balloting and universal suffrage.

Together, these foundational documents shaped the course of U.S. history and provided the essential framework upon which the United States built its enduring democratic system.

LESSON PLANS

History of America's Government Institutions and Democratic Norms - This lesson plan includes videos and review questions that explain the fundamental democratic principles within America's governmental institutions.

America's Founding Documents - Transcripts of America's founding documents and articles that discuss their histories and their relation to democracy.

Defining Democracy Lesson Plan - This lesson plan includes activities, readings, and questions that aid learners in defining democracy and comprehending the interconnectedness of democracy and community.

Democracy and the United Nations - This article characterizes democracy as a fundamental value of the United Nations.

Strengthening Democracy in America Series - This resource offers ten free courses for a comprehensive study of the U.S. political system.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How would you describe democracy in your own words?

2. What are the key principles and values that underlie a democratic system?

3. How do citizens participate in a democracy, and why is their participation important?

4. Can you name a few countries, apart from the United States, that are recognized as democracies?

5. What are some rights and freedoms protected in a democratic system, and why are these rights important?

The views expressed in these links and resources do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. government.
Updated November 2023

Suggested for You

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DEMOCRACY RESOURCE TOOLKIT FOR AMERICAN SPACES This resource toolkit is designed for programming at American Spaces to define the values of democracy and explain the function, principles, and significance of America's democratic system of government. DEFINITIONS Popular Sovereignty: the authority and legitimacy of a government come from the consent and will of the people it ...

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Voter-Suppression-vs-Fraud  Open a Google slides version of Packet 24   Download as PPT or use “make a copy” option with your Google account  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DbXUFvv8POuFE0z8RHfOPv1QYD15b4z1rNz4gaj0wsA/edit?usp=sharing

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Change Agent: PACKET 24: VOTER SUPPRESSION VS. FRAUD

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Change Agent: PACKET 24: VOTER SUPPRESSION VS. FRAUD

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NY Historical Society: The Citizenship Project: Voting Rights

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NY Historical Society: The Citizenship Project: Voting Rights

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Voting Rights // The Citizenship Project [E10]

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CISA: Cyber Infrastructure and Security Agency (Election Security)

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CISA: Cyber Infrastructure and Security Agency (Election Security)

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Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA

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Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

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Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock (Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

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DOJ: About Language Minority Voting Rights

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DOJ: About Language Minority Voting Rights

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Congress enacted the language minority provisions because it found that:

[T]hrough the use of various practices and procedures, citizens of language minorities have been effectively excluded from participation in the electoral process. Among other factors, the denial of the right to vote of such minority group citizens is ordinarily directly related to the unequal educational opportunities afforded them resulting in high illiteracy and low voting participation. The Congress declares that, in order to enforce the guarantees of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, it is necessary to eliminate such discrimination by prohibiting these practices, and by prescribing other remedial devices.

The language minority provisions of the Voting Rights Act require that when a covered state or political subdivision provides registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other materials or information relating to the electoral process, including ballots, it shall provide them in the language of the applicable minority group as well as in the English language.

The requirements of the law are straightforward: all election information that is available in English must also be available in the minority language so that all citizens will have an effective opportunity to register, learn the details of the elections, and cast a free and effective ballot.

Covered jurisdictions are determined by the Census Bureau based upon a formula set out in the Voting Rights Act. The most recent determinations for Section 203 were made on December 8, 2021.

Covered language minorities are limited to American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives, and Spanish-heritage citizens - the groups that Congress found to have faced barriers in the political process.

A jurisdiction is covered under Section 203 where the number of United States citizens of voting age is a single language group within the jurisdiction:

Is more than 10,000, or

Is more than five percent of all voting age citizens, or

On an Indian reservation, exceeds five percent of all reservation residents; and

The illiteracy rate of the group is higher than the national illiteracy rate

The Civil Rights Division offers guidance to local election officials on how to comply with language minority provisions. These guidelines are entitled "Implementation of the Provisions of the Voting Rights Act Regarding Language Minority Groups." 28 C.F.R. Part 55.

Language Minority Guidelines Online: Updated version

In addition to guidelines and correspondence, the Division has held meetings with state and local election officials and minority community members in jurisdictions to explain the law, answer questions, and work to foster the implementation of effective programs.

The Division requests voter registration lists and bilingual poll official assignment data from covered jurisdictions. The Division seeks to identify polling places that appear to have large numbers of language minority voters and ascertain whether these polling places are served by a sufficient number of bilingual poll officials.

The Division also looks at the full range of information provided by covered jurisdictions to voters in English - not just the ballot and election pamphlets themselves, but also newspaper notices required by state law, website information, and other election information - and seeks to determine whether the same information is being made available to each language minority community and whether the translated materials are actually provided in polling places and made available to voters.

The Division monitors elections as needed to determine whether programs are being implemented as required by the Voting Rights Act.

The Division, when necessary, has filed litigation to enforce the language minority requirements.

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Congress enacted the language minority provisions because it found that: [T]hrough the use of various practices and procedures, citizens of language minorities have been effectively excluded from participation in the electoral process. Among other factors, the denial of the right to vote of such minority group citizens is ordinarily directly related to the unequal educational opportunities afforded them resulting in high illiteracy and low voting participation.

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PDF, online, and audio. SUBSCRIPTION

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Sorry, we couldn't find any lessons, resources, flashcards, or blog posts matching that search term.

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Unsupported Browser ESL Library's search may not function properly in Internet Explorer. We recommend using Google Chrome or Firefox instead. Unsupported Browser ESL Library's search may not function properly in older browsers. We recommend updating yours to the latest version for the best experience.

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APIA In-Language Voter Information Resources

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APIA In-Language Voter Information Resources

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Click from the language options below to learn essential information for voting in the US in your preferred language.

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COABE: Get Out to Vote, Learn About Easy to Use Civic Engagement Resources, Tips and Tricks

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COABE: Get Out to Vote, Learn About Easy to Use Civic Engagement Resources, Tips and Tricks

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Get Out to Vote, Learn About Easy to Use Civic Engagement Resources, Tips and Tricks

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Learn & Explore - Preparing for the Oath

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Learn and Practice for the U.S. Naturalization Test. From the National Museum of American History and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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Rachel's English: English Vocabulary: Election Vocabulary! All The Vocabulary You Need For Election Season!

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Rachel's English: English Vocabulary: Election Vocabulary! All The Vocabulary You Need For Election Season!

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Great video to learn about 2020 Election vocabulary from Rachel's English

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English Vocabulary: Election Vocabulary! All The Vocabulary You Need For Election Season!

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Speak Confident English: Advanced English Vocabulary for Elections and Politics [20 New Vocabulary Words]

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Speak Confident English: Advanced English Vocabulary for Elections and Politics [20 New Vocabulary Words]

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https://youtu.be/OwTGH--5eaM

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Advanced English Vocabulary for Elections and Politics [20 New Vocabulary Words]

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TED-ED: Elections in the United States playlist

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TED-ED: Elections in the United States playlist

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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US Census: The U.S. Census and the Amazing Apportionment Machine

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US Census: The U.S. Census and the Amazing Apportionment Machine

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Why is the Census important?

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The U.S. Census and the Amazing Apportionment Machine

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Resources about Voting and the 2024 Election for AdultEdu, ESL, and Citizenship Students

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Voter Resources

Register to Vote!

Register to vote online

Select your state

Click on “Find out how to register button”

Click on the option to “start your online registration”

Register to vote by mail

Fill out your info

Click on register

Print out form

Sign and mail form

Access FREE voter resources for your adult learners.

Special thanks to COABE member, Jennifer Gagliardi for compiling this exhaustive list.

American English at State

About the USA: Duties of a Citizen pg 126-135

Colorín Colorado

Election Day: Resources for ELLs

EL Civics

Voting Amendments

ESL Discussions

Voting (20 discussion questions)

ESL Fast

Voting (17 conversations)

ESL Library

Excellent resource for all levels. Requires subscription.

American Presidents

The 2016 US Election (expect update)

ESL Podcast:

Government + Law Excellent resource for Advanced students. Requires subscription.

ESL Podcast 1230 – Expressing Disapproval of Elected Officials

ESL Podcast 733–Voting in an Election

ESL Podcast 825–Political Advertising

First Literacy

Elections and Civic Preparation

Community Engagement Lesson Plan

Change Agent Voting

Know the Candidates

Know Your Community Needs Change Agent

Simplified Republican or Democrat Quiz

How Do We Elect The President?

iCivics.org

Election Headquarters Although these games are geared towards K-12 civics students, these games are great practice for higher-level ESL Citizenship students, especially WIN THE WHITE HOUSE.

ISL Collective:

English ESL Politics, voting, elections worksheets

JenniferESL

Oral Reading Fluency 28: “Your Vote and Mine” – Build Vocabulary & Fluency

U.S. Politics: Vocabulary & Pronunciation for the 2020 Election Season

U.S. Presidential Elections – American Culture & English Vocabulary (2016)

U.S. Political Parties – Talking Politics in American English – Vocabulary (2016)

Kahoot.it

Voting

Learning Chocolate

U.S. Citizenship 10: Voting Part 1

U.S. Citizenship 11: Voting Part 2

U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights

New Readers Press

News for You 2020 Voting Guide

Newsela

Election 2020 Section: Although these stories are geared towards K-12 civics students, they can be adapted for higher-level ESL Citizenship students. Requires Subscription!

StoryCorps

A More Perfect Union

Family Politics

TED-ED

Check the video’s show notes for links to the lesson plans and activities

Does your vote count? The Electoral College explained – Christina Greer

The fight for the right to vote in the United States – Nicki Beaman Griffin

Gerrymandering: How drawing jagged lines can impact an election – Christina Greer

Which voting system is the best? – Alex Gendler

The Change Agent Magazine

Stand Up Be Counted Issue

this i believe

Democracy (many essays with audio about voting)

US Citizenship Podcast

Election ABC (check back for slides update; 2016 here)

Voting pptx

Voting Video

Picture Vocabulary Voting Quiz

Voting Video Quiz

A Quick Interview Based on the N-400r plus 10qs about Voting and Elections pdf and mp3

American Women who Fought for the Right to Vote mp3 and pdf

Interview E-1 (N-400 Part 12 focus on voting and paying taxes)

Third Citizenship Quiz in Honor of Native American Heritage Month–Focus: Midterm Elections 2018 pdf mp3 video

USCIS

Rights and Responsibilities – Intermediate Level Lesson Plan and Handouts

Your Government and You – Beginning Level Lesson Plan and Handouts

si.edu: Preparing for the Oath: Voting Lesson Plan And video playlist (requires flash)

Voice of America

VOA News: 2020 USA Votes

VOA News: 2020 USA Votes (video playlist)

VOA News: 2020 USA Votes: Explainers (video playlist)

VOA Learning English: U.S. Election 2020 and American Presidents

VOA Learning English: American Presidents

More Easy Election Resources

ACLU.org Voting Rights

Annenberg Classroom

Ballotpedia.org

Bill of Rights Institute

CA Secretary of State Election Info

Constitutional Rights Foundation

EasyVoterGuide.org

Everyday Democracy

League of Women Voters

SCCVote.org

Teaching American History

US Election Assistance Commission

Vote411.org

US Election Map Collection

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Voter Resources - Coalition on Adult Basic Education

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LEGISLATIVE CENTER │ TAKE ACTION | LEGISLATIVE UPDATES | STATE ADVOCATES FOR ADULT EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP | LEGISLATIVE TALKING POINTS │ NATIONAL ADULT EDUCATION AND FAMILY LITERACY WEEK | VOTER RESOURCES

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Election information you need. Brought to you by The League of Women Voters Education Fund.

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The ACLU works to protect and expand Americansʼ freedom to vote

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Following the 2016 election, the fight for voting rights remains as critical as ever. Politicians across the country continue to engage in voter suppression, efforts that include additional obstacles to registration, cutbacks on early voting, and strict voter identification requirements. Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU is fighting back against attempts to curtail an essential right in our democracy, the right to vote. ​

In addition to this litigation, we are working with our affiliates to advocate for policies that make it easier for Americans to vote, such as the expansion of same-day and online voter registration.
Learn how to vote by mail in your state this election. More about the Voting Rights Project "Election Integrity" Commission - Our Response

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Voting Rights | American Civil Liberties Union

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Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy and the fundamental right upon which all our civil liberties rest. The ACLU works to protect and expand Americansʼ freedom to vote.

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defending democracy at the local level. All Voting is Local is a multistate, nonpartisan organization that fights against state and local voting policies that silence voters of color and other historically marginalized communities and advocates for pro-voter policies that expand access to the ballot – not just in election years but every year. ARIZONA FLORIDA […]

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American Association of People with Disabilities: REVving UP for 2024

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American Association of People with Disabilities: REVving UP for 2024

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We work every year to register new disabled voters. Have you done voter registration for REV UP? Make sure to report your voter outreach so that we can keep track of progress towards these goals:

Goal: Register 1,000 disabled voters by August 2024.

Goal: Register 200 voters residing in congregate settings.

We also work to educate all disabled voters on their rights and how to vote in their state. Here's what we're looking at for 2024:

Goal: Support REV UP Coalitions and partners in conducting 50 voter training and outreach events in the community, both virtual and in-person. Keep an eye on our events page!

Goal: Update our state voting guides for disabled voters for all 50 states and D.C. in Spanish and English for 2024.

Goal: Develop and execute a strategy to increase usage of state voting guides.

Goal: Meet with the state-level Election Protection groups in every REV UP coalition state to ensure they have information around disability voting rights.

Goal: Prioritize reaching historically excluded communities by conducting voter education, registration, and outreach at 30 congregate settings across 3 states.

In addition to educating the disability community about voting rights, we also want disabled voters to know about the specific elections happening in their state and know how to actually participate in each election, including via remote and absentee voting options.

Goal: Support REV UP Coalitions and partners in hosting 10 nonpartisan disability issue candidate forums across 10 different states, focused at state and local level races.

Goal: Support efforts in 5 states to provide accessible rides to the polls or provide absentee ballots to voters (in states where this is allowed).

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We have five main focus areas and many goals within those areas. We work closely with state and community leaders and we provide small grants to fund our work. Keep reading to hear more about our work to reach out to disabled voters, increase accessibility at the polls, and fight voter suppression.

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Arab American Institute (and Yalla Vote): Voting Rights

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Arab American Institute (and Yalla Vote): Voting Rights

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AAI Opposes Restrictive American Confidence in Elections Act (“ACE Act”)

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USPS: Deliver the Win: Dive into Campaign Headquarters

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USPS: Deliver the Win: Dive into Campaign Headquarters

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USPS Deliver the Win: Dive into Campaign Headquarters

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Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)

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Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)

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Making the Asian American Voice Heard

By advocating for the restoration and enforcement of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), and facilitating training, education, and advocacy around voter-related issues that affect Asian Americans like language assistance, voter suppression, and election reform, we strengthen all communities' ability to participate in the democratic process.

Voter Hotline

Advancing Justice | AAJC and APIA Vote run a hotline where voters can get answers to their questions about voting and receive assistance in nine Asian languages. Call 1-888-API-VOTE or 1-888-274-8683 for assistance. Assistance is available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali.

Advancing Justice | AAJC and APIA Vote run a hotline where voters can get answers to their questions about voting and receive assistance in nine Asian languages. Call 1-888-API-VOTE or 1-888-274-8683 for assistance. Assistance is available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali.

Once again, APIAVote and Advancing Justice | AAJC will be hosting the hotline leading up to Election Day and we are looking for bilingual volunteers in Cantonese and Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Hindi/Urdu, and Bengali. If you are interested in volunteering again this year, please use the links below.

Leading up to election day 2020, we are asking volunteers to respond to live election questions in-language over the phone from Oct. 16 2020-Nov 6, 2020. Volunteers can sign up for a 4.5 hour shift from 9 AM -Midnight EST/8 AM- 11 PM CST/ 6 AM - 9 PM PST on weekdays and on weekends from 10 AM-6 PM EST/ 9 AM- 5 PM CST/ 7 AM- 3 PM PST. NO knowledge or experience in elections or voting is required. We will provide each volunteer with the necessary training.
WHAT:
* We are looking for bilingual volunteers to answer questions IN-LANGUAGE about the elections over voice call and via text

* NO knowledge or experience with voting needed. Training is provided.
WHEN: Oct. 16, 2020 - Nov. 6, 2020 SIGN UP: Bengali - Cantonese - English - Hindi - Korean - Tagalog - Urdu - Vietnamese - https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/shCV9XBBamdc https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/f2xDhe4jNavZ Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/ZhjctFxhczYT https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/pBme59iVqyGB https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/G4aoFwnSiKK2 https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/SJTcB9CXVZGM https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/D5Li3P3VPAoA Download it here. https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/7Fq5Ussftsi6
Mandarin - https://electionprotection.wetheaction.org/volunteering/private/Bq44a9jL2Jpq
We are a premier partner for the first-ever Vote Early Day, taking place Saturday, October 24, 2020!
2020 General Election Factsheets

Download our 2020 Election fact sheet in: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Khmer, and Tagalog

Your Right. Your Vote.

Have you experienced voter discrimination or intimidation at the polls? Tell your story at WeVoteWeCount.org so we can raise visibility around this critical issue and preserve access to the ballot for all.

2020 Asian American Voter Survey

Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), and AAPI Data released a 2020 survey on Asian American attitudes on issues from the 2020 Presidential Election and discrimination in America to healthcare concerns around COVID-19 and support for affirmative action.

The 2020 Asian American Voter Survey data polled 1,569 Asian American registered voters. As the Asian American electorate continues to grow, the group stands to play a significant role in political races at the national, state, and local levels. Yet, most Asian American voters are still reporting little to no outreach from either political party.

Events

Vote Early Day

Voting early reduces lines on Election Day and ensures that Americans don't have to choose between public health and civic duty. Sign up here to get involved. Follow @VoteEarlyDay on social media and engage using the hashtags #VoteEarly and #VoteReady.

National Voter Registration Day

We were excited to once again be part of a national effort to strengthen our democracy by registering voters on September 22, 2020, or National Voter Registration Day. Voter registration is more important than ever as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and it's up to all of us to do our part to make sure that every American who wants to can vote in a safe way this November. Register to vote here.

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We work to eliminate discriminatory barriers to voting, equip more AAPIs to vote, and enable all Americans to participate in our democracy.

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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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10 USCIS civics questions that celebrate Adult Education Week and the CA State Govt. quiz pdf: bit.ly/CCAE-citz

MUSD: Adult Education Week Resolution 2023

National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week Civics Quiz https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jBdBSlGSfkKwduCG8kdlOpJ3c1TUJK4L/view?usp=sharing

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Use the resources found on this page to assist in your state and local advocacy efforts, influence legislative policy and funding, and effectively convey the role that K-12 Adult Education has in:...

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You will need postcards, stamps, and labels, unless your Regional Organizer can help to provide these. Unless you pick up a packet of postcards and addresses from a local contact, you will receive the data portion by email.

POSTCARDS: RECLAIM OUR VOTE postcards are required. Important note: Reclaim Our Vote cards should not be used for any other organization's campaign.

Ordering 100 postcards or fewer? One of our own board members, Kati Hornung, has a print shop where you can order postcards from HERE

If your order is very high volume, we recommend you Order ROV postcards from VistaPrint.

These racially inclusive, uplifting, colorful and eye-catching postcards with voting rights themes,.designed by young immigrant artists of color, are part of our strategy, and provided at a discount through our online postcard store. Learn more about our postcard artist.

STAMPS: Click here to order "Forever" postcard stamps. Please buy coral reefs, barn, or other neutral designs. Flags are unfortunately associated with voter suppression and intimidation for many.

LABELS: Order Avery (type) labels - either the most economical 30 per page (label size 1" x 2.65" - Avery #5160 for Laserjet or Avery #8160 for Inkjet) or else 20 per page (size 1" x 4" - Avery #5161 or #8161)

Crowd-sourced suggestions for ordering 30 per page labels:

ADDRESSES: We use an automated system for distributing voter addresses which enables postcard writers to request addresses any time during a campaign. Every set of addresses has a specific script, tailored to the city or county where the voter lives. When a writer receives addresses, they also receive the script, instructions, templates for labels, and a sample postcard document. ( This sample postcard shows how we use labels for information such as the Elections Office phone number and url.)

Contact your regional organizer for more information. ‍

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You will need postcards, stamps, and labels, unless your Regional Organizer can help to provide these. Unless you pick up a packet of postcards and addresses from a local contact, you will receive the data portion by email. POSTCARDS: RECLAIM OUR VOTE postcards are required.

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Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement

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Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement

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Survey of Civic Learning Opportunities for Out-of-School Youth in the Adult Education and Literacy System (2005) https://circle.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/2019-12/WP34_CivicLearningOpportunitiesforOutofSchoolYouth_2005.pdf

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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.

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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.

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Google Arts and Culture: 21 Stories about Voting

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Google Arts and Culture: 21 Stories about Voting

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world’s treasures online.

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Center for Civics Education: Voting Lesson Plans

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Center for Civics Education: Voting Lesson Plans

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October is dedicated to Voting and Elections. Audio and daily quiz, plus audiograms on Twitter.

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Many of these lessons are from Citizens, Not Spectators and could be taught at any time, but are most effective when teaching about voting during the time...

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Google Arts and Culture: ¡Sí se puede! A Latino History of Voting Rights in the United States

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Google Arts and Culture: ¡Sí se puede! A Latino History of Voting Rights in the United States

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¡Sí se puede! A Latino History of Voting Rights in the United States​ - Google Arts & Culture

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Explore how the Molina Family Latino Gallery tells the story of Latino voters' role in shaping U.S. democracy.

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Change Agent: PACKET 30: TEACH ABOUT THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS (2024)

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Change Agent: PACKET 30: TEACH ABOUT THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS (2024)

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In honor of our 20th Anniversary, we are creating lesson packets with Change Agent articles from across issues. Check back to see as new packets are added. Have you mined The Change Agent for interesting groupings of articles? Send us your ideas! If your lesson idea is selected, we would like to share it with others and give you a free one-year individual subscription in return. Is there a topic you would like to see us explore? Contact us and let us know about it.

These lesson packets are freely available for you to download, edit, and use. We hope that you'll sign up for our mailing list so that we can notify you when new lesson packets or other resources are added to the site.

Lesson Packets

1. Learn Writing by Studying a Writer

2. Exploring Ratio by Looking at Prison Statistics

3. Thinking About Becoming a CNA?

4. Workplace Safety - Learn It and Teach It

5. Reading Partners

6. Celebrating Freedom on Juneteenth: Reading Closely, Studying Further, and Learning Mechanics at Three Levels

7. Joys and Challenges of Holidays: Gathering Evidence from the Text

8. Write to the Writer by Gale Czerski

9. Making Sense of Extreme Inequality (and Scaffolding to Complex Text)

10. Taking Action at Work

11. Race and Voting Rights in 2016: Lesson Ideas

12. Facing Racism

13. Women Dealing with Domestic Violence

14. Homework Swap

15. Hair Care Recipes

16. Using Math to Start a Poultry Farm

17. Indigenous People's issue: Beginning Literacy Adaptations

18. Summer Reading Log

19. Become a Census 2020 Ambassador

20. Help Someone Understand the Census (beginner, intermediate and advanced)

21. How to Fill Out the Questionnaire

22. Avoid Hoaxes, Scams, and Rumors

23. Become a Voting Ambassador - in Print and Google Slides

24. Voter Suppression vs. Fraud - in Print and Google Slides

25. "Pandemic Haircut" - in Print, Google Slides, and Audio

26. Teach about Race in the Adult Ed. Classroom - 4 Google Slide Presentations

27. Stories from Mental Health: Learning, Coping, Healing - Google Slide Presentation

28. Career Exploration Packets - nursing, peer counseling, and transferable skills

29. What Pushes and What Pulls Immigrants to the U.S.? - includes a collection of articles and an adaptable graphic organizer for taking notes

30. Teach about the Upcoming Elections (2024)

31. Climate Change Refugees - Numeracy, Literacy, and Science

PACket 1: Learn Writing by Studying a Writer

Our first in a new series of teacher resources is an exploration of three articles written by Timothy Lovett published in three different issues of The Change Agent (Good Jobs, Not Just Any Jobs; All About Food; and Prisons and Justice?) The articles are accompanied by a lesson plan that is aligned to the College and Career Readiness Standards. This lesson plan zeroes in on writing anchor standards 1-5, breaking them down into plain English, providing you with a way to teach them to students, and offering student writing that models the anchor standards for your learners. You, as the teacher, get a clear-cut way to address standards, and your students get the added motivation of learning the standards not from an expert, but from someone just like them - a student who is modeling increasing mastery of writing skills - and at the same time writing about interesting topics in a sometimes humorous and always compelling way.
Download Packet 1: Teach Writing by Studying Writers
Packet 2: Exploring Ratio by Looking at Prison Statistics

This lesson is meant to supplement instruction on ratio and is aimed at those who are comfortable or getting comfortable at Level C in the CCR standards. This lesson first explores ratio and then offers students the opportunity to think critically about ratio in the context of socially relevant data presented in two kinds of charts. Answer sheets are provided - for the teacher's reference only or to share with students - your choice.
Download Packet 2: Exploring Ratio by Looking at Prison Statistics
Packet 3: Thinking About Becoming a CNA?

This lesson is designed to provide CCR-aligned activities in the context of content that provides information about work as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). The readings are GLE 5-8.
Download Packet 3: Thinking About Becoming a CNA?
Packet 4: Workplace Safety - Learn It and Teach It

This lesson is designed to increase reading, math, and presentation skills in the context of materials that explain health and safety laws as well as specific practices that workers - particularly those in environmental services or housekeeping - can use to stay safe on the job. Since one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it, this lesson plan includes the opportunity for students to teach what they have learned.
Download Packet 4: Workplace Safety - Learn It and Teach It
Packet 5: Reading Partners

This rich lesson packet provides relevant reading and writing opportunities, builds relationships between immigrant students and other receiving community members, and helps English Language Learners connect with community resources. In "Reading Partners," English language learners and members of receiving communities read one or two selected articles from The Change Agent and then use the writing prompts to engage in an exchange of ideas, experiences, and perspectives about the article topic. There are eight articles to choose from - articles about moving to a new community, work, health, schooling and parenting.

The aim of this activity is to use text as a way to get people from different communities talking (through writing) about topics of common interest. Programs that have partnerships with local organizations can use the activities to bring students into conversation with these partners (health care providers who want to connect with immigrants about health, employers who are interested in hiring immigrants, etc.). However, there are many opportunities to communicate across communities right in our own programs: this activity could be carried out by ABE and ESL classes that partner to read and correspond about the same articles, by program volunteers that partner with students, or by diverse student pairs in one classroom.
Download Packet 5: Reading Partners Packet 5 Tech Tip: Converting a Lesson to Integrate Technology
PACKET 6: celebrating freedom on juneteenth: Reading closely, studying further, and learning mechanics at three levels

"Juneteenth" is the celebration of June 19, 1865, when slaves in Texas learned they were free - two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This activity includes text (at three different grade level equivalents or GLEs) and art work. The text shares a family's oral account of being slaves in Texas in 1865 when word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached them, a description of Juneteenth celebrations in Texas, and the ways an artist has preserved family history with her artwork. Students also have a chance to look at and analyze two full-color paintings by Sonia Sadler. The text is available at three different levels (GLE 4, 7 and 10). The aim of this activity is to provide students with an engaging, relevant text that allows them to develop key reading and writing skills and knowledge about U.S. history.
Instructions for Lesson packet #6 Download one or more texts for Packet 6: GLE 04, GLE 07, GLE 10
Packet 7: Joys and Challenges of Holidays: Gathering Evidence from the Text

Use the graphic organizer we provide (p. 36) or create your own to help students analyze four essays about holidays. They will investigate the text to find what the author says are "fun aspects" of the holiday as well as "challenging aspects" of the holiday, and they will write a paragraph based on the essays. The four essays are: "Christmas Changed" (also available in audio on The Change Agent website) by Diana Solorzano, "Taking the Good with the Bad" by Gregory Parker, "Celebrating Eid" by Nuzhat Jahan, and "My Diwali" by Sue Byman. The holidays also represent diverse religious traditions - Christmas (Christian), Eid (Muslim), and Diwali (Hindu) - so these texts also lend themselves to social studies explorations, such as geography, world religions, immigration patterns, and more. The texts used are levels 7-8 (grade level equivalent). CCR standards addressed are Level D (GLE 6-8.9). The aim of this activity is to provide students with engaging, relevant stories that help them practice the important CCR skill of using evidence from the text to be able to explain what the author is saying.
Download Packet 7: Joys and Challenges of Holidays
Packet 8: Write to the Writer by Gale Czerski

This lesson packet provides students with the opportunity to write back to Change Agent writers.

Find a description of Lesson Packet 8 here with downloadable articles and worksheets.

Packet 9: Making sense of Extreme Inequality (and Scaffolding to Complex Text)

Use these four articles from The Change Agent to examine extreme inequality and to consider the policy changes over the past 50 years that have increased wealth and income inequality. During the course of this lesson, students will be scaffolded to read a fairly complex text.
Download Packet 9: Making Sense of Extreme Inequality
PACKET 10: Taking action at work

Use this selection (or a subset of the selection) of multi-level articles written
(mostly) by students to teach reading skills and to spark discussion about the role of workers in determining what happens in the workplace.
Download Packet 10: Taking Action at Work
Packet 11: Race and Voting Rights in 2016: Lesson Ideas

Use the context of this election year to explore voting rights in the past and present. This packet includes pre- and post-activities, the hands-on History of Voting Rights activity, a link to a history of voting rights video, an article by Andy Nash on race and voting rights, and more stories and facts and figures about current voting restrictions.
Download level 10 version for advanced learners.
Download level 6 version for intermediate learners.
Packet 12: Facing Racism

White supremacist rallies, anti-immigrant jargon, and acts of racism, islamophobia, and anti-semitism - these frightening realities mark the beginning of the school year in 2017. As your program gets back into full gear this fall, please consider ways to infuse these high-quality, relevant materials into your classroom. They will help provide a safe and welcoming culture in your program, and they are effective ESOL and ABE teaching tools. These teacher-designed materials are associated with the "Talking about Race" issue of The Change Agent (Issue #42). To access that issue, you need a Username and PW, which you can get be purchasing an online subscription. To teach the lessons provided below, however, you don't need to do anything except click on the link. All the materials are freely provided.

"Existing While Black": A Worksheet for ESOL Learners by Lisa Gimbel
A 4-page worksheet with pre-reading activities (including definition of expressions and practice with expressions, vocabulary, and slang) and post-reading activities (including basics, language review, and comprehension).

"Best Practices for Talking about Race" by Lisa Gimbel and Riva Pearson
A collection wide-ranging tips from personal practice to curriculum to program and community-wide ideas.

"Teaching to Unlearn Racism" by Judy Hofer

"Who Paved the Way?" by Kathleen Budway
Pre- and post-activities (plus handouts) you can use with a short film made by an ESOL teacher in which her students talk about how it affected them to study African-American history and current events.

"Preparing My Students to Write about Race" by Hazel Robin
A teacher shares how she introduced The Change Agent "Call for Articles" on the theme of race. Rather than starting out by asking students to speak from experience, she asks them to conduct research and learn some science behind race. Creating an evidence-based context, she then invites them to respond to The Change Agent writing prompts.

"Exploring Racism: Police, Stereotypes, and the Possibility of a Better World" by Manny Reynoso
A teacher-created lesson that explores the definition of racism and incorporates a first-person story by someone who grew up afraid of the police. Finally, the lesson explores the possibility of a better world - using a video and discussion prompts.

"The Construction of Race in the U.S.: An Early History" by Cynthia Peters
This is a GLE 10 version of the GLE 6 article by the same name that appears on p. 22 of the "Talking about Race" issue. It includes CCR-aligned activities at the end.

"Using Sources: Unpacking a Well-Researched Article" by Kathleen O'Connell
This activity, based on "The 'Chief Illiniwek' Half-Time Show" on p. 8 of the Race issue, helps students examine and assess sources.

"Race and Voting Rights in 2016: Lesson Ideas" - by Andy Nash and Cynthia Peters
Use the context of this election year to explore voting rights in the past and present. This packet includes pre- and post-activities, the hands-on History of Voting Rights activity, a link to a history of voting rights video, an article by Andy Nash on race and voting rights, and more stories and facts and figures about current voting restrictions. Two versions are available:
- Race and Voting Rights in 2016 for advanced learners (Level 10)
- Race and Voting Rights in 2016 for intermediate learners (Level 6)

New! Two students discuss why we should talk about race in the adult education classroom

Packet 13: women dealing with domestic violence
Download Packet 13: Women Dealing with Domestic Violence
This packet contains three articles from Issue #19 of The Change Agent, "Women and Literacy." Two of the articles by practitioners reveal the effect of violence and domestic abuse on women learners. A third article, written by a learner, tells a story of trauma and resilience.

Packet 14: Homework swap
Download Packet 14: Homework Swap
The activity in this packet is modeled after the famous "Yankee Swap" party game. In this version, participants draw an assignment and then can swap assignments if there's one they prefer - so there are lots of opportunities for students to talk to each other as they navigate all the swapping.

Packet 15: Hair Care RECIPES
Download Packet 15: Hair Care Recipes
Use this collection of homemade of hair care recipes to practice reading, writing, and math. Take it further by creating a class recipe book of DIY personal care products and perhaps making some in class to use and/or share as gifts.

Packet 16: using math to start a poultry farm
Download the article with discussion questions and math problems and the solutions and extensions. Get the adaptable Excel spreadsheet here and the adaptable worksheet (in Word) here.
This true story about starting a poultry farm, written by an immigrant learner in Colorado, is a great way to teach math, reading, writing, and spreadsheet skills in a real-world context.

Packet 17: indigenous people's issue: beginning literacy adaptations
Download Packet 17: Beginning Literacy Adaptations
This 13-page packet contains five pieces, all written at about a fourth grade equivalency level. All the pieces (except for the first) are adapted from articles that appear in the "Indigenous Peoples" issue of The Change Agent. If your class is multi-level, you can teach from different levels of the same piece.

Packet 18: summer reading log
Download Packet 18: Summer Reading Log
Keep your students engaged with reading this summer by sharing this resource with them: a log of Change Agent articles that they read and listened to using our online audio.
Download Packet 19: Become a Census 2020 Ambassador
Packet 19: Become a 2020 Census ambassador

Census Planning and Tracking Grid. - Download Word doc and adapt as needed.

Packet 20: help someone understand the census

The purpose of this packet is to teach census basics, so that a student could explain what they learn to someone else. Thanks to the National Coalition for Literacy for generously supporting the development of these materials.
Download Packet 20: Help Someone Understand the Census (beginner, intermediate, or advanced)

The beginner packet has articles that have been adapted to be accessible for students reading at grade-level-equivalent 4. The After-You-Read activities are designed for beginners.

The intermediate packet has a mix of articles from Level 4 to Level 6. The After-You-Read activities are modified to be intermediate level.

The advanced packet has the same readings as the intermediate packet, but it includes the option to do additional research and learn more about how to evaluate the credibility of online sources, and it has more options for how to present the information learned.

Packet 21: how to fill out the questionnaire
Download Packet 21:How to Fill Out the Questionnaire
This beginner-level lesson packet supports students to fill out the 2020 census questionnaire in three different ways. Both the PDF and online questionnaires are near exact replicas of the Census Bureau's versions, except they are shorter. The paper copy has vocabulary and explanations on p. 2 of this packet. The online version has vocabulary and explanations embedded in the web pages.

Packet 22: avoid hoaxes, scams, and rumors
Download Packet 22: Avoid Hoaxes, Scams, and Rumors
This intermediate-level lesson packet gives students a chance to work on reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills in the context of relevant, timely information about protecting against fraud during the 2020 census.

Packet 23: Become a Voting Ambassador

This 10-page packet guides teachers to train students to be Voting Ambassadors. Students learn basics about voting - the issues and the procedures - and decide whether they'd like to take on the project of supporting others in their community to register and vote. Special attention given to carrying out this project-based learning opportunity safely during the pandemic. And we include a special article about voting during uncertain times. It is mostly intermediate- to advanced-level, and it gives students a chance to work on reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills in the context of a highly (!) relevant civics moment.

Packet 24: voter suppression vs. Fraud

During the 2020 election, we are hearing a lot about both voter suppression and voter fraud. What are they? How should we evaluate the claims about them? This 5-page lesson packet offers some definitions and activities on this topic, and asks students to develop their own questions and then research the answers.

PACKET 25: "PANDEMIC HAIRCUT" IN PRINT, SLIDES, AND AUDIO

Even though the pandemic has been catastrophic for so many people, student writers in the Pandemic issue of The Change Agent note the ways it has brought gifts. In this example, a student from Rhode Island says the pandemic makes her feel like "we are in a war." Yet she goes on to describe how she and her husband found an opportunity to "laugh and be joyful." For her, it happened when her husband asked her to cut his hair. She watched some tutorials on YouTube and then sat her husband on a stool in the bathtub where he got his first pandemic haircut. For your classroom, mix and match these three ways of accessing the article and activities.

PACKET 26: Teach about race in the adult education classroom

These four Google Slide Presentations were developed by Riva Pearson (JVS) and Cynthia Peters (World Education) for teachers to copy and adapt and use in their remote or in-person classroom.

1. Black Lives Matter - high intermediate ESOL

2. Talking to the Police - high intermediate ESOL

3. Introduction to Racism in the U.S. - high intermediate ESOL

4. Equality vs. Equity - can be adapted for various levels

PACKET 27: Stories from Mental Health - Learning, Coping, Healing

This Google Slide Presentation was developed by Cynthia Peters and Ebony Vandross (World Education) for teachers to copy and adapt and use in their remote or in-person classroom. Three more Google Slide presentations from the "Mental Health" issue (#52) are available, but you need an online subscription to access them.

"No Sick Days? That's Bad for Your Physical and Mental Health"

PACKET 28: career exploration packets - nursing, peer counseling, transferable skills

These four packets are collected from Issue #53 plus other issues of The Change Agent.

PACKET 29: what pushes and what pulls immigrants to the U.S.?

This packet of four articles from Issue #56 of The Change Agent explore various reasons why immigrants leave their country of origin and what draws them to the U.S. The last page of the packet is a graphic oranizer, where students can take notes about what "pushes" and what "pulls" immigrants to the U.S. (To extend this activity to include a digital literacy component, use this Google doc version of the graphic organizer. This version is "view only." To adapt it and/or to share it with your students, you must make a copy of it or download it.)

PACKET 30: Teach about the upcoming elections (2024)

Train Students to Become Voting Ambassadors
Training students to be Voting Ambassadors is a great way to engage in civics, practice speaking and listening in relevant and authentic contexts, learn digital skills, gain transferable skills, and develop leadership. This activity is aligned with IELCE requirements and other standards. Use this set of Google slides to get started. (It includes a link to a Google doc worksheet that helps students plan, take action, and reflect on their work.) More materials forthcoming in early 2024.

Teach the History of Voting Rights
This 9-page PDF includes a dynamic activity and video that teach the history of voting rights, an article about race and voting rights, and a worksheet that helps the student assess what they've learned and take it further.

Explore the Difference between Voter Suppression and Fraud
See Lesson Packet #24 above.

PACKET 31: Climate Refugees - numeracy, literacy, and science

This packet includes two articles by students about how climate change is a factor in creating refugees, one article giving background on how carbon affects our atmostphere, and a Google slideshow (developed by two math specialists) that teaches numeracy in the context of evaluating claims about climate change. Mix and match these resources for your own teaching purposes:
1.Climate Refugees by Efren Macias Ojeda - 2-page PDF with colorful data maps, and pre- and post-reading activities
2.Better Future: At Home, There Are No Jobs, The Cities Are Unsafe, and The Rivers Run Dry by Hortensia Reza - 2 page PDF with reading, writing, and pronunciation activities
3.The Earth's Atmosphere: Thinner than the Skin of an Apple - 1 page PDF picture story that explains how carbon affects the atmosphere
4.Climate Refugees - an adaptable slideshow that combines the content from #1 and #3 above and presents it (with more images and activities) in the Google slides
5.Math in Text: Hortensia's Story - a Google slides numeracy lesson that uses excerpts from "Better Future" (#2 above) to create a lesson around reading and understanding numbers in text
ALSO...check out The Change Agent's Issue #27, "Making Sense of Climate Change"

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In honor of our 20th Anniversary, we are creating lesson packets with Change Agent articles from across issues. Check back to see as new packets are added. Have you mined The Change Agent for interesting groupings of articles? Send us your ideas!

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Election Day is coming, are you ready to vote? In Cast Your Vote, discover what it takes to become an informed voter - from knowing where you stand on important issues to uncovering what you need to know about candidates.

In Cast Your Vote you can simulate the voting experience and:

Learn about local elections

See political candidates discuss important issues in Town Hall debates

Identify issues that matter to you and rate candidate responses

For students with visual or mobile impairments: This game offers a keyboard navigation mode, as well as a screen reader to supplement the use of sound effects and voiceover. You can access these tools via the dropdown menu in the top left corner of the game screen.

For English and Multilingual Learners: Use the support tool, Spanish translation, voiceover and glossary.

Are you an educator? Check out the Extension Pack with activities and teaching tools to reinforce key game concepts.

Explore all of our free election curriculum and teaching resources at our Election Headquarters.

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Election Day is coming, are you ready to vote? In Cast Your Vote, discover what it takes to become an informed voter - from knowing where you stand on important issues to uncovering what you need to know about candidates.

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Civics Renewal Network: Voting, Elections, Politics 

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Civics Renewal Network: Voting, Elections, Politics 

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Resources Archive - CIVICS RENEWAL NETWORK

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Use these resources on voting, media literacy, polarization, and bias to talk about US elections with your high school and middle school students.

Civics & Citizenship

History

Social Studies

Democracy & Civic Engagement

The resources I'm getting from my colleagues through Facing History have been just invaluable.

- Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Use these resources on voting, media literacy, polarization, and bias to talk about US elections with your high school and middle school students.

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2020 General Election Ballot
English
Spanish
Chinese
Korean
Vietnamese
Plus State Ballot Measures

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We would appreciate your feedback about this guide! Click here to complete a quick survey.

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The aim of the Easy Voter Guide project is to make nonpartisan information about why vote, how to vote and what’s on the ballot accessible to as many Californians as possible. Founded in 1994, the Easy Voter Guide project is a collaboration of the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund,…

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Lesson plans, mock elections, and online activities: WIN THE WHITE HOUSE  and CAST YOUR VOTE!

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Created for students by students, this printable guide will help kids learn about voting and elections independently and find ways to engage if they are not eligible to vote.

Your students may be too young to register to vote, but it's never too early to learn about what it takes to get to the ballot. In this activity, students will learn about how registration and voting work in their state, and create their own flyer.

iCivics is committed to providing the highest quality resources and programs for students, educators, and parents/caregivers.
Read our statement of academic integrity.

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Explore iCivics' free election curriculum and teaching resources to prepare your students for the 2023 state and local elections and Election Day.

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How do your beliefs align with the potential candidates? Take the Quiz

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America's most popular voting guide for elections, political issues, candidates, and poll data

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See which American political parties, candidates, and ballot initiatives match your beliefs based on the 2023 issues that are most important to you.

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Beginning ESL activity plus:
U.S. Citizenship 10: Voting Part 1
U.S. Citizenship 11: Voting Part 2

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USCIS Civics (History and Government) Questions for the Naturalization Test

USCIS 100:27. In what month do we vote for President?*
▪ November

USCIS 100:48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.
▪ Citizens eighteen (18) and older (can vote).
▪ You don't have to pay (a poll tax) to vote.
▪ Any citizen can vote. (Women and men can vote.)
▪ A male citizen of any race (can vote).

USCIS 100:49. What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?*
▪ serve on a jury
▪ vote in a federal election

USCIS 100:50. Name one right only for United States citizens.
▪ vote in a federal election
▪ run for federal office

USCIS 100:54. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?*
▪ eighteen (18) and older

USCIS 100:55. What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?
▪ vote
▪ join a political party
▪ help with a campaign
▪ join a civic group
▪ join a community group
▪ give an elected official your opinion on an issue
▪ call Senators and Representatives
▪ publicly support or oppose an issue or policy
▪ run for office
▪ write to a newspaper

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USCIS Civics (History and Government) Questions for the Naturalization Test USCIS 100:27. In what month do we vote for President?* ▪ November USCIS 100:48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them. ▪ Citizens eighteen (18) and older (can vote).

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Note: created for grade 9/12--mostly appropriate for adults

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Share and find Topic templates across all audiences and subjects on Flip.

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The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. We empower voters and defend democracy through advocacy, education, and litigation, at the local, state, and national levels.

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Promote the Vote (PTV) is the Secretary of State Office's comprehensive K-12 voter education program. This year's theme, "Voting - The POWER to Change the Future!," encourages students to consider the importance of showing their power to vote to change their future. Students will have the opportunity to participate in school-organized mock elections and will apply other skills through various PTV contests, such as art, essay, and poetry contests. Mississippi Public Broadcasting's (MPB) Education Department is partnering with the Agency to encourage school, teacher, and student participation through video.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?
The program is open to all teachers and students in grades K-12. We encourage participation by public, private, and parochial schools as well as home school associations.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
Educators and parents wishing to participate in the 2023 Promote the Vote Program may register online at the link below. Registrants can expect an email containing a password, which will allow access to the site. Registration will close December 15 at 5:00 p.m.
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THIS YEAR'S PROGRAM?

This year, students in grades K-12 will have the opportunity to vote on the statewide offices. Mock election Monday, October 16th. The PTV Mock Election is open to all students who are enrolled in a Mississippi school or program registered for Promote the Vote.

Art Contest:

Grades K-5:
Depict your superhero showing their superpower of voting.

Grades 6-12:
Choose one from the following options: What does power in voting look like? Depict powerful votes or powerful moments in history. Depict the power you/people possess in voting.

Essay Contest: 6-12: Voting is an essential part of democracy. Write an essay that explains how voting gives the people/us/you power. Use key details and evidence to support your answer.

Poetry Contest: 6-12: Write a poem describing how voting has the power to change the future. Be sure to include good use of imagery, sound device(s), and literary device(s).

MPB Social Media Class Contest: Students are encouraged to create a 1 minute video on the impact of voting. https://education.mpbonline.org/promotethevote/

DOES IT COST ANYTHING TO PARTICIPATE?
Promote the Vote is a free program offered to all schools and teachers in the State of Mississippi by the State. All classroom materials are available for download after registration. For questions or assistance, please email ptv@sos.ms.gov or call 601-359-4454.

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Promote The Vote | Michael Watson Secretary of state

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Promote the Vote (PTV) is the Secretary of State Office's comprehensive K-12 voter education program. This year's theme, "Voting - The POWER to Change the Future!," encourages students to consider the importance of showing their power to vote to change their future.

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Presidential Debate Bingo | League of Women Voters

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Compete to be the first to get “BINGO” while watching the presidential candidate debates!

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More in Common’s mission is to understand the forces driving us apart, find common ground and bring people together to tackle shared challenges.

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Societies are fracturing as the forces of division grow stronger, driving people apart.

We are losing trust in each other and in the future. Feelings of frustration, powerlessness and a loss of belonging are making us vulnerable to 'us versus them' stories, which turn us against each other. Social media is magnifying the loudest and most extreme voices.

A generation ago, experts claimed the forces of democracy, freedom and progress were unstoppable. Instead we are entering the 2020s with many of the most established democracies feeling weakened, unstable and under increasing threat.

Our organization's name reflects our vision: to build more united, inclusive and resilient societies in which people believe that what they have in common is stronger than what divides them.

More in Common's mission is to understand the forces driving us apart, to find common ground and help to bring people together to tackle our shared challenges.

We draw from groundbreaking research to test and find solutions, working with partners that have the capacity to make a real difference at scale. And we help build the larger field of efforts to strengthen democratic societies against the threats of polarization and division.

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Societies are fracturing as the forces of division grow stronger, driving people apart. We are losing trust in each other and in the future. Feelings of frustration, powerlessness and a loss of belonging are making us vulnerable to 'us versus them' stories, which turn us against each other.

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5.2 Rights and Responsibilities: https://www.usalearns.org/learning/activity/51085594-be08-4bd5-9326-cd9dd44cbc50/4dab4b04-6db4-4362-8b6b-31633139bb14

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USA Learns Now on Phones!

Exciting news! You asked for it, and it's here. With a generous grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, USA Learns is now available to use on phones, tablets, and computers.
More >

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Learn English free and study to become a U.S. citizen at USA Learns: USA Learns is a free website to help adults learn English online and prepare to become a U.S. citizen. Online courses include fun videos and activities that teach basic and intermediate ESL to adults around the world, plus the opportunity to prepare for the naturalization interview to become a U.S.

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MPI: Globally, Voting Rights Have Increased for Immigrants and Emigrants

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MPI: Globally, Voting Rights Have Increased for Immigrants and Emigrants

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It's Primary Season

This year's elections set the precedent for what democracy will look like in 2024 and beyond. The work to elect people with our communty's best interest starts now with the Presidential primaries.

In times like these, our vote is not just a fundamental right but also our tool for generating positive change and ensuring our voices are heard.

If you encounter any issues while voting, use the NAACP Voter Incident Report Form or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (866.687.8683).

Your State's Information

Find your state's specific voting information to create your voting plan. Don't see your state listed? Visit vote.org and select your state for details.

Arizona

Registration: Check your registration here.

Vote By Mail: The last day to apply to vote by mail is March 8. Request and track your ballot here.

Early Voting: Early voting ends March 15. Check or call your county Elections Office to confirm hours and locations here. Bring your photo ID.

Election Day: Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 6 am to 7 pm. Bring your photo ID.

Polling Locations: Find your polling location here.

For any additional questions, visit your state elections website.

Florida

Registration: Check your registration here.

Vote By Mail: The last day to apply to vote by mail is Friday, March 8. Request a ballot here.

Early Voting: Early and in-person absentee voting runs from March 9 to March 16. Confirm hours and locations here.

Election Day: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 from 7 am to 7 pm. Bring your photo ID.

Polling Location: Find your polling location here.

For any additional questions, visit your state elections website.

Illinois

Registration: Check your registration here. Illinois allows a grace period registration through March 19. Check your county elections for more information.

Vote By Mail: The last day to vote to vote by mail is March 14. Request a ballot at vote.org.
Apply and find ballot drop box locations here.

Early Voting: Early voting runs until March 18. Find your early voting site here.

Election Day: Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 6:00 am to 7:00 pm. Bring your photo ID.

Polling Location: Find your polling location here.

For any additional questions, visit your state elections website or call 312.814.6440.

Ohio

Registration: Check your registration and track your ballot at voteohio.gov

Vote By Mail: Apply for a ballot by March 12 here.
Return your ballot on or before March 19. Learn more here.

Early Voting: Early voting ends March 17. Check your county Election Office to confirm hours and locations here.

Election Day: Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 6:30 am to 7:30 pm. Bring your photo ID.

Polling Location: Find your polling location here.

For any additional questions, visit your state elections website or call 877.767.6446 x1.

Ready for 2024

Step up your civic engagement in 2024 by volunteering to increase Black voter turnout. Whether it's to rally your fellow voters or help protect the polls, we need you.

Your Voting Options

Registering to vote can take less than 10 minutes to complete. Exercise your right to defend democracy by registering to participate in upcoming elections.

Being away from home is no excuse for not voting! If you are unable to vote at your designated polling place, request your absentee ballot.

Confirm your voter registration status to ensure you are ready to go once the polls open!

Putting Black America First

This year's elections set the precedent for what democracy will look like in 2024 and beyond. The work to elect people with our communty's best interest starts now with the Presidential primaries.

In times like these, our vote is not just a fundamental right but also our tool for generating positive change and ensuring our voices are heard.

If you encounter any issues while voting, use the NAACP Voter Incident Report Form or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (866.687.8683).

Your State's Information

Find your state's specific voting information to create your voting plan. Don't see your state listed? Visit vote.org and select your state for details.

Registration: Check your registration here.

Vote By Mail: The last day to apply to vote by mail is March 8. Request and track your ballot here.

Early Voting: Early voting ends March 15. Check or call your county Elections Office to confirm hours and locations here. Bring your photo ID.

Election Day: Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 6 am to 7 pm. Bring your photo ID.

Polling Locations: Find your polling location here.

For any additional questions, visit your state elections website.

Registration: Check your registration here.

Vote By Mail: The last day to apply to vote by mail is Friday, March 8. Request a ballot here.

Early Voting: Early and in-person absentee voting runs from March 9 to March 16. Confirm hours and locations here.

Election Day: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 from 7 am to 7 pm. Bring your photo ID.

Polling Location: Find your polling location here.

For any additional questions, visit your state elections website.

Registration: Check your registration here. Illinois allows a grace period registration through March 19. Check your county elections for more information.

Vote By Mail: The last day to vote to vote by mail is March 14. Request a ballot at vote.org.
Apply and find ballot drop box locations here.

Early Voting: Early voting runs until March 18. Find your early voting site here.

Election Day: Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 6:00 am to 7:00 pm. Bring your photo ID.

Polling Location: Find your polling location here.

For any additional questions, visit your state elections website or call 312.814.6440.

Registration: Check your registration and track your ballot at voteohio.gov

Vote By Mail: Apply for a ballot by March 12 here.
Return your ballot on or before March 19. Learn more here.

Early Voting: Early voting ends March 17. Check your county Election Office to confirm hours and locations here.

Election Day: Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 6:30 am to 7:30 pm. Bring your photo ID.

Polling Location: Find your polling location here.

For any additional questions, visit your state elections website or call 877.767.6446 x1.

Step up your civic engagement in 2024 by volunteering to increase Black voter turnout. Whether it's to rally your fellow voters or help protect the polls, we need you.

Your Voting Options

Registering to vote can take less than 10 minutes to complete. Exercise your right to defend democracy by registering to participate in upcoming elections.

Being away from home is no excuse for not voting! If you are unable to vote at your designated polling place, request your absentee ballot.

Confirm your voter registration status to ensure you are ready to go once the polls open!

Putting Black America First

All In For Democracy

The NAACP has the largest and most comprehensive civic engagement program for Black voters. We've been organizing and activating thousands of supporters and volunteers. With Super Tuesday behind us, we're all in to protect democracy - but we need your support. Join the fight now - donate today!

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Get ready for the 2024 election season by registering to vote, requesting your absentee ballot, or verifying your registration.

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NELRC: Voter Education, Registration, and Action (VERA)

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NELRC: Voter Education, Registration, and Action (VERA)

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What does it involve?
Joining VERA means making a program or class commitment to:

teach about representative democracy, voting, and topical election issues

encourage and help eligible students and staff register to vote, get to the polls, and vote

encourage non-eligible students to talk to family members and friends who can vote

participate in a program-wide mock election

exploring ways to take action in and shape civil society

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VERA - New England Literacy Resource Center

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Read: New American Voters Fired Up & Ready to Vote

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Our resource library reflects the knowledge of our team and our 15 years of experience in this sector. They are aimed at staff and volunteers at nonprofits interested in engaging the people they serve and their broader community.

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Radical Registrars - Building Informed Voices for Every Election

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Elevate Your Voice and Empower Your Vote with Radical Registrars! We're a passionate grassroots nonprofit driving change through youth-led voter registration, education, and civic empowerment.

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About Us

StudentVote.org was launched by the Student PIRGs in partnership with Rock the Vote. Since 2008, we've worked with more than one hundred campus and group partners. Below are our premier partners.

The Student PIRGs' New Voters Project is a nonpartisan effort to help register young people and get them to the polls on Election Day. We believe the best way to raise the voices of young people and our issues is to register and vote. Together we can make change happen.

We do not endorse any candidate or party and we do not take a stand on any legislation. Our job is to get young people to the polls. It is up to candidates to convince them who to vote for.

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It's our future, our voice, and our vote!

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We are America's largest generation - and we vote! Register to vote today!

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3.14 Participating in Your Government: https://www.usalearns.org/learning/activity/a4ad141b-4675-4400-bc19-d328ee2dd954/c32d7d0a-019c-4c3f-ac57-f19a5d69ffd2

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USA Learns now has a U.S. Citizenship course to help you prepare for your citizenship or naturalization interview. The course has four units:

Unit 1: Steps to Becoming a U.S. Citizen

Unit 2: N-400 Interview Practice

Unit 3: Civics, Reading and Writing Practice

Unit 4: Your Interview and New Citizenship

USA Learns Citizenship will help you with the information and language you need to become a U.S. citizen.

Unit 1: Steps to Becoming a U.S. Citizen

In Unit 1, you will meet Jean, your video guide to the course, and you'll learn important information you need to know if you are thinking about becoming a U.S. Citizen. We'll help you answer these questions:

Who can become a U.S. Citizen? Can I become a U.S. Citizen? How do I start the application for U.S. Citizenship? Where can I get help with my application?

Unit 1 will also explain situations where you might need to ask for legal help before you apply for citizenship and recommend organizations that can help you.

Unit 2: N-400 Interview Practice

In Unit 2, you'll learn about what to expect at the naturalization interview at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office. During the interview, the officer asks many questions about the application for U.S. Citizenship (the N-400 form). You will learn the key words and grammar you need to understand the questions.

You'll also listen to different ways that the officer might ask the questions and will practice giving different correct answers. At the end of every lesson, a video "officer" will ask you questions from the lesson and you can record yourself answering with your own information.

Unit 2 begins with a review of question words and short answers. It also introduces you to some questions that you may need to ask the officer if you don't understand something.

After that, each lesson is based on a part of the N-400 form. You'll listen to and practice answering questions about each part of the form, from basic information about your address and your employment, to questions about illegal activities you may have been involved in.

You'll learn about and practice the Oath of Allegiance, which each person must say to become a new U.S. Citizen.

Unit 3: Civics, Reading and Writing Practice

In Unit 3, you will learn about U.S. history and government. You'll learn important vocabulary and useful grammar, and then read, listen, and watch videos about the subjects covered in the U.S. Citizenship test.

In each lesson, you'll practice your pronunciation, and take practice quizzes to check your understanding. You'll also practice reading aloud and writing.

Unit 3 covers all of the "100 questions" that you need to practice to become a U.S. Citizen. The subjects covered are:

U.S. Geography

Early America

The Declaration of Independence

The Constitution

The Bill of Rights

The 1800s and Civil War

Difficult Times and Great Leaders Since 1900

Fighting for Equal Rights

Our System of Government

The Executive Branch

The Legislative Branch

The Judicial Branch

Participating in Your Government

Rights and Responsibilities

American Symbols and Holidays

Unit 4: Your Interview and New Citizenship

In Unit 4, you will learn what to expect from the moment you arrive at your interview. You will learn how to greet the officer and how to have a casual conversation or "small talk." You will also practice responding to some simple commands the officer may give you.

Unit 4 will show you what to expect the day of your interview and during your naturalization ceremony when you become a United States citizen. We will also give you some information about what to do after you have your new U.S. citizenship.

USA Learns Citizenship will provide you with the information, language practice, and resources you'll need to prepare for U.S. citizenship.

REGISTER NOW to use USA Learns!

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Study to become a U.S. citizen at USA Learns: USA Learns is a free website to help adults learn English online and prepare for the naturalization interview to become a U.S. citizen.

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This website uses cookies. A cookie is a small piece of code that gives your computer a unique identity, but it does not contain any information that allows us to identify you personally. For more information on how TESOL International Association uses cookies, please read our privacy policy. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can opt out by changing your browser settings.

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Advocacy | TESOL | International Association

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This website uses cookies. A cookie is a small piece of code that gives your computer a unique identity, but it does not contain any information that allows us to identify you personally. For more information on how TESOL International Association uses cookies, please read our privacy policy.

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Teaching for Democracy: Voting and Elections

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Teaching for Democracy: Voting and Elections

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However, young people, and youth of color especially, are perennially underrepresented in civic life.

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You are now leaving the Election Assistance Commission website. Links from these pages/this page to non-Election Assistance Commission sites do not represent any implicit or explicit endorsement by the Election Assistance Commission of any commercial or private issues or products presented here.

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eac.gov | U.S. Election Assistance Commission

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The EAC's Testing and Certification program is the critical first step in the process of maintaining the reliability and security of the voting systems used in our nation's elections.

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EAC: National Mail Voter Registration Form (21 languages)

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EAC: National Mail Voter Registration Form (21 languages)

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The National Mail Voter Registration Form can be used to register U.S. citizens to vote, to update registration information due to a change of name, make a change of address or to register with a political party.

Important: You must follow the state-specific instructions listed for your state. They begin on page 3 of the form and are listed alphabetically by state. After filling out this form, you must sign your name where indicated and send it to your state or local election office for processing. Be sure you mail it in an envelope with the proper amount of postage.

The national form also contains voter registration rules and regulations for each state and territory. For more information about registering to vote, contact your state election office. Read our FAQ's about moving and registering to vote and using the National Mail Voter Registration Form.

Download the Form in 15 Languages

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National Mail Voter Registration Form | U.S. Election Assistance Commission

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The National Mail Voter Registration Form can be used to register U.S. citizens to vote, to update registration information due to a change of name, make a change of address or to register with a political party. Important: You must follow the state-specific instructions listed for your state.