Jax Young Voters Coalition Brings Together Diverse
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Nonpartisan coalition aims to increase turnout among Jacksonville voters age 18 to 40 by five percent.
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jan-jax-young-voters-coalition-brings-together-diverse-
Wanted to comment that this is the first time that I can ever recall in my 36 years of either living full time or part time in Jacksonville that young people have come together to actually have an effect on voter turnout for a generation that has been largely disengaged from having a real say in who gets elected to lead our community.
There will be a really fun event coming up to meet candidates (promise this is no hokey MTV Rock The Vote rally) that I invite you to attend:
Jax Young Voters Coalition's first event, Ballots & Brews, was also announced and is scheduled for Feb. 18, 2015, 6-9 p.m. at Intuition Ale Works. Jacksonville city council candidates are invited to attend, and food trucks and live local music will be on-site. Visit ballotsandbrews.com for full details.
I'm happy to see there's a new group helping to mobilize young voters. The March elections will shape the way Jacksonville looks for the next decade, make sure your opinion is heard!
Great to hear about this. Will have to check out the Ballots and Brews event.
Cool idea. Good to set the bar low at 5%, but I think they can easily exceed that.
Field, when does this group intend to make endorsements? Post meet and greets and debates?
Great news. :)
Quote from: CityLife on January 29, 2015, 12:36:11 PM
Cool idea. Good to set the bar low at 5%, but I think they can easily exceed that.
Field, when does this group intend to make endorsements? Post meet and greets and debates?
The meet n greet with city council candidates is Feb 18th. This is the only event of its kind where candidates will be talking specifically to young voters. The goal of the group is to engage, inform and encourage young people to vote (more so than endorsements, although there will be some endorsements of city council candidates at an as yet determined date).
QuoteJax Young Voters Coalition's first event, Ballots & Brews, was also announced and is scheduled for Feb. 18, 2015, 6-9 p.m. at Intuition Ale Works. Jacksonville city council candidates are invited to attend, and food trucks and live local music will be on-site. Visit ballotsandbrews.com for full details.
Love your city but hate politics? Have no idea who really can move our city forward, and want to vote for those kinds of people? Tired of elected officials talking about things you don't care about? Then this event is for you (and there is beer, which is very important to me).
Anybody looking to help, can donate a quick $10 towards the crowdfund campaign. This money will go towards effective outreach/marketing towards young voters. Young people often feel jaded that only big money interests and Good Ol Boys can have an effect on local elections. $10 is an inexpensive investment to ensure that young people will have an effect on who gets elected to lead our city ($10 is cheap, and you get a sticker to rock).
awww.rockethub.com/projects/53189 (http://www.rockethub.com/projects/53189)
So people that are 30 - 40 years of age are considered young? Who knew? Well it will be nice to know how many show up to the event and then to know how many actually show up to vote. Anyway it's' good to see "young people" get involved in their communities unfortunately I am 40++ more plus than 40 side of life so I guess I have to be content with sitting this out with the rest of us old fogies. Anyway have fun and I hope to see you at the polls.
All you "youngun's" this is what is going on and what I have been trying to tell folks for years and years. Important read right here.
QuoteFor many, this research simply confirms what they have known or suspected all along.
In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in 2012, 76 percent of Americans agreed or strongly agreed with the following statement: "The current economic structure of the country is out of balance and favors a very small proportion of the rich over the rest of the country. America needs to reduce the power of major banks and corporations and demand greater accountability and transparency. The government should not provide financial aid to corporations and should not provide tax breaks to the rich."
When average Americans are asked about democracy, they typically point to voting and political parties as the foundation. But in the United States today, the electoral system hardly qualifies as a model of democratic choice. Despite the rhetoric of political polarization, the two parties have actually been moving in the same direction over the past 30-plus years — that is, toward the right-wing pole on the ideological spectrum. It just happens that the Republicans had a head start and are moving at greater speed, fueled by corporate financial support. The net result is two Republican parties (Florida is actually a pacesetter for this one-party trend, represented by the recent gubernatorial choice between two Republicans, Rick Scott and Charlie Crist), neither of which offers any significant substantive alternative to the current political-economic setup; both are equally dependent upon and controlled by corporate interests. As a consequence, the policies of both parties have contributed to an increasingly unequal distribution of income and wealth since the 1980s. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis observed: "We can either have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
For full article click the link:
http://folioweekly.com/THE-DEMOCRACY-DEFICIT,11919
Those voting statistics really struck a chord with me. Jax feels different than it did 4 years ago. There's tons of positive momentum and more people are trying to move jax forward, but the same old guard is still calling the shots and holding the purse strings. If less than 20% of young people are actually getting out there and voting, how can we expect to have elected officials that represent our viewpoints? We need to get out there if we want to see any change. Great job Field and all the others who are working to make a difference.
^+ a million. The time is now.
This Old Geezer wishes you all the best, we need a huge change in the elected officials in this berg.
Will it be done in the Sunshine? Hell no. Where is everyone at these meetings especially for Downtown? What started as open and everyone holding hands and singing Kumbaya has turned into say nothing and come and see me so you can get your head straight. Visit Jacksonville!
This non-partisan youth effort is a very timely thing. Firstly it will be the youth that re-invigorates the voting public via their interest, numbers and desire for competence. Secondly because the reality is that both major parties are in many ways dancing the same dance which is more about political power than it is about serving the people of our city, state and nation. It is time for people to become informed, open minded and sophisticated in their voting habits in order to bring the needed sanity and balance to a political system that has been out of balance for quite some time. Beginning with the youth is the proper way to build a solid knew view of what voting and "real" representation of the voters in office should be. Bravo to all involved in this effort and remember us older players are here to bounce ideas off of and to share our hard earned understandings. God speed to all involved. :)
Anything to bring informed voters to the polls is great, but I'm wondering how it got to be Jax. Young Voters 18-40 years old? Like someone else said above, 30-40 is young voters? Questioning who they wanted in the group to expand "young" to 40 years of age. and the idea that 30 -40 years old are inexperienced and uninformed voters? Glad City Council candidates are having a 'meet & greet", but a little hesitant that politicians will do anything other than give the audience what they want to hear. The same way candidates talk to "women' or "business clubs".
I do wish them success and getting more people to the polls even over 40 year olds. Again, why isn't it 18-30 year olds? Rhetorical question, no one has to answer.
Quote from: Jax native on February 01, 2015, 10:27:05 AM
Anything to bring informed voters to the polls is great, but I'm wondering how it got to be Jax. Young Voters 18-40 years old? Like someone else said above, 30-40 is young voters? Questioning who they wanted in the group to expand "young" to 40 years of age. and the idea that 30 -40 years old are inexperienced and uninformed voters? Glad City Council candidates are having a 'meet & greet", but a little hesitant that politicians will do anything other than give the audience what they want to hear. The same way candidates talk to "women' or "business clubs".
I do wish them success and getting more people to the polls even over 40 year olds. Again, why isn't it 18-30 year olds? Rhetorical question, no one has to answer.
Because of this statistic:
QuoteThe 2011 city election turnouts for 18 to 40 year-olds was 13.5 percent and 19.7 percent respectively, according to documents provided by the Duval County Supervisor of Elections office. Overall turnout was 29.7 percent and 37.3 percent for the 2011 first and general city elections.
Clearly, there is a need for people younger than 40 to have more of a say in who gets elected to lead our city. Politicians tend to care more about issues that effect the people that vote in large numbers, and there is a large under-representation of people aged 18-40 at the voting booth.
Okay, I understand the reasoning behind the 18 - 40 years old now. Thanks for that stat. I was not really thinking about the fact that is how voting age group are complied, so it seems very reasonable that was the impetus for Jax. Young Voters age determination. I really do thank you for that because I didn't understand. I worked w/ Meredith Johnson with the original Brown campaign and know she is an intelligent, involved, powerful force within the community. They have all my support. You also have talked me into making the $10.00 contribution to their funds.
http://folioweekly.com/ballots-and-brews,12085?category_id=27%2C&sub_type=blogs (http://folioweekly.com/ballots-and-brews,12085?category_id=27%2C&sub_type=blogs)
jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-02-18/story/hundreds-show-ballots-brews-intuition-ale-works (http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-02-18/story/hundreds-show-ballots-brews-intuition-ale-works)
http://www.jacksonville.com/video/entertainment/2015-02-19/watch-matt-about-jax-ballots-and-brews-intuition-ale-works#gsc.tab=0 (http://www.jacksonville.com/video/entertainment/2015-02-19/watch-matt-about-jax-ballots-and-brews-intuition-ale-works#gsc.tab=0)
http://www.news4jax.com/news/brewpub-holds-event-encouraging-younger-crowd-to-vote/31348506 (http://www.news4jax.com/news/brewpub-holds-event-encouraging-younger-crowd-to-vote/31348506)
http://news.wjct.org/post/jax-voter-coalition-brings-young-people-candidates-together-over-beer (http://news.wjct.org/post/jax-voter-coalition-brings-young-people-candidates-together-over-beer)
Had a little over 500 in attendance last night and registered an impressive amount of voters. Many city council candidates, all mayoral candidates and most sheriff candidates mingled among the large crowd. You could have talked one-on-one with Lenny Curry, Alvin Brown and Bill Bishop.
Councilman Reggie Brown (http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-feb-food-trucks-to-be-legislated-out-of-existence (http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-feb-food-trucks-to-be-legislated-out-of-existence)) was even on hand eating from a food truck and talked with the food truck owners asking for feedback on the ordinance in practice. That ordinance was radically changed from its initial form based on the huge outpouring of support from (primarily) young voters.
By next week, we should have city council candidate surveys up on jaxyoungvoters.com (http://jaxyoungvoters.com) so that young voters can be informed of city council candidates' stances on issues important to them. I think that many will find the site helpful and aid towards make an informed vote next month.
QuoteYou also have talked me into making the $10.00 contribution to their funds.
Thank you!
Again, I applaud all who are involved in the Young Voters Coalition. One of the primary reasons I think this is so great is the fact that the effort is non partisan and aimed at getting younger folks, regardless of political affiliations involved in the election process and as a result, hopefully leading to my strength and insight in our elected officials. If I might offer one tiny bit of advice based in years of negotiating local politics to those behind this effort it would be this, do not allow yourselves to be drawn in by the politically powerful or the wealthy corporate manipulators. Stay independent of the status quo and major political operatives and remain committed to your independence as a coalition. Know the local players and how to interact with them while remaining clear of all personal agenda's or influence. A tall order I know, but one I think you are all up to. Well done!
Quote from: Apache on February 19, 2015, 06:17:12 PM
jaxyoungvoters.com is a great site by the way. Hard to ever get all your info regarding the races in one place. Any plans on adding some of their positions on there in addition to the statements the candidates provided? It's great as it is and I realize it's likely being done pro bono and in someones free time. Just curious.
Every city council candidate has been provided a brief survey geared towards issues relevant to young voters. Answers to those survey questions will be posted to the site by next weekend.
For anyone interested, the Candidate surveys are now live and arranged by question for side-by-side comparison.
http://jaxyoungvoters.com/candidate-qa (http://jaxyoungvoters.com/candidate-qa)
Quote from: Spitfire on March 05, 2015, 02:32:39 PM
For anyone interested, the Candidate surveys are now live and arranged by question for side-by-side comparison.
http://jaxyoungvoters.com/candidate-qa (http://jaxyoungvoters.com/candidate-qa)
Yes I am interested. Thanks for sharing this. :)
Wow, so only 22 of the 52 candidates in the council races chose to respond to the survey? That is a shame. Good on those 22 engaged council candidates who took the time to answer the query's of what will be a formidable force in future elections which is of course the JaxYoungVoters.
This is phenomenal. Just skimmed it a bit, and am looking forward to reading it all tonight.
Great work.
I have responded to every survey provided by community groups. I enjoyed the provocative and insightful questions posed by the JaxYoungVoters.
I can't imagine a candidate for public office overlooking such an impressive array of young people who represent a bi-partisan, diverse sample of the populace who will one day run this great city and build it into an even better place to live.
I was especially honored to have been the recommended candidate for City Council District 4.