Please VOTE for Kim Carter for 2015 CNN Hero of the Year!

Dear Friends,

I am overwhelmed by the gratefulness I am feeling right now. I am so blessed to be clean and sober and recognizing that my only purpose in life is to fight for others that have been through the same injustices as I have experienced.

On October 8th CNN selected me and my organization, Time for Change Foundation, for the work we do to help others. To be chosen as a 2015 Top 10 CNN Hero from 50,000 nominations across the world we sit here humbled and awestruck.

But it doesn’t stop here. To reach the grand prize of $100,000 that will help us to continue our mission we NEED YOUR HELP to get the most votes!

You can VOTE by clicking the link below and you can VOTE ONCE a day EVERY DAY until November 15th.

VOTE4KIM

I just want to thank God, for giving me a second chance at life and using me to help fight for others! For those of you who don't know my story, I'm a miracle! Devastated by crack addiction, incarceration and homelessness for years and to suddenly be reborn and purposeful is a blessing.

Thank you to everyone that has fought this fight with me in solidarity! I know I didn’t come this far without you.

Please cast your votes, share that you voted, and ask others to do the same!


Thank you!

Kim Carter

Executive Director

Time for Change Foundation

California to register voters automatically at DMV

In a bid to improve voter turnout in California elections, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed legislation to automatically register to vote anyone who has a driver’s license or state identification card.

The measure was pushed by Democrats, whose candidates and causes typically benefit from higher turnout elections.

Assembly Bill 1461, by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, will require the state to register adults to vote when they get or renew a driver’s license, unless they opt out. It will make California only the second state, after Oregon, to proactively register people to vote unless they decline.

The California legislation was a priority of Secretary of State Alex Padilla and followed the state’s record-low turnout in last year’s elections.

“In a free society, the right to vote is fundamental,” Padilla said in a statement after Brown announced signing the bill. “We do not have to opt-in to other rights, such as free speech or due process. The right to vote should be no different.”

The law will expand access to the polls as dozens of states are implementing significant new electoral restrictions, such as requiring photo identification to vote and cutting back on early voting. It drew praise from voting rights advocates and even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who tweeted that other states should follow California’s lead.

“California just became a national leader on voting rights,” Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the Democracy Program at New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, said in a statement. “In too many states, our outdated and error-prone registration system blocks millions from the polls. Automatic permanent voter registration can transform voting in America. Other states should look to California as a bold new model for reform.”

Democrats said the measure would increase the ranks of people – particularly the young, poor and nonwhite – engaged in the political process. Republicans mostly opposed the measure. They warned it risked allowing people eligible to get driver’s licenses, but who are noncitizens and ineligible to vote, to register and cast fraudulent ballots.

Democratic lawmakers countered that the bill included protections to prevent that from happening.

In November, only 42.2 percent of voters showed up, the lowest participation in a general election since World War II, according to a committee analysis of the measure. The turnout rate reflected just 31 percent of the state population eligible to vote, including an estimated 6.6 million Californians not registered.

“Our democracy depends on the true participation of the populace,” state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, said during a floor debate last month.

The measure sought to build upon the federal Motor Voter Law, which required voter registration forms to be available at motor vehicle agencies. More than 20 years later, though, experts said the paper-based law’s impact has been spotty, with few states able to detail how their agencies are helping people register to vote or update their registrations.

In Oregon, an automatic registration law took effect earlier this year, with full implementation due in January. Election officials automatically register people to vote when the state’s motor vehicle agency relays information that the people are eligible. They can apply to opt out.

“I just think we’re getting the cart before the horse,” state Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, said last month.

Under the law, automatic voter registration would not take place until the state’s long-awaited voter database, VoteCal, is up and running; there is a system in place to protect the transfer of noncitizen information; and money has been appropriated by the Legislature.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, introduced the measure along with Gonzalez and Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38684598.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38684598.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38684598.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38684598.html#storylink=cpy

Happy National Voter Registration Day!

Vote for Your Favorite NonProfit for the People's Momentum Award!

Click HERE to cast your vote!

Get Out the Vote Tomorrow!

 

Tomorrow, join the thousands that will make their voice heard and Get Out Your Vote!

Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. You can find your polling place  

here. 

This election Gladys (right) voted for the very first time in her life. After years of incarceration and people making decisions for her she finally had the opportunity to choose for herself and let her voice be heard! 

Take Action California wants you to remember that Your Voice Matters! 

You are NOT Invisible!

Election Day is 1 Week Away!

We're 1 week away from election day!

Don't forget that your vote matters

VOTE on November 4th!

Your Vote Matters!

Absentee ballots have dropped and we want to remind you to get out the vote!

You are not invisible and together we can change things for the better!

Election Day is Tuesday, November 4th!

Polls are open from 7 am - 8 pm

If you are not registered to vote you can register online at www.registertovote.ca.gov

Join Take Action California and Celebrate National Voter Registration Day!

Take Action California wants you to join us to celebrate National Voter Registration Day. A day where eligible voters across the nation can register to vote and make their voices heard!

Today we're taking a stand with people like Diane who has been in and out of prison a majority of her life. "I vote because I can and because I know my vote counts!"  She now votes at every election and is always encouraging others in her community to do the same!

Help us spread the word so that everyone in California knows that their voice matters. Together, we can make a difference!

You can vote in California if you are:

- US citizen

- California resident

- At least 18 years of age on election day

- Not in prison, on parole, or serving a state prison sentence in county jail

- Not found by a court to be mentally incompetent

You CAN vote if...

- If you have a felony

- Are on probation

- Are on Mandatory Supervision 

- Are on Post Release Community Supervision

To register to vote online visit:

http://registertovote.ca.gov/

IMMIGRATION: Legality of effort to repeal Prop. 187 is questioned

Some California legislators are poised to repeal Proposition 187, a controversial 20-year-old initiative that was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court and never enforced. But law scholars question whether the elected officials have the legal authority to act on their own.

“The California Constitution says you can’t amend or repeal an approved measure without submitting it to the voters unless there’s a waiver clause,” said Jessica A. Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor who specializes on election law.

Prop. 187, which sought to cut off public education, health care and welfare benefits to undocumented immigrants in California, had no such waiver, said John C. Eastman, a Chapman University Law School professor and founding director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.

“These guys are acting lawlessly,” Eastman said. “They’ll do it if they think they can get away with it and no one will challenge them.”

California voters approved Prop. 187 – also known as the “Save our State” campaign – in November 1994 with almost 60 percent approval. A federal court ruled most of the provisions unconstitutional, and the measure was not enforced. But some of the language remains embedded in various codes, including education codes.

Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, said he learned of its existence in California codes accidentally. He was recently talking to his staff about his personal history and recounting how he “cut my teeth politically against the 187 campaign.” Chief of Staff Dan Reeves decided to look into the proposition and found it had not been removed.

“These code sections are unenforceable. The Legislature has the right and power and authority to maintain the codes with our statutes and that’s we’re doing,” Reeves said.

“Essentially, it’s code cleaning,” he said.

De Leon’s staff consulted with the state’s legislative counsel, Diane Boyer-Vine, whose opinion was that “it’s not necessary to go back to the voters,” Reeves said.

State Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, said unconstitutional laws should not remain on the books.

“The Constitution is the highest law of our nation, and I support any effort to remove any statute or language found unconstitutional,” he said.

Sen. Mike Morrell, a Rancho Cucamonga Republican who represents parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said in a statement that he has not yet decided whether to vote for de Leon’s bill.

“I have not yet had a chance to review the specific language of the bill or the legal questions surrounding it,” he said.

Robin Hvidston, executive director of the anti-illegal-immigration We the People Rising and an Upland resident, urged legislators to keep the law in California codes.

“To me, it’s important because this was the direct voice of the people,” she said. “The people’s voice, the people’s will was overruled by the courts.”

She worried that stripping Prop. 187 language from state codes would set a dangerous precedent and lead to other voter initiatives being gutted.

But Maria Rodriguez, an activist with the Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Coalition, said passage of de Leon’s bill would be another signal by the Legislature that California is “an immigrant-friendly state.”

California 2014 primary election complete results

This page will update through the night with the latest results from today's California primary. In contests for statewide office, Congress and the Legislature, candidates who finish first and second—regardless of party—will compete against one another in November. This “top two” system, modeled on nonpartisan local elections, was approved four years ago by voters. Local contests in which no candidate captures a majority of votes may also lead to fall runoffs.

http://graphics.latimes.com/calif-primary-election-results-2014/

Get Out Your Vote Today!

After months of campaigning, tens of millions of dollars in outside spending and plenty of hand-wringing over whether turnout would reach a new low, California's 2014 primary election is finally upon us. 

Across the state today, voters (though probably not very many of them) will be selecting the top two candidates for eight statewide offices, 100 legislative seats and 53 congressional races, as well deciding the fates of two propositions and countless local initiatives, county supervisor positions and judgeships.

Capitol Alert will be bringing you results, analysis and video all night long on sacbee.com. Check back for complete coverage after the polls close at 8 p.m.

via: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/06/am-alert-voters-head-to-polls-for-primary-election.html

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/06/am-alert-voters-head-to-polls-for-primary-election.html#storylink=cpy

Last Day to Register to Vote!

Today is the last day to register vote before the June Primary Election! You can register by visiting your local county registrars office or register online here. 

If you are already registered please encourage your friends and family to register!

You can vote early, vote by mail, or vote on election day... but however you vote, remember that your voice matters!

To view this years candidates click here. 

April Action Days

My name is Amanda and I am a product of Time for Change Foundation where I have also become a leader in my community. I recently had the opportunity to attend April Action Days in Sacramento with other organizations like California Partnership and Hunger Action L.A.  to raise our voices about bills that affect low-income communities and women's economic security.

Senate Bill 935, authored by Senator Mark Leno, which would increase the minimum wage to $13 by 2016 really resonates with me because  I am a recovering addict who comes from a life of dysfunction and chaos and now I have a job and the opportunity to bring my daughter home with me; raising the minimum wage would reunite me with my daughter and help us to live a better life. 

I am so thankful to have had this opportunity to visit the capitol, it was actually my first time being involved in something like this and it was so empowering not only to be a part of it, but to know that my voice really does matter. I never knew that I could be a part of something much bigger than myself. I became a part of the process in determining society’s future.

Time for Change Foundation Leaders from left:
Crystal, Jeannine, Cecilia, Amanda

My name is Crystal and my experience at the State Capitol was exhilarating! I felt so empowered as a constituent. Seeing other people like me using their time to speak on behalf of their families and communities gives me hope that more will find the courage to raise our voices and remind our representatives that we are the ones who put them there. 

I went to advocate for SB 1029, authored by Senator Loni Hancock, which would lift the lifetime ban on CalWORKS and CalFresh for people that have been convicted of any offense classified as a felony that has an element the posession, use or distribution of a controlled substance.

Being a part of Time for Change Foundation's transitional housing program I have met many women that are out of prison or jail and ready to move forward with their lives but continue to hit this brick wall. 

Removing the lifetime ban would help women like myself give our children the opportunity to thrive and have successful lives.  

This experience has taught me that we can change the laws and injustices that our communities face on a daily basis, but only if we stand up and use the strength of our voices. Together we can!