Threats to Democracy, Elections and Voting Rights

Market St. near Drumm, San Francisco CA

19 April, 2022

Description

SF Gray Panthers Monthly Meeting: The Threat to Democracy & What We Can Do About It: Elections & Voting Rights, Tuesday, April 19, 2022, 1-3 pm Zoom: address: ; Meeting ID: 863 9803 7030, Passcode: 709990 Get an update on the SF redistricting controversy; then hear 2 speakers on the threat to democracy nationally; Q&A; & our new SFGP website preview! Speakers: Tes Welborn, a board member, community leader and activist in the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council is one of the organizers of a coalition of SF organizations behind the "Community Unity Map", which was made by and for marginalized communities of SF. She will give us an update on the work they are doing to get a redistricting map that prioritizes vulnerable communities to maintain or increase their voting power. This is a local struggle for democracy in SF, in which the SF Gray Panthers are also actively involved. Find out what you can do to ensure SF communities of interest are not divided and/or weakened by any decisions of the Task Force that might undermine our ability to elect members of the Board of Supervisors who are accountable to us! Jan Ben Dor, a Gray Panther leader from Ann Arbor Michigan is a key organizer of a Michigan ballot measure to make voting a fundamental right in their state constitution. How about doing that in California? More info. Shervin Aazami Progressive candidate for (CA-32), MPH, MPA, will share his ideas for democracy reform. He's part of a wave of progressive candidates challenging incumbents and the stars quo. Could that wave be successful and powerful enough to strengthen our democracy? NOTE: Recommended viewing before the forum (But not required!): "The Battle for Voting Rights and the 2022 Midterms", an online recording of "...the Reverend William Barber and Janai Nelson, the president and director-counsel of the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund, [who] join the New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb to discuss gerrymandering, Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters of color, and how the battle for ballot access in states such as Georgia could alter American democracy in the decade to come.