Votes, Voters And Voting: Get Out the Vote, Campaigning, Elections in the Era of Covid-19
How is California changing the November 2020 election so voting is safe and accessible amid a pandemic? How do we get voters to be engaged and educated during this very unusual COVID campaign season? How do we tailor messaging to inspire communities that typically have low voter turnout?
Our keynote speaker, Jonathan Mehta Stein, Executive Director of Common Cause California, will address the new elections laws and share the latest research on effective messaging for motivating voter participation. UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and Mills College Professor Larry Magid will then moderate a panel of seasoned campaigners and voter engagement experts as they discuss their experience in past elections and share their thoughts about strategies and tactics for this unprecedented election.
Panelists:
Ben Grieff, Campaign Director and Spokesperson, Evolve California
Tony Roshan Samara, Program Director of Land Use and Housing, Urban Habitat
Kalimah Salahuddin, President, Jefferson Union High School District Board of Education
The session will run from 10:00-11:30 on Zoom, and there will be an opportunity for audience Q & A. Please also join us from 11:30 am -12:00 pm for further discussion about San Mateo County voter engagement in online breakout rooms.
Hosted by Thrive Alliance and California Common Cause
*Zoom information will be sent to registered attendees.
SPEAKER
Jonathan Mehta Stein, Executive Director, California Common Cause
Jonathan Mehta Stein is a civil rights attorney and long-time democracy reform advocate. Jonathan became the Executive Director of California Common Cause on May 1, 2020, after 10 years on the California Common Cause Board of Directors and four years as Board Chair. He previously spent four years as the head of the Voting Rights & Census Program at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, where he worked to increase access to California’s democracy for historically disenfranchised communities, including immigrant and limited-English speaking voters, communities of color, low-income communities, and people with disabilities. Jonathan previously worked as a voting rights staff attorney for the ACLU of California and served as a commissioner and chair of the City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission. While receiving his MPP and JD from UC Berkeley, Jonathan served as the Student Regent on the UC’s Board of Regents, where he advocated for the interests of the 230,000 students of the UC system.
MODERATOR
Larry Magid, Professor of Public Policy Practice, Mills College Lecturer, Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley
Larry Magid draws upon three decades of leadership experience in electoral campaigns, legislative politics and public policy, to teach about his passions: the intersection of politics and public policy to graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley and Mills College. Larry has worked as a campaign advisor, field organizer, fundraiser, and surrogate speaker for local, state and national candidates including Mikie Sherrill for Congress (NJ-11), David Chiu for San Francisco Mayor, Supervisor and State Assembly, Anne Campbell-Washington for Oakland City Council, Kamala Harris for California Attorney General, and the Clinton/Kaine, Obama/Biden, Kerry/Edwards and Clinton/Gore presidential campaigns. Larry Magid is principal of Public Policy Advising, a transportation, energy and environmental policy consulting firm. Prior to founding Public Policy Advising, Larry Magid served as Executive Director of City CarShare; Deputy Secretary for Transportation in the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency; and Executive Director of the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA) under the chairmanship of State Treasurer Philip Angelides. Larry graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College, earned a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), and a Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Larry is an active member of many community organizations including Wall Of Us, Children’s Fairyland, and Oakland Temple Sinai.
PANELISTS
Ben Grieff, Campaign Director and Spokesperson, Evolve California
Ben Grieff is the Campaign Director for Evolve California, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that he helped found in 2011. For the last 7 years Ben has led Evolve California’s campaign to restore funding for California’s public schools by reforming Proposition 13. His work has helped change the political narrative around a once untouchable issue that is the root cause for California’s public education system being drastically underfunded. He sits on the Executive Committee of the historic Schools and Communities First initiative that will appear on the November 2020 ballot. This initiative will reform the commercial side of Prop. 13 and reclaim $12 billion a year for California’s schools and communities.
Tony Roshan Samara, Program Director of Land Use and Housing, Urban Habitat
Tony Roshan Samara is the Program Director of Land Use and Housing at Urban Habitat. Tony has conducted extensive research focused on the politics of development and the marginalization of low-income communities, with an emphasis on housing, gentrification, and displacement. In San Mateo County he supports an integrated voter engagement project that builds the power of low-income communities and communities of color through combining community organizing with voter engagement. Since 2007 he has worked with the Right to the City Alliance as a resource ally and currently serves on the Alliance’s national steering committee. Tony has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MA from the City University of New York. Before joining Urban Habitat he was an associate professor of sociology at George Mason University. He runs the Cities and Globalization Twitter account at https://twitter.com/CGWG2 and most of his publications are available at http://independent.academia.edu/TonyRoshanSamara.
Kalimah Salahuddin, President, Jefferson Union High School District Board of Education
Kalimah Salahuddin currently serves as President for the Jefferson Union High School District Board of Education and is running for her third term in November. She is the immediate Past President of the San Mateo County School Boards Association (SMCSBA) were she served for two years and continues to serve as the Coordinator for the SMCSBA Equity Network. She also was recently appointed to the Board of the Housing Leadership Council and previously served as a Board Member for Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco where she has been a regular site volunteer. Kalimah was the Campaign Manager for Yes on L, the successful renewal of the local funding measure for the Pacifica School District, and Yes on Y and Yes on E, two successful local funding measures for the Jefferson Union High School District. She also served on the Board of Educate Our State and as President of Saving Pacifica Schools in advocacy of public school systems at the local and state levels. Kalimah is employed as a Public Affairs Coordinator at Exelixis and is a mother to three wonderful young adults.
