Advocacy What is Advocacy? Advocacy involves strategies aimed at influencing the creation and implementation of laws and policy The art of advocacy is the active support of a cause in attempt to persuade others. Lobbying Lobbying is a way to influence the lawmaking process by convincing lawmakers to vote as you want them to. Lobbying comes from the seventeenth century, when interested persons would corner legislators in the outer waiting room of the legislature-the lobby. Lobbying is actually a basic right which is protected by the U.S. constitution. It involves rights such as right of free speech and sometimes other rights like assembly, association, and freedom of the press. A lobbyist is someone who tries to convince a lawmaker to vote for or against a certain issue. Anyone can be a lobbyist even a private individual can lobby elected officials on issues you care about. You can influence officials that are elected by expressing your opinions individually or part of a group, by letter, phone, or. Some lobbyists use political contributions, ads, favors, letter-writing campaigns, and other techniques to influence legislation. Lobbying Special Interest groups and organizations lobby on behalf of every imaginable cause and issue. Businesses and Organizations hire professional lobbyists to influence federal, state, and local legislatures. The national rifle association employ lobbyist to oppose on restrictions gun ownership and Control Inc, lobbies for gun control. Lobbyist must indicate how much they have spent lobbying. Including the costs of organizing grassroots letter writing campaigns Lobbyist work in Washington D.C. and state capitals Voting Voting is a constitutional right Eligible people may vote for president, V.P, senators, representative, governor, state legislature, and local officials, A representative democracy is a form of government in which individuals elect officials to govern the country on their behalf Some situations where the people can vote directly on proposed laws. Initiative and Referendum Initiative and referenda allows citizens to circulate petitions and put proposed laws on the ballot An initiative is a procedure that enables a specific number of voters to propose a law by petition. The proposed law is then submitted to either the electorate or the legislature for approval. A referenda occurs when a legislative act is referred to voters for final approval or rejection. Many states also permit recall elections allows voters to remove elected officials from office Voters Some believe that allowing voters to express their thoughts directly through initiative instead of indirectly through representative is a more democratic system of voting United States is technically a republic, not a pure democracy Some forms of direct voting exist in 24 states In 1897, South Dakota became the first state to adopt statewide initiative and popular referendum Through the initiative process many laws have been processed the right to vote for women the eight-hour workday for government employees term limit for elected officials environmental protection campaign finance reform Who Can Vote? Voter eligibility: U.S Citizen by birth or naturalization At least 18 years old by date of election Resident of community in which you register How to register to vote: Complete an application in person or by mail National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter Act) Makes registration forms available at motor vehicle departments, numerous state offices, welfare offices, and agencies that serve the disabled Who Can Vote? Fair election requires that voters have access to information about candidates, issues and details of voting information Many organizations provide election information on the internet League of Women Voters (www.lwv.org) Democracy Net (www.dnet.org) Voting in the Past Before 1965 some states had literacy tests and character test that kept several people from voting. African Americans received the right to vote in 1870 with the 15 th amendment Women received the right to vote in 1920 (19 th amendment) In 1971 the 26 th amendment gave 18 year olds the right to vote Voting Today One convicted with a serious crime usually loses their right to vote May regain the right to vote 5 years after their sentence According to the Federal Election Commission 76% of the voting age population was registered to vote in 2000 & 67% of those who were registered actually voted in the presidential election During the past few decades turnout in national election has fallen from 62% in the 1964 presidential election to 51% in 2000 Turnout for non-presidential election is even lower Problem 3.3 (a) Make two lists: one of all the reasons for voting and another of all the reasons for not voting. Reasons for voting: You cant complain if you dont You know well who is representing you You are aware of the issues your country faces Good citizen (responsibility) Reasons not to vote: You dont like either of the candidates Youre not informed Youre not a citizen (B) The following proposals have been made to encourage more people to vote. Do you favor or oppose each proposal? Explain your answers. Levying a $20 fine on a person who is eligible to vote but does not do so and has no good excuse. Allowing people to register and vote on the same day Lowering the voting age to 16 so students in high school can vote Keeping the polls open for a week instead of a day Holding all elections on weekends Reducing peoples taxes by $10 each if they vote Allowing people to vote not just for representatives, but directly for or against issues on the ballot that they care about Prohibiting the media from reporting results or projections onto all polls are closed Automatically registering everyone with a drivers license LAW STUDIES: League of Women Voters: - Supporters of the campaign finance reform set out to: improve financing political campaign methods. ensure the public's right to know. promote citizens to be part of the political process. In recent years, federal elections have become extraordinarily expensive. To win, candidates have to be rich, be skillful fundraises, or both. In fact, the candidate who raises the most money seldom loses the election. Critics of the current system argue that: 1.People of low or middle income cannot run for office successfully because they cannot raise huge sums of money. 2.Special interests receive favors in exchange for substantial campaign contributions; 3.Elected officials spend too much time raising money and not enough time doing their jobs. Campaign finance laws were complex because laws in the past prohibited corporations and labor unions from contributing directly to candidates, and individuals were limited in terms of how much they could contribute. The funds that were given to a political party were called "soft money". The idea for these funds were to help strengthen the political party but instead, much of the soft money was used to pay negative ads against candidates of the other party. Other significant funding outside of the existing campaign finance rules occurred through ads that talked about issues concerning the environment, gun control, and stiffer penalties for criminals. As long as those ads did not say "vote for", "elect", or "Jones for Congress," the courts viewed them as "issue ads". Unlike express campaign ads, the did not regulate the funding for these ads. Congress and president Bush signed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform act of This law was designed to ban the use of soft money in federal campaigns, prohibit certain types of broadcast political ads, and outlaw the solicitation of campaign contributions on federal property. Within a month of the passage of the bill, 84 plaintiffs filled 11 separate lawsuits challenging every provision of the act. THE end!