| | Local Policy Hack-a-thon
Let your voice be heard! Maryland is in need of creative, outside of the box thinking to devise policies to help combat the economic strife that small businesses are facing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like a traditional hack-a-thon, this event will be fast-paced and free-flowing! Teams will be formed and spend time developing their concept during the kickoff event. Then, they will work together offline to fine-tune their presentation. On October 21st teams will pitch their concept LIVE to the Small Business Caucus! Form your own team or join a team and be a part of this exciting event! Registration closes at 5 pm on Wednesday, September 16. |
| | The ACS Presidential Transition Series
On Tuesday, September 15 at 1:00 p.m. ET, ACS will host “Restocking the Federal Government” featuring Rudy Mehrbani, Donald Sherman, Anne Joseph O’Connell, and Shomari Figures to discuss the structural damage the Trump administration has done to federal agencies. Click to RSVP. ACS has also created a talent database for lawyers who are seeking presidential appointments and share our commitment to protecting our democracy and the public interest, and for improving people’s lives. To submit your materials for our database, visit our Federal Executive Branch Appointments website.
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| | | Did You Know: Voting Rights Act
Last month marked the 55th anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), considered the most far-reaching civil rights legislation in modern US history.
While the occasion may have been lost in the frey of presidential politics, the significance of the Act on history, its fate and that of voting rights in our country, is interwined with the outcome of the November 3, 2020 elections.
The Voting Rights Act, passed on August 6, 1965, prohibited racial discrimination in voting and was designed to enforce the voting rights of racial minorities guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
More than a half a century later, however, those same rights are under assault.
A 2018 report by the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that at least 23 states enacted restrictive voter laws that made it harder for minorities to vote.
The subsequent forms of voter disenfranchisement have included everything from purging minorities from voter rolls and imposing early voting hours that limit the ability of hourly-wage workers to vote, to consolidating polling places to make it inconvenient for minority voters to access the polls. By 2018, nearly a thousand polling places nationwide, primarily in predominantly African-American counties, had been closed.
They also have come in the form of mandatory voter ID laws, openly advocated by President Trump, and gerrymandering, or discriminatory redrawing of legislative districts.
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| | Voting in the County
If you fill out your mail-in ballot application by hand with the application you have received in the mail, you can return it in the prepaid envelope provided or you can physically drop it off at our County Board of Elections in Largo.
Also, you can complete and return an application in person at the County Board of Elections. If you prefer to complete an application online, you can do so by clicking here or texting VBM to 77788. I also want to remind residents that if you are not registered to vote, you must do that first by October 13. You can register to vote online here. |
| | | | | PGCSIF’s mission is to build social capital and invest in new ways of solving old challenges in Prince George’s County. |
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