The Antelope Valley Times

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L.A. County kicks off ‘L.A. Free the Vote’

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LOS ANGELES – County officials and civil rights advocates gathered on the steps of Men’s Central Jail Tuesday to launch “L.A. Free the Vote,” a campaign to bring voter awareness to jail inmates.

The launch coincided with National Voter Registration Day.

“The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy, yet more than 1 million citizens in Los Angeles County have not registered to vote,” Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “From where I stand — informed by the civil rights movement — every day is an opportunity to celebrate voter registration.  Voting is how we are heard, and every vote counts.”

Jail authorities expressed enthusiasm about partnering with the county to make sure eligible inmates are given the chance to vote, though they acknowledged the work isn’t easy.

Voting has symbolic significance, said Dean Logan, the registrar- recorder/county clerk.

“When we don’t use our vote, we unwittingly give up our voice either to others or to deafening silence,” Logan said. “By exercising our right to vote, we are claiming power, influence and significance.”

It can be an important step in reclaiming other rights and starting a new life after leaving jail. Advocates say research shows that while a job is the most critical factor in reducing repeat criminal behavior, civic engagement is also an important “protective factor.”

“We see this as an important part of (the Office of Diversion and Reentry) strategy for supporting this population holistically through job training, mental health services, housing and more,” said Peter Espinoza, who leads that office.

Volunteers went inside the jail to provide inmates with information on the registration process.

California residents who are U.S. citizens and at least 18 years old are eligible to vote by mail from jail if they are awaiting trial on any charge or convicted of a misdemeanor. Probationers are also eligible to vote, whether in or out of jail.

Inmates in state prison for a felony conviction or on parole from prison are not eligible to vote, including those in county jail on a parole violation or awaiting transfer to prison. But when they are released from jail and complete their parole, convicted felons may re-register to vote.

The county has 5.1 million registered voters, 69 percent of whom cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election. Voter turnout for the last midterm election, in 2014, was less than half that number, according to information available through the registrar-recorder/county clerk’s website at lavote.net.

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Filed Under: Politics

27 comments for "L.A. County kicks off ‘L.A. Free the Vote’"

  1. Taxes and free stuff…similar to America’s blood drenched, destabilizing, 6 trillion dollar wars of choice against invented terrorists in countries that barely have a military. That kind of free stuff?

  2. I have a decent paying job and I collect EBT benefits just because I can. Don’t you love me? No sympathy and even less loyalty for the United States Crime Family.

    • I qualified for benefits while I was a “highly paid” member of the United States Military, and you can bet your bottom dollar that I collected every bit that I could. Funny how nobody treated me like I was some sort of burden on society back then, yet there are so many yahoos playing the “better than” card everywhere you look nowadays.

    • There’s no such thing as free stuff. The massive payoffs that your cherished Republicans hand out to their big corporate donors and elite wealthy cohorts all have to be paid for…undoubtedly by you. That’s what makes voting Republican decidedly stupid for almost everyone who does it.

      • Ultra wealthy Democrats doing the same thing as Republicans. Both parties are corrupted. Also government programs fraught with fraud. Getting back to the article; it is always good to let inmates know their rights about voting.

        • Ever wonder why most “ultra wealthy” people who came from humble beginnings and actually made their money seem to side with the democrats, while the inherited wealth plutocracy is pretty uniformly republican?

          • Yeah, that means a lot! Let’s take Gavin Newsom, hmm, humble beginning’s, I don’t buy that! When I turned 18 and registered I did so as my father, as a democrat but once I got into the work force and saw what they were doing with my tax dollars I changed parties for the better of myself and family. My father on the other hand, Mexican/American minority, registered democrat his whole life worked his butt off to make sure we had food on the table and roof over our heads. (Humble Beginnings) Back in the 60″s he even volunteered for couple of California State senators on their election committees but then he saw the light and his tax dollars being wasted on entitlement programs that weren’t solving the problems only making it worse that’s when he started voting republican, he never re-registered as a republican but voted that party line until his final days!
            Yes both parties are corrupt, but I will take my chances with the Republicans!

          • Here’s one of those cases where I will no doubt be blamed for “attacking” someone if I just state simple facts, but would anyone care to support this idiotic claim that Gavin Newsome is an example of the plutocracy of inherited wealth?

            RC, I am not trying to say that YOUR beginnings aren’t humble. But you should probably look into Gavin Newsome before you make it any more obvious that you have no idea what you are talking about if you say that his were not also.

            The inherited wealth plutocrats are the backbone of the Republican party, it works for them, and it screws the majority of people who support the party for their benefit. It’s just embarrassing how so many people fall for it.

          • Champagne swilling plutocrats joining the democratic party en masse. Who would have ever thought the party for the regular joe would be up to no good by deceiving the unknowing.

          • RC, you are spot on about Gavin Newsom! Yes, you clearly know his bio, when a certain Democrat doesn’t have a clue who he is, and will be an uninformed voter.

          • Tim, dontcha know that the human brain is designed to be ‘always right’ in the moment? It is fruitless to debate Alexis on anything.

            As an aside, Alexis’s personal history that she’s posted here shows that being ‘right’ all the time isn’t a recipe for a successful and fulfilled life. It’s likely that it gets in the way.

            There are folks in the most backward places in this country whom if you asked them would be ‘right’ about everything; how the world works, what’s wrong with the government and so on. They are even ‘right’ about that which they know nothing.

            A guy on a bar stool at 8 AM is ‘right’ about everything too, his wife or ex-wife, his boss, politicians, his weather predictions, etc.

            On a more local scale, haven’t you noticed that some of the barely literate posts on this site are written by people who are ‘right’ about crime scenes and traffic accidents that they didn’t witness? It’s the human condition.

            trump is ‘right’ all the time if you ask him. It’s built into that model.

            Now, go a few more rounds with Alexis and test it. Even when she corrects her own typos, she’s being ‘right’ about it.

        • Tim…Gavin Newsom (not Newsome) does come from great wealth. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His partner is an old family friend with the last name of Getty. Before you tell RC he knows nothing about Gavin Newsom (he knows more than you do), it would be a good idea to know who you’re backing.

          • Tim…A little more information for you, if you plan on voting for Gavin Newsom. Gordon Peter Getty a long time family friend, is partners with Newsom in PlumpJack. Gavin Newsom has inherited wealth from his wealthy family going back generations. Calling RC’s claim idiotic just shows how much you didn’t know.

          • Notice that I didn’t say he was poor, I said he doesn’t come from great wealth.

            Your bald faced lies about him being “born with a silver spoon” probably should be removed because they denigrate his mother, who worked multiple jobs to raise him. Of course, you are so deep in your red haze of hatred for me that you don’t care about truth, or who you are lying about.

            Or is it that you are just too stupid to understand there is any difference between making money and being born with it? I suppose that is possible.

          • Oh, Tim…anyone that looks up his bio can see that RC, and Me, are 100% correct with every bit of truth I gave you. My comment is 100% correct, and you know you are lying. Do you really have to go that far? You are not only uninformed but you go so far as to lie. I pray you are not a voter.

          • Do you actually not understand the difference between “rich” and “born rich”? No one is questioning that he is rich. No one is questioning that he got into a business with a Getty for a partner. That doesn’t retroactively make him “born rich.”

            Once again, you are wrong about your “silver spoon,” and too embedded in your red haze raving to admit your error…but anyone with a search engine can see it for themselves.

          • Gavin Newsom connected to the Getty family through his father, a “powerful politically connected” attorney who managed the J. Paul Getty fortune. He inherited his wealth, and through his connections with his fathers good friend Gordon Peter Getty, was able to start PlumJack Winery. The key word here is “inherited,” Tim.

          • From his father, who divorced his mother when he was like two. To say that he “grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth” was wrong Alexis, and no matter how many times you try to defend it you are going to fail.

            There are plenty of wealthy Democrats, including Newsom. That doesn’t change the fact that for the most part the wealthy who grow up pampered and privileged gravitate to the GOP. I know that conflicts with your cherished and myopic “both parties are the same” shtick, but it is still true.