welcome to beyond the headlines. we focus on people who live and work on the bay area. election day this year falls on tuesday, november 2nd. it is critical now more than ever to get your voice heard. today's show looks at the importance of vote being and how you can get registered to vote. according to the california secretary of state's office, in may this year, 23.4 million californians were eligible to vote but only 6.9 million were actually registered. that men's 27% were absent from the voting process. it's as easy as filling out a form and now paper and pen could be a thing of the past. santa clara county approved the use of touch screens instead. david louie shows us the way of the future. >> this could be the beginning of the end for this kind of voter registration drive, the kind that uses paper and pen.

in this era of smart phones, elaine davis recalls the last time she filled out a form that will way. >> probably my voter registration when i moved. >> here is the new way, the i-pad. santa clara county is the first to approve new technology developed by vera firm ma. >> the touch screen is more prevalent. one out of every two people in the country will have one by 2014. we think everybody will benefited and use this. >> cofounder jude barry says his registration system uses encryption to safeguard data including the voter signature. signatures are permitted under the state government code. they aren't mentioned in the state election code which may provide a loophole. >> for our voters to get the services they deserve. >> we're in favor of it. >> a recent study said oregon spent about $6 per person for

voter registration. >> the i-pad is to replace paper. why not use it in different ways like registering to vote. >> there are some voters that say they're not convinced it's safe. >> i'm more comfortable with paper and pen. putting social security is scary for me. >> they're registers voters in sometime for the november election. in san jose, david louie, "moneyscope." >> joining me in the studio to talk about key voter information is the law judge with the california public utilities commission and karen is also president of the league of women voters in san francisco. that's your job in your spare time. >> it's an amazing organization.

thank you for being here. >> thank you so much, cheryl, for having us. >> this is such an important thing. i'm really big on voting because i think that if you don't vote, you can't complain. >> why not get involved. >> well, i think as an american citizen, we all have the obligation to vote and to participate in our political processes. democracy is not a spectator sport. >> why do people say ya, ya, ya and then not get involved. >> me personally as an african american and as a woman, i'm very clear about how difficult the history is with voting. for our enfranchisements, for really participating and governments and all of our issues. we have to be able to vote.

and women and african americans have fought very hard in the united states to achieve the vote. >> and we've got a state election coming up. we've got a governor's race in contention. we've got a state that's got a budget deficit. there are so many ways for people to make a difference. >> there are so many things going on really in every election. and the november elections are very important every year. but so are the primaries and so are the small, local elections that occur. i think it's extremely important for everyone to get involved. if you don't vote, you don't have a voice. >> how -- you see the voterer registration. >> i brought a voter registration form. takes about five minutes to do it. and the last date to register is october 18th. >> so we have a little time. >> you have some time. you can request a voter

registration form from the department of elections. you can go online with the second of state and they will send you a completed form. we recommend you do that at least a month before the november 2nd election. >> to make sure. >> to make sure that you receive everything. >> now, what if you don't want to be a member of any particular party >> when you register to vote, and you fill out this form, you will be asked if you wish to join a political party. there are only six designated qualified political parties in california. the american independent party, which began as the party of george wallace, the segregationist. some people don't remember that or realize that now. the democratic party, the green party, the libertarian party, the peace and freedom party and the republican party. >> so if you don't want to be a member of any of those but you want to vote anyway.

>> if you do not wish to belong to a political party, you check the decline to state. >> decline to state. >> decline to state. that's extremely important. and there's a growing number of decline to states. decline to state is truly independent. >> you get to vote in only primaries. >> you do. and you can choose to vote in -- for the democratic candidates or the republican candidates depending upon the rules of the modified primary system. >> okay. >> so generally the republican party, as an example, they will vote amongst themselves should we open this up to decline to state. >> if we move,e have to do we h reregister. >> you need to reregister if you move, if you change your name or address you should be registered. >> karen, you talked about the history. i want to go into that a little

more but we have to take a break. when we come back we're going to talk about the league of women voters and the history and the exciting anniversary coming up. e with us. e with us. we'll be right back. winning is my favorite thing. but we lost today. ♪ no, we didn't. ♪ we're the kids in america ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ we're the kids in america ♪ oh, oh, oh layers of brownie and caramel, dipped in chocolate ready to eat sweet moments new from pillsbury. in the refrigerated section when i realized that along with all the gifts that i'd be getting mercury had better coverage, better service and and we saved hundreds of dollars by combining our home and auto insurance policies. and he got miss pookie.

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league of women voters in san francisco. >> it's extremely important to vote. obviously when the founding fathers created the united states and thomas jefferson penned the declaration of independence and we established the right to vote for certain property rights, men, the women did not get to vote in the united states until 1920. >> and i don't think people remember that. and we have some amazing pictures from that time that we wanna show people just to let them know how people had to fight for this. so talk a little bit about that. >> well, there were tremendous, there was a tremendous movement after 1865 when the freed african american slaves received the vote. but only the black men received

the vote. women had to fight from 1865 up until 1920. and there were marches, hunger strikes. women were arrested, placed in prison, force fed. there was some violence. >> it's hard to imagine, you know, some of us -- some people take this for granted. we've always had it. no, we haven't. >> no. but in california there was a referendum in 1911, and women got the right to vote in california in 1911. >> so we've got a big anniversary coming up? >> we do. we're celebrating the centennial of women suffrage in california next year in 2011. >> fantastic. >> we've already started doing some really great educational things. >> now, tell us for folks who don't know what do the league of women voters do? >> the league of women voters is a nonpartisan political organization. we encourage informed and active

participation in government. >> and including men, too. >> exactly. we have an initiative right now of registers young people, 17 and 18 year olds, to vote in the public high school in san francisco. >> that's fantastic. >> we're very excited about that. we do two things. we have education. we offer pros and cons for political and ballot measures and political issues. we do studies. we provide a lot of different services to promote participation, active participation in government. >> you have some forming coming up, too. >> we have the district 10 candidate forms for supervisors here in san francisco. we have a candidate conversation for unopposed candidates on september 30th. and that's for the public

defender. and the recorder. >> i remember moderating some of the debates here and it's changed a little and evolved. >> it has. candidates form, each candidate is asked the same question and they have the same amount of time to answer the question. it is not a debate. there is no count, you know, counterpoint going back and forth. >> right. >> they're really expressing what their plan is, what their program is. >> i think it's very fair for the ones i've seen. i really enjoy doing that. we're just about running out of time. advice for viewers for registration and candidates. >> register to vote, and vote early. you can go to city hall here in san francisco and vote. you can vote absentee ballots, request your absentee ballot at least a week before the election. if you forget your polling place because you lost your pamphlet, then you can go to any polling

place, including city hall. >> karen, thank you so much. thank you for what you're doing, too, i appreciate it. >> we do have to take a quick break but coming up we're going to meet a local mother working to unite parents for a voice in their children's education so stay with you guess.

[ female announcer ] back to school means back to busy mornings. that's why i got them pillsbury toaster strudel. warm flaky pastry with delicious sweet filling my kids will love. plus i get two boxtops for their school. toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. and these arthe ones you'll love on a tuesday. pillsbury crescent dogs, with just a few ingredients, you have an easy to make dinner. they're crescents r the other 364. try them tonight. welcome back to beyond the headlines. we've been talking about why vote something so critical with the government and community resources you want. our next guest representation an organization working towards k-12 public education reform. it's a new organization. they put together a public service announcement. >> california is the 8th largest

economy in the world. it ranks at the bottom in student spending. more than $10 billion can be cut from schools the last four years forcing teacher layoffs and program cuts. >> and we had a week. >> i lost my guidance counselor. >> our future is the future of california. >> very powerful. joining me in the studio is kay louie. she is the director of operations. >> educacy. >> what is it. >> it's a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that is dedicated to k-12 education reform. we believe that the parent voice has been missing at the policy-making table. and we're really focussed on connecting, educating, and

mobilizing parents so that we can really advocate for adequate educational funding and opportunities for all of our students. >> is there something that triggered all of this? >> yes. well, i have three children. i have a son who completed second grade about a year and a half ago, and at that time when he was going into third grade i heard class sizes were increasing and we were losing our p. e. teachers, librarians, our classrooms were only going to be cleaned once a week. i went to our board meeting with the intend of really trying to understand why this was happening only to learn that the -- that it was really beyond the control of our school board. >> everybody kind of throwing your hands up and you got tired of that. >> exactly. i wanted to do something and realized it was at the statewide level. so what has happened is i've joined forces with other parent leaders from throughout the district and we're trying to mobilize parents and really give them the ability to make local

change, short-term changes to really get us through the crisis but more importantly work on longer term statewide changes so we can help things for the future. >> kay, tell me about your latest effort. >> the cupertino team is actually part of this organization. one of our cofounders was one of the leads of that effort. it was an incredible testimony to the will power of parents and what they can do if they come together. you're right, they raised $2.2 million in a matter of eight weeks to save 107 teaching jobs. >> so how are you getting your parents to connect? i'm trying to figure out how does that work? >> it's working now at a really grassroots level. our focus is try to connect the silicon valley bay area. and we have outreach leaders that are reaching out to different districts. we've already connected to 40 different districts so far.

but next year we really wants to make a push to connect statewide. we're doing that via our website. we are connecting reaching out to groups. we talked to the california state pta. >> also targeting asian latinos. >> folking and a big opportunity around the registration drive and get out the vote to really encourage latino parents and asian parents to play more a part in the voting process because they are not represented at the same level that their population represents. >> and so it's important for them -- you're reaching out to them to get them to register to vote so they have a say. >> getting them to register to vote as well as voting because they may be registered but may not be turning out at the levels their population suggests. >> so that could make a huge difference, if everybody who registered went to the polls. >> absolutely. if we look at santa clara

county, there are key elections that win or lose by as little as 40,000 votes. >> wow! >> and in santa clara county, there are -- there's an opportunity to register roughly 375,000 to 400 though voters. >> that could swing an election. >> absolutely. there's an opportunity to get 300,000 already registered to actually vote. that's 700,000 people with respect only 40,000 can change the outcome of an election. >> and you have an event coming up in october? >> we do. we have an event coming up at the ends of october. and not only do we want to really encourage folks to vote but we want to educate them on the situation facing our state around education as well as paint a picture for what efforts are happening so the event that we have at the end of october we've invited key reform leaders to come share what their reform platforms are and really encourage parents to be part of

that reform movement so we can really make a change for our students and for our state. >> i hope that it's successful for you. >> thank you so much. >> congratulations on starting something so innovative. >> thank you. we hope so. >> thanks a lot. >> thank you. another breakwe k but when we come back we have much more for you. we have two students leading the effort to increase voter turnout among young people and their parents in just a moment. [ female announcer ] back to school means back to busy mornings. that's why i got them pillsbury toaster strudel. warm flaky pastry with delicious sweet filling my kids will love. plus i get two boxtops for their school. toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. and these arthe ones you'll love on a tuesday. pillsbury crescent dogs, with just a few ingredients, you have an easy to make dinner. they're crescents r the other 364. try them tonight.

you don't love me anymore do you billy? what? i didn't buy this cereal to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. so i can't have any? if you can deprive me of what can help lower my cholesterol... and live with yourself. right. mmm, i wry about your mother. cry herself to sleep every night over my arteries, but have yourself a bowl. good speech dad. [ whimper ] male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can lp lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. ♪ key lime pie, pineapple upside down cake.

no, i've actually lost weight... [ female announcer ] over 30 delicious flavors at around 100 calories each. [ wife ] babe... i gotta go. [ female announcer ] yoplait, it is so good. r every pink lid you send in, yoplait will donate 10 cents to susan g. komen for the cure. with your help, we've donated $25 million over 12 years. so let's continue to make a difference one lid at a time. welcome back to beyond the headlines. i'm cheryl jennings. today we're talking about the critical importance of voting and how you can get registered. very easy according to the nonpartisan public policy institute of california. about a third of california's adult population is between the ages of 18 and 34. but only 20% of likely voters fall in this age group. the share of voters age 55 and older, 39%. much higher. and the share of state residents

in this age group, 29%. our next guests want to bump up the number of young voters. amy wong and amanda schmidt are seniors at silver creek high school in san jose. amy is the associated senior body president and amanda is vice president. thank you for taking leadership roles. you're seniors, been at the school for a while. amy, tell me about some of the changes you've seen there. >> one of the biggest that has hit the whole student population is our counselors. our freshman year we had five to six counselors and now we're down to two. >> and that's just not enough? >> we have a population of about 2400 students. >> holy cow! >> and the two counselors, that's a lot of kids. >> you're not going to get any kind of guidance there really. >> very difficult to go see them because everyone else wants help, too. >> of course. amanda, how about you. tell me about your situation.

>> one of the big things that was impacted is that one-third of our student activities were cut, including junior prom, which is a big one. so that affects student morale negatively. >> so you can't have a junior prom because there's not enough people? >> no. >> that's sad. that's terrible. so how about the program called healthy start. tell me about that. >> healthy start is a program at our school where students can go if they need help, whether it's solving problems or problems at school. just something that is affecting their working at school that they can't pay attention. and if you can't pay attention in class, you're not going to learn anything. so they can go there to get help. and teachers have referred students there. students have referred other students and it's been a very supportive program in the past. but instead of being open all day like it usually is, this year it's only available for one period. >> oh, boy. amanda, the library's been

affected as well? >> definitely. last year and in the past years we've had a good bit of access to our library which is a great resource for us. but this year at this point we have no access to our school library as we do not -- we no longer have a library tech. so it's unfortunate that's a wasted resource. >> it's sad that the story you're telling are throughout the bay area. let's start with you. tell me about this. >> we originally heard about edacayy through tsa. one reached out to us and both of us found it was very interesting and we decided to join up with them and help them out with their campaigns to vote for my future. and it is -- we're trying to get people to vote because every

vote counts. >> amanda, you were the founding president at your school. >> at the club at the school, yes. i was hoping to gain more student support for it, the initiative. it's really important to just get the students educated about what's going on. they already know how it's affecting them personally. >> right. >> so they have a personal connection and motivates them to do something, to talk to their parents, to register to vote. so i think it motivates the students to stand up for themselves. >> yes. and when you talk to kids and tell them to register to vote, what do they say? >> a lot of people don't know where to register to vote. so we're actually holding a voter registration drive. >> the date of that is? >> october 7th. >> and the last day to register, amanda? >> october 18th. >> we have -- i really congratulate on your hard work.

what is your final message to young people. get out there and register to vote, right? >> amanda, how about you? >> definitely get involved in educacy program. a great way to have a greater voice in the legislation process. >> good luck to both of you. i hope you register lots of young people. unfortunately we have run out of time. we could talk about this for hours. that is it for this edition of beyond the headlineses. if you're looking for community resources, dial 211 for help. today's show is on our website on the community page. i'm cheryl jennings. have a great week. thanks for joining us. bye-bye! fiber one chewy bar. how'd you do that?

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