Arizona State University (ASU) hosted a forum Sunday alongside left-wing groups to mobilize young voters in both high school and college for the upcoming presidential election.
ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication held the “New Generation Voter Forum,” specifically targeting Gen Z and Millennial voters (those born between 1997 and 2012, and between 1981 and 1996). Organizers billed the forum as a nonpartisan event offered to represent the facts and prepare new young voters for November.
Key organizers of the event were the Tempe Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority alongside the historically black sorority’s ASU chapter, Iota Kappa.
Group participants within the forum included the Greater Phoenix Urban League of Young Professionals, League of Women Voters of Arizona, Black Student Union (BSU) DPC, and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) at ASU.
These groups have long been advocates for left-wing causes and movements, namely Black Lives Matter.
At one table to register the young voters in attendance, a woman representing the League of Women Voters of Arizona wore a “Vote” shirt depicting the black fist to represent BLM, a uterus to represent abortion rights, and the pride flag to represent gender and gay ideologies. On the table were pamphlets on different ballot issues, including Ranked-Choice Voting.
Kara Pelletier, at-large board member for League of Women Voters of Arizona and president-elect of the Metro Phoenix Board, toldCronkite News it was “critical” to get more of the youth registered to vote. Pelletier was formerly the Arizona chapter leader for the prominent national gun control group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
“It’s critical that our youth get engaged and remain engaged. They’re actually a larger voting bloc than the next-largest voting bloc, which is boomers,” said Kara Pelletier of the League of Women Voters of Arizona. “That particular age group, 18 to 29, really is a huge section of the electorate, and they could really have a lot of influence and say in what goes on in our country, our politicians, what our budgets are focused on, who’s elected.”
Others also offered voter registration to the young participants: ASU through TurboVote, and Vote Everywhere. Both TurboVote and Vote Everywhere are programs of left-leaning organizations: Democracy Works and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, respectively.
The panel discussion centered around misinformation and disinformation in the media, such as deepfakes produced by artificial intelligence.
Featured panelists discussing media literacy and democracy included ASU professors Retha Hill and Pauline Arrillaga. Both professors have been vocal in their support of left-wing causes and Democrats, and critical of right-wing causes and Republicans including former President Donald Trump.
New ASU Art Museum exhibit shows protest art left where police killed George Floyd https://t.co/zyzUXNWJIV
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The forum also included roundtable discussions on the importance of voting, handling double residencies when voting, getting involved in elections as international or out-of-state students, understanding nonpartisan races, running for office, and understanding the issues on the ballot.
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Arizona State University (ASU) issued a feature story this week praising the accomplishments of a student operative from a Democratic dark money organization.
The ASU feature highlighted Anusha Natarajan, a Barrett Honors College student and council member, as one of their notable 2023 spring graduates. The university mainly focused on Natarajan’s ability to balance four majors, two minors, three certificates, and at least nine extracurriculars.
Those extracurriculars included her board membership with Campus Vote Project (CVP); volunteering for Girl Up, an equity initiative for women; reporting for ASU’s student newspaper, State Press; researching as a fellow for the Center on the Future of War; representing students on the Civic Engagement Coalition; working with Changemaker Central; serving as editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Digital Humanities Journal, where students publish their research.
Natarajan said she plans to become involved in combating “election misinformation” after graduation by enrolling in a data science program at Columbia University or Vanderbilt University.
The ASU feature didn’t delve into Natarajan’s role as a student operative with CVP, a progressive elections reform activist project. CVP traces back to the Arabella Advisors’ New Venture Fund (NVF), which launched the Fair Elections Center (formerly the Fair Elections Legal Network), which then launched Campus Vote Project (CVP).
NVF has also launched a scholarship fund for illegal immigrants. Arabella Advisors is one of the most powerful and well-organized leftist dark money organizations in the country.
Last year, Gov. Katie Hobbs (while secretary of state) named Natarajan as her pick for the John Lewis Youth Leadership Award.
CVP advocates for election reforms such as accepting student IDs as a valid form of voter ID, abolishing voter ID for online registration, allowing same-day voter registration, removing proof of campus residency, granting voting rights to all individuals regardless of past convictions or incarceration status, establishing universal mail-in voting, expanding early voting, and increasing drop box locations. Arizona doesn’t accept student ID as a valid form of voter ID.
According to an archived version of their website from 2019, CVP partnered with American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) American Democracy Project, American Association of University Women (AAUW), Andrew Goodman Foundation, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) Black Youth Vote, Campus Compact, Campus Elections Engagement Project, Circle, Democracy Works, Education Votes, Election Protection, Feminist Majority Foundation, NASPA, Generation Progress, HACU, iCitizen, Inspire US, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, League of United Latin American Citizens, National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), National Campus Leadership Council (NCLC), Young Invincibles, United States Student Association, Rock the Vote, Roosevelt Institute, The Democracy Commitment, and Bridge Alliance.
CVP no longer lists its partner organizations on its website. Most recently, they announced MTV as a partner.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Last month, Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs announced this year’s John Lewis Youth Leadership Award winner: a leader of a project launched by Democratic money forces.
The winner, Arizona State University (ASU) student Anusha Natarajan, is the vice chair of Campus Vote Project (CVP): an initiative by the Fair Elections Center (formerly the Fair Elections Legal Network), a left-wing activist nonprofit launched by New Venture Fund, a subsidiary nonprofit to the Democratic money behemoth Arabella Advisors.
The Fair Elections Center launched CVP in 2012. According to the available tax return data, from 2017 to 2019, Fair Elections Center gave CVP over $1.1 million. Their 2020 and 2021 funding reports aren’t available yet.
Hey Arizonians! Early voting for the November 8th General Election starts on 10/12 and ends on 11/8.
Fair Elections Center has received millions collectively, including from various principal bankrollers of the national Democratic money network such as the Democracy Fund, the Open Society Foundations (formerly the Open Society Institute), and Tides Foundation.
CVP advocates for election reforms such as accepting student IDs as a valid form of voter ID, abolishing voter ID for online registration, allowing same-day voter registration, removing proof of campus residency, granting voting rights to all individuals regardless of past convictions or incarceration status, establishing universal mail-in voting, expanding early voting, and increasing drop box locations. Arizona doesn’t accept student ID as a valid form of voter ID.
The CVP state coordinator for Arizona, Justa Lopez, is an ASU graduate seeking a master’s degree in public administration. Lopez formerly worked with Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ-03), League of Arizona Cities and Towns, and Phoenix City Councilwoman Yassamin Ansari.
Welcoming our new team member: Justa Lopez- our Arizona State Coordinator! ☀️🌵
According to an archived version of their website from 2019, CVP partnered with American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) American Democracy Project, American Association of University Women (AAUW), Andrew Goodman Foundation, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) Black Youth Vote, Campus Compact, Campus Elections Engagement Project, Circle, Democracy Works, Education Votes, Election Protection, Feminist Majority Foundation, NASPA, Generation Progress, HACU, iCitizen, Inspire US, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, League of United Latin American Citizens, National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), National Campus Leadership Council (NCLC), Young Invincibles, United States Student Association, Rock the Vote, Roosevelt Institute, The Democracy Commitment, and Bridge Alliance.
CVP no longer lists its partner organizations on its website. Most recently, they announced MTV as a partner.
The two runners-up for this year’s John Lewis Youth Leadership Award were Natalie Collings, Mohave County voter registration supervisor, and Greyson Taylor, a Grand Canyon University (GCU) graduate student as well as co-founder and director of African American Reconstruction, dedicated to increasing affirmative action-style funding and hiring.
Taylor was also nominated last year, one of 14 nominees named in the first year of the John Lewis Youth Leadership Award. Last year’s winner was Ayesha Ahsan: an Andrew Goodman Foundation ambassador like Natarajan as well as Natarajan’s successor for ASU’s Changemaker Central civic engagement chair. Ahsan, also a former ACLU of Arizona and Alliance for Justice intern, was awarded ASU’s Barrett Honors Thesis last year for declaring that policing doesn’t reduce crime, as part of a defense for defunding police.
“Through this, I found no statistical significance to suggest that police spending reduces crime rates, which aligns with the argument that abolitionists make,” stated Ahsan. “Additionally, I found that public expenditures towards workforce training, housing and human services have much more impact in reducing crime rates than policing.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
