Lori Thiel and Jennifer Avina join host T.J. O’Hara on Deconstructed to discuss how the League of Women Voters is trying to make a non-partisan difference in the 2020 elections.

Ms. Thiel is president of the League of Women Voters of San Diego. Ms. Avina is an attorney and a member of the League, who currently coordinates the San Diego chapter’s Youth Internship program and the "101 Days of Action" campaign that provides daily activities related to the upcoming election.

Some San Diegans are asking why there aren’t Republican candidates in the citywide campaigns for city attorney, mayor, and City Council. The quick answer is that local elections have always been nonpartisan, meaning that the top two vote getters advance to November regardless of party affiliation. In fact, decades ago, these races were truly nonpartisan. Political parties had little or no role.

This is an independent commentary. Have your own opinion? Write it! Email it to hoa@ivn.us

On the sidewalks throughout San Diego, you may have noticed that booths have set up shop and started selling goods. Sometimes it takes the form of t-shirts. Often it’s a sizzling grill. Maybe you will see crystals or someone’s art. But there is no mistaking that commerce now exists where once only public use was allowed. 

Disclaimer: Chad Peace is an attorney for the Independent Voter Project and represents 6 of the individual plaintiffs in this case.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - If we said that citizens have religious freedom, as long as they joined a state-sanctioned church, that argument would roundly be dismissed as absurd. But when it comes to the right to vote in California’s presidential primary, that is exactly the argument of the state of California.

This is Part One of a two-part series on racism and the education system. Part Two will be published on Monday, Sept. 28.

The education system is “particularly effective at reproducing racial inequality” and is one of the best examples of structural racism in our society, said author Robin DiAngelo, in a recent talk presented by San Diego’s National Conflict Resolution Center