By acting as the voters’ advocate and tending to every step in the electoral process, Debra has empowered more Californians to become active participants in our democracy.

• Debra is working tirelessly to increase voter registration and voter turnout across California, and expanded voter education with creative, cost-efficient programs in up to seven of the most common languages used by California citizens.  She established a multi-partisan working group to help her simplify California’s official voter registration card, making it easier than ever to register to vote.  A record 13.7 million California voters – more than 79% of those who were registered to vote – cast their ballots in the November 2008 statewide election.

• With an eye toward hooking young people on democracy and supporting educators with hands-on civic engagement projects, Debra coordinated two statewide student mock elections.  The mock elections gave teenagers first-hand experience with analyzing real issues and candidates and provided teachers with the toolkits they needed to organize activities and balloting.  At the program’s peak, more than 260,000 students from 644 schools cast mock ballots for president and state ballot measures.
  

• Debra is ensuring distance is no impediment to democratic participation for Californians serving in the military or living overseas.  These voters face unique challenges, which is why Debra is advocating for a change in the law to allow any overseas ballot that is postmarked by Election Day to be counted if it arrives at the county elections office within the next week.