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UC Merced's Blum Center Helping Californians Stay Engaged

September 24, 2014

On National Voter Registration Day, a new version of the California Report Card launched to engage the 30 percent of Californians who speak Spanish at home.

All content in this civic-engagement tool is now available in both English and Spanish, with rapid bilingual translation of textual input and a streamlined mobile interface, and the Spanish translation feature in Version 2.0 will be launched in collaboration with the Blum Center at the University of California, Merced.

Version 2.0 provides links to online voter registration and election resources.

Californians are using this new mobile technology to advise state leaders on timely issues. Since version 1.0 launched in February, more than 10,000 people from all 58 counties in California have assigned more than 30,000 grades to the state and suggested issues to include in the next report card. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who developed the platform in collaboration with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) Data and Democracy Initiative at UC Berkeley, is closely watching this direct citizen feedback.

The project explores how technology can engage the public by streamlining and structuring communication with elected officials.

The California Report Card is a new way for elected officials, including myself, to keep our ear to the ground,” Newsom said. “It makes it easy for Californians to assign grades and suggest pressing issues that merit our attention. So far, participants have conveyed that they approve of the Affordable Care Act rollout, but are very concerned about the future of California schools and universities.

“The platform has revealed statewide support for more attention to disaster preparedness, which has become one of my top priorities. Version 2.0 of the California Report Card is designed to broaden access and engage California's Spanish-speaking population. My office looks forward to receiving this important feedback.”