Michael Swayze's Community Resources

Category: Advocacy

  • Know Your Rights: Protected at the Polls

    There has been some fear that “outsiders” would be coming to our polling places, causing voter concern about being harassed or intimidated. The following piece from the ACLU should relieve your anxiety. (Mail voting is a way to avoid it, too.)

    Protected at the Polls

    Voter intimidation is a federal crime. Yet harassment at the polls continues to threaten our right to vote. Here’s what you need to know to show up prepared – for yourself and for your neighbors.

    • No one can aggressively question you about your citizenship, criminal record, or qualifications to vote.
    • It’s illegal to display misleading signs about voter fraud or to spread false information about voter requirements.
    • It’s against the law for someone to falsely claim that they are an election official.
    • If you make a mistake on your ballot, you may ask for a new one.
    • In many states, you can give a sworn statement to the poll worker that you are qualified to vote and then cast your ballot.
    • You can report intimidation to the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE and to your local election officials on Election Day.

    Source: ACLU Magazine, Fall 2026 edition. By Jay A. Fernandez.

    Learn more about your voting rights at aclu.org/vote.

    For a local perspective, read the story by Carmen Russell-Sluchansky, WHYY News reporter, titled, Federal election monitors are coming to polling places in Philly and other Pa. counties. Here’s what you need to know.

    A personal note, as a voter engagement activist. If you are in a situation where you feel physically threatened, call 9-1-1 immediately. If you believe there are irregularities, call the District Attorney’s Office Election Task Force hotline at 215-686-9641. If you are being intimidated politically, stand your ground, record the behavior on your phone, and call the non-partisan Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE, 866-687-8683.

    Vote by November 3.

  • Guide to PA Mail Ballot Application

    Last month, the beginning of February actually, many voters in Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania received an official Pennsylvania Application for Mail-in Ballot application form. It is sent to everyone who is on the Annual Mail Ballot List from the previous year. To receive a mail-in or absentee ballot each year you must complete the application form.

    A simple way to vote by mail is to apply online, rather than completing then mailing an application form to the Board of Elections. You save time, too. It is available here.

    You may request a ballot application at any Philadelphia Satellite Election Office (SEO). They are open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. Find all SEO locations here. The SEO for NW Philadelphia is located at 5301 Chew Avenue.

    Tips to Completing the Application

    • Have your PA driver’s license or PennDOT ID card ready
    • Include your email address and phone number, in case you must be contacted
    • Check YES to receiving the application each year
    • Record the application # that is provided upon completion
    • Print the confirmation page

    How do I apply online to vote by mail? Complete the vote by mail application.

    You can check to see if you have an approved mail ballot request.
    This web page provides you with your voting status, party affiliation, polling location, and ward and division.

    Can you check the status of your ballot application? You can track the status of your ballot online, here.

    If you provide your email address you will receive an email notification when your returned application is received and ballot returned. The ballot tracker can also provide information when the ballot itself is mailed to you.

    Remember, even if you received mail ballots last year, you must submit a new request every year.

    The websites and links mentioned in this article can be found together – all in one place – on the Philly Voter Engagement Linktree. For any questions you may have, call the Philadelphia Board of Elections at 215-686-8683.

  • Consumer Watchdog Agency Endangered

    An article appeared in yesterday’s New York Times print edition with details on how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created in 2011 by Congress in the aftermath of the housing crisis of the Great Recession, is being systematically attacked and dismantled. (For the NYT article by Stacy Cowley, click here.)

    A friend and subscriber send me a note to “join in taking personal action in support of reversing the potential elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” Yes, Jim D., consider it done. Below is more background information and my plan on how to combat the illegal and unconstitutional actions of Donald Trump and his team.

    In the past few days, the CFPB Director was fired, Elon Musk posted “CFPB RIP”, bureau employees were locked out of their offices, and the Project 2025 author and new Office of Management and Budget head, Russell Vought, gave unvetted DOGE employees access to CFPB data systems containing highly sensitive consumer and business information.

    The National Consumer Law Center, a leading consumer advocacy group, supplies the following:

    Financial companies have shown time and time again that they cannot police themselves. The Administration is trying to shut down an agency created by Congress to fix problems that caused over eight million people to lose their jobs and almost four million families to lose their homes during the Great Recession. The CFPB saves homes, stops fraud that ruins lives, and enforces key laws, winning $21 billion in relief for over 200 million people harmed by credit bureaus, big banks, debt collectors and predatory lenders.

    The illegal actions to shut down the CFPB halt work to safeguard people’s private information, protect bank customers when hackers raid their accounts, and help families save their homes when they’re unfairly rushed to foreclosure. The CFPB now appears poised to roll over and play dead in pending lawsuits by big banks and credit bureaus, letting them overturn new rules returning $5 billion in excessive overdraft fees to struggling families and removing medical debt from credit reports.” NCLC has joined with Democracy Forward to move to intervene in the overdraft fee litigation, and we are working to preserve the medical debt rule.

    The plan I propose includes the following:

    • Attend rallies. There is strength in numbers and you will feel part of a community.
    • Phone and email your elected officials, now. There is a list on this website of New Jersey and Pennsylvania Senators and Representative, here. For Members of Congress in the other 48 states visit https://www.congress.gov/members.
    • Contribute to organizations that support our rights and freedoms. My featured organization today is the National Consumer Law Project, a group I’ve been associated with for twenty-five years.
    • Join national, state, and particularly local political groups. My current favorites are: Indivisible, Indivisible Philadelphia, Mt. Airy Democrats, Turn PA Blue, and Vote the Ridge to name just a few.
    • Vote every election, twice a year.
    • Do something.