< Previous The North Star Convention was established by Black leaders and concerned citizens from across the state of Pennsylvania who have an interest in improving the quality of life for Black citizens, children, and families in our state. The organizers of this event wanted to create an opportunity for Black people to come together to discuss and address issues impacting the Black community and determine solutions for how we solve the systemic problems we face every day. The planning committee, organized by State Senator Anthony H. Williams, whose vision it was to create such an event, is housed under the nonprofit organization of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus Foundation and represents a cross section of Black community leaders, elected officials, business leaders, union leaders, and residents who reside in different counties throughout Pennsylvania (PA). Over the course of six weeks which began on September 8, 2020, the Convention hosted forums focusing on topics such as gun violence and how we get guns off of our streets and make our neighborhoods safer; police, criminal justice, and judicial reform and creating a more equitable and just system. There was another forum on economic justice addressing issues such as reparations, wealth building, poverty, and housing, as well as a forum on education focusing on issues like the future of public education, career readiness, HBCU’s, and equity. The last two forums scheduled will be on the topic of Black women and girls on September 22nd at 4:00 PM ET and will focus on pay equity, women in office, and infant mortality, and September 29th on the topic of health and the environment will include issues like COVID-19 testing, access to healthcare and health disparities, mental health, and the environment examining our neighborhoods and access to clean air and water. All of the forums have invited guest speakers who are advocates, practitioners, experts, or academia who have been asked to outline the challenges our community faces based on the topic being discussed, and also provide recommendations to solving the problems raised. Thus far, there have been several hundred guests who have registered to attend the forums and we anticipate over one thousand participants for the 2-day Convention. The 2-day Convention begins on Friday, October 9th from 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET and concludes on Saturday, October 10th from 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET. During this 2-day event there will be keynote speakers including Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin and founder of the Trayvon Martin Foundation, Dr. Cornel West, Professor of Public Philosophy, a distinguished and best-selling author, and civil rights activist. They 2-day event will also have musical entertainment, and ratify all recommendations discussed, forming the Black agenda for PA. This collective agenda organized and determined by Black people will be presented to the Presidential nominees which we will ask each candidate to adopt and implement if elected to office. This event is a nonpartisan activity. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic and to ensure everyone’s safety, the entire convention is being held virtually and is totally FREE. The only requirement for participation is to register at www.northstarconvention.com. The planning committee has invited all Black founded and led organizations, committees, and groups to attend this upcoming Convention and to share this information with their membership and networks to encourage attendance and participation. YOUR VOICE MATTERS and we cannot be silent on systemic issues that negatively impact our community. Now more than ever, we as a Black community must come together to demand changes within our neighborhoods, our counties, and our state. Our voice is stronger and more powerful when we are unified which is why we need everyone to participate and give input into what we should be doing and demanding to address the issues plaguing our communities. For more information and to register for the Convention, please visit: northstarconvention.com. Dawn Chavous is a mother, advocate, founder and CEO of Chavous Consulting, a management consulting firm based in Philadelphia, PA. She is celebrating 10 years in business providing services in several counties throughout PA including Erie, Allegheny, Philadelphia, Delaware, and Montgomery. Chavous’ firm is the event producer for the North Star Convention. By Dawn Chavous DEVELOPING A BLACK AGENDA FOR PENNSYLVANIA “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” ~Frederick Douglass WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 9BECAUSE EXPERIENCE MATTERS! · Forensic and Internal Auditor · Former Special Investigator Pennsylvania Inspector General‘s Office · Retired Special Agent Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General · Current Dauphin County Controller · 8 National Awards for Financial Reporting as Dauphin County Controller 10 | TALK MAGAZINE • SPECIAL ELECTION ISSUE 2020WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 11 CURRENT POSITION: • Dauphin County Controller, first Elected November 2015, first and only African American to be elected as a Row Officer in the history of Dauphin County, Re-elected November 2019 with no opposition. Achievements as Dauphin County Controller: • Created Dauphin County’s first Audit Division. • Recovered and saved Dauphin County taxpayer’s over $1 million since taking office in January 2016. • Changed how Dauphin County reports it finances from an Independent Audit to a more detailed and transparent Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). • Started Dauphin County Controller’s Financial Literacy Initiative with Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (HU). • Created the first internship program within the Controller’s Office • Prepared Dauphin County’s first ever Annual Retirement Fund Report • Lead the efforts make it mandatory for investment managers to disclose all management and investment fees. Eight National Awards for Government Financial Reporting Professional Awards as Dauphin County Controller • 2019, 2020 – Received Dauphin County’s first two “Award for Excellence In Government Finance” from the Government Finance Officers Association. • 2017 – Received Dauphin County’s first “Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting” from the Government Finance Officers Association for our CAFR for fiscal year 2016. Received subsequent awards for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Fiscal year 2019 is under review. • 2017 – Received Dauphin County’s first “Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting” from the Government Finance Officers Association for our Popular Annual Financial Report for fiscal year 2016. Received subsequent awards for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Fiscal year 2019 is under review. PAST PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND OVER +25 YEARS OF AUDITING EXPERIENCE: • Retired Special Agent - Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Office of Attorney General • Former Special Investigator - Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Office of Inspector General • Former Internal Auditor, ISO 9001:2005 Certified Quality Manager, and Fraud Investigator for University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health Plan and various federal contractors EDUCATION: • Master of Science, Project Management, HU, Harrisburg, PA, • Bachelor of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA • Associates of Arts, Para Legal Studies, Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), Harrisburg, PA, • Susquehanna Township High School, Harrisburg, PA CURRENT COMMUNITY SERVICE: • Former Chair, Harrisburg Area Community College Foundation Board of Directors • Co-Chair, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology Pennsylvania, Financial Literacy Education Conference • Board Member, Chris “Handles’ Franklin (Harlem Globetrotters) Foundation Board • State YMCA of Pennsylvania Board of Directors • Life Member Greater Harrisburg Area National Association for the Advancement of Colored People • Member, Pennsylvania State Fraternal Order of Police and Greater Harrisburg FOP Criminal Investigators Lodge #78 AWARDS FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE: • Law Enforcement Officer of the Year, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Central PA Chapter, November 1991 • Honored by Harrisburg Camp Curtain Branch YMCA Black Achievers Program, 1999 • HACC Outstanding Alumni Award, 2003 • HACC Distinguished Alumni Award, 2005 • Named to the HACC Circle of Distinction, 2005 • Perseverance Award presented by the Pennsylvania Diversity Coalition, January 2016 • HU, Alumni Spotlight Award, March 2019 • “Trailblazer Award” to be awarded on October 24, 2020 from Bro2Go Program Republican Candidate Pennsylvania Auditor Gen eral Timothy L. De Foor12 | TALK MAGAZINE • SPECIAL ELECTION ISSUE 2020 WHAT IS THE PROCESS? The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. HOW MANY ELECTORS ARE THERE? HOW ARE THEY DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE STATES? The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators. The District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and treated like a State for purposes of the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution. For this reason, in the following discussion, the word “State” also refers to the District of Columbia and “Governor” to the Mayor of the District of Columbia. HOW ARE MY ELECTORS CHOSEN? WHAT ARE THEIR QUALIFICATIONS? HOW DO THEY DECIDE WHO TO VOTE FOR? Each candidate running for President in your State has his or her own group of electors (known as a slate). The slates are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party in your State, but State laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE GENERAL ELECTION? WHY SHOULD I VOTE? The general election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. When you vote for a Presidential candidate you are actually voting for your candidate's preferred electors. Most States have a “winner- take-all” system that awards all electors to the Presidential candidate who wins the State's popular vote. However, Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation.” WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE GENERAL ELECTION? After the general election, your Governor prepares a Certificate of Ascertainment listing the names of all the individuals on the slates for each candidate. The Certificate of Ascertainment also lists the number of votes each individual received and shows which individuals were appointed as your State's electors. Your State’s Certificate of Ascertainment is sent to NARA as part of the official records of the Presidential election. The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the general election. The electors meet in their respective States, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. Your State’s electors’ votes are recorded on a Certificate of Vote, which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. Your State’s Certificate of Vote is sent to Congress, where the votes are counted, and NARA, as part of the official records of the Presidential election. Each State’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House Chamber to conduct the official count of electoral votes. The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States. The President-elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the general election. Proud to support Talk Magazine Paid for by Conor Lamb For Congress the Electoral College? The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The Founding Fathers established it in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. What is She left her native country of Bangladesh when she was 21 years-old after seeing up close the country’s violent war for liberation. Ahmad recalled witnessing the worst of politics in that nation in South Asia – the greed and corruption that spawned violence and despair. “I understand what it means to be silenced and marginalized, to subdue a population, to break our will, to break our spirit,” Ahmad passionately said to Talk Magazine. She made Pennsylvania home when she came to the U.S. and she has thrived in the Keystone State. Ahmad would earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, succeeded as a molecular biologist and a responsible small business owner. She has served as Deputy Mayor for Public Engagement under Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, overseeing the Commission for Women, the Office of Black Male Engagement, and the Youth Commission and worked closely with the office of LGBT Affairs. Ahmad has also served on President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and on Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s Commission on Asian American Affairs. “What makes me the best auditor general to serve you is the lived experience I bring to the table. One is a scientist who understands how to use data to make the best public policy. Having served as deputy mayor and worked with a four billion dollar budget looking for efficiencies. Because I was Deputy Mayor for Public Engagement I really had to go into all different spaces,” Ahmad said. She answered two provocative questions: How do you drive your own destiny and what role does government play in that? “We have the tools and we have access to this power the information that we generate – whatever we do as a government servant. We could really make a huge difference if we empower people with information so that they could not only advocate for themselves but drive their own destiny,” Ahmad maintained. If elected she promised that her first order of business would be “to make sure we have a robust public engagement with all 67 counties (in Pennsylvania) particularly those who have been left out who happen to be Black and Brown folks.” Ahmad’s campaign mantra is inclusiveness as is evidenced by her social media message, #leavenoonebehind a nod to her belief that an effective government is supposed to be for everyone. “My job is to see that the tax dollars that all of you pay to the state of Pennsylvania is used properly with integrity so there is no malfeasance,” she stressed. She is very concerned about an issue that impacts people of color, particularly Black women, the issue of maternal mortality – that is a pregnancy-related death. “All women are dying more in this country than they used to 25 years ago. Black women are dying three times more than White women. When we look at the data around us to why this is happening there is no correlation as to how much money you have, education you have, what your socioeconomic condition is, it has to do with racism,” Ahmad, president of the Philadelphia National Organization for Women (NOW), said. So how could racism be to blame? She explains, “Black women are dying because medical institutions, health institutions are not listening to them. Particularly at childbirth if you don’t listen to them that can have serious consequences.” She cited the widely reported health scare Serena Williams faced after having a C-section and her doctor at first ignored her plea to deal with what could have been a life ending blood clot. Ahmad makes no secret about what she plans do if she becomes auditor general. She wants to be the state’s fiscal watchdog. “With accountability we can see how equitably those dollars have been spent. At the end of the day the budget is a moral document. What services are given and where they are going the use of your tax dollars. So, when I’m looking at where the needs are and how well the dollars are going there, those are the assessments I can make with my audits. The auditor general is the fiscal watchdog of your tax dollars and gets to audit all state monies that go out as well as federal dollars that flow through the state,” Ahmad explained. Nina knows dedication, education, and insight can be a light to those left-behind or struggling. Community is hard-won. It can gather speed and impact. Nina fights for others because others fought for her. Her work now is just-returns. A woman, a scientist, a dynamic policy-maker, making a difference. Nina and her husband Ahsan have lived in Philadelphia for over 30 years. They have two daughters, Joya and Priya. by Tené Croom Interview with Nina Ahmad Nina Ahmad, the Democratic Nominee for Pennsylvania Auditor General, is working to become the first woman of color to serve as a state-wide executive in the Commonwealth’s 233-year history. I understand what it means to be silenced and marginalized, to subdue a population, to break our will, to break our spirit WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 1516 | TALK MAGAZINE • SPECIAL ELECTION ISSUE 2020 As the nation reckons with its complicated racial history, issues that impact communities of color are taking center stage in the platforms of each major political party. With less than three months until the election, an eff ective pitch during the conventions was crucial as nonwhite voters make up about one-third of the 2020 electorate, according to Pew Research. ABC News interviewed political experts, strategists, activists, campaign officials, and party leaders to identify a few of the issues that could prove important as communities of color cast their ballots in November and how each campaign is expected to address them during the conventions. Th e Democratic Party formally presented its historic ticket in former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and first Asian American woman running mate for a major party, at the convention. But that won't be enough. "You don't want to have any false modesty about a Black woman being on the ticket, but it takes more than just that to motivate Black women to vote," Harris acknowledged Friday in an interview with Th e 19th, a nonprofit news organization focused on the intersection of gender and politics. Th e Democratic Party's 2020 platform seeks to address issues of systemic racism head-on. "Democrats will root out structural and systemic racism in our economy and our society, and reform our criminal justice system from top to bottom, because we believe Black lives matter," the Democratic National Committee's platform reads. Th e DNC platform calls for a national commission to study the eff ects of racially discriminatory practices and policies within the area of criminal justice. Biden's plan calls for alternatives to detention and investment in communities impacted by mass incarceration. It also calls for the elimination of mandatory minimum sentencing and the expungement of convictions for marijuana use. Th e issue disproportionately aff ects Blacks, who are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites despite equal usage, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Despite Biden's perch as a moderate, Brandon Gassaway, national press secretary for the DNC, told ABC News that if elected, the former vice president will have "the most progressive administration in the history of our party." "With the things that we're talking about, especially when you get to criminal justice reform, from the front end of the system to the back end, when you talk about things like sentencing and reentry, this is the most progressive platform we've ever had as a party," Gassaway said, pointing to Biden's comprehensive criminal justice plan, which calls for investing $300 million in community policing. "I think you'll see over the week of conventions and throughout the rest of the [election season] that this is where the Democratic Party is and where I think the country needs to start moving," Gassaway added. Th ough President Donald Trump has polled abysmally with people of color, with support at just 8% among registered Black voters and 34% among Latino voters in the latest Fox News Poll, his administration can point to victories related to justice reform, including his signing of the First Step Act, and his recent executive order on safe policing, which encourages law enforcement to adopt stricter standards on the use of force. However, experts say the president's racially divisive comments, like referring to Mexicans crossing the southern border as "criminals, drug dealers, rapists" or calling the Black Lives Matter mural outside of Trump Tower a "symbol of hate," will be an obstacle for the RNC regardless of the racial issues addressed in its platform. "Th e last couple of months before the election is unfortunately very reminiscent of George Wallace, and he is doubling down on white supremacy," said Nadia Brown, a political science professor at Purdue University, referencing the staunch segregationist's 1968 run for the presidency. Angela Ocampo, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, argued that while there have been "symbolic gestures" made to reach out to the Latino community by the GOP, "everything in many ways becomes undermined by the actions of the president and his continued vitriolic rhetoric against the Latino community." However, Andres Malave, a Latino-American Republican strategist, says the president's economic record -- as well as measures like the Hispanic Prosperity Initiative that seeks to improve education and economic opportunities for Latinos -- will ultimately strengthen his outreach with Hispanic voters. "He's clearly concerned with making sure that everybody in this country has a job and has a fair shake and [is] achieving their version of the American dream," Malave said. "Th ose are results that people are going to take into consideration when they go into the voting booth." POLICE REFORM AND PUBLIC SAFETY FRONT AND CENTER Experts and community activists point to George Floyd's death and the protests that followed as catalysts for conversations about systemic racism and police reform. Th e movement, propelled by Black Lives Matter organizers, has made demands to "defund the police," or move funds from law enforcement agencies to social programs as a means to bolster change. "People are just fed up," said LaTosha Brown, co-founder for Black Voters Matter Fund, an organization that seeks to build Black political power through investments in local grassroots organizing, voter registration, and civic engagement. "Th e Black community is fed up with the state-sanctioned violence, the police brutality, and violence against the community. Th e folks that we're talking to, they are looking for a radical transformation of how policing takes place in this country, and they want to see changes in the criminal justice system, which has exploited and devastated our community," LaTosha Brown said. Recent calls for systemic reforms are not only widely supported by Black Americans, but also white and Latino Americans. Sixty-three percent of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll. Sixty-nine percent of white Americans and 62% of Latinos believe that minorities receive unequal treatment in the criminal justice system. How racial issues will define the 2020 presidential election by Averi Harper and Briana StewartNext >