Voting-related organizations
2020 Election Resources
Voting-related organizations
Text is from org websites and other sources
Fair Fight
After witnessing the gross mismanagement of Georgia’s 2018 election by the Secretary of State’s office, Stacey Abrams launched Fair Fight to ensure every American has a voice in our election system through programs such as Fair Fight 2020, an initiative to fund and train voter protection teams in 20 battleground states.
Fair Fight PAC has initiated programs to support voter protection programs at state parties around the country and is engaging in partnerships to support and elect pro voting rights, progressive leaders.
Center for Common Ground
Center for Common Ground runs a campaign called Reclaim Our Vote. (One of their partners is Black Voters Matter.) Their mission is to support voters of color. This includes supporting efforts to register to vote, to register to vote by mail and to GOTV. They work in voter suppression states where at least 20% of the voters are voters of color.
In 2020, their stats are:
- 3M postcards written
- 400K phone calls made
- plan to do 2M texts
- 12K to 15K active volunteers
Spread the Vote
Spread the Vote is an organization dedicated to helping people get IDs ahead of Election Day. IDs are necessary to participate in lots of areas of society, such as getting employment, opening a bank account, or finding housing. Additionally, voter ID laws in particular disproportionately affect communities of color, the elderly, and new voters. Spread the Vote helps people to navigate their state's ID laws and assists with everything from application fees to driving you to the DMV to get your ID. You can join a local chapter (or start one!), and donate at their website.
Natives Vote 2020
This November, Native Peoples' visibility and political power can be built by ensuring that our voices are heard at the polls. Natives Vote brings together Native artists and storytellers with grassroots communities, organizers, and influencers to increase Native voter registration and mobilize a historic voter turnout across Indian Country.
Democracy for America
Democracy for America is a member-driven, people-powered political action committee. Our mission is building and empowering a broad coalition of grassroots organizers to elect the New American Majority to fight for inclusive populism at all levels of office in all 50 states.
Turnout Nation
Turnout Nation equips people who are passionate about voting, giving the tools and info they need to mobilize their personal networks, and ultimately get more Americans to the polls. Your job, as a member of our community, is vital, but straightforward. Here’s how it works:
● Get in Touch
○ Get in touch with our staff or join a training session to get started.
● Enter Names of Your 10
○ Choose 10 people you want to help vote.
● Ensure They're Registered
○ If any of them are not registered, you’ll work with them to get registered - we’ll give you the info you need.
● Inform & Energize
○ Respond to calls to actions from our Organizers and work with your 10 people to cast their vote leading up to the election.
When We All Vote
When We All Vote is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that is on a mission to increase participation in every election and close the race and age voting gap by changing the culture around voting, harnessing grassroots energy, and through strategic partnerships to reach every American.
Launched in 2018 by co-chairs Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monae, Chris Paul, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, When We All Vote is changing the culture around voting using a data-driven and multifaceted approach to increase participation in elections.In the months directly before the 2018 midterm elections, When We All Vote organized 2,500 local voter registration events across the country, engaged 200 million Americans online about the significance of voting, and texted nearly four million voters the resources to register and get out to vote.
When We All Vote is supported by Vote Lab, the innovation and research arm of the organization. Learn more about Vote Lab here.
Black Voters Matter
Black Voters Matter's goal is to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. Effective voting allows a community to determine its own destiny. We agree with the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
We seek to achieve our goals with the following 5 core beliefs in mind:
● The key to effective civic engagement and community power is understanding, respecting and supporting local infrastructure.
● Black Voters Matter not only on election day, but on the 364 days between election days as well. This means we must support individuals and organizations that are striving to obtain social justice throughout the year.
● Black Voters Matter *everywhere*, including rural counties and smaller cities/towns that are often ignored by candidates, elected officials, political parties and the media.
● In order for Black voters to matter, we must utilize authentic messaging which speaks to our issues, connects with our hopes and affirms our humanity.
● The leadership, talent and commitment demonstrated by Black women in particular must receive recognition and, more importantly, *investment* in order to flourish and multiply.
Let America Vote
Let America Vote is an organization former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander started in 2018 to protect voting rights across the country. There are a number of action items Let America Vote will get you started with, from hosting a "Voting Rights House Party" to providing housing for volunteers, to door-knocking for 2020 candidates that are likewise fighting voter suppression.
More Than A Vote
“Change isn't made by watching from the sidelines”.
More Than a Vote is a coalition of Black athletes and artists who came together amid the protests fueled by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police. “We are focused on systemic, targeted voter suppression in our community and have a specific mission: educate, energize and protect Black voters. We are driven by a shared understanding that our influence and prominence, particularly among young people, is a responsibility to continue the tradition of Black athletes working together to fight for justice and equality.”
Powered by People
This org was started by Beto O'Rourke. They do phone banking on steroids in Texas. At this time they are working on the presidential campaign and state house races. These days they are doing 2 phone banks/week. I guess about 500-600 people participate in a phone bank. About 200,000 calls are made in one evening's phone bank.
Vote.org
Vote.org uses technology to simplify political engagement, increase voter turnout, and strengthen American democracy.
We work to ensure that the electorate matches the population. Vote.org is the largest 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan voting registration and get out the vote (GOTV) technology platform in America. It has registered more than 3.3 million new voters, verified 8.2 million voters’ registration status, and has helped over 30 million website users by providing registration links and deadlines, polling location details, and other essential voting information for each state. Vote.org also leverages its SMS-based GOTV program each year, targeting low-propensity voters in regularly scheduled and special elections.
Center for Voter Information
Center for Voter Information is a nonprofit, non-partisan partner organization to Voter Participation Center, both founded to provide resources and tools to help voting eligible citizens register and vote in upcoming elections. With its partner organization Voter Participation Center we have helped more than 5 million voters register and get to the polls in our history.
Facebook: Voting Information Center
Voter Participation Center
VPC is a non-partisan organization that seeks to register new voters in three under-represented groups: people of color, unmarried women, and young people. VPC targets those groups through a sophisticated direct mail campaign that involves repeated touches in the year leading up to the election and hence requires early money to be effective. Within those demographic groups, mailings are further targeted to zip codes in the battleground states most likely to decide the Presidential election—Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
A well-regarded private think-tank group (Mind the Gap) suggests that a dollar contributed to VPC is worth $3 contributed in other ways. In this later stage of a campaign, funds given to candidates---referred to as “persuasion” funds—are used in advertising to try to shift a small number of voters into the Democratic camp. This is offset by funds spent by Republicans to do the inverse. This expenditure of a huge amount of campaign money is actually very inefficient in translating to real votes.
On the other hand, VPC efforts to register voters from the Rising American Electorate (their term for unmarried women, people of color, and young people, who will constitute 64% of the eligible voters in 2020) is hugely effective in generating new voter registration with a very high (80%) rate of actually voting. AND this voting group votes heavily Democratic---all up and down the ticket. Money spent bringing in new voters (registration) and helping them vote (vote-by-mail support) is much more effective in actually getting votes for the candidates we support.
