Organizations Pushing Voter Turnout & Encouraging Candidates to Run

Providing Support & Mobilization for Voters

Many organizations work to ensure that potentially eligible voters are encouraged and assisted in registering and voting. Often this means being sure they understand what is required of them and then assisting in overcoming any barriers that may stand in their way. One organization profiled below works to make the voting records of incumbent officeholders universally available so voters can learn the facts about what an elected official seeking re-election has supported and opposed.

A dynamic new development is the proliferation of peer-to-peer communication apps built to mobilize voting, such as VoteWithMe and VoterCircle linked below. They are sometimes described as "shaming" apps, but since we are talking about our duties as citizens, if friends have to shame friends by reminding them of that duty, so be it. Several New York Times articles provide a rich description and commentary. See It Takes a Friend to Get a Friend to Vote, Can Peer Pressure Defeat Trump? & Did You Vote? Now Your Friends May Know (and Nag You).

Finally, listed below is a nifty site called Run for Office.org. It may not always be up to date, but it does an important job by reminding people that there are tens of thousands of "entry-level" elected positions in the country, and they represent ways to make a difference in the realms they govern.

Vote.org

This site will help you check your registration and then help you register if needed. It will assist you in requesting an absentee ballot. Then it will remind you when and what you need to vote. These online tools are free for anyone to use. Other organizations can also use the Vote.org toolset for free on their websites and as part of their in-person voter registration and Get Out The Vote campaigns. Vote.org also maintains state-by-state compendia of Voter ID Laws, Voter Registration Rules, and Absentee Ballot Rules so that more people will be able to navigate these requirements and vote. In addition, Vote.org proactively reaches out to low-propensity voters to encourage them to vote. They use peer-to-peer SMS texting outreach, online advertising, digital radio, and other media.

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The Voter Participation Center

The Center's mission is to increase civic engagement among unmarried women, people of color, and millennials. This rising american electorate is responsible for more than 80 percent of the growth in the U.S. population since 2000, and it now comprises the majority of voting-eligible Americans. But, because they are less likely to be registered or vote, they're underrepresented when legislatures decide whose concerns are most important. The Center's goal is to turn that around and to ensure that these voices are heard in proportion to their numbers. To accomplish this, the Center directly mobilizes voters to register and then again to get out and vote. In recent election cycles, the Center has helped register more than a million new voters.

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Vote Smart

Provides factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials. Using a database of 40,000 officials, anyone interested may search for biographical and contact information, voting history, positions on issues, ratings by vetting organizations and interest groups, speeches on particular topics, and funding sources. In addition, the site offers easy-to-understand summaries of key legislation in Congress and all 50 states, making it less difficult to compare what your representative said during their campaign with how they actually voted. Finally, they offer a Voter's Self-Defense Manual. It contains a sampling of Vote Smart's database with information on Congressional members' political courage, voting records, interest group ratings, campaign contributions, and contact information.

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A Couple More From Many

TurboVote

Run for Office

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Published: August 2019
Revised: July 2023
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