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Download Unite America's free report analyzing the impact of four key political reforms.
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All Voters Vote

We are Florida voters who believe that every voter should have the right to cast a meaningful ballot. That is why we support the All Voters Vote initiative. Current Florida law prohibits most voters from voting in the elections that will determine who serves in our legislature, cabinet, and as our governor. With taxpayer funded closed partisan primaries in highly gerrymandered districts, the vast majority of Florida voters are currently prohibited from voting in important elections, and Florida is one of only 9 states with a closed partisan primaries. Millions of voters pay taxes to run elections in which they cannot vote. How is that fair. We believe that for the future of our state, we must change that. We believe that ALL voters should be allowed to vote. That is why we support elections that not only allow, but also encourage, ALL VOTERS to vote regardless of political or party affiliation. Allowing ALL registered voters the chance to vote in primary elections will help make our government more responsive to the people.

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Voting
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City of Cohoes, NY | ricky-from-left-field | Flickr

In 1963, 85 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the city elections for Cohoes, N.Y. Last year, turnout for the city's municipal election was just 24 percent.

Lessons from a local election 57 years ago for boosting turnout now

Van Buskirk is an engineer and urban planner who has been active in politics since the 1960s. This summer he self-published "Big Mike, Uncle Dan and Me: How I Beat 20th Century New York State's Most Corrupt Political Machine."

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Voting
VoteAmerica

VoteAmerica's Aisha McClendon (left) and Biden campaign volunteer Mitzi Wallace-Wills.

Meet the reformer: Aisha McClendon, who's switched from campaigning to registering

This summer VoteAmerica, which operates nationwide registration and turnout programs, hired seasoned Democratic operative Aisha McClendon as national constituencies director — focused on bolstering the nonprofit's work with churches and historically Black colleges and universities. She had previously been a regional constituency director for Mike Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign, after running national African American outreach for the Beto O'Rourke campaign. Before that she'd worked for a state legislator in her native Texas. Her answers have been edited for clarity and length.

What's the tweet-length description of your organization?

VoteAmerica works to ensure high turnout. We provide easy resources and tools to register to vote, sign up to vote by mail, request an absentee ballot, get election reminders, find a polling place and contact local election officials, etc.

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Voting
Graeme Jennings/Getty Images

Rep. James Clyburn, along with other Democrats on the House subcommittee, led an investigation into election preparedness in four states.

Hill Democrats focus voting concerns on four big battlegrounds

Congressional Democrats this week moved to focus heightened concern about election preparedness on four of the biggest battlegrounds: Texas, Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin.

The majority of a special House committee, created this spring to oversee the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, issued a report Wednesday focusing their apprehension on the limits of mail-in voting, poll worker shortages and safety of polling places in those states — with a combined 93 electoral votes central to the campaign strategies of both President Trump and Joe Biden.

The report by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which no Republicans signed, urged the states to spend quickly and generously to fix the problems — something they are unlikely to be able to do without a cash infusion from Congress itself, which looks less likely every day.

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Events

Making an Impact: Voting, Good Public Policy and Overcoming Partisanship

Organizer: 92nd Street Y

Why does it matter if everyone votes? Have politics become more partisan?

Please join 92Y in collaboration with The Jack Brooks Foundation, for a virtual discussion with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Cecile Richards (Supermajority, Make Trouble), Timothy McNulty (Chicago Tribune, "The Meanest Man in Congress"), and Hendrik Hertzberg, staff writer at the New Yorker and former chief speechwriter in the Carter White House.

The discussion will explore the political, social, and economic influence Texas has played throughout American history, and how it has stood as both a reflection and bellwether of national political trends. Texas Congressman Jack Brooks' (1922-2012) career spanned the tenures of 10 US presidents. Brooks authored important legislation during his 42 years in Congress that remains foundational to our nation's laws to this day. The Congressman was known for working both sides of the aisle to secure important legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and drafted the articles of impeachment for Nixon.

Enjoy a rich conversation with some of our greatest thought leaders about how politics is practiced today as seen through the lens of Congressman Brooks' amazing story.

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Location: Virtual

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