Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

One form of viral spread: Groups promoting '20 civic engagement

voter registration
iNueng/Getty Images

With less than 25 weeks left in a campaign season remade by the coronavirus, another two groups sprung up Wednesday to bolster civic engagement and voter turnout.

Backed by $5 million in initial funding, VoteAmerica describes itself as a nonprofit aiming to connect with millions who are not registered or don't vote very often — and giving them the information and resources they need to participate in November, regardless of their perceived political leanings.

By contrast, Vote From Home 2020 said it would be all about mobilizing progressive voters in battleground states. The grassroots initiative will engage with these voters remotely and encourage them to vote by mail.


VoteAmerica is the creation of prominent voting rights advocate Debra Cleaver, who founded the registration nonprofit Vote.org four years ago. Vote From Home 2020 is led by Ben Tyson and Suzy Smith, who both have previous experience working on presidential campaigns and with voting rights groups.

Thanks to the nationwide call for social distancing during the Covid-19 outbreak, arranging for most Americans to cast ballots far from a polling station has become the year's top priority for voting rights and good-government groups — who are pressing lawsuits against restrictive absentee rules, seeking billions in funding to promote vote-by-mail and clamoring to educate the electorate about its options. That's where both new groups fit in.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

On its website, VoteAmerica outlines mail-in voting requirements and election deadlines for each state. Visitors may use the site to apply for an absentee ballot.

VoteAmerica is also researching best practices for mail-in voting outreach and participation. The nonprofit has partnered with Christopher Mann, a Skidmore College professor who conducted a study on the topic in 2013, to test how effective mail ballot programs are in the June primaries in order to prepare for the general election.

Vote From Home 2020 will use mailers, phone calls and text messages, online advertising, and social media to reach young and minority voters. The group is prioritizing outreach in Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina because all three will be highly competitive in the presidential election and allow no-excuse absentee voting — but have historically low rates of voters using this option.

"While some states make it easy to vote by mail, many swing-states don't proactively communicate to voters that they have that same option," Tyson said. "Vote From Home 2020 will educate voters about their options and make sure they have a voice in the most consequential election of our generation."

Cleaver believes the 2020 elections will be "the most chaotic in American history" due to Covid-19, threats of foreign interference, polarization, disinformation and gaps in election technology. These issues will disproportionately impact vulnerable voting populations, including first-time voters, young people and communities of color.

"That is where VoteAmerica comes in," she said.

Read More

"Vote" pin.
Getty Images, William Whitehurst

Most Americans’ Votes Don’t Matter in Deciding Elections

New research from the Unite America Institute confirms a stark reality: Most ballots cast in American elections don’t matter in deciding the outcome. In 2024, just 14% of eligible voters cast a meaningful vote that actually influenced the outcome of a U.S. House race. For state house races, on average across all 50 states, just 13% cast meaningful votes.

“Too many Americans have no real say in their democracy,” said Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano. “Every voter deserves a ballot that not only counts, but that truly matters. We should demand better than ‘elections in name only.’”

Keep ReadingShow less
Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump
text
Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump

Donald Trump wasted no time when he returned to the White House. Within hours, he signed over 200 executive orders, rapidly dismantling years of policy and consolidating control with the stroke of a pen. But the frenzy of reversals was only the surface. Beneath it lies a deeper, more troubling transformation: presidential elections have become all-or-nothing battles, where the victor rewrites the rules of government and the loser’s agenda is annihilated.

And it’s not just the orders. Trump’s second term has unleashed sweeping deportations, the purging of federal agencies, and a direct assault on the professional civil service. With the revival of Schedule F, regulatory rollbacks, and the targeting of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the federal bureaucracy is being rigged to serve partisan ideology. Backing him is a GOP-led Congress, too cowardly—or too complicit—to assert its constitutional authority.

Keep ReadingShow less
One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

A roll of "voted" stickers.

Pexels, Element5 Digital

One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

The analysis and parsing of learned lessons from the 2024 elections will continue for a long time. What did the campaigns do right and wrong? What policies will emerge from the new arrangements of power? What do the parties need to do for the future?

An equally important question is what lessons are there for our democratic structures and processes. One positive lesson is that voting itself was almost universally smooth and effective; we should applaud the election officials who made that happen. But, many elements of the 2024 elections are deeply challenging, from the increasingly outsized role of billionaires in the process to the onslaught of misinformation and disinformation.

Keep ReadingShow less
MERGER: The Organization that Brought Ranked Choice Voting and Ended SuperPACs in Maine Joins California’s Nonpartisan Primary Pioneers

A check mark and hands.

Photo by Allison Saeng on Unsplash. Unsplash+ License obtained by the author.

MERGER: The Organization that Brought Ranked Choice Voting and Ended SuperPACs in Maine Joins California’s Nonpartisan Primary Pioneers

Originally published by Independent Voter News.

Today, I am proud to share an exciting milestone in my journey as an advocate for democracy and electoral reform.

Keep ReadingShow less