Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

After successful Texas debut, tech-based voter registration platform goes national

After successful Texas debut, tech-based voter registration platform goes national

The founders of Register2Vote, Madeline Eden and Jeremy Smith, preparing registration information for mailing in Texas last year.

Register2Vote

Having had remarkable success at signing people up to vote in Texas last year, an Austin group of activists is expanding its pilot program into a full-blown national effort to overcome the sometimes ignored first hurdle for people in the voting process — registration.

"There are millions of voters who are registered who don't get out to vote," said Christopher Jasinski, director of partnerships for Register2Vote. "But the unmeasured part of the pie is the actual number of unregistered voters."


Register2Vote estimates that number at 11.2 million across the country. The group was created for last year's midterm campaign by Jeremy Smith, a West Point graduate and veteran Democratic operative who's helped plan several voter protection initiatives, and Madeline Eden, a software engineer and blockchain expert who lost a bid for the Democratic nomination in a central Texas congressional district last year.

In 2018, they used records from the Texas secretary of state and the U.S. Postal Service's national change of address list to target unregistered Texans. They found and then registered 166,000 of them, and in November about 112,000 (or more than 70 percent) ended up voting.

Now, the group is rolling out a national effort that has three components:

Register2Vote: This website allows someone to check on whether they are registered. If they are not, the site will take them to another place online where they can sign up to vote.

In some states, like Texas, a paper registration form must be sent in. Register2Vote enables a person to fill out the form that will be mailed to them to sign, along with a postage-paid envelope to send the registration back to the appropriate office.

MaptheVote:This new addition to the group's efforts allows people to conduct their own personal voter registration campaigns without signing up to work for a political party or some other group.

"There are people that want to get involved because they are concerned," Jasinski said. "This provides an easy way."

Using voter registration data from each state, combined with mapping data and change of address information, this website places a green bubble at addresses where it is likely a resident is not registered. People who sign up to use the site can also add to the data in it by indicating, for example, that the gate was locked when they tried to call on the house or that there is a 17-year-old in the house who will soon be eligible to register.

Crowdfunding: Another new site can be used to invite people to donate money that will be used to send mailings targeted to those unregistered voters. Such potential voters are identified through mapping software combined with a count of how many people in a specific area — including a precinct, county or legislative district — are not registered.

Jasinski said his group hopes to provide a contrast to the constant drumbeat of negative news regarding the voting process in which people are accused of trying to make it more difficult to vote and disputes often end up in court.

"We provide a really accessible nationwide tool that anyone can find a way to be involved in," Jasinski said. And not just around elections, he said, but instead as a "consistent, everyday effort."

Read More

Stolen Land, Stolen Votes: Native Americans Defending the VRA Protects Us All – and We Should Support Them

Wilson Deschine sits at the "be my voice" voter registration stand at the Navajo Nation annual rodeo, in Window Rock.

Getty Images, David Howells

Stolen Land, Stolen Votes: Native Americans Defending the VRA Protects Us All – and We Should Support Them

On July 24, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a Circuit Court order in a far-reaching case that could affect the voting rights of all Americans. Native American tribes and individuals filed the case as part of their centuries-old fight for rights in their own land.

The underlying subject of the case confronts racial gerrymandering against America’s first inhabitants, where North Dakota’s 2021 redistricting reduced Native Americans’ chances of electing up to three state representatives to just one. The specific issue that the Supreme Court may consider, if it accepts hearing the case, is whether individuals and associations can seek justice under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). That is because the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, contradicting other courts, said that individuals do not have standing to bring Section 2 cases.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trojan Horse: How CA Democrats Might Use Voter ID To Turn Back the Clock

Voter IDs are a requirement in almost every democracy in the world. But legitimate concerns over voter suppression efforts in the American south led to a different ethic inside Democratic Party circles.

Image generated by IVN staff.

Trojan Horse: How CA Democrats Might Use Voter ID To Turn Back the Clock

Voter IDs are a requirement in almost every democracy in the world from Europe to Mexico.

But legitimate concerns over voter suppression efforts in the American south led to a different ethic inside Democratic Party circles. Over time, Voter ID plans have been presumptively conflated with claims of “voter suppression” without much analysis of the actual impact of proposals.

Keep ReadingShow less
Person voting

New York City’s election has gotten a lot of attention over the last few weeks, and ranked choice voting is a big part of the reason why.

Hill Street Studios/Getty Images

New York City’s Ranked Choice Voting: Democracy That’s Accountable to Voters

New York City’s election has gotten a lot of attention over the last few weeks, and ranked choice voting is a big part of the reason why.

Heads turned when 33-year-old state legislator Zohran Mamdani knocked off Andrew Cuomo, a former governor from one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent families. The earliest polls for the mayoral primary this winter found Mamdani struggling to reach even 1 percent.

Keep ReadingShow less
Defend Democracy Against Bombardments on the Elections Front –A Three-Part Series
polling station poster on clear glass door

Defend Democracy Against Bombardments on the Elections Front –A Three-Part Series

In Part One, Pat Merloe explored the impact of the political environment, the need for constitutional defense against power-grabbing, and the malign effects of proof of citizenship on voting.

In the second part of the three-part series, Merloe explores the harmful effects of Executive Orders, the reversal of the Justice Department on voting rights, and the effects of political retribution.

Keep ReadingShow less