• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. voter registration>

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

Bill Theobald
September 17, 2019
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:

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

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."

From Your Site Articles
  • Rights groups sue to stop Tennessee crackdown on voter registration ›
  • Top U.S. election official opposes automatic voter registration - The ... ›
  • Democrats plan to register 1M more Texans despite pandemic - The Fulcrum ›
  • It's been a rough start to 2022 for Texas election officials - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Surprising Statistics | National Voter Registration Day ›
  • Voting and Registration ›
voter registration

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Grand Canyon gap in America today

Dave Anderson

Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

Stephen E. Herbits

Conservatives attacking Americans’ First Amendment rights

Steve Corbin

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff
latest News

What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

Bradford Fitch
16h

The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

David J. Toscano
16h

Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Leland R. Beaumont
16h

The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

C.Anne Long
02 October

It’s time to retire Calvinism

Debilyn Molineaux
02 October

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Our Staff
02 October
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Our Staff
02 October

Podcast: Is reunification still possible?

Our Staff
27 September

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
22 September

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September
Recommended
What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

Contributors
The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

Big Picture
Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Corporate Responsibility
The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

State
It’s time to retire Calvinism

It’s time to retire Calvinism

Contributors
Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Podcasts