Wondering what you can do from home to make a difference in the 2020 election?
Ethical NYC has joined the Center for Common Ground’s Reclaim Our Vote campaign, a non-partisan effort aimed at re-registering persons of color who have been removed from voter rolls in states with a history of voter suppression. Reclaim Our Vote also works to inform still-registered voters about new voting rules and restrictions that have been enacted, especially related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ethical NYC members will be preparing and distributing packets that we can each use, from the safety of our homes, to mail hundreds of postcards to our fellow citizens in these states, whose addresses are being provided by the campaign’s partners at the NAACP. Packets consist of specially created postcards, a short script to be handwritten, a list of addresses, stamps, and printed labels with country specific voter information that guide the recipient about how to check their status and to re-register.
These mailings have shown an astonishing success rate, increasing re-registrations by 25%, but supplies and postage cost money. If you also realize the importance of fighting voter suppression, please consider giving to help our effort. And if you’d like to participate in the campaign, you can request a packet by contacting member Janet Rose at jrose@nysec.org.
Click here to donate now!
About Reclaim Our Vote
Why do we need a RECLAIM OUR VOTE campaign?
Eligible voters of color are being purged from voter rolls at a much higher rate than white voters. People in minority communities were already struggling to reach the voting booth in voter-suppression states, due to the implementation of strict new voter ID laws, a reduction in polling places and/or early voting days, and many other tactics.
What is RECLAIM OUR VOTE?
The Reclaim Our Vote Campaign was officially launched in 2018 by the Center for Common Ground of Virginia, a 501(c)3 organization whose national partners include the NAACP, Black Voters Matter, Mi Familia Vota, VoteRiders and DemLabs.
History of the RECLAIM OUR VOTE campaign
Since late 2017, the nonpartisan Reclaim Our Vote campaign has reached out to nearly a million voters of color in states like Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, Texas and Mississippi—states with a long history of voter suppression. In December 2017, our phone bank calls helped increase turnout among rural voters of color by 35% in the Alabama special Senate election. In 2018, teaming up with Black Voters Matter, we made 185,000 calls to Georgia voters for the midterms; about 65% of those calls resulted in votes. In 2019, 20-25% of our postcards into nine counties in North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District resulted in a voter registration.
How will we RECLAIM OUR VOTE in 2020?
This year, Reclaim Our Vote plans to expand its volunteer base and work towards a 20 percent increase in turnout among voters of color in at least four states, and a significant percentage increase in others. We started working towards this goal in 2019, in North Carolina and Virginia; in 2020 our target states are North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia; our tools include postcards, phone banks, textbanks, geofencing, GOTV billboards in key areas, canvassing, rides to the polls and election monitoring.
Also be sure to check out the Reclaim Our Vote FAQ and info sheet.
For more on the current fight against voter suppression, watch the new documentary Suppressed: The Fight to Vote for free online:
