Open Left - electorate

Report Shows 2008 Electorate is Most Diverse in Modern History

project vote — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:36:27 GMT

The 2008 election was the most diverse in modern history, with increases in participation among young people, minorities, unmarried individuals, and other historically underrepresented groups, according to a comprehensive new report by the voting rights group Project Vote. Whether gains by these groups will hold steady in 2010, however, remains to be seen.
Representational Bias in the 2008 Electorate-written by Project Vote researchers Douglas R. Hess and Jody Herman-is an in-depth study that analyzes data from the 2008 general election, and compares them to registration and turnout rates from every presidential election this decade. Historically the U.S. electorate has been disproportionately skewed towards White, older, and more affluent Americans, and while the study shows this is still true, the increasing diversity of the American population was more accurately reflected at the polls in 2008.

"The good news of the 2008 election was the surge in young voters, particularly young minority voters," says Hess. "The only age group that demonstrated an overall increase in participation rate was voters under the age of 30, and that was largely driven by young Black, Latino, and Asian voters."

The voting rate of Black women under 30 increased by 7 percentage points compared to 2004, surpassing the voting rate of White women in that age group. The participation rate for Black men under 30 surged by nearly 11 points over 2004, and surpassed that of White men in that age group. Registration and turnout rates also increased among young Latinos and Asians of both genders.

The report, which analyses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, provides detailed information on registration and voting populations according to race/ethnicity, income, education, age, gender and marital status, residential mobility, and disability status. It also provides registration and turnout rates for each state with comparative rankings. Maine, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia are near the top of the list, with 78-79 percent of their eligible populations registered. New York, Arkansas, Tennessee, Utah, and Hawaii make up the bottom of the list, all with more than a third of their eligible residents still unregistered.

The surge in minority voting is an encouraging sign, says Project Vote executive director Michael Slater, and clearly had a powerful impact on the 2008 election. However, the report finds that significant disparities in participation still exist.

"Voter registration is the key," says Slater. "Roughly 90% of registered Americans from all demographics cast a ballot in 2008. However, nearly a third of all eligible Americans-over 60 million people-are unregistered, and they are disproportionately people of color, lower-income Americans, and citizens under the age of 30."

The report finds that the disparities, while smaller in 2008, still meant that millions of eligible Americans were left out of the process. If the underrepresented populations were registered and had voted at the rates of those in the overrepresented groups, tens of millions of more citizens would have cast a ballot in 2008, including over 5 million people of color, 8 million low-income Americans, and more than 7 million young people.

"It is clear that traditionally underrepresented groups will vote if given access to voter registration and candidates that speak to their issues," says report co-author Jody Herman. "But it is also clear that we need registration reforms that increase access to registration and promote participation among these groups."

This will be particularly important in the coming year, Slater cautions, as the 2010 mid-term elections may erase the gains made in 2008. "Mid-term elections always see a drop in participation, and if the 2009 Virginia election is any indication, the 2010 drop may once again hit these groups hardest. The youth vote dropped by half in Virginia from 2008 to 2009, the 60-and-over vote doubled, and turnout by people of color dropped significantly."

"It is important that government officials and civic organizations renew their commitment to helping underrepresented populations register and vote in 2010," says Slater.

Online Voter Registration Reaches Some Citizens, but Won't Close the Electoral Gap

project vote — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Cross-posted at Project Vote's Voting Matters Blog.

Access to voter registration continues to be an issue in the U.S. where only 71 percent of the voting eligible population is registered to vote. With young, low income, and minority citizens lagging behind in voter registration and participation, this fraction of registered voters only represents a skewed picture of the American people.
In an effort to make voter registration more accessible, several states have joined Arizona and Washington this year by passing laws to provide certain citizens the convenience of registering to vote with the click of a mouse. Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Oregon, and Utah are among the states that recently enacted such laws while Kansas has just made voter registration accessible online to eligible citizens in the state, according to the Associated Press. However, a new memo by Project Vote consultants Jody Herman and Doug Hess finds that, while online voter registration is a "welcome new convenience," its impact will most likely be limited in reducing the tremendous demographic disparities that currently exist in the electorate.

Using Nielsan and Census data, the report examines the limitations - and benefits - of online voter registration by describing the U.S. households that do not have internet access and comparing the findings to voter registration rates in those households based on race/ethnicity, age, educational attainment, and income.

"In most cases, the demographic groups that are already less likely to be registered are also the least likely to have internet access in the home," Herman wrote. Among these groups are low income citizens, those without high school degrees, and Latinos, rendering online voter registration less effective for the very people who need access to the electoral process most. According to the memo:

• Low income households are not only less likely to have internet access (41%), they are also least likely to be registered to vote, compared to other income brackets (65%).
• Educational attainment appears to have an affect on access to both voter registration and internet. Just 36% percent of those without high school diploma have internet access - 41 percentage points lower than the national average. Similarly, this group registers to vote at a rate that is 21 percentage points lower than the national average (50%).
• Black and Latino households are less likely to have access to the internet, with only 63% of households in each group. However, Latinos are disproportionately underrepresented in the electorate, registering at 12 percentage points lower than the national average.

"An additional problem is that online voter registration systems that require an online registrant to have an existing signature in a state database-such as in a driver's license database and/or state voter registration database-will further limit the accessibility of an online voter registration system to disadvantaged groups," according to the report. (A 2007 study on voter ID accessibility in Indiana exemplifies this issue, as voters with only high school education, as well as low-income and minority citizens, were found to be less likely to posses identification required, in this case, to vote.)

While online registration seems to disproportionately reach mostly those who are already overrepresented in the electorate, it may open doors for one group that is notoriously plagued with voter access and participation issues: Youth. Citizens ages 18 to 34 register to vote at a rate of 10 percentage points behind the electorate as a whole. However, young people are most likely to have internet access, with 88 percent of younger households connected to the Web. This may prove beneficial in incorporating America's future decision makers in the electorate.

Exit Poll Analysis Suggests Obama Victory Due to Surge in Youth and Minority Voting

project vote — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:43:42 GMT

The United States saw dramatic increases in voting from traditionally underrepresented groups, including minorities and young voters, according to a new analysis released this week by Project Vote. If borne out by systematic analysis of the voter rolls, this change in the electorate is evidence of the power of successful voter registration drives and an indication of the strong inclination of voters to participate in the process when candidates address their issues.
Countering the conventional wisdom that the voting population on November 4 did not change as dramatically as predicted, the analysis, The Demographics of Voters in America's 2008 General Election: A Preliminary Assessment, demonstrates that African-Americans, Latinos, and young voters cast millions more ballots in 2008 than in 2004.

"The analysis estimated that about 5.8 million more minorities voted in this year's presidential election than in 2004, while nearly 1.2 million fewer whites went to the polls," wrote Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers. "The figures appear to reflect the success of Project Vote and other liberal voter registration groups in registering millions of young, poor, elderly and minority Americans to vote in recent election cycles."

According to the analysis, African-Americans cast nearly three million more ballots nationwide in 2008 than in 2004-an increase of 21 percent. The total votes cast by Latinos went up by 16 percent-more than 1.5 million-and young Americans aged 18-29 cast 1.8 million more votes, a nine percent increase. That the overall totals did not increase significantly compared to 2004 was in part due to a decrease in voting by white voters.

In addition to presenting an analysis of ballots cast from the United States as a whole, the memo by Project Vote consultant and Ph.D. candidate Jody Herman and Barnard College political science professor Lorraine Minnite examines several key states in detail, including Colorado, Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

The Project Vote data is preliminary, and does not speak to "turnout," which is traditionally a measure of the percentage of the voting-eligible population that shows up to vote. Project Vote expects to release a full report on turnout in the 2008 election in 2009 when government survey data on the voting-eligible population comes available. Yet, this preliminary analysis indicates that a significant shift occurred this year.

"There is no doubt that this surge in voting by Americans of color and young people had a powerful impact on the outcome of the election," said Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, in a press release issued today.

"Separate opinion polls and election results themselves indicate that an overwhelming majority of African-Americans and Latinos backed Obama," according to Gordon.

"Thus, the appearance of an African-American presidential candidate with a sympathetic message may have prompted the nation's minorities to vote at levels approaching white voters -- if final state vote counts do not upend Project Vote's figures," wrote AlterNet's Steve Rosenfeld last week. "Its findings also suggest the U.S. electorate is not an inflexible assembly of voting constituencies, but has segments that are mobilized -- or demobilized -- depending on the year, candidate and message,"

In an email exchange with Rosenfeld, Frank Sharry, executive director of pro-immigration reform group, America's Voice, said "neither the turnout increase among Latinos -- nor the swing in support to Democrats -- were surprising."

"Telling people you don't like them and don't want them is not a winning electoral strategy," wrote Sharry. "But that is what the Republican Party has been saying to immigrants, Latino immigrants in particular, for the past four years. No surprise, then, that record numbers of Latinos turned out in 2008 and that the swing away from Republicans to Democrats among Latino immigrants in particular was dramatic."

Changing the Game: Voter Registration Drives Reshape the American Electorate

project vote — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:50:07 GMT

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

Monday marked the last day to register to vote before November's presidential election in many states and the conclusion to one of the nation's largest nonpartisan voter registration drives in history. Helping more than 1.3 million of the America's underrepresented young, low-income and minority citizens register to vote, Project Vote and its voter registration drive partner, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), have played a leading role this election cycle in changing the face of the electorate to represent all Americans.
In 2006, according to Project Vote study, "Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate," the proportion of the U.S. population that was registered to vote was biased toward Whites and older, affluent and educated voters. Latino and Black citizens were less likely to be on the voting rolls, registering 17 and 10 percentage points, respectively, behind Whites. Lower income citizens, or those earning less than $25K per year, registered 21 percentage points (60%) behind those earning $100K per year or more (81%). And in keeping with their long history of lagging voter registration and participation rates, voters under the age of 30 registered to vote at a fraction (51%) of the rate of those ages 30-64 (70%). The most stunning findings in the report were that if eligible minorities actually voted at the same rates as Whites, an extra 7.5 million votes would have been cast in 2006.

News articles from every corner of the country are reporting increased registration rates, pointing to a potentially "game-changing" reshaping of the electorate with voters feeling newly empowered to demand that elected officials address their issues. Election officials are predicting "it's going to be a tsunami of voters" on Election Day.

"In the past year, the rolls have expanded by about 4 million voters in a dozen key states," according to the Washington Post Monday. More than half of the 1.3 million that Project Vote helped register were in key states Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania, according to Richard Wolf of USA Today, 60 percent of which "are under 30 and about two-thirds are minorities." A driving motivation behind this rise in registrations, according to ACORN board member Carmen Arias, is the "faltering economy."

"In 2004, we were met with apathy," Arias said in a press briefing Tuesday. "We had to convince people to register to vote. This year, we were met with excitement: people are excited to have an opportunity to have a say in solving the foreclosure crisis, and the health care crisis. They're eager to have politicians listen to them."

Elected officials listen to those who vote, and America's imbalanced electorate has effectively silenced millions of low-income citizens.

"We think it's important that the voices in our community get heard," said interim chief organizer of ACORN, Bertha Lewis. "This isn't just about going into the voting booth, but it's actually about strengthening democracy and instilling an ongoing commitment to effect real change."

Reports from Colorado, Michigan, and Florida all note increased registration rates and spikes in last minute registrations. On Monday, a Denver elections office took 100 people per hour who poured in to register or apply for mail ballots before the deadline, according to Myuang Oak Kim of the Rocky Mountain News. Project Vote and ACORN's voter registration effort helped more than 70,000 Colorado voters get on the rolls.

In Michigan, 95 percent of eligible voters are registered, according to the Associated Press. Local clerks, who processed 217,000 applications from Project Vote, "are gearing up for what's expected to be a heavy turnout on Election Day," which may exceed the 68 percent that turned out in 2004. To accommodate the influx, secretary of state spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said her office has recommended increasing the number of voting stations to avoid long lines as well as develop separate lines for those who "are having issues with the state's relatively new voter ID requirements."

In Florida, 430,000 "younger, more ethnically diverse and more Democratic" voters joined the voter rolls since January, according to Michael Bender of the Palm Beach Post Saturday. Project Vote and ACORN's efforts helped register152,000 of these voters.

"Everyone wants to be involved this year; they want to be a part of history," says Verna Hunter, a retired Fort Pierce, Fla. woman and long time local voter registration drive volunteer. "It's just a really inspirational time."

"Our belief, fundamentally, is that by expanding the electorate, by changing its profile, we will get candidates who will start to appeal to those new voters," said Project Vote Executive Director Michael Slater in Tuesday's press briefing. "The idea isn't to assist, whether overtly or covertly, the election of any single candidate, but to force candidates to take into account the interests of Americans who have not historically participated in as high rates as others and to start pursuing policies and programs that are more responsive to their needs."

The idea of new voters demanding different policies and programs is threatening to some entrenched powers, and many partisan attacks on voter participation programs and disinformation campaigns have already been launched with just less than four weeks to go until Election Day.

Project Vote will be running a voter education and mobilization canvass in the run-up to Election Day to ensure that all of our registrants go out to the polls. In addition we are running an aggressive Election Administration program to fight partisan attempts to suppress the vote, and ensure that all eligible voters can cast a ballot and that those ballots will be counted. Please follow this link so that you can help support Project Vote's Get Out The Vote and Election Administration Program.

Quick Links:
Hess, Douglass R. "Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate." Project Vote. Sept. 2007.

In Other News:

States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal- New York Times
Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

Disabled vet says Tucson officials kept him from voting - Associated Press
A disabled veteran says the city of Tucson prevented him from exercising his right to vote last year.

20 percent of Ohio's provisional ballots rejected - Associated Press
CLEVELAND -- Roughly 20 percent of provisional ballots cast in the March primary election in Ohio were rejected by election officials, a newspaper review found.

Idaho voter registration for students questioned - Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho - Idaho college students face some of the toughest restrictions in the nation when trying to register to vote at their college addresses, according to a national study.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote's Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).

How Voter ID Laws Unfairly Burden Voters And Skew The Electorate

project vote — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:07:20 GMT

Cross-posted at Project Vote's Voting Matters Blog

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

With little more than two months left before Election Day, prospective voters are rushing to get registered. And like the way that slugs thrive in moist weather, voter suppression attacks spring up around large-scale voter registration drives. Partisan attempts to shape the electorate, in effect choosing the voters rather than voters choosing their own representatives, seek to impose barriers to voter participation by eligible citizens rather than creating a system that works to facilitate the foundational right of American democracy. Voter ID laws are a particularly favorite weapon in the arsenal of partisans seeking to choose their own voters to the exclusion of other eligible citizens. More than 25 states introduced voter ID bills this year and at least nine have such laws in place for this November's election despite scant evidence of voter impersonation, the ill it is supposed to stop.
The reality of the kind of detrimental election reforms typified by Voter ID laws is that they place the burden for ensuring free and fair elections squarely upon the voter, rather than upon the government, despite the fact that the government controls every aspect of the electoral process, from voter registration to counting the ballots. In effect, these laws concentrate on the possible wrong-doing of individual voters to the exclusion of the myriad barriers that prevent significant numbers of voters from underrepresented population groups from participation in the electoral process, thus helping to skew the electorate toward being older, whiter, and more affluent than America's citizenry as a whole. Laws that concentrate on the voter rather than the system almost without exception narrow the ability of voters to exercise their democratic right to vote, which falls especially hard upon already disadvantaged Americans, as illustrated by a concerned Arizona citizen in a local publication as well as a Wisconsin editorial this week.

"I believe people heard that no one should vote who is not a citizens," said Kathryn Kozak, referring to Arizona's voter ID requirement that exceeds federal mandates in a letter to the Arizona Daily Sun on Sunday. "They didn't necessarily think about what this would mean for those people who were citizens."

Kozak was shocked to learn that her sample ballot would no longer suffice as proof of identity when casting a ballot in the state's Sept. 2 primary election. Like more than 21 million Americans, she does not have valid proof of identity: "My problem is that I use my middle name on my driver's license, but my legal name includes my first name. The election office says I should still be able to vote, but you never know what is going to happen at the polls.

"This voter ID law is making it difficult for me and others in my situation to vote," she wrote.

As Kozak pointed out, many voters believe voter ID laws are a valid way of preventing illegal voting and have not considered the impact of such "preventive" measures on eligible citizens. Unsympathetic to her challenge of the state's law that exceeds federal mandate, a few readers of her story in the Arizona Daily Sun commented that anyone who wants to vote would go through the trouble of obtaining valid ID. However, cost, time and high mobility rates make obtaining valid ID a troublesome feat for millions of Americans who already face obstacles to participation in the electoral process.

Frankly, it is not as if the United States has enviable voter participation rates. In our 2007 report, Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate, a majority (52%) of eligible Americans did not vote. Overrepresented in this segment of the electorate were young people, minorities and low income Americans - all highly mobile communities who are profoundly affected by voter ID requirements. And while people point to the convenient excuse of "voter apathy" to explain non-participation, the reality is that our study showed that Americans, once registered, turn out at a rate of a 71 percent.

That type of turnout would be reduced in states that impose voter ID requirements since more than 21 million U.S. citizens do not have current, valid photographic proof of ID, according to a poll by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. "Valid" ID in most cases must reflect the current address as listed in the voter's registration records. In 2006, more than four in 10 Americans reported having lived at their current address for less than five years.

Furthermore, a 2006 study commissioned by the Election Assistance Commission found a 2.9% decrease in turnout overall in states that require photo ID and a 2.7% decrease in states that required documentary ID compared to states that require voters to give their names, according to a 2007 Project Vote report.

Ultimately, voter ID laws inhibit voters who already face barriers such as high mobility rates that require them to update voter registration and identification information. In order to help facilitate the voting rights of these voters and maintain the integrity of elections by prohibiting illegal voting, the responsibility needs to not only be put on the voter who must show up and vote, but also on the design of the election system as a whole.

The Wisconsin publication, La Crosse Tribune makes just this point in a recent editorial cautioning against the adoption of voter ID laws in the wake of stories about voter registration workers getting caught defrauding their employer and the state by attempting to get paid for submitting false voter registration forms. Indeed, the editors applauded the state's new voter registration system, touting it as a more efficient method of keeping ineligible voters off the rolls.

"While some people argue that the case underscores the need for a photo ID requirement before one is allowed to vote, that would be an over-reaction that could end up disenfranchising older and low-income voters who lack such identification."

The editorial continues: "It would make more sense to use the new federally mandated voter registration systems [Help America Vote Act-required voter list maintenance procedures is what they mean. ~~ed] to screen for nonqualified voters~~ rather than risk disenfranchising large numbers of people with a photo ID program."

In a democracy with more than 200 million eligible citizens, the burden of ensuring free and fair elections cannot be born solely by the individual voter. The government, which controls all aspects of elections and therefore the means by which Americans exercise their foundational democratic right, must also work to create an electoral system that lowers barriers to participation and ensures the efficient implementation of procedures that allow all eligible citizens to register, cast a ballot, and have that ballot counted.

Quick Links:
Reports
"Maintaining Current and Accurate Voter Lists." Project Vote. Dec. 2006.
"Restrictive Voter Identification Requirements." Project Vote. Mar. 2007.
Web Page
2008 Voter ID Bills. ElectionLegislation.org.

In Other News:

Voting campaign helps Homestead seniors register - Miami Herald
As Rennatta Delgado, manager of Homeowner Services for Centro Campesino Farmworker Center in Florida City says, ``although seniors are often a forgotten community, when it comes to the 2008 elections, their important voices will be heard at the polls.''

Groups to register homeless to vote - Montgomery Advertiser (Ala.)
John Cook Thomas would like to cast his vote in the November election for Barack Obama.

Voter Registration Key to Obama's Efforts to Put Virginia in Play - Washington Post
RICHMOND -- Virginia has added nearly a quarter-million registered voters since the 2004 elections, and about half of that growth came from increasingly Democratic Northern Virginia.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote's Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).

Registration Changes: A New Map for Incumbents

Matt Stoller — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:12:29 GMT

Via Real Clear Politics, this shows registration changes since 2004.

The only good news for the Republicans is Florida, which only shows a relatively slight gain for Democrats. With the Jewish vote going overwhelmingly for Obama, but not as Overwhelmingly as it did for Gore or Kerry, Florida is a tough nut to crack. That said, Nevada, Iowa, Colorado, and New Hampshire are becoming very winnable for Obama, while Pennsylvania, and Oregon are moving out of swing state territory into solid blue status.

These numbers are a direct result of George Bush and a massively competitive Democratic primary. The consequence is not only a Democratic President and larger majorities in the House and Senate, but a shift in the makeup of districts for incumbents. Right now, members are judged according to what percentage in their district went for Bush in 2004. If a Democrat is in a district that went for Bush by 15 points in 2004, it is understandable why they have a conservative voting record. They have to. That is the 2004 map, and it pushes the caucus to the right.

A whole lot of members now in 'swing districts' according to the 2004 map may soon be in solid blue territory according to the 2008 map, and conservatives will move into 'swing district' territory. All of a sudden, a conservative Congressman according to the 2004 map suddenly must change his behavior to suit his new 'moderate' district, and a moderate is now representing a safe Blue district. The Democratic base will have a lot to work with in terms of moderates and conservatives, unless they change their behavior. The 2008 map could profoundly move all members of Congress to the left.

How To Boost The Electorate In Florida: Enforce the National Voter Registration Act

project vote — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:18:40 GMT

By Nathan Henderson-James and cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters.

A Sunday news story by Catherine Dolinsky in the Tampa Tribune highlights Florida's failure to comply with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and talks extensively about the joint efforts of Project Vote, Demos, and ACORN to force Florida to follow this federal law. Dolinksy quotes ACORN's Florida Head Organizer Brian Kettering on the civil rights implications of Florida's failure,

"Hispanic and African-American communities are being deprived of the opportunity to register to vote at a higher rate than anybody else," Kettenring said. "So this is a fairness issue, but it's also a civil rights issue."

Dolinksy also talked with Moritz College of Law Professor Dan Tokaji, who blogs at Equal Vote.

"The 1993 federal law requires a variety of state offices to provide voting registration assistance - most notably, departments of motor vehicles. Congress included public assistance agencies in the mix to ensure that low-income people who don't drive are also included, said Daniel Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University and expert on voting rights.

"This is the group where we need the most work, because it is the group least likely to participate in elections," Tokaji said. "The biggest problem with our democracy is that we don't have a representative electorate; people who are elected are not representative of the citizenry as a whole."

Project Vote, Demo, and ACORN have informed Florida of a potential lawsuit based on its failure to comply with the NVRA.

"According to Florida Division of Elections data, public assistance agencies turned in 9 percent of voter registrations received in 1995. By 2007, they were contributing 1.8 percent. By 2007, agency registrations had dropped from 120,886 to 10,470.

Meanwhile, enrollment in Florida's assistance programs has remained relatively steady.

According to the Department of Children & Families, the average number of poor Floridians receiving cash assistance fell from 569,158 in 1995-96 to just 76,986 in 2007-08, reflecting the tightened welfare requirements that Congress passed in 1996. Average monthly participation in the food stamps program declined by about 45,000 over the same period to just under 1.4 million.

But those declines are nearly offset by Florida's Medicaid enrollment increase alone. The average monthly number of Medicaid beneficiaries grew from 1.2 million in 1995-96 to more than 1.7 million in 2007-08, DCF data indicate. Participation in WIC, a subsidized nutrition program for low-income women, infants and children, rose from 332,135 in 1995-96 to 420,514 in 2006-07."

This work is part of Project Vote's on-going NVRA Implementation Project, which targets states with high enrollment rates in public assistance programs and relatively large populations from Project Vote's constituency groups which are low-income voters, voters of color, and New American voters. The project, carried out in conjunction with ACORN and Demos, has filed a similar complaint in Arizona and is suing in Ohio and Missouri.

Ultimately, as Professor Tokaji notes, a healthy democracy demands participation of all its citizens and the electorate must represent the citizenry. The NVRA is one of the best tools for bringing the electorate in alignment with the citizenry and it is incumbent upon the states to do everything they can to comply with the law.

In These Times Showcases Project Vote's Work To Expand The Electorate

project vote — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:29:57 GMT

By Nathan Henderson-James

In These Times' July 2008 cover story, Expand The Vote, posted to its website on June 11, prominently features Project Vote's work to create an electorate that is representative of the American citizenry.

Adam Doster, an In These Times senior editor, frames the article by showcasing Project Vote's 1992 Illinois voter registration drive, directed by young recent law school graduate Barack Obama, and shows the impact that members of underrepresented groups can have in elections, no matter who they choose to support.

In stepped a young organizer named Barack Obama. Fresh out of Harvard Law School, Obama moved to Chicago to head up the local branch of Project Vote, a D.C.-based non-partisan voter registration organization focused in low-income communities of color. Recruiting staff and volunteers from community groups and black churches, he helped train 700 deputy registrars and devised a comprehensive media campaign based around the slogan "It's a Power Thing." His volunteers hit the streets and registered more than 150,000 black voters in only six months. According to a 1993 report from Chicago magazine, the elections "turned on these totals."

Sixteen years later, in the midst of his own presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) hasn't forgotten the crucial lesson he learned canvassing Chicago's South Side: Activating underrepresented communities can dramatically alter close elections.

Doster goes on to profile the work of several national organizations working to bring underrepresented groups into the electorate, including Project Vote's record-breaking effort.

[A] slew of successful organizations will ramp up their own efforts in the coming months.

Among them is Project Vote, Obama's employer in 1992. Working in partnership with ACORN, the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, Project Vote orchestrates comprehensive drives targeted in low-income urban communities. Organizers are trained to canvass outside of locations where residents generally congregate -- grocery stores, bus stops and religious institutions.

According to [Project Vote Deputy Director Michael] Slater, Project Vote registered more than 1 million voters in each of the last two cycles. Sticking to its time-tested formula, Project Vote has set a goal of 1.2 million new registrants.

Doster does a good job of contextualizing the work to expand the electorate by giving an overview of the current state of lagging voter particpation by underrepresented groups.

"About 64 million Americans are eligible to vote but are not registered to vote," says Slater. "That's about one-third of the entire voting-eligible population. So the opportunity to expand the electorate is there."

Among underrepresented constituencies, the statistics are even starker. While the voting rate for young people between ages 18 and 24 shot up 11 percentage points from 2000 to 2004, the registration rate sits at a paltry 58 percent. It's not much better for voters of color: African Americans (69 percent), Latinos (58 percent), and Asians (52 percent) all trail non-Hispanic white voters (75 percent). (If people of color were to vote at the same percentage as whites, there would be more than 5.5 million [additional] votes.)

The unusual nature of this year's Presidential election with regards to participation from underrepresented groups is summed up by Michael Slater.

"For many years, candidates ... tended to compete for people who are already in the electorate, rather than expanding the electorate," says Project Vote Deputy Director Michael Slater. "They thought of a slice of the pie rather than trying to grow the pie. So it's interesting to see a candidate that is really talking about growing the size of the electorate."

Nathan Henderson-James is the Director of Project Vote's Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).