Celebrate National Voter Education Week!
Today (Friday, October 11) marks the final day of National Voter Education Week (NVEW), a nonpartisan voter education campaign that prepares voters to cast their ballots with confidence. NVEW provides resources to walk voters through five aspects of a “voting checklist”: registering to vote, getting to know your ballot, making a plan to vote, understanding the process, and sharing with friends and family. For each step, NVEW provides a Partner Toolkit of programming ideas, message guidance, and social media content.
Here are steps that voters should take to fulfill each of the five items in the voting checklist:
- Register to vote: Voter registration is the first step to casting a ballot. Take a minute to register to vote, or confirm that you are registered with your current name and address, at ourhomes.turbovote.org.
- Get to know your ballot: Voting is not a pop quiz—you can see exactly what to expect on your ballot ahead of time! Elections up and down the ballot will have an impact on housing policies affecting your community. In addition to candidates for office at the federal, state, and local levels, many voters will have the opportunity to directly weigh in on policies through ballot measures. Familiarizing yourself with the candidates and issues on the ballot can help you vote with confidence. Enter your address at ourhomes.turbovote.org to preview what’s on your ballot.
- Make a plan to vote: Research shows that voters are more likely to cast a ballot if they make a plan to do it ahead of time. Take some time to determine when, where, and how you will vote: by mail, in-person on Election Day, or during your state’s in-person early voting period. If you are voting in person, determine your polling place location and hours, how you will get to the polls, and if you need to bring an ID. If you are voting by mail, ensure that you know the deadline for requesting and returning your ballot, as well as the available options for returning a ballot in your state. You can find more guidance about where to vote in your state at ourhomes.turbovote.org/where-to-vote.
- Understand the process: To feel more confident in your vote and encourage others to participate in the democratic process, it can be helpful to understand who runs elections in your community, how ballots are counted, and what systems are in place to ensure accuracy and transparency. Visit nationalvotereducationweek.org/process/ for an FAQ about the voting process, guidance for addressing misinformation, and resources that you can use to build confidence in our democracy.
- Share with your friends and family: People are more likely to vote when they’re asked by someone they know. This week, reach out to at least three friends, family members, or neighbors to help them register and make their voting plan. You can use template nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote phonebanking scripts from Our Homes, Our Votes to reach out to members of your community.
To learn more about National Voter Education Week and other nonpartisan Civic Holidays, see the Our Homes, Our Votes “Celebrating the Civic Holidays” factsheet.
For more Our Homes, Our Votes voter education resources, visit: www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org/voter-education
Partner Resources for Nonpartisan Voter Education
Many organizations that partner with Our Homes, Our Votes have released nonpartisan resources that help voters navigate the logistics of voting, understand what’s at stake in the elections, and combat mis/dis/malinformation.
Coalition on Human Needs: “Vote for Human Needs” Voter Guides
The Coalition on Human Needs (CHN), a nonpartisan coalition that advocates for policies to serve low-income people, released a series of voter guides intended to help human needs organizations and voters navigate the policy issues that matter most to our communities. The guides cover the topics of housing, healthcare, hunger, caregiving, democracy, and helping families and low-income people. Each guide provides a brief description of the issue, relevant statistics, and an outline of policy solutions.
The voter guides (branded and unbranded versions linked below) can be used as flyers, handouts, or on social media, using the hashtag #VoteforHumanNeeds:
- Vote for a Better Care System; Branded Version | Unbranded Version
- Vote for a Better Healthcare System; Branded Version | Unbranded Version
- Vote to Fight Hunger; Branded Version | Unbranded Version
- Vote for Better Housing; Branded Version | Unbranded Version
- Vote to Help Families and Low-Income People; Branded Version | Unbranded Version
- Vote to Protect Our Democracy; Branded Version | Unbranded Version
Camilla Ahmed, voter engagement coordinator at CHN, presented about the nonpartisan voter guides on a recent Our Homes, Our Votes webinar, “Voter Education: The Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.” The webinar recording and recap can be found here.
League of Women Voters Resources to Combat Mis/Dis/Mal Information
The League of Women Voters (LWV) compiles a collection of resources that advocates can use to combat mis/dis/mal information and promote accurate election information in their communities. “The Do’s and Don’ts of Election Disinformation” is an educational one-pager offered in both English and Spanish that offers straightforward guidance for responding to mis/dis/mal information.
For those seeking to engage more directly in combating mis/dis/mal information, LWV is partnering with the Algorithmic Transparency Institute to recruit volunteers for the Civic Listening Corps (CLC), a volunteer network trained to monitor, evaluate, and report mis/dis/mal information on essential topics. Individuals can sign-up using this link.
The best way to combat mis/dis/mal information is for trusted messengers to ensure they are spreading accurate and credible information. LWV’s VOTE411.org can be used to find official information, and its “Plan Your Vote Cards” can help voters take the necessary steps to cast their ballots and make their voices heard. The cards can be found in English here and Spanish here.
Jeannette Senecal, senior director of mission impact at LWV, presented on a recent Our Homes, Our Votes webinar about the differences between misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation, and how to recognize and combat them during election season. The webinar recording and recap can be found here.
REV UP’s 2024 State Voting Guides
As part of its mission to build the power of the disability vote, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)’s nonpartisan REV UP Voting Campaign has released 2024 State Voting Guides for the General Election. The state-level voting guides contain plain-language information about voter registration, accessibility, what to expect on the ballot, in-person and mail-in voting options, and additional resources to support voters with disabilities. The voting guides also link to a “My Plan to Vote” worksheet. The worksheet walks through every step that a voter should take to get ready to vote. Though designed for people with disabilities, the REV UP state guides are applicable for any voter seeking to learn more about their state’s rules or develop a personalized voting plan.
REV UP’s voter guides can be found here.
NARF Factsheets and State Guides
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has released a collection of state-level voter guides for the 2024 elections. As of now, NARF has posted guides for eleven US states, with plans to add at least three more before the 2024 elections. The voting guides outline the logistics of voting in each state and highlight issues disproportionately affecting Native voters, such as residential address and voter ID requirements. NARF also creates factsheets for Tribal leaders, including explainers of Indian Health Services (HIS) voter registration facilities and other resources that can make voting more accessible on Tribal lands. In addition, NARF has a collection of Native language voting resources that outline the rights to language assistance for speakers of both historically written and unwritten languages.
NARF is dedicated to dismantling barriers faced by Native Americans seeking to exercise their right to vote, and has published an extensive report detailing the obstacles Native people face at every turn just to get their vote counted, including (but not limited to) pervasive housing insecurity, unequal access to in-person and online registration, voter purges, inadequate polling facilities, and lack of pre-election outreach. NARF fights for political representation in court, works against discriminatory redistricting litigation, and ensures that Native languages are legally recognized and preserved in political proceedings.
The list of NARF state voter guides, Tribal leaders’ guides, language assistance factsheets, and other voting resources can be found here.
NLIHC Joins Housing Network of Rhode Island for Our Homes, Our Votes Events
Diane Yentel, president and CEO of NLIHC, and Courtney Cooperman, project manager of the Our Homes, Our Votes campaign, joined the Housing Network of Rhode Island for a series of nonpartisan voter engagement events on Tuesday, September 25. The Housing Network of Rhode Island is a member of NLIHC’s State & Tribal Partner network and an Our Homes, Our Votes Pilot Community partner.
The day began in Pawtucket with nonpartisan voter outreach at Shower to Empower, a one-of-a-kind mobile service provided by House of Hope that offers basic needs such as complimentary showers and haircuts, onsite case management, and medical services to individuals experiencing homelessness or housing instability. The team provided nonpartisan voter registration assistance and held meaningful conversations about why voting matters for people experiencing homelessness and housing instability to make their voices heard.
In the afternoon, NLIHC joined Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore, Housing Network of Rhode Island, the Homes RI coalition, and West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation for a press conference and community voter engagement event at West Elmwood’s Sankofa community in Providence. Diane Yentel gave remarks about the importance of closing the voter turnout gap between low-income renters and high-income homeowners to build the political will for housing justice. Secretary Amore emphasized his office’s commitment to promoting voter access for all eligible Rhode Islanders. Candace Harper, executive director of West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation, spoke about West Elmwood’s commitment to empowering residents to vote. Georgina Sarpong, a resident leader in West Elmwood, highlighted the importance of voting for residents to make decisions on the policies affecting their daily lives. The press conference was followed by a family-friendly voter engagement ice cream social with West Elmwood residents and neighbors.
West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation is a member of the Our Homes, Our Votes Housing Providers Council, a nonpartisan group of affordable housing developers, property managers, and resident services staff committed to boosting voter turnout in their communities. The group meets virtually every other month to receive trainings and exchange best practices in resident voter engagement. To learn more about the Housing Providers Council, visit: www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org/housing-providers-council
Check out images from Our Homes, Our Votes’ visit to Rhode Island on social media here, here, and here.