LEARN MORE WAYS TO INCREASE VOTING RIGHTS & TURNOUT
Learn more. Brennan Center lays out several great solutions:
Modernize Voter Registration
Restore the Voting Rights Act
Expand Early Voting
Restore Voting Rights to Citizens with Past Criminal Convictions
Replace Outdated Voting Machines
End Long Lines
Prioritize Increasing Voter Turnout
Other Voting Reforms
LIST OF GROUPS WORKING ON ELECTION INTEGRITY AND VOTING RIGHTS
FANTASTIC ARTICLE BY ARI BERMAN - How the GOP Rigs Elections
READ ABOUT THE 2016 RECOUNT EFFORTS
READ ABOUT THE PROBLEMS IN THE PRIMARIES 2016
PEOPLE POWER PROGRESS UPDATES
In April 2016, Virginia restored voting rights to 200,000+ ex-felons!
In February 2016, Maryland restored voting rights to 40,000 ex-felons!
In October 2015, California passed automatic voter registration, now dozens of other states are considering similar laws.
In March 2015, Oregon showed a new way forward on voting rights with a new law that ensures Oregonians are automatically registered to vote.
In January 2015 President Obama mentions mandatory voting as a solution.
31 states have online voter registration.
ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS TO VOTE
Share why you care about voting. Positive peer pressure actually has an influence. Remind them to vote prior to election day and follow up on the day of any local or federal elections via phone calls, text and social media.
ACTION STEP 3: DEMAND UNIVERSAL VOTER REGISTRATION (which just passed in OR & CA)
ACTION STEP 4: START A CONVERSATION ABOUT MANDATORY VOTING
After the dismal turnout of the last few elections (36.4%) CNN ran a series of opinions after asking the question: Should Americans be forced to vote?, The Washington Post ran an opinion piece called A case for compulsory voting, and The Atlantic published A Feasible Roadmap to Compulsory Voting. It seems that Americans may just be ready for what some think is a radical idea. In the 1920s Australia took a bold step and required every voting-age citizen to vote (compulsory voting) - just like jury duty in the U.S. Within four years voting participation jumped from 59% to 91%! Today ten countries have compulsory voting; voters pay a small fine if they don’t vote. Another 14 countries have non-enforced compulsory voting. Even though this could take many years to put in place in the US, we can start talking about it and understand what it means.
10 countries have enforced compulsory voting (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Congo, Ecuador, Luxembourg, Nauru, Peru, Singapore, Uruguay)
14 countries have non-enforced compulsory voting
Jury duty is mandatory; why not voting?
Mandating voting has a clear effect: It raises participation rates. Before Australia adopted compulsory voting in 1924, for example, it had turnout rates similar to those of the U.S. After voting became mandatory, participation immediately jumped from 59 percent in the election of 1922 to 91 percent in the election of 1925.“ Peter Orszag - Bloomberg News
“I'm not here to tell you to vote, I'm here to remind you that other people can't. Compulsory voting is the guarantee of voter freedom, not its opposite.” - Van Badham – The Guardian
LEARN ABOUT SAME DAY VOTER REGISTRATION (not in all states)
Demos put together a great info package about same day voter registration