WASHINGTON — Today, the nonpartisan voting rights and election reform organization Fair Elections Center released its Every Year, Every Vote: Principles and Policies to Protect the Freedom to Vote report, which provides a blueprint for building a stronger democracy and expanding the freedom to vote for all American voters.
Based on Fair Elections Center’s years of successful work to remove barriers to voting and improve election administration nationwide, Every Year, Every Vote calls on policymakers, election administrators and voting rights advocates to prioritize key investments during non-federal election years that will continually increase voter participation in each election cycle. Recommended areas of investment include:
Litigation against barriers to voter registration and access
Advocacy for federal, state and local legislation and policies that protect the freedom to vote
Youth civic engagement
Poll Worker recruitment and training
Information and technical assistance for civic engagement organizers
Support and technical assistance for election administrators
The report comes at an urgent time for voting rights, with state legislators advancing more than 425 voting restrictions this year and the protection of federal voting rights legislation continuing to stall in Congress. States including Florida, Georgia, and Texas enacted sweeping voter restriction legislation this year limiting access to registration, mail-in voting and early voting. State legislatures in Arizona, Iowa, and Montana have made it harder to vote as well.
“With a new wave of attacks on voting in state legislatures across the country, and a debate over federal voting rights legislation that will help determine the future of our democracy, our work to maintain a robust, sustained effort to protect the freedom of all eligible Americans to cast their ballot is more important than ever,” said Fair Elections Center President and CEO Robert Brandon. “Legal advocates, activists, government officials, educational institutions and voters all have a role to play in protecting the freedom to vote and maintaining a healthy and resilient democracy, but we must do this work all year, every year, not just in federal election years. When it comes to our democracy, there is no such thing as an ‘off year’.”
The report further addresses how barriers to voter participation uniquely impact students and young people who are newly eligible to vote, drawing on the work of Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project, which works with students on college campuses around the country to increase youth voting.
“Young people and students are the newest members of our democracy, and we should be designing policies and processes that meet them where they are to welcome them into our system of self-government,” said Mike Burns, National Director of the Campus Vote Project. “With each successive generation being more diverse than the last, protecting the voting rights of young people is also a racial justice issue. Ensuring these diverse voices are included in our political and electoral processes is essential for a sustained and healthy democracy.”
Every Year, Every Vote is available at https://www.fairelectionscenter.org/every-year-every-vote.
