Reclaim Your Vote: Your Voice, Your Power, Our Democracy

 

Voting rights are fundamental to our quality of life and democracy! Restrictive voting laws limit your rights, quiet your voice, and suppress your vote. Let’s work together to push back against the coordinated effort to undermine your access to power, self-determination, and community representation. Voting rights are civil rights!

Legislatures have voted in states across the country to make it harder for you to vote despite overwhelming public

support for making voting fairer, safer, and more accessible. Our Reclaim effort seeks to (1) Register more voters, (2) Educate more voters on their rights, and (3) Motivate more voters to get out to the polls to protect our democracy.

Recent attacks on voting rights include:

  • Implementing new Voter ID laws.
  • Restricting early voting.
  • Restricting mail-in voting.
  • Closing polling locations.
  • Purging voter rolls.
  • Allowing poll worker and voter harassment.
  • Allowing partisan agents to undermine election results.

Here Are Steps You Can Take To Reclaim Your Vote

Step 1: Check Your Registration Status

First, check your voter registration status and register to vote here.

Step 2: Know the Voter ID Laws in Your State

Every state has a different rule on voter identification. Some accept state and college IDs, others only accept valid driver’s licenses, and some require ID to vote in person. Learn about your local voter ID laws here. Voter ID laws can change, depending on the state. If you have any questions, you should contact your Local Election Official.

Step 3: Know Where You Vote

Some states have also made recent changes to polling locations. Find your polling place here.

Step 4: Making a Plan: Know Before You Vote

Did you know that some states use paper ballots instead of electronic ballots? Unfortunately, both require standing in line at a polling place, and some states have moved to eliminate or restrict voting by mail, making it more difficult to cast your ballot.

This is crucial information depending on how many polling stations are in your district, including unforeseen circumstances. For example, polling machines occasionally malfunction, polling hours may vary, and there may be long lines to cast your vote, among other issues. Therefore, the best way to prepare is to develop a plan for voting in your district well in advance.

Step 5: Reclaim Your Vote in EVERY Election

The coordinated effort to suppress the vote can be overcome by reclaiming your vote. By voting in every federal, state, and local election, you have a say in who gets elected, and, by extension, you have a say in what becomes law. This is how you Reclaim Your Vote.

Find a local election in your state here.

Register to vote

Why Registering to Vote Matters

Despite the pandemic, the 2020 Presidential election saw the greatest increases in voting across all groups thanks to nontraditional voting measures that allowed people to vote early and by mail, which is safer, secure, and more convenient. Though the racial voter gap narrowed in 2020, states seeking to repeal the voting laws that helped narrow the gaps threaten to widen the gap.

Voting rights laws that restrict ballot access make voting disproportionately more difficult for Black voters and voters of color. Many of us who work multiple jobs or have work schedules that make it harder to vote during the day relied on voting by mail and early voting.

Caretakers for the sick and elderly also relied on early voting to help their loved ones vote.

Early and mail-in voting makes it easier for everyone to vote. 

While organizations like the National Urban League fight to protect our right to vote, we can do our part by registering and voting in state and local elections.