Contact
Laila Hirschfeld
(202) 624-1739
lhirschfeld@usaction.org

(Washington, DC)—USAction Education Fund’s 19 state partners have registered more than half a million voters this year.  The announcement came after voter registration closed in all but one of the states USAEF partners were working in.  Voters in Wisconsin can still register to vote on Election Day.

"We are very proud of the work our state partners did to make this happen," said USAEF Executive Director Jeff Blum.  "We made a commitment at the beginning of this year to help make democracy work for all Americans.  This is an impressive first step."

The non-partisan voter registration efforts focused on voters who have been disenfranchised or underrepresented in the past—primarily unmarried women and African American and Latino voters.

"This is an unprecedented effort," said USAEF’s voter registration organizing director David Hunt.  "We’ve teamed with LGBT groups, and with projects like Women’s Voices, Women’s Vote to register voters who have just plain been ignored in past elections."

USAEF worked with partners in 19 states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maine Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.  At least 80,000 voters were newly registered in Florida and 53,000 in Michigan.

In the most productive weeks, canvassers working 5 hours a day, six days a week registered 31,000 voters a week.  Based on these work schedules, that means people were being registered at a rate of 5200 per day, 1050 per hour and 21 per minute.

Voter registration teams used traditional methods to register voters: they registered voters at sites, (like local shopping malls and bus stops), on door-to-door canvasses and over the phone.  Some voters told canvassers that this was the first time anyone had ever taken time to visit their communities and register people to vote.

"I first found out about the voter registration efforts when someone from Michigan Citizens Education Fund got me to register to vote," said Byron Frasier, who is now Project Manager for MCEF’s civic engagement program.  "Now my job is to get other folks engaged.  It doesn’t get much better than that."

USAEF and our state partners have shifted focus, and are now working to increase voter turnout by turning out these newly registered voters and other infrequent voters.

"The test now is to see if the people we registered are inspired to vote," said Hunt.  "We know that the methods we used—face-to-face contact in the voters’ own neighborhoods—have a general pattern of success.  We feel good that people know how to vote and are ready to vote."

USAction Education Fund will release the total number of voters registered by state and county on Election Day, after all voter registration data is complete.

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USAction Education Fund is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to research and education concerning issues of racial, social and economic justice.  The organization works with partners in 24 states to help increase civic participation and advocate for consumers.  Members of the media who wish to interview people USAEF partners have helped register to vote, or any of our staff including Executive Director Jeff Blum and President William McNary, should contact Laila Hirschfeld at (202) 624-1739.