September 27, 2016

VPC announces registration of over 800,000 people in 2016 election cycle on National Voter Registration Day

Today, on National Voter Registration Day, the Voter Participation Center announced that it has helped over 800,000 people this election cycle return their voter registration applications to election officials and start the registration process.  In partnership with key national allies, VPC is well on its way to reaching its goal of registering approximately 1 million Americans this election cycle.

“Last night during the presidential debate we saw two candidates with starkly different visions for the country making it more important than ever for people to turn out and vote for the America they want in the future,” said Page Gardner. “It is critically important that our democracy is reflective of the diverse people who live in our nation, and VPC’s goal is to make registration and voting fair, simple and easy for all Americans.”

This year, for the first time in our nation’s history, the majority of voters deciding America’s future will be the unmarried women, people of color and young voters who make up the Rising American Electorate (RAE). The VPC coined the term Rising American Electorate to describe the powerful and growing voting group that includes unmarried women, people of color and millennials. The RAE now makes up the majority of eligible voters in America (56.7%). But RAE members do not vote in proportion to their share of the voting eligible population, and one of the key reasons is their registration rates. The VPC’s goal is to close the gap between the number of RAE members who could vote and those who do vote.

Since 2004, VPC has helped nearly 3.5 million Americans register to vote. By mailing voter-registration applications to prospective voters, it enables eligible individuals to fill in, sign the applications and mail them straight to election registrars’ offices in pre-addressed envelopes to be certified by government officials.  In states where online registration is an option, VPC also provides these prospective voters with the online address for the Secretary of State’s website.

To learn more about National Voter Registration Day, please visit: http://nationalvoterregistrationday.org/.

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September 22, 2016

Press Release: VPC Inadvertently Provided Wrong Registration Deadline in Missouri Mailings

VPC is correcting the error by immediately mailing postcards to 95,000 Missourians with correct date, urging them to register to vote

The Voter Participation Center (VPC), a non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing the participation of historically underrepresented Americans in our democracy, inadvertently included the wrong voter-registration deadline in a mailing sent this month to 95,000 Missourians. VPC regrets the error and is immediately mailing postcards to all 95,000 Missourians, providing them with the correct date.

The postcards we are sending state:

Important! The Deadline to Register to Vote Is October 12, 2016!

Please return your voter registration form today! In order to vote in the Presidential election on November 8, your registration application must be postmarked by October 12, 2016.

We may have inadvertently sent you a voter registration application in the mail with an incorrect deadline. According to the Secretary of State, the deadline is October 12, 2016.

To check your registration status, register online, find your polling place, or confirm the registration deadline, please visit: GoVoteMissouri.com.

“VPC takes full responsibility for the error,” said VPC President Page Gardner. “In order to correct the mistake, VPC is mailing a postcard correcting the error to all 95,000 Missourians, and has written a letter of apology to Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander.”

Earlier this month, VPC mailed 306,000 letters and voter-registration applications to Missouri residents. We recently learned that one of the mailings, which was sent to 95,000 Missourians, inadvertently included an incorrect voter registration deadline (October 17 instead of October 12). VPC takes full responsibility for the error. In order to correct the mistake, VPC is mailing the postcard referenced above to all 95,000 Missourians, and has written a letter of apology to Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander.