VPC Mails 4 Million Voter-Registration Forms
August 30th, 2012
America is strongest when citizens exercise their fundamental right to vote. But 73 million Americans — more than one in three of us — are not even registered to vote. That’s why today the Voter Participation Center (VPC) is announcing a major new campaign to register eligible American voters across the nation.
“With so many U.S. citizens eligible but not registered to vote, it is critical to help women and men from all walks of life, regardless of party, have a voice on Election Day,” says Page Gardner, President of the non-profit and non-partisan Voter Participation Center (VPC).
Four million eligible voters in 28 states will have an opportunity to apply to register to vote when they receive voter registration applications in the mail from the Voter Participation Center and its partners. Eligible voters can fill in, sign the applications and mail them straight to election registrars’ offices in pre-addressed envelopes to be certified by government officials.
To see a sample VPC mailing, click here.
ELIGIBLE VOTERS ONLY, PLEASE!
The Voter Participation Center only wants eligible voters to participate in our great democracy. That’s why our forms carefully explain in multiple locations that only eligible voters should apply. We are very clear in all of our forms what the specific state instructions are and who is–and is not–eligible to register to vote. In addition, our forms ask, “Already Registered?” and provide both a website address and a smartphone scanning code to help mail recipients instantly check their registration status. And all our forms clearly state: “If you have already registered at your current address, there is no need to submit this application.”
IMPROVED MAIL-LIST SCREENING
The Voter Participation Center uses the best technology available to ensure that our mail recipients are eligible to vote and unregistered. Unfortunately, no state makes available a list of ineligible residents, so VPC vendors must use commercially available databases and match them to the state’s voter file. We have instituted 13 new improvements to our mailing-list protocols. Nonetheless, on rare occasions the wrong people (or even pets) get our forms, which we deeply regret. Our forms clearly state “Make sure your information is correct and complete” and we offer mail recipients an easy way to be removed from our mailing list. All our mailings state: “If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please email this number to info@thevoterparticipationcenter.org.”
FULL TRANSPARENCY
The Voter Participation Center makes clear on its forms that it is a non-government entity. A typical mailing from the Voter Participation Center mentions our name seven times and clearly states three times: “This mailing has been paid for by the Voter Participation Center (VPC). VPC is a non-government, nonprofit and nonpartisan 501 (c) (3) organization.” In addition, the forms tell mail recipients twice that their home state or local elections office “is not responsible for the mailing or affiliated with the VPC.”
OUR SUCCESSES TO DATE
The VPC, which runs the largest mail-based voter registration operation in the nation, has helped more than 1.6 million Americans join the voting pool since 2004, including nearly a half-million so far this election cycle. The VPC and partners including the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) are mailing four million official voter registration applications in August and September, along with information and instructions that have been reviewed by the election officials in each of the 28 states.
