The National Association of Secretaries of State held their biannual conference in Washington, D.C. Friday. The conference featured many important discussions and developments in election administration, particularly relating to how nonprofits can work with government officials to help improve elections and access to voting. And it captured the audience with the honoring of accomplished civil rights attorney, Fred Gray.
Sarah Crane, the director of USA.gov, spoke about work the Government Services Agency is doing related to voting and elections through its USA.gov website, which provides the general public with access to all kinds of information. The new website, www.vote.usa.gov, is devoted to providing elections and voting information to the public. It is great resource, but most notably, the website is working on improving access to voter registration. It has created better access to the federal voter registration form and to state online voter registration systems.
Moreover, this website is a great example of government and nonprofits working together. More than a year ago, Project Vote reached to the folks at USA.gov to advocate that they consider developing a user-friendly version of the federal voter registration form. Project Vote has been able to provide the staffers at GSA with useful information, connect them to other non-profit resources, and provide feedback about best practices related to voter registration. This work is ongoing, but Project Vote is very pleased at the progress that was made, and hopes that the resources available on the website will continue to expand.
At Friday’s conference, there was another inspirational event. Alabama Secretary of State, John Merrill, presented the National Association of Secretaries of State Medallion Award to civil rights lawyer, Fred Gray. Mr. Gray is an extremely accomplished civil rights lawyer (among other things he was the lawyer for Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Improvement Association, which organized the 382-day Montgomery Bus Boycott). He also helped found the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center. Pictured above, Mr. Gray gave an inspirational speech when he received the award about the importance of learning from the past because there are still many civil and human rights battles to be fought. It was an honor to be that event and hear him speak.