The 2010 election season left many Americans with real concerns about the state of our democracy. Secretive groups spent hundreds of millions of dollars slinging mud and promoting lies and half-truths about the healthcare bill, the stimulus package, and the deficit. Meanwhile, many candidates shied away from positions popular with millions of voters who turned out in historic numbers in 2008.
The results were stark: older, wealthier, White Americans came out in record numbers in 2010 while millions of African Americans, youth, and lower-income Americans stayed home. The mid-term drop-off rate was higher than it should have been given the tremendous voter turnout of 2008.
We simply cannot let 2012 be a repeat of 2010.
That’s why, on November 3, 2010, Project Vote started planning for Election Day 2012: Because we know what it takes to ensure our elected officials are chosen by an electorate that truly looks like America, and we know that the 2011-2012 election cycle is bound to bring renewed vigor to voting rights debate across the country.
In 2007-2008, Project Vote ran the largest voter registration field program in the nation, helping more than one million Americans apply to become registered voters. Through that election cycle, Project Vote helped more low-income African American citizens register to vote than all other field programs combined.
In 2011-2012, we will keep working to empower voting-eligible American citizens, working to ensure state and federal voting laws do not prevent legitimate voters from casting a ballot that counts.
But we cannot do this important work alone.
Project Vote is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that relies on the support of like-minded people who understand the complexity and importance of American voting rights issues. Please send your tax-deductible, year-end donation today, or donate online. We cannot succeed without you.
From all of us at Project Vote, let me be the first to say: Thank you. We look forward to what we can achieve together in the years ahead.
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