Why Your Voting Rights Matter More Than Ever

Voting rights are under assault. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court weakened protections under the 1965 Voting Rights Act—opening the door to a wave of state initiatives seeking to further restrict the franchise. That’s why today, September 23, is a vital day in our democracy. Today is National Voter Registration Day (NVRD)—the country’s largest one-day effort to register voters. In light of the current political landscape, this exercise is more important than ever.

National Voter Registration Day falls on the fourth Tuesday of every September. Using social media, grassroots engagement, and celebrity promotion, the effort’s organizers—many of them funded by the Open Society Foundations—aim to mobilize tens of thousands of citizens to register, get to the polls, and spread the word about the importance of voting.

A working group of organizations have provided coordination and support to make this effort possible, including the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Education Fund, the Bus Federation Civic Fund, the Fair Elections Legal Network, the League of Women Voters, Nonprofit VOTE, Rock the Vote, and Voto Latino.

This single day of coordinated field, technology, and media efforts will create awareness of voter registration opportunities, reaching citizens who could not be reached otherwise. It also serves to help ensure Americans start paying attention to the important midterm elections in November.

Open Society’s Democracy Fund has been supporting efforts to modernize voter registration through, for example, same-day registration, voting by mail, and online voting—innovations which have been shown to increase participation by all, including young voters and voters of color.

Open Society is also a founding donor for The Shelby Response Fund, which helps local, state, and national organizations respond effectively to the restrictions set forth in the 2013 high court ruling in Shelby, as well as the state initiatives that followed.

Over 1,800 organizations from every state have committed to take part in today’s registration drive, an increase of 70 percent from 2012. These organizations run the gamut—from hospitals and service providers to community organizations and advocacy groups to small businesses and technology platforms with global reach. Registration materials will be provided in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. The site’s registration tool, powered by Rock the Vote, works in these languages, as well as Bengali, Hindi, Ilocano, Japanese, Thai, and Urdu.

In 2008, six million Americans didn’t vote because they missed a registration deadline or didn’t know how to register. The goal of National Voter Registration Day is to make sure no one is left out in 2014.