A self-identified member of “the progressive civic engagement
community,” the
Voter Participation Center (VPC) is “
dedicated to increasing the participation and amplifying the voices of unmarried women ... and other historically underrepresented groups in our democracy.” Those other groups—18-to-29-year-olds and “people of color” (African Americans
and Hispanics)—constitute, along with single women, what VPC terms the “Rising American Electorate” (RAE); i.e., “the fastest growing demographic group in America, accounting for 81 percent of population growth between 2000 and 2010.” Most significantly, constituents of these groups register and turn out to vote in political elections at disproportionately low
rates. In 2010 they were 53% of the voting-eligible population but only 42% of those who actually cast their ballots. VPC is committed to
registering and mobilizing these people to vote in the future.
Though VPC
describes itself as a “nonpartisan organization,” its overriding objective is to increase electoral support for Democrats. Each of its target groups has traditionally been a reliable supporter of the
Democratic Party. According to an October 2010 VPC
study, for instance, unmarried women favor Democratic candidates by a 67%-to-28% margin—in contrast to married women, who lean 52%-to-40% in favor of Republicans. Similarly, 86% of African Americans and 64% of Hispanics
identify themselves as Democrats. And in 2008, fully
66% of voters under age 30 supported
Barack Obama.
VPC was
originally known as “Women’s Voices, Women Vote” (WVWV), and started out as a
project of the
Tides Center in 2003; two years later, it incorporated as a stand-alone entity. The name was formally changed in 2011 to reflect the fact that the organization had expanded its focus beyond unmarried women, to include the entire RAE.
To improve its methods of increasing RAE voter participation, VPC uses controlled clinical
trials to determine which tactics are most effective. Further, the Center conducts
research on “the public policy needs” (regarding
such issues as healthcare, childcare, and economic security) of the RAE population, with the intent of using this information to persuade RAE voters to support the candidates (i.e., Democrats) who can most effectively address those concerns. VPC carries out this research in partnership with think tanks such as the
Center for American Progress and the
National Women’s Law Center; other civic-engagement and voter-
education organizations including the
League of Conversation Voters Education Fund; public-opinion experts such as Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research (GQRR) and Lake Research Partners (LRP); and academics.
VPC
opposes voter-identification requirements (e.g., photo ID at the polls) on grounds that they make voting “more complicated and difficult, especially for the RAE, who are not traditionally engaged in the public or political debate.” To buttress its
claim that such requirements have a disproportionate effect on single women, nonwhite minorities, and young people, VPC cites
research conducted by the
Brennan Center for Justice.
VPC's Vote-By-Mail
campaign promotes the increased use of absentee voting by means of
mailed ballots. Critics such as the Heritage Foundation, however, point out that such arrangements are highly susceptible to
fraud.
During each election cycle, VPC
mails millions of voter-registration applications and vote-by-mail applications to unregistered single women, blacks and Hispanics, and young adults in selected states. In preparation for the November 2012 elections, the Center specifically set a
goal of making 30 million contacts (via mailings and other approaches) with RAE citizens and generating 1 million returned voter-registration applications (slightly more than VPC’s 2008 total) as well as 250,000 applications for vote-by-mail ballots.
One of VPC's partcularly effective get-out-the-vote initiatives is its
Promise Program, which starts with a live phone call to a targeted RAE voter, asking if he (or she) intends to vote in the coming election. Once the person commits to voting, he is told to expect, as the election draws near, a letter in the mail not only reminding him of his commitment, but also informing him that VPC will later check to see whether or not he actually did cast his ballot (which is a matter of public record). Moreover, the voter receives an automated reminder phone call at some point shortly before election day. This program was first used in the Kentucky governor’s election of 2007, with impressive results.
A number of
national partners collaborate with VPC in its effort to increase voter-participation among the RAE. These partners include the
League of Conversation Voters Education Fund,
Project Vote, the
US Action Education Fund, and the
NAACP.
Both
Catalist and the
New Organizing Institute have
praised VPC for its effectiveness in registering and mobilizing voters.
