Read the original article at The Craig Daily Press.

Women's Voices. Women Vote encourages unmarried Colorado women to register to vote

Continuing their campaign to register unmarried women to vote, Women's Voices Women Vote is mailing more than 3 million voter registration applications in 24 states.

In Colorado alone, more than 136,000 citizens will receive a voter registration application in the mail.

Women's Voices Women Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing the number of unmarried women participating in democracy, is mailing voter registration forms to more than 3 million homes in 24 states.

"We're in the midst of a sea of change in our country, as we're seeing a new America emerge right before our eyes," said Page Gardner, president of Women's Voices Women Vote.

"For the first time in our country's history, there are as many unmarried women as there are married, yet women on their own are still registering and voting less than their married sisters, leaving their voice absent from our democracy," she added.

Unmarried women -- those single, separated, divorced or widowed -- are 53 million of the voting-age population. Although they are potentially 26 percent of the electorate, they are 9 percentage points less likely to register and 13 percentage points less likely to vote than married women.

In the last presidential election in 2004, 20 million unmarried women were absent from the polls.

According to 2006 U.S. Census data, more than 250,700 unmarried women in Colorado were not registered, and more than 116,400 unmarried women were registered, but did not vote.

"A majority of households in our country are headed by an unmarried person," said Gardner. "Unmarried women are economically stretched, and their time is so valuable since they must provide for themselves and their families on their own. Making it as easy as possible to register to vote will ensure their voices are heard in our democracy."

To identify voter registration application recipients, Women's Voices Women Vote uses a sophisticated matching process that compares a consumer data file with the Colorado file of registered voters.

The National Voter Registration Application was created by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent, bipartisan commission created from the Help America Vote Act of 2002, and is accepted in 48 states.

For more information about the voter registration applications, visit www.voterparticipationcenter.org.