WVWV’s mailing to 24,769 likely unregistered voters in South Dakota meets all legal requirements and provides accurate information to assist those wishing to register for the general election in November. So far this year, WVWV has registered 1,268 voters in South Dakota.
Women’s Voices, Women Vote, an organization that does first-rate work to register unmarried women and African American voters, has recently been wrongly accused of engaging in voter suppression.
The reality is the opposite. In just the past six months, WVWV has submitted 400,000 voter registration applications. About 1/3 of these are minority voters. In North Carolina, from February until the primary registration deadline it helped 26,000 people register to vote. The majority of these voters are African American. It is because of WVWV’s work that they are able to vote in the primary.
Read the original article at Wired.com
By Sarah Lai Stirland May 05, 2008 | 9:29:38 PM
The Washington, DC non-profit group Women's Voices, Women Vote says that more than half of the North Carolinians it helped to register to vote in the presidential primary between February and April this year were African American.
"In February, March and early April of this year, WVWV registered 26,000 voters in North Carolina, approximately 57 percent of whom are African American," the organization noted in a statement issued Monday. "No organization that would spend resources to register these voters would then turn around and attempt to disenfranchise them in May."
The group says that its mailings and automated phone calls, which featured an African-American male, and another female voice, went out to "all unmarried women – white, African American and latina – as well as to African American men and married African American and Latina women."
Responding to questions raised over robo-calls and voter registration forms received by North Carolina residents, Page Gardner, President of Women’s Voices. Women Vote, issued the following statement:
“Founded in 2004, the non-partisan Women’s Voices, Women Vote (WVWV) pioneered the use of direct marketing techniques (direct mail and automatic phone calls) to register voter.
Womens Voices, Women Vote has registered over 400,000 unmarried women, African American and Latina voters this cycle. We have mailed applications forms, to over 10 million prospective voters in 26 states. For those unregistered people for whom we have phone numbers, we provide a robo call alerting them that they'll be receiving a registration application in the mail, and urging them to fill it out and return it.
Despite its name, WVWV isn't just about women. Founded in 2004, the group's mission statement says, "Despite their numbers, unmarried Americans are underrepresented in national elections and their voices are not being heard in our democracy. Women's Voices. Women Vote was created to activate unmarried Americans in their government and in our democracy." As part of that mission, WVWV has been engaging in national voter registration work for years.
For the NC calls:
What types of voters were being targeted?
While our focus is on unmarried women, we have worked to target other under-represented groups in through our project, the Voter Participation Center. Like many other organizations, WVWV focuses on registering unregistered voters across the country from demographic groups that are underrepresented in our democracy. Specifically we target unregistered voters and voters that have previously been registered but have moved and need to reregister. While our focus is unmarried women, we have also worked to motivate African Americans, Hispanics and young people just turning 18 years of age to register.
Since last July WVWV has generated about 400,000 voter registration applications; from coast to coast from underrepresented demographic groups. Already in this period WVWV has successfully encouraged more than 27,000 individuals to register in North Carolina alone.
Statement of William McNary, President of USAction, Co-Executive Director Citizen Action/Illinois and Board Member of Women’s Voices, Women Vote
During five election cycles, I have worked with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition where I co-directed targeted voter registration campaigns and ‘get out the vote’ efforts to the African American community. I have also had the great privelege of serving on the Board of Directors of Women’s Voices, Women Vote – a non profit, non partisan organization whose mission is registering underrepresented Americans, primarily, unmarried women.
I am also a voter. And in this election, I am supporting Barack Obama, whom I’ve known and worked with for years. I am also an elected delegate to the Democratic Convention for Barack Obama.
Given my candidate preference and my background and associations in voter registration efforts, I can say with great conviction, there was no effort to suppress or confuse African American voters, or any other voters in the state of North Carolina by Women’s Voices, Women Vote.
I have seen up close the work of Women’s Voices. Women Vote and know well the commitment, passion and leadership our organization has shown in helping make the voices of unmarried women and other underrepresented voters heard. There may have been mistakes made in this particular registration drive in North Carolina, but Women’s Voices, Women Vote’s motives were not malicious or intended in any way to confuse voters. Ironically, just the opposite. I know the staff is making every effort to right the situation.
Read the original column at Huffington Post
Update
Statement of Page Gardner, President, Women's Voices, Women Vote
WVWV answers questions re: North Carolina registration effort
In an attempt to prevent further confusion surrounding our voter registration efforts prior to the North Carolina primary, Women’s Voices. Women Vote took the extra step of attempting to stop the remaining mail from being delivered to homes.
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.
Mail Registration Brings More Voices to Vote in November Election
Women’s Voices. Women Vote Encourages North Carolina’s Unmarried Women to Register to Vote for the General Election
WASHINGTON, DC – Continuing their campaign to register unmarried women to vote, and encourage this under-represented group to engage in democracy, Women’s Voices Women Vote is mailing more than 3 million voter registration applications in 24 states. In North Carolina alone, more than 276,000 citizens will be mailed the voter registration application, allowing them to register for the November general election. The deadline to register to vote in the upcoming primary was April 11.
North Carolinians can complete the application they receive in the mail to conveniently register to vote for the general election on November 4. The application cannot be used to register to vote in the May 6 primary.
“Although North Carolinians cannot use this application to register to vote in the up-coming primary on May 6, residents can complete the form and drop it in their mailbox to register to vote in the general election this November,” said Page Gardner, President of Women’s Voices. Women Vote.
Women’s Voices Women Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing the number of unmarried women participating in our democracy, is mailing voter registration forms to more than 3 million homes in 24 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
“We’re in the midst of a sea change in our country, as we’re seeing a new America emerge right before our eyes,” said Gardner. “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,” said Gardner.
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 570,000 unmarried women in North Carolina were not registered and more than 502,000 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.”
Residents who are eligible to register for the primary but missed the deadline may still register and vote through the state’s One-Stop Absentee Sites. Qualified residents may register and vote at their county designated One-Stop Site from 19 to 3 days before Election Day. More information on North Carolina One-Stop Absentee voting is available on the State Board of Elections website at www.sboe.state.nc.us.
To identify voter registration application recipients, Women’s Voices Women Vote uses a sophisticated matching process that compares a consumer data list with the North Carolina 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 on the voter registration applications, visit www.voterparticipationcenter.org.
Barbra Streisand, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Christine Lahti, Sarah Paulson, Jurnee Smollett, and Amber Tamblyn have collaborated with Women’s Voices. Women Vote on an ad urging unmarried women to vote that is being shown before each film screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. Streisand recorded the music for the public service announcement; “regular” women – from a cop to a magician – are featured alongside the actresses.
Today is “Equal Pay Day,” the point at which women catch up to what men earned in the previous year – time for what sadly has become an annual reminder of how large a pay inequity exists in today’s workplace for women. The problem is worst of the worst for unmarried women.
Happy New Year, working women! Tomorrow, celebrate Equal Pay Day, the date representing how far into the year a woman must work in order to earn as much as a man earned the previous year. Here’s wishing you many more productive 16-month fiscal years in the future.
Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how far into the year a woman has to work to earn the same amount of money earned by a typical man the year before.