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.

Study Finds Income Disparities Leave Unmarried Women Behind

WASHINGTON, DC -- As Equal Pay Day approaches, a new study from Women's Voices Women Vote finds unmarried women are most vulnerable to pay inequity when compared to unmarried men, married men or married 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.

In every presidential election since 1964, more women than men have been eligible to vote. In 1980, however, the percentage of women who actually voted exceeded the percentage of qualified men casting ballots for the first time in U.S. history.

You'll recall that Congress is still trying to pass the Ledbetter Act to remedy the Supreme Court's decision last term. Unfortunately, President Bush is going to veto it, so now we need 60 votes! Well, to add this awful decision by our President, a study just released by Women's Voices, Women's Vote, finds that unmarried women, earn on average $12,000 less than unmarried men:

RALEIGH (AP) - More than four times as many blacks have registered to vote in North Carolina during the first few months of 2008 as four years ago, contributing to the booming number of new voters expected to cast ballots in the state's May 6 primary.

92 million: Number of unmarried and single Americans ages 18 and older in 2006. This group comprises 42 percent of all U.S. residents ages 18 and older.