In America right now it's impossible to get away from news about the upcoming election.
There are lots of reasons for that, but everyone agrees that it is a really big deal. And it's gotten me to thinking about democratic participation and voter registration. We all know the old saw "If you didn't vote, you can't gripe" (or words to that effect) and although its not enforceable, I tend to subscribe to the theory. A quick peek at recent government data shows about 1/3 of citizens aren't registered to vote. That's a lot of people, and some of them may be your supporters.
No matter what side of the issues you support or whether or not your organization does advocacy, I believe that supporting voter registration online can be a great opportunity for any organization. Thanks to the high stakes this year, youth engagement and some sweet technology, voter registration is even kind of sexy. Think of it as fresh timely content, a chance to engage your supporters in a new way or just a way to provide a helpful tool for site visitors, who will leave you their name and emails as a thank you.
If you are saying, that all sounds great but we're too busy, we don't have high-end tech staff or what will it cost me? I have good news.
Years ago I worked on the design and development of an online voter registration widget for Rock the Vote - and I have to say I thought it was pretty neat. So I took a look around the web to see what's available these days. It quickly became obvious that in this election year RTV/Credo (used to be Working Assets) has gone all out and is the now indisputable king of all voter registration widgets. And that's ok, because the widget is free, easy and brand-able to boot.
What it is - a piece of code you can add to your site to allow voters in any state to fill out their registration form, print it and mail it in. Right on your site. And you get to ask your own questions and collect contact information. Read more about how it works in
a great summary at e.politics .
Sign up and grab a widget here:
http://registertovoteonline.org/site/signup/ You don't have to spend a lot of time setting it up (I did one in 10 minutes including sign up, custom logo and custom questions). And if you can copy and paste and have access to your HTML you are ready to go. The admin includes some nice tracking info (for list building and thank you's) and options to make this play nice with any web site.
Adding the widget link on your site doesn't have to mean starting a major voter registration campaign - although it could if that fits with what you do. More like a quick and easy home page sidebar feature showing your awareness and good citizenship as an American based organization.
One last thought - Are all the US citizens on your staff registered? Might be a good time to find out and maybe even kick-start your widget with some familiar names.
