Keeping the Voter Drive Alive

Nonpartisan Voter Registration Work is a Cornerstone of Black Civil Rights Advocacy

By Terin Patel-Wilson, Black Voters on the Rise Fellow, and DeMetris Causer, Black Voters on the Rise Attorney/Fellow

Voter registration is a prerequisite to political participation. Before casting a ballot on Election Day, voters must register to vote with their local election officials. Nonpartisan voter registration groups play a key role in ensuring that this happens – and their work is especially important for Black communities. In fact, throughout American history, these organizations have served to directly counter efforts to suppress Black political power.

Therefore, it’s critical to ensure that they can continue to carry out this essential work. We can do so by elevating the crucial role these organizations play during election seasons and providing accurate information about their efforts to support voters, which is especially important for countering any misinformation about their work. Below, we examine the past and present role of nonpartisan voter registration organizations in Black communities and look ahead to the work they will engage in during this election season and beyond.

Steeped in History

Since the 1960s, nonpartisan voter registration drives have been a vehicle used by voting rights groups to engage Black people and encourage them to participate in American democracy. In 1962, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a national organization of mostly Black college students using grassroots organizing to engage in peaceful, direct action protests against Jim Crow segregation, conducted voter registration campaigns in the South to unlock the political power of Black Americans. Tragically, these volunteers often faced state-sanctioned violence at the hands of law enforcement and vigilante violence from klansmen. Nonetheless, these brave volunteers endured to successfully register thousands of Black voters in the South. Today’s nonpartisan voter registration efforts are rooted in this powerful history.

A group of Black people raise their hands as they take an oath during a voter registration drive on June 18, 1966. (Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images)
Members of the Florida Immigrant Coalition prepare to go door to door looking to sign up voters during a voter registration drive by in Pompano Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

continuing the legacy

Right now, nonpartisan voting rights groups, faith-based organizations, and Black Greek-letter organizations across southern states are employing voter registration drives to engage with Black Americans and encourage their political participation ahead of the 2024 general election. Efforts by these organizations, which are strictly nonpartisan as officially affirmed and designated by the federal government, are at the heart of expanding our democracy. They ensure everyone is equipped to participate in upcoming elections, and their unique position as local organizations — or national organizations with robust local partnerships —allow them to meet communities where they are. Indeed, they prioritize making voter registration a seamless process by tapping into community preferences for registration locations, opening and closing times, and more. 

Many of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF)’s partners play a substantial role in this work. A prime example is Delta Sigma Theta, a historically Black sorority dedicated to public service with a long history of social action. During election seasons, Delta Sigma Theta continues their tradition of public service by encouraging sorority members and their larger communities to register to vote in events hosted everywhere from local high schools to convention centers across the country. Similarly, local chapters of the NAACP work in concert to host “Get Out the Vote” events in key community locations, like churches, community centers, parks, and schools. Additionally, state voting rights coalitions — collectives of nonprofit organizations that coordinate local and statewide voting rights advocacy — conduct comprehensive registration outreach, ensuring that voters in overlooked, less-populated areas receive robust registration support. 

Notably, many organizations are especially focused on getting young people to the polls during this election season. Over eight million newly-eligible Gen Z voters will be added to the electorate for the 2024 election. Moreover, of the 40 million members of Gen Z eligible to vote in 2024, 5.7 million are Black youth. Their participation is essential, as young voters carry the potential to shape the federal, state, and local governments responsible for addressing the issues they care about. Moreover, through active engagement, nonpartisan groups are increasing the likelihood that Black youth remain civically engaged in the future, ushering in new generations of Black voters during each election cycle.

remaining steadfast in the face of adversity

For current and future generations of Black voters, these nonpartisan voter registration efforts are critical given southern states’ long history of discouraging Black voters’ political participation, which regrettably continues today. Prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, poll taxes, literacy tests, and police violence were tools regularly deployed by local and state authorities to make voting an impossibility for millions of eligible Black voters. Though the VRA prohibited most state-sanctioned barriers to voting, a 2013 Supreme Court decision, Shelby County v. Holder, significantly weakened one of the law’s key provisions. Since then, several states have enacted laws and policies that may restrict voter registration efforts in Black communities and other communities of color.

For instance, in July 2024, several Louisiana election laws that impact third-party voter registration efforts took effect. These laws require nonpartisan groups to register with the Louisiana Secretary of State prior to any voter registration drives and also allow state officials to enact even stricter requirements in the future. With these kinds of logistical hurdles, nonpartisan organizations have much more difficulty undertaking the voter registration work they have done for decades.

Similarly, in March 2024, Alabama’s Secretary of State erroneously claimed that one nonprofit’s voter registration efforts, which were aimed at encouraging people of color, women, and young voters to register, were partisan activities and impermissible under the state’s newly-enacted laws. And registration rates in Florida have declined substantially following the implementation of a new state law passed in April 2023, which heavily restricts the activities of third-party voter registration organizations and imposes steep fines for any violations of these new burdensome regulations.

Writer and youth activist Uma Menon described the detrimental impact of Florida’s legislation in a September 2024 article for Bolts magazine. “The effects of [Florida’s legislation], SB 7050, have been felt around the state,” she notes. “In a state that already sees lower voter registration rates across the board, particularly for Black, Latinx, Asian, and other communities of color, outside organizations have long stepped in to fill a void left by state actors. But that work is now stalling.”

Laws and actions that hinder voter registration efforts often stem from a harmful misconception that nonpartisan voting rights organizations are engaging in partisan activity, which in turn can suppress the political participation of specific populations served by those groups, including Black communities. In actuality, nonpartisan voting rights organizations are simply working to protect one of the most sacred and fundamental rights of American democracy: voters’ rights to cast their ballots. They take their nonpartisan status seriously, which restricts them from endorsing political candidates or engaging in efforts to support or coordinate with political parties.

The targeted mischaracterization of voter registration efforts as partisan activity is a disservice to the decades of on-the-ground organizing that has expanded voting rights and political participation, dating back to the voter registration drives in the 1960s where volunteers faced untold violence. It is critical to counter these misconceptions and false rhetoric so that nonpartisan voting rights organizations can continue their urgently-needed voter registration activities.

Looking Ahead

Nonpartisan voting rights groups invest time and resources in these communities — just as SNCC did in the 1960s — because they recognize the importance of cultivating this power across generations. Voter registration drives are necessary to dismantle the barriers that, for too long, have prevented Black voters from building their political power and, at the same time, from building a more inclusive and just multiracial democracy.

For the upcoming election, we must bolster political participation by combatting the misinformation surrounding nonpartisan voter registration and, most importantly, by exercising the right to vote. First, ensure that you are registered to vote. Second, make sure everyone in your community also knows their registration status and, if needed, registers to vote. Third, make sure that you and everyone in your community cast a ballot in this election. Go to www.ldf.vote to check your voter registration status and registration deadline, register to vote if necessary, and learn more about making your voting plan for the 2024 election.

Published: November 1, 2024

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