Statement: The Voter Participation Center Joins Michelle Obama, When We All Vote and Top Organizations in Fight For Our Vote Pledge Ahead of Midterms

Thirty-one voting organizations and civil rights groups representing millions join When We All Vote Co-Chair Michelle Obama in pledge to fight for voting rights and organize voters in New York Times advertisement 

WASHINGTON, DC – Dozens of the country’s most prominent civil and voting rights organizations are banding together to organize and turn out voters in the 2022 midterm elections and fight against voter suppression. The Voter Participation Center today joined When We All Vote in bringing together 31 organizations representing millions of Americans to pledge to recruit and train 100,000 volunteers, register more than one million new voters, organize at least 100,000 Americans to contact their Senators to fight for federal voting rights legislation and more.

The organizations announced the commitment in an advertisement titled “Fight For Our Vote” in the New York Times one year after the January 6th insurrection, where white supremacists rioted at the U.S. Capitol in a violent attack on American democracy. Since then, state lawmakers have proposed more than 500 anti-voter bills seeking to silence Black, Brown, working class and young voters, and voters with disabilities, which many of these organizations represent.

“As we gear up for the 2022 midterms, we should be building on the record turnout of the 2018 and 2020 elections, and keep working to make voting more accessible, not enacting new draconian barriers that make it more difficult for people of color and other historically disenfranchised voters to vote. At VPC, we are deeply disappointed that some state lawmakers are pushing a dangerous anti-voter, anti-democracy agenda. That’s why we are proud to join When We All Vote in calling on Congress to pass voting rights legislation and doing everything we can to empower and register voters,” said Tom Lopach, the Voter Participation Center.

“In 2020, we saw record voter turnout, especially among voters of color and young people, because of the work of these leading organizations. Now, a small group of elected officials fixated on maintaining their waning political power have purposely put up barriers to make it harder for some Americans to vote, jeopardizing our democracy. We will not back down. We are organizing and are preparing to fight day in and day out in 2022. And that fight starts with our collective effort to press Congress to do the right thing and pass critical voting rights legislation to protect voters and their access to the ballot box,” said Stephanie L. Young, Executive Director of When We All Vote.

The pledge also calls on corporations, the faith community, state-based voting rights organizations and nonprofit organizations to join When We All Vote, Mrs. Obama and the signatories in pledging their own commitments to voting rights, voter registration and voter turnout in 2022.

In addition to the Voter Participation Center, signatories of the pledge include: ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), Black Girls Vote, Common Cause, Deliver My Vote, Drag Out The Vote, Fair Fight Action, Faith in Public Life, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, League of Women Voters, Mi Familia Vota, More Than A Vote, NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Action Network, National Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, National Urban League, National Women’s Law Center, NextGen America, Protect the Sacred, RepresentUs, Rock the Vote, Shape Up The Vote, State Voices, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Vote Forward, Vote.org, Voto Latino Foundation, We The Action and When We All Vote.

View the pledge and full list of commitments here.

The Voter Participation Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 2003 to help members of the New American Majority register and vote. Since then, the organization has helped more than 5.7 million people register and cast ballots.