Senait Brown is a Community Organizer with Solid Ground’s Statewide Poverty Action Network.

Poverty Action Members register new voters!

In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to increase the number of citizens registered to vote in Federal elections by requiring voter registration with every driver’s license application and renewal. An equally important but less well-known provision of the NVRA is the requirement that states offer voter registration opportunities to clients and applicants of public assistance programs like Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid and Food Stamps.

Solid Ground is a direct service, anti-poverty organization and as such, we are in a unique position to increase voter registration rates in King County’s low-income communities and communities of color. And through Poverty Action’s Vote for a Change! campaign, YOU have many opportunities to get involved.

Every two years, Poverty Action sends a candidate questionnaire to all candidates running for office in Washington State and publishes their responses in this useful Voter Guide. Share this guide widely with your family and friends!

We also need volunteers to register citizens to vote, inform people of their voting rights and help make sure everyone’s voice is heard in the upcoming elections! While our official Vote for a Change! Campaign Kick Off is Thursday, August 16, voter registration opportunities in low-income communities and communities of color are coming up this weekend. Here’s the current schedule: 

• August 4 & 5: Umojafest Voter Registration Drive, Judkins Park
  (2150 S Norman St, Seattle, WA 98144), 11am-7pm
• August 16: Vote for a Change! Campaign Kick Off, Solid Ground in Wallingford
  (1501 N 45th St, Seattle, WA 98103), 5:30pm
• August 17-19: Hempfest Voter Registration Drive, Myrtle Edwards Park
  (3130 Alaskan Way W, Seattle, WA 98121), 10-8pm (Fri) /12-8pm (Sat/Sun)

Is your voter registration outdated? If yes, you can register online. The voter registration deadline for the General Election is October 8, so register right away!

For more information, to volunteer, or to otherwise support the Vote for a Change! campaign, please contact Senait Brown at senait@povertyaction.org or call 206.694.6794. And for more information about Poverty Action’s work, visit our beautiful new website at povertyaction.org.