Intensive Program Partnerships
Following are brief descriptions of the Community Voting Project’s local partnerships for the Intensive Program. The Intensive Program includes 15 grassroots partner organizations in 10 states running high-volume, voter file driven programs.
Illinois: The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) developed an ambitious plan to increase registration and turnout among immigrants. The goals of the plan were to register 23,000 new voters and have a combined total of 35,000 new and unlikely voters participate in the November 2004 election. The plan focused primarily on suburban communities in Cook, DuPage, Lake, and Will Counties. These counties were once predominantly white, but the rapid growth of immigrant populations in the past decade has increased the racial and economic diversity of the electorate. ICIRR worked with over 50 community, ethnic, and religious organizations across the Chicago Metropolitan Region.
Louisiana: Louisiana ACORN was one of the key local partners in the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support. The Community Voting Project continues this strong partnership. ACORN’s plan called for registering 15,000 new voters and reaching more than 35,000 infrequent voters in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lake Charles. They canvassed residents door-to-door and registered people at large institutions, busy bus stops and shopping centers.
Michigan: Three affiliates of the Gamaliel Foundation, a network of congregation-based community organizations, worked together under an umbrella organization called Michigan Interfaith Voice (MI*Voice). MI*Voice planned to register 15,000 new voters and build a voter file of more than 35,000 names from congregation members, friends, and community contacts in Detroit, Saginaw, and Kalamazoo. Individual outreach to these voters was conducted by “core teams” comprised of volunteers recruited from several hundred participating congregations. A statewide issues convention, candidate forums, and large public meetings of 2,000 to 7,000 people enhanced the public visibility of this project.
Missouri: A diverse group of organizations developed a joint voter project in this state. The groups included one rural organization (GrassRoots Organizing), Kansas City ACORN, and Metropolitan Congregations United in the St. Louis area. By pooling their capacities, the partners created a large-scale project that includes urban, suburban, and rural low-income voters in this stereotypical ‘middle-American’ state. The groups aimed to collectively register 15,000 new voters in St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Columbia.
New Mexico: This is another multi-organizational collaboration, comprised of the Southwest Organizing Project, the Human Needs Coordinating Council, and Albuquerque ACORN. The focus was on low-income Latino voters, including both immigrant and native-born individuals. Each organization aimed to register 5,000 people for a total of 15,000 new voters in 7 New Mexico counties surrounding Albuquerque. The three organizations registered voters at high-volume sites with lots of pedestrian traffic, through local churches and community-based organizations, and through door-knocking.
North Carolina: Charlotte ACORN is a relatively new organization, working to promote the interests of low-income people in North Carolina. It planned to register 5,000 new African-American voters in Mecklenberg Country.
Oregon: Voz Hispana Causa Chavista works with the Latino community in Marion county, which is predominantly working-class and immigrant. For the 2004 election, they organized a “Latino Vote” campaign that included voter registration, canvassing, phone banking, and voter education activities. They aimed to register 3,000 new Latino voters in the Woodburn area and also worked to build a permanent youth voter base.
South Carolina: South Carolina Fair Share is a statewide membership organization with a predominantly low-income constituency. Their registration drive targeted African-American voters in and around Columbia, with the goal of reaching 3,500 new voters. They used direct action organizing methods, including one-on-ones, house meetings, community events and public education activities.
South Dakota: Through a regional board of directors, The Northern Plains Tribal Voter Education Project coordinated the efforts of Reservations, Tribal Colleges, and urban Indian groups in the Northern Plains to communicate the importance of civic participation to individuals in Native communities. The project planned to register at least 5,000 new voters and to mobilize Native American voters in Rapid City as well as the Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud Indian Reservations. They also registered voters on Reservations in Montana.
Wisconsin: This project is a partnership between Voces de la Frontera, an emerging immigrant rights coalition, and Wisconsin Citizen Action, one of the most experienced organizations in the country in grassroots voter strategies. The target constituency is immigrant Latinos in the Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Racine metropolitan areas. Voces de la Frontera will benefit from the organizational and technical strengths of Citizen Action, and Citizen Action will benefit from greater access and visibility in the immigrant community. Together, Voces de la Frontera and Citizen Action aimed to register 15,000 new voters by stationing teams at high-volume events, door-to-door canvassing, establishing core teams within congregations, and working through community-based organizations.
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