Election Officials: Get Involved with National Voter Registration Day
Tuesday, September 26, 2017 is National Voter Registration Day. Over 2,000 groups will be organizing to register voters nationwide, and to be successful, they need the support of state and local election officials.
Held every September, National Voter Registration Day calls attention to the importance of registering to vote and helps people get registered. Since 2012, over 1.4 million people have registered or updated their registrations thanks to the efforts of thousands of #NationalVoterRegistrationDay volunteers and partners.
The work of community groups is at the heart of the holiday, but election officials have an important role to play, too.
National Voter Registration Day’s organizers emphasize 3 things that election offices can do — some big, some small — to help make this year’s registration events successful:
- Sign up to be a partner. Being a partner means giving support and leadership to the groups that are participating in registration events. You can sign up to be a partner at the NVRD website.
- Encourage your community members to get involved. Chances are good that you know many people and groups with an enthusiasm for civic engagement. Encourage them to get involved, and spread the word through your local media. The NVRD website has a press release template to help you get started.
- Promote National Voter Registration Day on social media. Tell your audience about the importance of voter registration and let them know about registration events on Twitter, Facebook, and all of your social media channels. Use the hashtag #NationalVoterRegistrationDay, and for sample posts, graphics, and other helpful resources, check out the NVRD partner toolkit.
When election officials get involved with National Voter Registration Day, everyone benefits.
As an official, trusted source of civic information in your community, you can empower participants and support civic engagement. At the same time, by doing your part to ensure registrations are completed correctly and submitted on time, you’ll be helping your fellow election officials by working to make processing registrations easier.
For more information, visit the National Voter Registration Day website. Be sure to follow the holiday on social media, too!