Western States Center

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	The Center's affiliate organization, Western State Strategies, is continuing our traditional work on campaign finance reform, supporting voter-owned elections and promoting a more transparent election system that expands democracy.



	Help Western States Center support and grow the progressive movement in the West!

VOTER ORGANIZING, TRAINING & EMPOWERMENT (VOTE) PROJECT

“The convening sessions were very helpful! As a staff we had limited time to sit together and build a cohesive plan for voter engagement. Western States Center really helped us create a shared vision that our staff can believe in.”
- Participant, February 2008 VOTE Project Convening

vote

The 2008 / 2009 Voter Organizing, Training, and Empowerment (VOTE) Project works with 12 organizations from Oregon, Washington, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming. The VOTE Project provides support, training, and technical assistance as these groups register and educate voters, boost capacity and build leadership among members, and define and lead policy issues critical to their communities.

The 2008 / 2009 VOTE Project is part of a larger 6- to 8-year program that reflects the Center’s commitment to a movement-building approach to civic engagement. We believe that a movement-building approach to electoral work starts with a “year-in, year-out” model, engaging members and volunteers in civic engagement before and after elections. The project will include intensive collaboration not just during election years but during the “off” years as well.

The VOTE Project, like Western States Center, focuses on communities not often heard in the public arena – immigrants and refugees, youth, Native Americans, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, people of color, and women. The Center supports a movement-building approach to civic engagement – using voter registration, education, and mobilization as tools to strengthen the leadership and capacity of groups and to sustain work that continues beyond the electoral cycle. The VOTE Project is designed to support groups in movement-building work that includes:

registering voters in priority constituencies
educating and engaging those new voters
expanding organizations’ regular leadership through thoughtful training
creating political analysis that brings a long-term perspective to the issues at hand on election day
keeping members civically engaged after the election

VOTE Project participants have met three times, in February, June, and July, for skills building, work planning, and information sharing. Together, VOTE Project groups have registered over 10,000 new voters and engaged hundreds of volunteers. With the election right around the corner, VOTE Project groups are hard at work to reach the goal of 143,500 voter contacts – all the while looking beyond November to upcoming legislative advocacy and grassroots organizing.