White House Steps Up Effort to Get Voting Information to the Public

WASHINGTON — Emails, new signage and three “national days of action” are all part of a stepped up effort by the Biden-Harris administration to ensure voters know their rights and are able to participate in 2024 elections.

The initiatives are part of the administration’s ongoing effort to promote voter participation, protect election workers and fight voter suppression laws that have been passed in several states.

They were announced by Vice President Kamala Harris as she convened the second White House meeting of the year with voting rights advocates.

It was held ahead of Sunday’s commemoration of the 59th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” the day in 1965 that police and White supremacists disrupted a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, brutally attacking 600 marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The national outcry over the brutality led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 later that year.

In remarks at the start of the meeting in the Indian Treaty Room on Tuesday, Harris noted that for many in attendance, upholding the fundamental right of all people “to express their voice … including through their vote,” is a life calling.

“So much of the work we do together is grounded in a common belief in the importance of self-determination, and in people’s ability to perform their civic duty, including through their unfettered ability to vote,” the vice president said.

“Voting is a fundamental freedom that unlocks all the other freedoms,” she added.

The strategy laid out by the vice president has four components.

The first has the Department of Health and Human Services emailing information about how to register to vote to everyone who enrolls in health care under the Affordable Care Act.

“This past year, we had 21 million people enroll, so we’re talking about a significant number of people being reached,” Harris said, adding, “The first email was actually sent last Friday.”

In addition, the Social Security Administration will now display signs with Vote.Gov in all of its local offices. 

There are more than 1,200 offices across the country that see around six million visitors each year, Harris said.

And the Department of Interior will now display Vote.Gov signage and information at national park entrances and visitor centers throughout the nation.

“These are some examples of how our administration and the president and I have been able to charge federal agencies with doing the work that they rightly can do to inform the American people of their right to vote,” Harris said.

The second component is promoting voter participation among students.

Toward that end the Federal Work Study program will now allow students to get paid through the initiative to register people to vote and to serve as nonpartisan poll watchers, a move the White House hopes will address the current shortage of poll workers across the country.

“This is important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is engaging our young leaders in the process and activating them in terms of their ability to strengthen their communities,” Harris said.

Last fall, the vice president launched a nationwide “Fight for Our Freedoms” college tour in which she spoke to more than 15,000 students and young leaders at historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, community colleges, apprenticeship programs and public universities. 

During each of the moderated conversations, Harris took questions from students on a range of issues — including voting rights — and called on students to register to vote, organize and stay involved in community issues.

The third component of the administration’s effort revolves around protecting election workers.

Without mentioning former President Donald Trump or any of his allies by name, Harris noted the attacks that have been made on the integrity of elections since the November 2020 presidential election.

“We have seen those who would loudly attempt to interfere in the lawful votes of the American people and attempt to question the integrity of a fair and free election system. And we’ve seen a rise in threats against poll workers,” she said.

“In fact, I met some recently in Georgia who recalled harrowing experiences of having their well-being and livelihoods threatened,” Harris continued.

In response, the administration, through the Department of Justice, has created an Elections Threat Task Force, which has already held over 100 events to train local officials in how to protect election workers.

“At the same time, the Justice Department has challenged laws that discriminate against certain populations of voters, including in the states of Georgia and Texas,” Harris said.

Finally, as a fourth component, the vice president issued a call to action to voting rights groups to coordinate and collaborate on three National Days of Action on voting. 

These days of action will focus on voter engagement and will occur on Juneteenth (June 19), the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act being signed into law (Aug. 6), and National Voter Registration Day (Sept. 17).

Harris also announced that she will be traveling to Selma, Alabama, on Sunday to commemorate Bloody Sunday, “remember the great Rep. John Lewis and Amelia Boynton,” key figures in the Selma to Montgomery march and to call for Congress to pass both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

In related news, Senate Democrats on Thursday reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in their chamber.

In remarks on the floor Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., recalled that Rep. John Lewis once said, ‘Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we call the beloved community…’

“With this legislation, we are not only honoring John Lewis and his lifetime fight for voting rights, we are also committing to doing our part to expand access to the ballot box and end voter discrimination, which has plagued this republic since its founding,” Schumer said.

“Recent history makes it absolutely clear that we need these protections on the books … so Democrats will continue to heed the words of our late colleague, John Lewis, and will work tirelessly to safeguard the right to vote and our democracy, advancing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act,” Schumer said, adding, “We can and must build a more responsive democracy, and a more perfect union.”

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