Our Voice Our Vote (OVOV)

OVOV’s sister group is the Arizona Coalition for Change, a 501(c)(3). OVOV also runs a Super PAC known as the Our Voice Our Vote PAC. OVOV claims to be the largest “Black American-led voter program” in Arizona. ¹

Funding

Our Voice Our Vote receives funding through ActBlue, a major donor conduit for Democrat-aligned organizations. ²

In 2022, OVOV received $250,000 from Community Change Voters, a left-of-center Super PAC affiliated with the Center for Community Change (CCC) and the Center for Community Change Action (CCCA). Also in 2022, OVOV received $10,000 from Change for Arizona 2024 PAC. ³

In 2020, OVOV lost its tax-exempt status after failing to file taxes for three straight years. It later re-attained tax-exempt status. ³

Activities

Our Voice Our Vote supported the Arizona Fair Elections Act of 2022, a petition that failed to make it to the ballot that proposed numerous left-wing changes to Arizona’s electoral process, including ranked-choice voting, open primaries, and same-day voter registrations. ³

OVOV engages in get-out-the-vote programs targeting racial minorities in Arizona. In the 2018 election cycle, OVOV knocked on 100,000 doors. ¹

Controversies

In June 2024, Our Voice Our Vote volunteer staff member Walter Ringfield, Jr. was arrested for allegedly stealing a digital magnetic key used to program Election Day voting machine tabulators in Maricopa County, Arizona, where Ringfield was temporarily working. Earlier in the year, OVOV’s electoral campaign manager was allegedly involved in a scheme to forge signatures to put fake candidates on the ballot. ³

Super PAC

Our Voice Our Vote runs a Super PAC of the same name. As of July 2024, the PAC has raised $596,000 and spent $225,000 in the 2024 election cycle. During the 2022 election cycle, the PAC raised $338,000 and spent $325,000. During the 2020 cycle, the PAC raised $421,000 and spent $334,000. ⁴

The PAC has received funding from the Movement Voter PAC (connected to the Movement Voter Fund), Community Change Voters, the MVP Justice Fund, and the Be a Hero PAC (connected to the Be a Hero Fund). ⁵

Since its founding in 2019, the PAC has received 9,459 donations. ³

Leadership

Our Voice Our Vote describes itself as a “Black-led organization,” though it does not list its leadership on its website. ⁶

OVOV was founded by Reginald Bolding, a managing director of Momentum Ventures Holdings. In 2016, Bolding founded and then led OVOV and its sister-group, the Arizona Coalition for Change. He stepped down from his leadership role to become a strategic advisor in March 2023. Bolding served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023 and was appointed Minority Leader for the Democratic Party. Earlier, Bolding worked as the chief executive officer of the Future Leaders of Arizona. ^{3 7}

In 2022, Bolding ran for Arizona Secretary of State. His opponent, now-Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) accused Bolding of numerous financial and political misconducts in his management of OVOV. Bolding was ultimately not formally investigated and lost the Democratic primary to Fontes. ⁸

Bolding’s wife, Cymone Bolding, was listed as the co-executive director of OVOV in the organization’s 2022 tax filing. Cymone is also a managing partner at Momentum Ventures Holdings and is listed as a co-founder and strategic advisor of OVOV and the Arizona Coalition for Change. In 2020, Cymone was the Arizona coalitions director of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and unsuccessfully ran for the Phoenix City Council. ^{9 10 11} In 2012, Cymone led street protests in Phoenix after the death of Trayvon Martin, and in 2013, she joined the racial activist group Rise of South Phoenix. ¹

In 2020, Alexa-Rio Osaki served as the communications director of OVOV. In 2024, Osaki works as the senior political communications manager of the Colibri Collective, a marketing agency for racial minority and women-owned businesses in Phoenix. ^{12 13}