Vote.org is a left-of-center get-out-the-vote organization specifically designed to mobilize minority communities through online communications and resources. ¹ Vote.org says it is the “largest 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan voting registration and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) technology platform in America, with the goal of reaching historically underserved voters of color and underrepresented young voters.” ² In addition to engaging in general get-out-the-vote activity, Vote.org provides charts and data-banks that list the various voting integrity laws in every state. ³ Vote.org aligns with left-of-center causes, and its blog publishes criticism of the Republican Party and disagreement with state legislative discretion in structuring voter integrity laws. ⁴ Vote.org advocates for federal legislation that would dictate the same voting laws for the entire country. ⁵

Activities

Vote.org was founded in 2008 under the name Long Distance Voter (LDV). In 2014, it became the official source of data for Google’s “How to Vote Project.” ⁶ In 2016 LDV rebranded as Vote.org with funding and support from Y Combinator, ⁷ an organization that provides “start-up” capital. ⁸

Vote.org claims that in the 2020 presidential election it conducted the largest “voter mobilization” program in history by making more than 650 million voter contacts and responded to 39.4 million voter inquiries about deadlines, polling locations, and other essential voting information. ⁹ During the 2020 election, Vote.org ran voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns in key swing states including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. The organization also worked in Texas, California, and New York. ¹⁰ The organization noted in its 2020 Impact Report that it registered more voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin than the margins of victory in those states during the election. ¹¹

Vote.org provides up-to-date voter laws for all 50 states and has broken down each state’s laws into two categories, “In Person Voter-ID Laws” and “Absentee Voter ID Law” which applies to absentee ballot voting. ¹² The Voter ID Law Bank provides information on each source of information required to qualify to vote through an absentee ballot. ¹³

Vote.org provides specific guidance on how to obtain an absentee ballot in each state. ¹⁴ This includes links to absentee ballot applications in each state, information on special absentee ballot policies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and absentee voter qualification requirements. ¹⁵

Vote.org has criticized the Senate following the failure to pass the Freedom to Vote John R. Lewis Act, a bill that would have stripped the states of authority to regulate voting in their state through a top-down one size fits all federal mandate. ¹⁶ Vote.org claimed that “a super majority” of Americans support top-down federal voting laws, ¹⁷ and stated that in light of the bill’s failure to pass, “local organizers” would have to fill-in for Congress and advocate for far reaching voting laws. ¹⁸

In 2021, Vote.org published an article criticizing the Republican Party on its blog and on the Daily Kos, ¹⁹ a left-of-center news outlet produced by Markos Moulitas. ²⁰  In the article, Vote.org referred to the United States as a nation “built on slavery,” ²¹ accused 18 states that passed voter integrity laws as doing so for racially motivated reasons, ²² and claimed that the ultimate goal of voter integrity laws is to “rollback hard-won voting rights and stop our nation’s march toward inclusion and equity.” ²³

Vote.org lists a host of left-of-center organizations, including the Andrew Goodman Foundation, the Webby Awards, NAACP Youth Coalition, GLSEN, wikiHow, and the Young Entertainment Activists as partners in their effort to specifically register young and minority voters. ²⁴

Controversies

Lawsuit Against Texas H.B. 3107

On July 8, 2021, Vote.org sued Texas, alleging H.B. 3107, which codified an existing rule requiring physical signatures on voter registration applications, was unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the Civil Rights Act. ²⁵ The case came after a 2018 controversy in which then-Texas Secretary of State Roland Pablos determined that applications which utilized Vote.org’s online registration application were not valid because they did not have a physical signature. ²⁶

Litigation Against Georgia Election Integrity Bill

In a statement on its website electionday.org, Vote.org urged businesses to condemn Georgia Senate Bill 202, which was passed in Georgia in 2021. The organization said the bill included “provisions restricting early and mail-in voting, criminalizing providing food and water to voters standing in long lines, and removing large numbers of voters from the voter rolls for partisan political purposes.” ²⁷

CBS News reported that while the bill did add a voter ID requirement for absentee and mail-in ballots, the bill expanded early voting in most Georgia counties. ²⁸ The bill also banned non-poll workers from handing out food or water, but did allow election officials to set up self-service water stations. Gabriel Sterling, the COO of the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, told CBS that “We literally had people handing out Warnock water, and that really kind of gets around the idea that you’re not campaigning. It’s a criminal offense to go campaign within 150 feet [of a polling place] and has for decades. This closes that loophole for advocacy groups have been taking advantage of.” ²⁹

On May 2, 2022, Vote.org joined a coalition of left-leaning organizations led by Democratic attorney Marc Elias which filed suit against the Georgia State Election Board, alleging that a new rule which required absentee ballot applications in Georgia to have a physical signature violated Section 101 of the Civil Rights Act. ³⁰ Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger said “This frivolous suit will lose in court. It never ceases to amaze me the extent liberal groups will bend and twist to undo common sense election security measures. They tried to get rid of signature requirements before and failed, and they’ll fail again here.” ³¹

Funding

In 2019, Vote.org received contributions from a variety of left-of-center grantmaking organizations. Organizations that contributed to Vote.org include the National Philanthropic Trust ($504,437), ³² Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($110,000), ³³ Libra Foundation ($100,000), ³⁴ NEO Philanthropy ($100,000), ³⁵ San Francisco Foundation ($45,000), ³⁶ ImpactAssets Inc. ($20,000), ³⁷ Joseph and Diane Steinberg Charitable Trust ($10,000), ³⁸ Santa Barbara Foundation ($10,000), ³⁹ and the Casteel Family Foundation ($3,000). ⁴⁰

In 2020, Vote.org received contributions from multiple donor-advised funds, a popular method of philanthropic giving that allows donors to maintain anonymity. These funds included Fidelity Charitable ($1,400,000), the Someland Foundation ($1,000,000), the National Philanthropic Trust ($1,500,000), and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($1,250,000). Vote.org also collected gifts of $750,000 and $500,000 from the Southern Poverty Law Center via the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. ⁴¹

Leadership

Andrea Hailey is the CEO of Vote.org. ⁴² Prior to joining Vote.org, Hailey was the founder and director of the Civic Engagement Fund, a left-of-center activist incubator. ⁴³ She began her career as a staffer in the office of then-U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI). ⁴⁴ Hailey sits on the boards of the abortion advocacy organization NARAL ⁴⁵ and Bend The Arc, an organization that mobilizes left-of-center activism and left-progressive racial-interest politics in Jewish communities. ⁴⁶ In addition, Hailey sits on the Leadership Council of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Society of Fellows. ⁴⁷

Finances

Vote.org’s 2020 IRS Form 990 filings indicated that the organization’s total revenue in 2020 was $18,469,832 while its total expenses were $14,011,806. ⁴⁸ At the end of the year, Vote.org’s net assets were $6,532,332, and its total liabilities were $495,531. ⁴⁹

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2. Vote.org. “About Vote.org – What is Vote.org?” https://www.vote.org/about/. Accessed June 2, 2022.
3. “About.” Vote.org https://www.vote.org/about/
4. “Vote.org Vows to Register More Voters of Color and Voters Under 40, Following Senate Inaction.” Vote.org January 20, 2022. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.vote.org/blog/2022-01-20_senate-vote-statement/
5. “Vote.org Vows to Register More Voters of Color and Voters Under 40, Following Senate Inaction.” Vote.org January 20, 2022. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.vote.org/blog/2022-01-20_senate-vote-statement/
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8. “About.” Y Combinator. https://www.ycombinator.com/about
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11. Vote.org. “2020 Impact Report.” p. 2. https://impact.vote.org/Vote.org_2020_Impact.pdf. Accessed June 2, 2022.
12. “Voter ID Laws.” Vote.org https://www.vote.org/voter-id-laws/
13. “Voter ID Laws.” Vote.org https://www.vote.org/voter-id-laws/
14. “Absentee Ballot Rules.” Vote.org  https://www.vote.org/absentee-voting-rules/
15. “Absentee Ballot Rules.” Vote.org  https://www.vote.org/absentee-voting-rules/
16. Riccardi, Nicholas. “Here’s What’s in the Voting Rights Bill Senate Dems Want to Pass.” NBC New York. January 19, 2022. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/voting-changes-and-more-in-democrats-broad-elections-bill/3503376/
17. “Vote.org Vows to Register More Voters of Color and Voters Under 40, Following Senate Inaction.” Vote.org January 20, 2022. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.vote.org/blog/2022-01-20_senate-vote-statement/
18. “Vote.org Vows to Register More Voters of Color and Voters Under 40, Following Senate Inaction.” Vote.org January 20, 2022. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.vote.org/blog/2022-01-20_senate-vote-statement/
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29. Webb, Ashlyn. “3 groups claim Georgia’s Election Integrity Act suppresses voters, violates Voting Rights Act in lawsuit against state officials.” WMAZ, 2021. https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/politics/3-groups-claim-georgias-election-integrity-act-suppresses-voters-violates-voting-rights-act-in-lawsuit-against-state-officials-2/93-c983c9d8-cbc5-45db-bc19-59624df03012. Accessed June 1, 2022.
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