National Voter Registration Day

EveryLibrary is a partner organization for National Voter Registration Day 2014.  Voter registration and voter engagement are important to all the libraries we work with.

But an engaged and informed electorate is basic for the future of libraries. So we’re encouraging libraries to become partner organizations, too.  Your library can share information about voter registration in your communities.  Your library can register people to vote.  Your library already plays a role in civic engagement and democratic expression.  We want to encourage libraries across the county to sign up as a partner organization and invite volunteers to set up a voter registration booth at your library on September 23, 2014.

As a partner organization, your library will get free training and marketing materials AND volunteers to register voters at your library on September 23rd.

Signing Up is Easy
You still have time to register as a partnered organization and it’s very easy to do through their website. If you sign up before September 5th, they will provide training and marketing materials for free! You can then use these materials to start planning a voter registration event on National Voter Registration Day on September 23th.

What Will You Have to Do?
We are asking you to sign up as a partnering organization through the website. This is easy to do and requires very little from the library. There are a couple of ways that we are asking you to partner with them and get involved.

•  You can organize a Voter Registration effort on September 23.
• You can allow their volunteers to set up a booth in front of your library to get people registered to vote.
• You can simply promote voter registration and/or volunteerism through marketing and communication efforts.

Why Is This So Important?
Plan and simply, the more registered library users in your community, the better your chances of winning an election come election time. Imagine if every library user in your community was a registered voter that your ballot committee could engage with and ask to vote for the library? It is also so important that library staff, from pages to directors get familiar and comfortable with the political process. A well-trained and comfortable staff is a huge asset during your library’s election. You are still the front line on library advocacy and as such, those staff members are all, in a way, candidates.

Is This Legal?
Yes.  And it’s basic library work.  While it is true that staff can never tell the public that they should vote yes or no on any piece of legislation, especially library ballot measures, they can help members of the public to get registered to vote and give them information about elections.

But We’re Not On the Ballot
Whether or not your library is on the ballot this November, this kind of political advocacy within your community will help you in the years to come. The planning stages before you announce a ballot measure is called surfacing and the more time you take to build your advocates and political supporters before an election, the less work you’ll have to do come election time. So, get started now with National Voter Registration Day!

Get the details.  Bring it to your boss or staff committee.  Tell them we said Hi.