The Prepared to Vote initiative began in 2008. Check out some of the past issues we’ve addressed.
Democracy Defended captures and analyzes election related activities undertaken by LDF during the 2020 election season, including our Prepared to Vote (PTV) — a nonpartisan voter education and advocacy initiative — and Voting Rights Defender a year-round effort to identify voter suppression and take decisive action to eliminate them — programs (VRD) run by LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute. It provides documentation of barriers faced by Black voters in PTV/VRD focus states and solutions for policy makers, election administrators, and community members to implement to ensure fair access to the vote in future elections.
Our organizing and election monitoring operations had components with national scope, but focused primarily on 10 states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas — most of which were subject to Section 5 Voting Rights Act oversight before the Shelby County v. Holder decision by the Supreme Court.
In 2015, we worked to protect the right to vote in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas. Specifically, we worked to combat confusing photo ID laws, as well as ensured voters knew where their polling locations were.
In 2014, we worked specifically on midterm elections where new photo ID laws were implemented, worked to ensure polling locations were enacted fairly, and worked on elections that were contested along racial lines. After the 2014 elections. LDF and the Center for American Progress co-authored a report, “Examining the Impact of Voter Suppression on the 2014 Midterm Elections”.
In 2013, we protected the right to vote in South Carolina and Texas, where strict voter ID laws had become recently enforceable.
In 2012, our campaign distributed 500,000 pieces of voter information cards for our door-to-door canvassing efforts. We protected the right to vote in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas.