Black Voters on the Rise began as the Prepared to Vote initiative in 2008. Check out some of the past issues we’ve addressed.
In 2022, LDF conducted civic engagement, election monitoring, and advocacy efforts in seven southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. As identified through the monitoring and advocacy work during these elections, limitations on the ability of Black voters to access the ballot and have their votes counted remained a prominent factor in U.S. elections. In addition to voter intimidation and election sabotage threats, LDF and our partners observed many obstacles that made it harder for Black voters to vote. Democracy Defended incorporates just some of the data points and observations conveyed during elections in LDF’s target states in 2022. It also reflects lessons informed by these findings and key takeaways from prior Democracy Defended reports that can position civil rights advocates to engage strategically to support voters in 2024 and beyond.
Democracy Defended captures and analyzes election related activities undertaken by LDF during the 2020 election season. This includes two programs then run by LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute which are now known as Black Voters on the Rise: Prepared to Vote, 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 it. It provides documentation of barriers faced by Black voters in our 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.