Massachusetts Voter Education

MassVOTE strives to make the electoral process more accountable and accessible to all people. Through its various programs such as Democracy for Nonprofits, Young Civic Leaders, and Fair Elections Agenda, MassVOTE works to promote a culture of active political participation by providing the tools and resources needed to organize, register, and educate voters, with an emphasis on historically disenfranchised communities.

MassVOTE utilizes and builds the capacity of other nonprofits, community groups, and youth by providing them with the tools and resources they need to organize, register, and educate voters.

The MassVOTE Democracy for Nonprofits Project works with over 300 nonprofits across Massachusetts to help them incorporate nonpartisan voter education into their everyday work. MassVOTE has a wide variety of materials to help any nonprofit register and educate people to vote. We also provide trainings at low or no cost to help nonprofit staff members, board members, and volunteers learn how to mobilize citizens to participate and vote

The MassVOTE Young Civic Leaders Program gives youth the tools that they need to become leaders in their communities. Through active participation in trainings, workshops, and project-based learning, Young Civic Leaders are molded into agents of change in their communities; they organize and mobilize their peers to be more civically engaged in their neighborhoods.

Finally, MassVOTE supports legislation to modernize election laws, increase civic engagement, safeguard the accuracy of election results, and save money. Using coalition strength, MassVOTE builds relationships in the halls of the State House and effectively lobbies key legislators to ensure voting rights for all.

MassVOTE has an incredibly passionate, hard working, and knowledgeable team of staff, volunteers, and nonprofit/community groups that effectively utilize resources in pursuit of a more accountable and accessible electoral process for all people while also building and maintaining strong communities that are able to self-advocate.

In January, MassVOTE convened an Election Modernization Coalition to advocate for comprehensive election reform in 2013. In May 2014, MassVOTE and its coalition partners had a significant legislative victory when Governor Deval Patrick signed the new election reform bill into law which includes early voting, online voter registration, post-election audits of voting machines, and pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds. These reforms make the Commonwealth a leader in voting modernization when previously it lagged way behind more conservative states. Furthermore, MassVOTE, working with its community and nonprofit partners, helped Boston reach its highest voter turnout in a Mayoral election in 30 years.

MassVOTE continues to push for Election Day Registration, higher registration rates and turnout among the rising Massachusetts electorate, as well as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Citizens United decision.