To help our co-op members practice these values, NCBA CLUSA has partnered with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) on the Co-ops Vote program to help cooperators and those we serve get registered to vote on National Voter Registration Day, September 22, 2020.
We’ve set a goal to get 50 cooperatives to participate in National Voter Registration Day. Will your co-op help us meet that goal?
Be a National Voter Registration Day host
Co-ops often serve as more than just a place of business. They play a central role in the community and especially during a pandemic are uniquely positioned to support voter registration, act as a conduit of critical voting information, and helping people make a plan to vote.
Listen to the Along These Lines podcast episode featuring NRECA’s Laura Vogel and Non-Profit Vote’s Brian Miller on initiatives and resources for cooperatives.
Get involved
Check out this toolkit or visit vote.coop for more opportunities to get involved, including:
- Invite candidates to virtually speak with your co-op,
- Add the vote.coop link on your co-op’s website,
- Send an email to your co-op’s member-owners with voter registration information, or
- Create a Co-ops Vote insert for your member-owners or customers to be included in an invoice, receipt or delivery.
We want to hear from you! Share your activity using the hashtags #CoopsVote and #CoopsFor2020. You can also use this survey to share how you’re supporting Co-ops Vote.
SAVE THE DATE
NCBA CLUSA, NRECA’s Co-ops Vote and the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives will be hosting a webinar presented in English and Spanish on September 15 at 1pm ET/9am PT for information on National Voter Registration Day activities! Register here.
In the meantime, you can watch this webinar from Non-profit Vote on Digital Voter Engagement Tools During the COVID Pandemic. Voter registration drives typically involve a table setup and clipboards, but this webinar discusses numerous tools to engage with people digitally, including Vote411, BallotReady, Rock the Vote, Democracy Works, Register2Vote, Vote.org, and State Voices. You can sign up to join another conversation on engaging candidates virtually on August 13 at 2pm ET.
IT ALL STARTS WITH A VOTE
In May, we shared how being a Co-op Voter has tangible results to ensure that co-ops can access federal programs, like the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Legislators in the Senate and the House of Representatives made sure that legislation explicitly included eligibility for cooperatives, and in cases where the language wasn’t clear, urged clarification by the Administration—all in a bipartisan fashion.
But it all starts with a vote! Visit vote.coop to see if your voter registration is up to date and the latest information on voting in your community.
Note: Voter registration is a non-partisan activity and is not affiliated with a political party or candidates.