1. President and CEO, NAACP Vice President for Civic Engagement, NAACP
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE VOTER REGISTRATION GUIDE
Derrick Johnson,
President and CEO, NAACP
Jamal R. Watkins
Vice President for Civic Engagement, NAACP

2. VOTER REGISTRATION

3. A. Unpack the Legal Issues:
Research local voter registration laws.
Each state (and often, each county ) has its own rules on:
How much “aid” a campaign worker may provide to a new registrant?
Whether the form can be delivered by the campaign or must be mailed by the applicant?
Etc.
Therefore, each campaign must find out exactly what rules apply before beginning a registration effort. If the law is not followed, the campaign may face disqualified votes, bad press, fines and recounts.
Key Questions:
How long before the election do voters need to be registered to be eligible to vote? (Remember that there are primary and general elections, each with different voter registration deadlines.)
What is the age requirement for volunteers registering people to vote?
Do voters need to declare a party affiliation?
What are the rules for people who have been convicted of a felony?
How must registration forms be submitted to election officials?
What is the required length of residency prior to an individual registering to vote?
Are college students eligible to register to vote in the locality and state where they are enrolled?
Is there a required training for volunteers to be able to register voters?

4. Each State Varies:
In 49 states, an eligible citizen must be registered to vote. North Dakota does not require voter registration ahead of an election—eligible citizens can simply appear at the polls with required identification and be permitted to vote.
In other states, citizens can register in a number of ways:
Fill out a form at the local elections office.
Register at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Register at other state agencies that provide public assistance.
Register through a third-party voter registration organization, such as a registration drive conducted by a political party or the League of Women Voters.
Some states also offer the following options:
Online voter registration.
Same day registration.
Pre-registration.

5. B. Establish a Registration Strategy:
Voter registration can be risky – there is no way for the campaign to know what candidate the voter will ultimately support and that is okay!
Each new voter that the campaign brings in is one we can educate on the issues important to us.
In order to increase the chances that the new voters will be inclined to vote their conscious requires having information about the community the registration drive is located in.
For example, if your demographics and polling tell you that a certain issue we care about is very popular (or could be very popular) with the citizens in Precinct E, then this precinct would be a good place to conduct a voter registration drive.

7. The NAACP Strategy:
The first step is to set reasonable goals and develop a plan for the voter registration drive. Goals and a plan enable you to work strategically and gauge your progress. When you set your goals, consider the following questions:
How many people do you want to register?
Where should you target people to register?
Do you want to focus on certain neighborhoods or parts of town with historically low voter turnout, underrepresented groups, or high-traffic areas that will allow you to reach a greater number of people?
How much time and resources will it take to reach your voter registration goal?
Because NAACP is a nonpartisan organization, NAACP units may not target any voter registration efforts at members of a particular political party or at individuals likely to vote for partisan candidates who support NAACP issues.
How will this voter registration drive further the goals of your voter turnout campaign?
Will you be able to follow-up with the new voters you register?

8. C. Determine Your Registration Technique:
Registration campaigns should be carried out through a targeted approach.
Volunteers could set up registration tables at malls, county fairs, or other high traffic areas. The people who the campaign registers at such events may not live in the targeted areas so these types of drives should take that into account.
The only way to effectively target new voters to register is by sending volunteers to events that will yield a high level of potentially unregistered individuals from the targeted areas.
The campaign must ensure that it has a way to contact those who it registers. Again, check your local law to ensure compliance but having data collection is key.
Generally, the volunteers will have to mark down on the street lists who has agreed to register to vote, along with their addresses and other contact information.
Without knowing who the new voters are, voter registration campaigns will not be a benefit to the campaign.

10. Alternatives to “Door-to-Door” Strategy:
Just like getting people to vote, registering people is best done through direct, personal, targeted contact. The following ideas are creative ways to reach out to the community:
Send volunteers with clipboards to places where large groups of people congregate — malls, movie theaters, libraries, neighborhood festivals, rallies, farmer’s markets, etc. As always, be sure to check the rules for each location before planning a voter registration event there.
Set up a table at an event, grocery store, university, college, or community college in your area. Did you know that federal law (the 1998 Higher Education Amendments) requires colleges and universities to make a good-faith effort to distribute in-state voter registration forms to students? This is also true for federally funded health clinics,
Use a phone bank to contact members to let them know you will be registering people to vote. Be sure to ask all members if they are registered to vote. This is also a great way to recruit volunteers for voter registration drives and other activities in your get-out-the-vote campaign.
Hold an issue forum on a topic important to your community. Work with coalition partners and other community groups to publicize the event, and make a voter registration pitch at the end of each event. Remember, you can register people to vote at any time of the year.
Remember to keep it personal — talk to people about why voting is important and what issues are at stake in the upcoming elections. When you register people, keep track of their information so you can follow up with them before the next election. The people you register will be natural targets for other aspects of your Voter Turnout Campaign.

11. Keep a record of who you register:
DATA COLLECTION
Name
Mailing Address
Phone Number
Additional Information
(ID)

12. D. Follow-Up With Those Newly Registered:
After the registration campaign is completed, the task for the campaign is to ensure that the new voters are repeatedly contacted by the campaign.
Again, because these voters will not appear on the street lists, yours will be the only campaign that is targeting them.
The goal for the campaign is to contact these new voters a minimum of three times.
If the volunteers who conducted the registration efforts are still available, one good use of their time would be to go door-to-door to each of the new voters to deliver the campaign’s message in person.
The new voters should also be included in subsequent direct mail and literature drops.

13. Name
Mailing Address
Phone Number
Additional Information
(ID)