SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

Thank you for reading NLIHC’s Our Homes, Our Votes newsletter. We are glad to have you as a partner in our NLIHC-led Our Homes, Our Votes nonpartisan candidate and voter engagement project. This newsletter will provide you with the latest news and updates related to voter engagement around affordable housing advocacy. You will receive national updates, access to resources, and information about events and what is happening on the ground.

Join Monday’s Our Homes, Our Votes Webinar on Overcoming Voter Suppression

Our Homes, Our Votes is NLIHC’s nonpartisan campaign to increase voter participation among low-income renters and to educate candidates about housing solutions. The Our Homes, Our Votes: 2022 webinar series features experts with frontline election experience to walk through every step of voter and candidate engagement activities and support housing organizations’ nonpartisan election efforts. Join our next webinar on Monday, October 3, at 2:30 pm ET to learn how advocates are combating voter suppression and protecting the right to vote in their communities!

Save the Date: National Voter Education Week Social Media Activations!

National Voter Education Week is a nonpartisan Civic Holiday that equips voters with the tools, information, and confidence they need to cast their ballots. The holiday will take place from Monday, October 3, through Friday, October 7, and each day will focus on a different aspect of voter education. NLIHC, the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN), and other national partners will host two social media activations to celebrate National Voter Education Week: a tweetchat on Monday, October 3, from 1 to 2 pm ET, and a tweetstorm on Friday, October 7, from 1 to 2 pm ET. We encourage our partners to join these activations using content from the Our Homes, Our Votes media toolkit and National Voter Education Week partner resources. Be sure to use the hashtag #OurHomesOurVotes22 and tag us at @OurHomesVotes on Twitter and @OHOV2022 on Facebook!

Nonprofit Voter Empowerment Project Releases Resource Guide for Nonprofits

The Nonprofit Voter Empowerment Project (NVEP), a nonpartisan pledge campaign created by Independent Sector and Nonprofit VOTE, has released a resource guide with tools that can be used by nonprofit organizations to help increase voter engagement among members of underrepresented communities. The guide highlights the importance of using an inclusive approach to address barriers to voting and explains why such an approach is essential when conducting outreach for voter engagement.

Nonprofits have unique positions in the communities they serve, having usually established working relationships with community members. By adopting an inclusive approach to voter engagement, nonprofits can build on these already-existing relationships in especially effective ways. The guide discusses the importance of an inclusive approach that considers different social identities – such as race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and class – as well as how these identities intersect.

The guide also identifies steps organizations should take in their voter engagement outreach strategies to ensure people from various disenfranchised groups can be reached. The guide includes several voting tools and resources that can be integrated into an organization’s voter engagement plan as well, including:

voter identification tools.
election accessibility tools.
resources for returning citizens.
resources to support migrant communities and communities of color.
tools and resources to support young voters.

Check out all the tools and resources in the new Nonprofit Voter Empowerment Project guide here.

NLIHC is a flagship partner of the Nonprofit Voter Empowerment Project and encourages housing organizations to participate in this initiative. Visit this page to learn more about the Nonprofit Voter Empowerment Project and sign on as a partner.

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Changes in State Election Laws Since 2020

The Voting Rights Lab summarizes key trends in election law changes since 2020 in its article The Lasting Impacts of the 2020 Election: Voter Registration, Voter List Maintenance, and Mail Ballot Applications. The authors note that while many states expanded voting access in the 2020 election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, certain provisions, such as voting by mail, became controversial and began to take a partisan lean. Some states have subsequently increased barriers to voter registration and restricted mail ballot access. The article cites examples of increased barriers to registration in Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Montana, Missouri, and New Hampshire. Examples of restrictions to mail ballot access were found in Florida, Texas, Georgia, Delaware, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Arizona. On the other hand, some states have expanded access to voter registration and mail ballots. The article cites examples of voter registration improvements in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Louisiana. Examples of expanded mail ballot access were found in California, Nevada, Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New York. The Voting Rights Lab will continue to monitor the impact of these changes on voters in the 2020 election.

Factsheet from Nonprofit Vote Explains How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media to Promote Voting

Nonprofit Vote, a leading source of nonpartisan resources to help nonprofits integrate voter engagement into their work, created a factsheet for 501(c)(3) organizations that are seeking to use social media in their election work and ensure that they are remaining nonpartisan. The factsheet provides insight into what staff can post on their personal accounts and who they can tag, as well as guidelines regarding the sharing of content from 501(c)(4) organizations and accountability for how posts are shared. For further advice on nonpartisan social media use, you can also check out Bolder Advocacy’s Legal Tips on Using Social Media for Advocacy.

Visit the Our Homes, Our Votes Online Store!

Show off your commitment to housing justice in style with Our Homes, Our Votes campaign merchandise! Our online store offers T-shirts, sweatshirts, buttons, hats, stickers, and other accessories, with messages in both English and Spanish. Visit NLIHC’s Shopify page to browse the full collection and place your order.

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