Welcome to the Voter TechKit!

This web site is for community organizers, technology support people and funders who are interested in learning more about how to increase and sustain civic participation.

Voter Work Integrated with On-going Organizing

We're using the term "Integrated Voter Engagement" (IVE) to describe how community organizing groups can use voter projects over multiple election cycles to strengthen their membership organizations. It is about much more than voter turnout. It is about the accountability of elected officials, mobilizing the disenfranchised and underrepresented, building an organization's base, and amplifying the voices of community leaders. Electoral projects lay the groundwork for an active and outspoken voting population that, over time, can achieve real changes for their community.

Learn from Experienced Organizers

Progressive Technology Project's top priority is spreading the knowledge of what works and what doesn't to community organizers across the country. We've built this site because we've learned is that there is need for well-structured training on how community-led organizing can engage in voter work.

We've structured this so you can see and hear directly from organizers who've engaged in successful voter projects that have become permanent features of their organizations' programs. You can get a sense of how this site works and what the organizers think by clicking on the pictures of the community organizers at right. This will bring up another window with a very short video explaining why their organizations do voter projects.

Bigger and Better Voter Projects

As you will see from this web site, a carefully designed voter project takes a lot of preparation before anyone knocks on a door. Sometimes it's hard to envision what the result will be. We've prepared a 5 minute video to give you a sense of how all the parts fit together. You'll see how one organization, AGENDA in Los Angeles, tackles the technology and organizing necessary to run a large voter canvass. Our hope is that by using the Voter TechKit, you'll find a host of ideas and techniques that you can use to expand your own organization's voter work.

Get Started

On the following page, we'll explain how to use the TechKit.

Click to hear from an organizer

Bineshi Albert: encouraging community to engage in a “culture of voting”

Anthony Thigpenn: voter participation is a fundamental part of SCOPE's mission