Champaign County Voter Alliance

First off, here's a quick description of who they are from their website:

The Champaign County Voters Alliance (or CCVA) is a local non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the Voter Turnout in Champaign County by as much as possible. In doing so we hope to create a more representative democracy of citizens.

As an organization, we are strictly nonpartisan. We strive to invite all political opinions to the table for an open and honest discussion of what it means to be a citizen of this county. We strive to educate the citizens of this county on the options they have available to them. We will not endorse any specific candidate.

Their next meeting is September 27th at the Champaign Public Library at 7-9pm, but in the mean time you can check them out on social media and get involved in events and the work they do on facebook and Twitter. Be sure to check out their non-partisan Candidate Guide!

Yesterday's meeting covered some of the county and campus data on voter registration and turnout over the past 16 years. The slide show presentation is available here with charts and graphs. Here's the county wide data showing total voters registered versus voters turning out for various primary and general elections (click to enlarge):

More graphs with individual detail are on the slide show presentation here. The gist of the data shows an increase in voter interest in 2016 and local races since after years of fairly steady and low turnout in most elections. The groups goal is to improve voter participation and education in the area and eventually try to scale what works to other counties as well.

So how do they work to improve voter participation? "Register, Research, VOTE!"

From doorknob campaigns on campus, to flyers on community cork boards, to door to door and event outreach... they're working to get people registered to vote. A lot of people are already registered to vote, but should verify their registration is up-to-date.

They provide a non-partisan candidate guide and have been successful in getting candidates to respond to questionnaires for additional information on why they're running and where they stand. It's an extremely helpful tool for looking up candidates on your sample ballot or mail in ballot so that you can cast an informed vote, even on local races where it can be tough to find information on the candidates.

They'll also be participating in events to encourage people to get to the polls, vote by mail, and early vote as those options become available in the lead up to the election. The CCVA website has a quick and easy homepage with quick links to help on all three fronts: register, research, and voting!

The meeting itself had discussions on the doorknob hanger design and ideas on how to make it as inclusive as possible to all potential voters. They're looking for volunteers with a graphic design background that may be able to help with that aspect.

There was quite a bit of discussion of the time gap between registering students to vote and the voting day itself and how to make sure the folks getting registered make it to the polls later. With the early voting and vote by mail options, this may be mitigated somewhat. The group plans on having events to encourage getting out to vote throughout that gap. They're also looking into voting promotion events such as GOTV concerts and events locally. County Board member Pattsi Petrie was in attendance and emphasized her concerns on addressing the interest drop off over that time gap.


Looking ahead:

They already have about a third of the candidates responses to their questionnaires (from gubernatorial candidates to the County Board) and roughly half already have given a preliminary response towards doing so. They had a lot of success with this in the primary, so they appear on track to repeat that broad participation in the general as well.

Quad day events and volunteer opportunities to register and get information out are coming up soon.

They're reaching out to other organizations to piggy-back on their efforts to get people registered and get out the vote, from local activist groups, high school groups, interfaith groups, etc. They'll be trying to get more information out via letters to the editor as well.

If you're interested in spreading the word or simply getting more information on early voting and candidates, check them out!