Increasing Voter Participation

It is critical that NASW and our members follow the path of past leaders such as Whitney Young by exerting our national leadership to maximize voter participation through mobilization, voter engagement, and voter registration efforts.

NASW has been working in collaboration and partnership with national voter mobilization organizations such as:

• A collaboration between NASW and Voting is Social Work called Social Work Votes!
• Rock the Vote
• Voto Latino
• Non-Profit Vote
• National Voter Registration Day
• The National Voting Rights Taskforce
• The Census Taskforce

Voting Rights with Emerging Black and Brown Social Workers

Social work students and community leaders from Howard University spoke in June 2022 with NASW President Mit Joyner about voting rights and how social workers can work to ensure that all Americans have access to voting.

Social Workers as Activists

NASW Webinar Series

These webinars are available on-demand at our Social Work Online CE Institute. Learners have the option to view them for free or to earn CE credits for a nominal fee.

Voter Participation and Voter Engagement: Millennials

Learn about the challenges of motivating young eligible voters to participate in the voting process for local, state, and federal elections. Historically, young people — especially those of color — tend to vote at a lower percentage than their older counterpoints. The webinar provides guidance and information about current barriers that that impede voter participation within this population.

Instructor: Shaneice Simmons, Associate Director of Civic Engagement, Rock the Vote

Challenges for Voting Rights in America

This webinar discusses the state of voting rights in the United States. It touches on the historical context of gaining access to the ballot by African Americans and women. It also looks at the threat to voting rights for Hispanics, college students, and African Americans for the 2018 mid-term elections and the 2020 Presidential election.

Instructor: Hilary O. Shelton, Director to the NAACP's Washington Bureau, Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy

Recognizing and Eliminating Barriers to Voter Registration and Participation

This webinar covers the historic and current barriers that low-income people, ethnic minorities, senior citizens, current and formally incarcerated men and women and college students have faced when trying to exercise their right to vote. The presenters will discuss their respective efforts to eliminate these barriers both through legal actions, mobilization of concerned voter rights advocates, and lobbying to members of congress, and political leaders in states where barriers to voting participation has been identified.

Instructors: Hilary O. Shelton, Director to the NAACP's Washington Bureau / Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy; and Jennifer Bellamy, Legislative Counsel at American Civil Liberties Union

Mobilizing Voters

VotER and Telehealth for Social Workers

VotER enables social workers to quickly connect people to state-based voter registration via telehealth platforms.

National Voter Registration Day

Every year, millions of Americans find themselves unable to vote because they miss a registration deadline, don’t update their registration, or aren’t sure how to register. 

National Voter Registration Day was created to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to vote.

Learn more about National Voter Registration Day

Rock the Vote

Rock the Vote is a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to building the political power of young people. Rock the Vote has registered and turned out millions of young voters, and successfully defended voting rights and increased access to democracy.

Learn more at rockthevote.org

Young Invicibles

Young Invincibles amplifies the voices of young adults by expanding opportunities to participate in the political process, to advocate for the issues they care about, and to exercise their right to vote.

Learn more at younginvincibles.org

NAACP

The NAACP is committed to raising awareness for political, educational, social and economic equality for communities of color in the electoral and legislative process.

Voto Latino

Voto Latino is a grassroots political organization focused on educating and empowering a new generation of Latinx voters, as well as creating a more robust and inclusive democracy. Through innovative digital campaigns, culturally relevant programs and authentic voices, we shepherd the Latinx community towards full realization of its political power.

Learn more about Voto Latino

Nonprofit Vote

Nonprofit VOTE partners with America’s nonprofits to help the people they serve participate and vote. They are the largest source of nonpartisan resources to help nonprofits integrate voter engagement into their ongoing activities and services.

Learn more about Nonprofit VOTE

LCCR Census Task Force

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Census Task Force seeks to educate and influence Congress and the Executive Branch about the government investment and sound policy development needed to ensure a comprehensive American Community Survey and a fair and accurate census in every one of the nation’s communities.

Learn more about The Census Task Force

Partner Organizations

Brennan Center for Justice

The Brennan Center understands that election security is vital to ensuring the integrity of our democracy. They're teaming up with election officials across the country to help plan for shielding the vote from hacks, breakdowns and erroneous voter purges. They also are keeping an eye on several significant voting rights lawsuits around the country.

Learn more about election security

American Civil Liberties Union

Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy and the fundamental right upon which all our civil liberties rest. The ACLU works to protect and expand Americansʼ freedom to vote.

Learn about the ACLU's voting rights activities

U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC)

EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission that serves as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration. EAC also accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems.

Visit EAC.gov to learn more