June 2026 Program Briefing

Transcript

1. VoteAmerica June 2026 donor briefing Presented by: Debra Cleaver, CEO June 24, 2026
2. VoteAmerica is a goal-oriented, tactic-agnostic, voter turnout organization. Our goal is to increase voter turnout. I’ve broken this presentation down into two parts: 1. Dispelling some voting myths 2. Overview of our 2026 programs
3. Myth: voter registration is the most effective way to increase turnout Myth: almost 90% of registered voters cast ballots in presidential elections
4. This is actually progressive misinformation • Demos.org is a progressive think tank. In 2015, they published a 54 policy paper on the potential impact of Automatic Voter Registration. • The report correctly stated that Automatic Voter Registration would reduce voter registration costs. The report incorrectly stated that Automatic Voter Registration would increase turnout. • Here’s the problematic paragraph: “The rate of voter turnout among all eligible citizens was only 64 percent in 2008, and 62 percent in 2012; but the rate of voter turnout of people registered to vote was 90 percent in 2008, and 87 percent in 2012.” • The turnout rate among registered voters in presidential elections is about 75%, not 90%. Demos based their conclusions on Census data. Census data is self-reported and is unreliable when it comes to registration and turnout data. • Read the report here: https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/AVR_0.pdf
5. Census data is unreliable. US Election Administration Commission data IS reliable since it’s sourced directly from the states. If 90% of registered voters cast ballots, turnout would be significantly higher.
6. Motor voter passed in 1993. The overwhelming majority of voters have been registered since 1998. Registration rates have surged over the past 30 years.
7. Voter turnout has remained steady for 60 years.
8. • 86.4% of the population is already registered to vote. • Voter registration increases the number of people who are registered to vote. • Voter mobilization increases the number of people who actually vote.
9. Myth: Young voters are moving to the right.
10. For two years now pundits have been talking about a 6 point swing toward the right. This is being used to justify ignoring and excluding young voters. This is based on the below chart, which only looks at young people who voted.
11. Analysis of the entire universe of young people tells a different store. Support for the couch increased 10 points. Republicans held steady, Democrats did not vote.
12. Young voters are not shifting to the right. They’re disengaging because of partisan neglect.
13. Part two: VoteAmerica’s 2026 program 1. College Media 2. Permanent Absentee Voting 3. Technology and partner expansion 4. FutureVoter.com
14. We’ll be running our college media program again
16. College students are young, diverse, progressive • College students are young, diverse, and progressive • 80% of students are under 30 • 57% are female • 48% are people of color • 22% are white men • 19.4 undergraduate students as of Fall 2024. • Students don’t need to be convinced to vote, they need to be taught how to vote. • Source: https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics
19. We’re making some fun improvements this year 1. We’ve joined the America Votes C4 coalition. This is a group of roughly 400 progressive orgs that run mobilization programs. This will allow us to more effectively coordinate with other orgs. 2. We’ll be running C3 and C4 programs this year. This allows us to be a bit more direct. 3. We’re building software to guide students through the process, and we’ll be offering the software to other orgs to use – for free – since we are not capitalists.
20. Our Permanent Absentee Voting pilot exceeded expectations and is ready to scale
21. PAV is available to 48 million citizens, but many don’t know it’s an option. 11 states: Arizona, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Virginia
22. Controlling for all demographic factors turnout is about 13 points higher in PAV states for voters who receive their ballots in the mail. (Analysis by Professor Scott Minkoff)
23. Our timeline and target audience • We ran this campaign over the course of roughly 3 weeks: from March 24 - April 15. • 5 Key outreach methods: postcards, cold SMS, Facebook ads, OLV, CTV. • Total audience size: 66,912
24. Of the 1.4k people who signed up for PAV in SD-35, 50% were in our target universe and 10% signed up directly through the VoteAmerica platform. Number of Channels Exposed To Count Percent PAV Signups PAV Signup Rate 0 1,242 2% 7 0.56% 1 15,413 26% 179 1.16% 2 28,003 48% 384 1.37% 3 13,720 24% 181 1.32% TOTAL 58,378 100% 751 1.29%
25. Mail had the highest action rate, SMS was least expensive Channel Site Visitors Actions (action rate) Completed Cost-per-action Mail 246 206 (84%) 190 $148.45 SMS 2,306 161 (7%) 116 $28.37 Facebook ads 465 6 (1%) 5 $317 OLV and CTV ads 1,455 3 (0.2%) 3 $6570.67 Total 4,472 376 314 —
26. Prior Absentee Behavior Total Targets PAV Signups Signup Rate Never Voted Absentee Before 39,457 102 0.26% Voted Absentee In Some Prior Election 18,921 649 3.43% Past experience voting by mail was the best predictor of likelihood to sign up for PAV
27. Regression analysis also showed that our CTV ads were positively correlated with PAV signups • Leveraging CTV ads to create a “surround-sound” campaign has a greater impact than using any single form of outreach. • On average, voters in our target audience saw 3.2 CTV ads. • While CTV ad viewers did not necessarily visit the VoteAmerica website, they did sign up for PAV, likely by Googling “permanent absentee voting” and then going directly to the state website. • CTV and OLV are top of funnel channels. These are best used for education, not action. We would still never spend money on broadcast TV ads, but we’d like to experiment more with OLV and CTV.
28. Biggest surprise? Young people responded very well to mail. 20% of mail signups were under 45, compared to 8% of SMS signups
29. We’re significantly expanding our footprint by making sure other organizations use our software.
30. VoteAmerica built a comprehensive suite of voter mobilization software for ourselves • Ten products and growing — covering everything from pre-registration for teens to finding your Election Day polling place • The platform is comprehensive and very secure. SOC 2 Type 2 certified, HIPAA compliant, and third-party pen-tested annually. Organizations can trust us with sensitive data. • We’ve started licensing the software to values-aligned orgs. The standard price is “free” since that’s what our customers can afford.
31. 290 organizations are already using our software. Short term we’re focused on mission-aligned orgs and associations that are actively working to increase turnout. Some of our favorites include MoveOn, Feel Good Action, DailyKos, DoSomething, Everytown, and Voters of Tomorrow. We’ve spent almost $4M developing software so other groups don’t have to. Longer term we’re focusing on Girl Scouts, Scouting America, SnapChat, and the National Association of College Admission Counselors. , of and many more — platforms and networks where we can meet reach massive numbers of people and that can scale our impact dramatically. We’re also interested in providing software to values-aligned candidates and campaign committees. Shockingly, no one is doing this right now for progressive-leaning candidates.
33. You can sign up right now for an account: secure.voteamericaplus.org
34. And we’re getting ready for 2028 via our FutureVoter.com work
35. 100% of teenagers can register to vote before they turn 18 • When looking at the youngest cohort of voters (18-24) turnout is 13 points higher among young people who pre-register to vote than among people who register at 18+ • There are 16M high school students. 8M of them can vote in the 2028 election. • Only three organizations are devoting significant resources to high school students: VoteAmerica, Civics Center, and Feel Good Action. • There is so much room for growth and collaboration. • To that end, we recently secured a 5-figure investment from American Federation of Teachers to expand this work.
36. 132 days until Election Day. Candidates do not work on voter turnout. Nonprofits do. We will all benefit from increased turnout in November.
37. Consider this a formal invitation to join the team • If you run an organization, sign up for our software. secure.voteamericaplus.org • If you know anyone who works in ed tech, please introduce us. • If you work with youth, please reach out so we can work together on FutureVoter. • Let all of your friends know that 86.4% of Americans are already registered to vote. • Donate to support our work: https://donate.voteamerica.org/page/june-2026-briefing