I was lucky to meet Jay, a volunteer with Spread the Vote. I am a big fan of Spread the Vote, a non-profit which is focused on helping citizens get IDs in many key voter ID states: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Jay was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.
Me: How did you get involved with Spread the Vote?
Jay: I heard of them through my local chapter of Indivisible chapter. I had joined with other ideas in mind, but when our Indivisible chairperson posted about them, I went to one of the monthly membership meetings and I was taken by the project. When I had first heard of the way states where using voter ID, I was very upset — I wanted to do sit-ins at the DMV to solve it the problem. I didn’t realize how complicated it can be to gather all the documentation needed to obtain an official ID, if somebody has lost all of their official paperwork.
Me: What does Spread the Vote do?
Jay: Spread the Vote helps people get their IDs. It can be surprisingly expensive to get an ID! If you need in-state documents, it might cost $10-$15 — but if you need out of state notarized documents, you need to pay $60 to get the paper in a reasonable time.
Me: What do you like most about volunteering with Spread the Vote?
Jay: Before volunteering with Spread the Vote, I hadn’t realized how much disruption a missing ID could cause — and how much case work is sometimes needed to fix it. Sometimes, it just takes a phone call. Other times, it can require a lot of expertise: maiden names vs. married names, William vs. Bill… many small things can get hard to fix.
Frankly, in many cases voting is pretty far down the priority list of the people we help. They need ID to get a job, a place to live — they want to get their life back in order. They way I look at it, if they vote, that’s great — but no matter what we are helping them.
Sometimes, it’s just about voting. One case in my local chapter was with an old man in his seventies. He registered to vote for each election, and every time he was turned down when he went to vote. When they enquired, they found that he had a felony from 40 years ago. They helped him get his rights restored, and last year he could vote for the first time in 40 years!
Me: What do you do as a volunteer with Spread the Vote?
Jay: It depends on how much time you can give. I can’t commit to a lot of time, so I haven’t been able to take on casework. I help with awareness and finding clients. The local Spread the Vote chapter is building partnerships with Churches, homeless shelters, municipal organizations… The number of cases is growing fast!
I’ve personally assisted with events, supported outreach events and signed clients up. One of the events was with a county health fair. In many cases people have come by to thank me for the help they got from Spread the Vote!
Me: What would you like to tell DailyKos readers who would like to help but aren’t sure how to help?
Jay: If you are in one of the 9 states with local chapters (link here), find out if they need volunteer help — and then try it out. If it fits your availability and personality, I think that you will find it very rewarding!
Otherwise, please donate here — getting IDs costs money, and there is a lot of need!
Me: Thanks Jay! You can also follow Spread the Vote on Twitter or on Facebook and give them more visibility.
Reacting to one of the comments below, I attended a Spread the Vote fundraiser recently in California — their leader was amazing and very inspirational. I have no doubt that they are in it for the long term. I’ll write another blog post on that event soon!
Re-posting this diary with 72 days to go before the critical 2020 election — still enough time to get IDs delivered and help folks get to the polls! Let’s help them do this.
Please recommend, comment (comments are always welcome!) and support if you can.
