Sierra Club Launches Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts in North Carolina #VoterRegistration

On September 27th, National Registration Day, the Sierra Club announced the launch of two get-out-the-vote programs in North Carolina in the lead up to the October 14th registration deadline and early voting in North Carolina. In conjunction with Campus Vote Project, Sierra Club organizers on college and university campuses will register voters and implement Election Day turn-out programs among students. In addition, the Sierra Club is partnering with the Southern Engagement Foundation to register and turnout African Americans voters on November 8th.“The Sierra Club is serious about ensuring everyone’s voice is heard in this critical election,” said Courtney Hight, director of Sierra Club’s Democracy Program. “As the next generation to inherit this planet and deal with issues involving democracy, inclusiveness and equal protection, young voters have more at stake than anyone. African Americans and students have been on the receiving end of all the assaults on our right to vote in North Carolina. These efforts have the direct consequence of making it harder for these constituencies to get to the polls. That is why we are investing heavily and supporting students and communities of color in their fight against recent attacks on their voting rights, especially young people and African Americans, to turn out and make their voices heard this November.”

The Sierra Club will support organizers on twenty campuses across the state, including: UNC Chapel Hill and Charlotte, East Carolina, Forsyth Tech, Guilford Tech, NC A&T, and Winston-Salem State. This campaign will aim to register University and College students in the weeks leading up to the General Election and collecting their pledges to vote. Additionally, the program will aim to disseminate critical information about what students on campus  will need in order to comply with recently implemented confusing voting laws and gain pledges from young people to vote early or on Election Day.

In addition to the work being done on college campuses and universities, the Sierra Club will train roughly five-hundred community organizers to go door-to-door within North Carolina’s most populated African American counties, registering voters, educating them on their voting rights under current law and informing when, where and how they can vote. The program will engage more than 30,000 unregistered and low-propensity African American voters, encouraging them to turnout, vote and make their voice heard.

“We’re engaging a group of voters that represent the largest, most diverse generation to exist in this country– it’s important to make sure what they care about is represented,” said Hight.