Jump to content

iVote

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iVote is an American voting rights organization. The New York Times described iVote's efforts as "the first major push to counter the Republican moves with a legislative strategy to expand voter rights."[1] In 2022, Axios called iVote "one of the biggest winners of election night."[2]

History

[edit]

The group was founded in 2014 by former aides to Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.[3] Ellen Kurz, who has been called "a one-person Paul Revere, warning of the dangers of vote-suppression efforts,"[4] is the president of iVote.[5]

iVote led the campaign[6] to pass automatic voter registration in Nevada, and has run additional electoral and legislative campaigns[1] in 11 states to pass automatic voter registration.[7]

In 2018, iVote raised over $14 million to run successful campaigns in U.S. swing states, including Michigan (Jocelyn Benson),[8] Arizona (Katie Hobbs),[9] Colorado (Jena Griswold),[10] and Nevada (Automatic Voter Registration ballot initiative).[6]

In Arizona, iVote's investment led to pro-Hobbs' efforts outspending the Republican opponent "two-to-one on television."[9] In Michigan, iVote's "spending amounted to more than the Republican candidate, Mary Treder Lange of Gross Pointe Farms, raised for her campaign."[8] In Nevada, iVote led the more than $10 million campaign[6] to pass an automatic voter registration ballot initiative with 59.57% of the vote.[6]

In 2020, iVote raised $18 million for a voter education effort in swing states that reached more than 15 million voters.[7]

Then in 2022, iVote "invested $15 million in secretary of state races that typically fly under the radar."[11] The organization ran ads targeting four states with Republican nominees "who didn't accept the validity of the 2020 election outcome," and all four were defeated: Kim Crockett (Minnesota), Mark Finchem (Arizona), Kristina Karamo (Michigan), and Jim Marchant (Nevada).[12] iVote's investment in Arizona was an historic[13] amount of money spent on a secretary of state's race.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Shear, Michael D. (2015-11-09). "Democratic Group Called iVote Pushes Automatic Voter Registration". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  2. ^ "⚡ Extreme defeat". Axios. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  3. ^ "The exciting war to make secretaries of state more boring". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  4. ^ "Voter-Suppression Tricks Are on the Ballot, Too". Bloomberg.com. 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  5. ^ Panetta, Grace. "The Trump-inspired battles over new voting laws will shape the 2022 governors' races". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  6. ^ a b c d "Nevada Question 5, Automatic Voter Registration via DMV Initiative (2018)".
  7. ^ a b "ELLEN KURZ (she/her) - NYU Alumni Changemaker of the Year (GAL '80". New York University). Archived from the original on 2022-04-01.
  8. ^ a b "National Voting Rights Group Spent Nearly $1 Million on Michigan's 2018 Race for Secretary of State". 11 March 2019.
  9. ^ a b Gardiner, Dustin. "Behind Katie Hobbs' win: How Democrats flipped Arizona's 2nd-highest office". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  10. ^ "Tale of two campaigns for Secretary of State: Dem is backed by advocacy group, GOP incumbent lets record speak". 22 October 2018.
  11. ^ "⚡ Extreme defeat". Axios. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  12. ^ "⚡ Extreme defeat". Axios. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  13. ^ "iVote to spend $5 million in Arizona Secretary of State race". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
[edit]