ANCOR Resources: The Importance of Voting and How to Engage with the Election

To further enrich the resources we shared last week on where to find information about voting and candidates, ANCOR has developed resources with our member-driven Grassroots Work Group to help providers and their networks engage with the election. Please feel free to use and widely share the following:

• Infographic designed to educate Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) on how voting connects to their work and everyday life.
• Social media graphic to help providers understand how to help individuals they support and staff vote.
• Social media graphic aimed to educate our broader networks on how to engage with the election.

Please encourage your networks to register and send in their ballots as soon as possible to ensure mail delays do not cause their ballots to arrive too late to be counted. Some states allow voters to drop off their absentee ballots in person, but please check with your state election board before attempting to do so. Some states do not allow this and will make the voter fill out a provisional ballot, which is less likely to be counted, if they attempt to deliver an absentee ballot in person. Here are some more specific examples of how our members can engage with the election:

• Encourage conversations with guardians to ensure that individuals who want to vote are able to do so and that we have safe plans in place for helping them do this.
• Obtain registration forms and make them easily accessible to your staff and networks, for example:
  • Add voter registration applications in on-boarding packets for new hires.
  • Send emails with links to where to register– here is an example of an email reminder sent by a provider.
• Share information about candidates and events that could be safe to attend during the pandemic – many are occurring online.
  • The Town Hall Project can help you identify events, including virtual ones, in your state and congressional district.
  • The League of Women Voters’ Vote 411 project shares candidate questionnaires at all levels of government.
• Contact your local election boards to highlight concerns about accessibility and COVID-19 safety precautions so they can think about those as they race to figure out how to implement the general election in the pandemic.