Pima County Recorder issues a notice regarding voter registration mailing

The Pima County Recorder’s Office has issued a notice to voters regarding a recent mailing sent to voters. Voter registration mailing not from the Pima County Recorder’s Office;

Voter registration mailing not from the Pima County Recorder’s Office

Sep 10, 2014

Several thousand Pima County Voters have received a mailing recently from an organization called the Voter Participation Center informing them that they are not currently registered to vote or that their voter registration is not current.

The Pima County Recorder’s Office has been contacted by several hundred angry registered voters questioning this mailing. This mailing was not sent by the Pima County Recorder’s Office, the Recorder was not contacted by this group and the Pima County Recorder’s office did not provide any voter registration information to the Voter Participation Center and did not provide any addresses for this mailing.

The Pima County Recorder’s Office is not involved in any manner with this mailing.

“We do not know where this group obtained their mailing information, but it does not accurately reflect the voter registration records in Pima County,” Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez said. “We encourage participation in all elections but we always caution voters from responding to requests for information from or providing information to groups or individuals that you do not know.”

Voters should only deal directly with their respective County Recorder’s Office, the Secretary of State’s Office, political parties and recognized organizations such as the League of Women Voters in any matter concerning their voter registration information.

The Recorder’s Office has no legal authority to regulate or control this type of mailing to the public. If you received this mailing and you are a registered voter, you may contact the Voter Participation Center directly to remove yourself from their mailing list. Their phone number is (202) 659-9570.

Voters who wish to check the status of their voter registration may log on to the Secretary of State’s website to confirm their voter registration status.

If any voters have any questions they can always contact the Pima County Recorder’s Office at 520-724-4330 for any information.

Who or what is the Voter Participation Center?

ABOUT US

The Voter Participation Center (VPC) is a research-driven, results-oriented nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing the participation and amplifying the voices of unmarried women (women who are single, widowed, divorced or separated) and other historically underrepresented groups in our democracy. The mission of the VPC is to boost the civic engagement of unmarried women, people of color and 18-29 year olds—the three demographic groups who comprise the Rising American Electorate (RAE). These Americans make up 53% of the voting-eligible population and are responsible for almost all of the U.S. population growth in recent years, but were only 42 percent of the 2010 electorate and 47% in 2008.

The VPC is committed to registering and mobilizing these voters during elections and public policy debates at levels that reflect their growing demographic strength and importance. The RAE is the fastest growing demographic group in America accounting for 81 percent of population growth between 2000 and 2010 and 95 percent between 2008 and 2010. But their electoral and policy involvement has not kept pace. That is why the VPC conducts groundbreaking research and develops and implements effective registration and mobilization programs and innovative approaches to help millions more unmarried women, people of color and young people become active participants in our democracy. The VPC is committed to year-round civic engagement that builds an infrastructure of citizens who take an active role in ensuring a representative democracy. The work of the VPC does not end with Election Day, it is just beginning.

The VPC was formerly known as Women’s Voices. Women Vote (WVWV). The name was formally changed in 2011 to reflect the fact the organization expanded its focus beyond its original emphasis on unmarried women to include the entire RAE. Unmarried women make up a large portion of the RAE and marital status is a top determinant of whether or not one registers, votes, and participates; the name change was also adopted because the same approaches used for unmarried women also work among and across the entire spectrum of the RAE.

Page Gardner is the founder and President of the Voter Participation Center (VPC):

In 2003, Ms. Gardner founded Women’s Voices. Women Vote, the organization now known as VPC, which was the first major group to identify unmarried women as a crucial constituency and to realize the importance of marital status in voting. The pioneering group popularized the concept of a “marriage gap” in American politics – a fundamental dynamic in the American electorate showing that unmarried women are much less likely than married women to register and to vote.

Ms. Gardner is an expert in the voting patterns of women voters and has dedicated her career to increasing the share of unmarried women in the electorate.

During her 20 years’ experience as a political and communications manager and strategist, Ms. Gardner has worked at senior levels for the most competitive presidential, senatorial, gubernatorial, and congressional campaigns in all parts of the country. Ms. Gardner also has managed some of the most hotly debated national public-policy issue campaigns, including those related to reproductive rights, civil rights, national budget priorities, technology and trade. Ms. Gardner has been credited with designing and implementing some of the most creative and successful issue and legislative campaigns, as well as staging come-from-behind candidate victories in key battleground races. She is regarded as one of the top strategists in the country.

More about the VPC under the tag “HISTORY”:

The VPC, then WVWV, was started as a project of the Tides Center in 2003 and was the first major organization to identify unmarried women as a crucial, yet unrecognized constituency, to single-out marital status as determining political participation and to popularize a fundamental dynamic in the American electorate: the “marriage gap” – the fact that married women were much more likely than unmarried women to register and vote.

* * *

Since its inception, the VPC has been unique among civic engagement groups because of its reliance on Research & Development (R&D). From controlled experiments to measure and improve programmatic effectiveness and cost-efficiency to demographic and public opinion surveys, the VPC uses a broad array of research instruments to develop and refine programs, tools and tactics designed to reach and increase the democratic participation of the RAE. The VPC’s commitment to R&D has enabled it to continually bend the cost curve, lower the cost per net additional vote, produce a net effect (a net additional vote or other activity that would not have happened were it not for VPC’s programs), increase response rates, and register more than a million members of the RAE to vote.

The VPC’s registration, turnout and mobilization programs have been recognized and lauded for their effectiveness:

• In 2008, Catalist –a data service organization that tracks voter contact efforts -confirmed that the VPC (then WVWV) was highly and singularly effective in identifying, contacting, registering, and mobilizing individuals in key demographic groups who were otherwise highly unlikely to vote. Most of the contacts the VPC made did not overlap with any other independent organizations that Catalist tracked—81 percent would not have been reached out to at all if not for the VPC’s efforts. In addition, VPC applicants turned out at higher rates than other organizations’ registrants. The New Organizing Institute (NOI), in its “Voter Registration Analysis 2008” found that 87.8 percent of the 946,822 VPC applicants were successful registrants and 77 percent of them voted.
• In 2010, the NOI’s report on midterm registration efforts stated, “Mail Programs registered a disproportionately high number of African Americans and Hispanics. It’s worth noting that large portions of mail programs specifically targeted African Americans and Hispanics.” These mail applications were overwhelmingly generated by the VPC. According to the NOI data, the VPC had more successful registrations than anyone else in many states, including: Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Texas and Washington. In addition, NOI data indicates that the VPC had the highest ratio of applications turning into successful registrations of any group included in their analysis, with 93.9% of the VPC’s registration applications turned into successful applications.

To increase RAE participation in 2011 and 2012 the VPC is conducting research-driven year-round civic engagement, information-raising and voter registration, Vote by Mail (VBM), turnout and other mobilization programs in targeted states. The VPC is also committed to building an infrastructure of citizens who take an active role in ensuring America’s democracy is truly representational. The work of the VPC does not end with Election Day, it is just beginning.

This is the information that the Pima County Recorders Office should have Googled and included in its notice to better inform voters, rather than trying to scare them (shades of ACORN scare mongering). Here is the CONTACT information for VPC:

The Voter Participation Center
1707 L Street, NW
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202/659-9570
Fax: 202/659-9585

Please fill out the form below or send emails to info@voterparticipation.org and let the Voter Participation Center know what you think and what is important to you.