As legal battles wage on fighting issues including strict voter ID laws, one group has chosen to focus on community-centered solutions in the battle for equal voting rights.
The Advancement Project is a national nonprofit organization that uses an “on-the-ground” approach to “reform and dismantle” discriminatory policies targeting minorities, including minority disenfranchisement. The group, which has a 92.02 ranking on Charity Navigator, was founded in 1999 “to develop and inspire community-based solutions based on the same high quality legal analysis and public education campaigns that produced the landmark civil rights victories of earlier eras.”
Advancement Project works at the grassroots level to educate the public on its rights and the issues that continue to plague the voting process. It has work sites that focus on voter protection in 10 states, where the organization partners with community-based groups as well as national partners to defend the right to vote. In June the group published a fact sheet, “Barriers to the Ballot: Restrictive Voting Procedures in 2016,” a tool with information on states with restrictive policies including DMV closures, voter ID laws, felony disenfranchisement and cuts to early voting.
