Amplifying Official Voting Information During the 2020 General Election Cycle
State and local officials work hard to conduct elections and to educate voters on how they can cast their ballots. The Voting Information Project (VIP), a partnership between Democracy Works and the states, amplifies the work of election officials by sharing their official election information where voters look for it most: online.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated changes in the way many jurisdictions run elections. Various states and localities facilitated a record number of mail-in voting and the expansion of drop-off voting locations, all while implementing social-distancing guidelines at polling places to protect the public health.
With these sorts of changes happening while the 2020 presidential election cycle was well underway, elections staff worked tirelessly to inform the public of their voting options. Collaborating with VIP helped officials reach more voters in a big way.
Reaching voters across the internet
Thanks to the participation of state and local election offices, voters were able to access official, trusted voting information when they...
…searched on Google.
…opened Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
...visited another organization’s website or texted our SMS service.
...or — in some cases — visited their state website, where they were able to see a map of voting locations with a simple address search!
Helping millions of Americans vote
By appearing in so many key places online, VIP’s data was able to help millions of voters.
Beyond reaching voters in places like Twitter and Facebook, in the fall of 2020, VIP’s data was accessed more than 9,989,334 times through our Get to the Polls site, Voting Information Tool, and SMS service.
In fact, Google has reported that their resources on how to vote, how to register, and where to vote — which included VIP’s early voting, polling and ballot drop-off locations — were seen nearly 500 million times across their products. And from mid-October through Election Day, Google added more than 125,000 voting locations provided by VIP to Google Maps.
Looking forward
Achieving record voter turnout in the 2020 election was only possible because of the efforts and dedication of so many people across the country — and VIP is proud to be a link in that chain.
While 2021 isn’t a national election year, our team remains hard at work, making official information available and accessible to voters for state and local elections.
Visit gettothepolls.org in the weeks leading up to your next election to access the information you need to safely and confidently cast your ballot.