VoteReady is a free public service in development that alerts voters when a change has been made to their voter registration record.
VoteReady is just like your Bank pinging your phone with transaction alerts. And here's why this is so important...
Millions of Voters Are Regularly Removed from Voter Rolls
A registered voter can be removed from the voter registration rolls – often without their knowledge – leaving them forced to vote a provisional ballot or simply abandon any effort to participate.
In 2016 this happened to some 17 million voters nationwide. Meanwhile, in 2016 another 13 million people who attempted to register to vote had their applications rejected – again, often without any reasonable notice to the registrant. (We don't think a 3x5 postcard mailed to the last address they have for you is all that reasonable today.)
The trouble is voters are unlikely to learn they have been removed until it’s too late and they arrive at their polling place only to be turned away or limited to casting a provisional ballot.
The impact in 2016? A lot of democracy was left out of action!
It seems obvious, but everyone has the right to know if and when their voter registration is changed, suspended, or worse – removed. Otherwise, this amounts to voter suppression – intentional or not.
That needs to stop. Now it can. We have invented a way to avoid that.
Enter VoteReady
The way to stop unwanted removal from voter registration rolls is a free service called VoteReady. Simply register your mobile number to be text-notified any time your voter record is changed, suspended, or removed.
VoteReady will provide you a simple way to restore your registration.
Of course, what that precise step is will vary from State-to-State, but with a single tap on your mobile device, you will land on the location necessary to immediately begin restoring your registration.
How Will VoteReady Work?
With a combination of technical innovations like “BlockChains” and some other know-how, the TrustTheVote Project is developing a service that's impossible to mess with.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s most scalable cloud-hosting service with the best possible reliability and security, will host the VoteReady service, so you know with confidence its there constantly watching over your voter registration.
The VoteReady service will regularly receive a copy of each State’s publicly available voter rolls (available through public records queries).
The VoteReady service will continually compare copies of the roll looking for changes, and send you a text or eMail the moment anything does change.
Funding to Build & Launch VoteReady
VoteReady needs your support to fund the $250,000 to finish its development, launch and operate the service, initially in 21 "swing" States starting before the end of 2019.
By the way, states are unlikely to offer this on their own. And commercial vendors won't offer it, because you should not have to pay for it indefinitely.
But a one-time tax-deductible donation of say, $25 is definitely the way to make this happen.
The bottom line is only we the voters have the incentive and care about protecting our registration. And tax-deductible donations can combine to do that at least through the 2020 election.
And if we can all come together to raise an additional $500,000 we will be able to scale the adoption and operation of VoteReady to all 50 States and 5 territories.
Consider This: If 1/10th of 1% of all those prevented from participating in the last election were to give $25 one time, VoteReady would easily be a nationwide experience through 2020!
And after 2020, we believe VoteReady will have become so essential that its operation will be easily sustained for future elections.
And there’s more.
A really important “next thing” VoteReady will be able to do – once available nationwide – is to inform a voter who cast a ballot by mail if their ballot has actually been counted. So, helping launch VoteReady will not only guard your registration record, but it can help verify your absentee participation.
VoteReady is Brought to You by the TrustTheVote Project
VoteReady is being developed by the TrustTheVote Project, the development team of the 501.c.3 non-profit, non-partisan OSET Institute. The TrustTheVote Project is the same team that develops and supports the Rock The Vote voter registration platform.
The OSET Institute and TrustTheVote Project have been quietly working with election officials and Congress since 2007 to make election technology that is more verifiable, accurate, secure, and transparent.
VoteReady is the first of several services the TrustTheVote Project is working on to make your voting experience easy, convenient and even delightful. And that's important because its your civic duty and civil right to make your voice heard, cast your ballot, and know that your ballot was counted as cast.
