The Challenge
Bull City Votes partners with voters who often face significant barriers to using their vote: Black and Brown folks, young people (including college students!), those facing economic hardship, immigrants, people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, and people without stable housing.
In Durham, NC, the majority of eligible voters are “low propensity voters” or are unregistered. Bull City Votes focuses on partnering with members of this Overlooked Majority who have one or more significant barriers to voting such as:
transportation
lack of accepted ID (including for college students)
disabilities
language and reading
navigating the polls
These barriers are typically rooted in a long history of racial and social inequity and are exacerbated by today’s anti-voting climate, laws, and policies.
Bull City Votes’ strategies are distinct from those used by many other groups.
When we say: One neighbor at a time, we stick with people until nothing stands between them and the power of their vote, we mean it. This is patient, creative, and relational work done in partnership with each prospective voter. Together with the voter, we develop a tailored plan of action based on their realities to ensure they get to vote and have their vote count.
To these ends, Bull City Votes:
Recruits and cultivates passionate, equity-focused, warm volunteers
Prioritizes deep canvassing – deep, curious, open-ended conversations
Studies and strategizes around voting rules to creatively barrier-bust
Runs the Durham Drives ride request hotline for scheduled and instant rides to vote
Partners with organizations with deep community connections and much other expertise
We work at the individual-level while also pursuing policy change that will create sweeping improvements for the Overlooked Majority of prospective voters.
Meeting This Moment
Bull City Votes does whatever is needed to ensure that every eligible voter we meet has an opportunity to vote and have their vote count. Partnering with a voter in this way can take many different forms:
assist them with voter registration or getting a Voter ID, or take them home to locate their ID
overcome college ID acceptance challenges
drive them on-the-spot to vote or schedule a ride to vote
provide accessible transportation
share election and candidate information
walk through how to fill out the ballot and navigate the polls
connect with legal advice when they face direct opposition to their voting
where necessary: make a plan with the voter for how to “cure” their provisional ballot
track their ballot to ensure it is approved by the Board of Elections
follow-up with them if their ballot can be cured (accepted)
We’re inspired every day by the commitment of so many people to cast their vote despite the roadblocks they face.
Creative, Nimble and Tailored Voter Support
Meeting Voters Where They Ride, Live, Work, and Study
Bull City Votes goes where Overlooked Majority voters live, work, study, and travel. This includes:
bus station/transit hubs
college campuses (which are seeing a high level of student disenfranchisement)
high-density housing and congregant care facilities
hot spots (grocery stores, tiendas, tobacco shops)
neighborhoods experiencing transience and other disruptions
Doing some place-based work in spaces that prospective voters frequent (bus station, college campuses) has the advantage of voters knowing where we are. At the bus station, voters come looking for us each election and send friends and family to us for all sorts of support. We love reconnecting!
