OFA St Paul

03/13/2023

02/22/2023

Hooray!

BREAKING NEWS! The Minnesota Senate just voted 35-30 to restore the vote to nearly 50K Minnesotans on felony probation!!! The House already passed , and now it goes to the Governor, who has said he'll sign it.

This is a historic moment and the culmination of many years of work — in the community, in the courts and here at our state’s Capitol.

One of the most basic civil rights is the ability to choose one’s government. It is fundamental to a healthy and strong democracy.

To have that stripped away was an incredible travesty that actively and disproportionately hurt people of color, people who are rural, people who are poor.

But once the Governor signs this bill, people living in their communities, working and supporting families while on felony probation, will get to decide who represents them. Parents will get to vote for school levies and school boards.

Small business people will have a say on policies that protect their employees and laws that affect them. And veterans who risked their lives to protect our nation will finally have a say.

Today, our Senate fulfilled its moral and political duty to ensure that these voting rights are restored and that true rehabilitation can take place.

This is about equality, racial justice and civil rights. Our democracy and our communities will be stronger because we’ve corrected this historic wrong.

We are so incredibly proud and grateful to be part of the phenomenal Restore the Vote MN RTVMN, a coalition of dozens of organizations that worked tirelessly for years to pass this.

Thanks to lead bill authors Cedrick Frazier and all the other lawmakers who supported this!!!

03/17/2021

Here's some good news.

"Too many of our laws were written during a time of open racism and discrimination, and they still bear the traces of inequity," Gov. Ralph Northam said on Tuesday.

09/30/2020

Don't throw away your shot!

What are you waiting for? What do you stall for?! REGISTER TO VOTE NOW: WhenWeAllVote.org/Hamilton

09/23/2020

Even Stephen Colbert is helping people vote!

Do you have a plan to vote this year? has you covered!

08/02/2020

Help reinstated Florida voters!

In 2018, Lift Every Vote helped the 2nd Chances Coalition pass Amendment 4, which restored voting rights for 1.4 million people with felony convictions. This wonderful victory paved the way for other states to change their laws, as well. Now, we’re working to postcard these potential voters to ale...

07/28/2020

Have you thought about how being evicted or homeless will affect people's ability to vote?

If you are able, please help communicate information to your family and friends, groups you are involved with, and the public regarding Voting and the Evicted and Homelessness. Start a conversation, write a letter to the editor, come up with another idea!

Please communicate how the Rent Moratorium expiration will affect people’s Voting Rights while they are evicted and homeless. Many individuals, homeless or otherwise, are not even aware that no state requires residents to have a traditional residence to vote in elections (check with your state for any requirements it may have).

If you are in a position to do so, please engage those members of the public who were just evicted to register early; educate the public that in most states you don’t have to have a “home” to register to vote even if that means you are sleeping in a car, staying with relatives, etc.; and educate the public on other options of voting while evicted or homeless.

It is important to raise concern that because of the legislature letting the Rent Moratorium expire, the expiration becomes another shadowy act of voter suppression. Voting privileges of the evicted are suppressed as voters will not be registered at a current address, which is a condition for voting in elections. To vote they will need to re-register. Think about how many people this will affect. During the crisis of not having a place to live, many of those people will not have re-registering to vote on their minds; their mindset is not on losing their voting rights but on looking for shelter and providing other basic needs for themselves and their families.

Also, many of these people have never been evicted or homeless before so they are unfamiliar with many of the services available to them, including food shelves AND how to keep their right to vote. To ensure that the evicted and homeless know there is a way to exercise their right to vote, this information needs to be front and center to the public during this time.

You are in a position of power with contacts and means to get this message out. Please use your power to get the message out regarding voting while evicted and homeless so that all people can and will vote. It is disruptive enough to be deprived of shelter, help ensure that homelessness does not also suppress the constitutional RIGHT TO VOTE.

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