The Vot-ER Healthy Democracy Campaign: A National Medical Student Competition to Increase Voting Access

Ruxin, Talia R.; Ha, Yoonhee P.; Grade, Madeline; Brown, Rory; Lawrence, Carlton; Martin, Andrew

doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000004381

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Their participation was bolstered by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which hosted an extensive Get Out the Vote initiative in 2020 and may have contributed to the significantly greater mobilization of younger individuals among the Vot-ER cohort. Health care–based civic engagement may have also mobilized a younger subset of the health care workforce, with 80 medical schools participating in a nationwide voter registration competition . Implementation of Vot-ER tools varied across different sites, with some using individual Healthy Democracy Kits (HDKs) consisting primarily of the badge backer, and others using institutional HDKs that included flyers and posters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Health care–based civic engagement may have also mobilized a younger subset of the health care workforce, with 80 medical schools participating in a nationwide voter registration competition. 7 Implementation of Vot-ER tools varied across different sites, with some using individual Healthy Democracy Kits (HDKs) consisting primarily of the badge backer, and others using institutional HDKs that included flyers and posters. Individual HDKs were predominantly used by medical students and physicians from academic institutions, while institutional HDKs were primarily used by nonacademic institutions, pediatric-only institutions, and federally qualified health centers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Increasing Voter Participation Through Health Care–Based Voter Registration

McCabe,

Zhu,

Bajaj

et al. 2024

JAMA Health Forum

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ImportanceYoung people and historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups are poorly represented in the democratic process. Addressing voting inequities can make policy more responsive to the needs of these communities.ObjectiveTo assess whether leveraging health care settings as venues for voter registration and mobilization is useful, particularly for historically underrepresented populations in elections.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsIn 2020, nonpartisan nonprofit Vot-ER partnered with health care professionals and institutions to register people to vote. This cross-sectional study analyzed the demographics and voting behavior of people mobilized to register to vote in health care settings, including hospitals, community health centers, and medical schools across the US. The age and racial and ethnic identity data of individuals engaged through Vot-ER were compared to 2 national surveys of US adults, including the 2020 Cooperative Election Study (CES) and the 2020 American National Election Study (ANES).ExposureHealth care–based voter registration.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe main outcomes were age composition, racial and ethnic composition, and voting history.ResultsOf the 12 441 voters contacted in health care settings, 41.9% were aged 18 to 29 years, 15.9% were identified as African American, 9.6% as Asian, 12.7% as Hispanic, and 60.4% as White. This distribution was significantly more diverse than the racial and ethnic distribution of the ANES (N = 5447) and CES (N = 39 014) samples, of which 72.5% and 71.19% self-identified as White, respectively. Voter turnout among health care–based contacts increased from 61.0% in 2016 to 79.8% in 2020, a turnout gain (18.8–percentage point gain) that was 7.7 percentage points higher than that of the ANES sample (11.1–percentage point gain). Demographically, the age distribution of voters contacted in health care settings was significantly different from the ANES and CES samples, with approximately double the proportion of young voters aged 18 to 29 years.Conclusion and RelevanceThis cross-sectional study suggests that health care–based voter mobilization reaches a distinctly younger and more racially and ethnically diverse population relative to those who reported contact from political campaigns. This analysis of the largest health care–based voter mobilization effort points to the unique impact that medical professionals may have on voter registration and turnout in the 2024 US elections. In the long term, health equity initiatives should prioritize expanding voting access to address the upstream determinants of health in historically marginalized communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Voter Participation Through Health Care–Based Voter Registration

McCabe,

Zhu,

Bajaj

et al. 2024

JAMA Health Forum

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In 2020, VotER helped 15,692 adults start the voter registration and/or mail-in ballot request process in >500 medical schools, hospitals, and clinics nationwide. 17 To achieve this impressive number of registrations, VotER utilized previously successful voter registration techniques and applied those to the health care sphere. These techniques included customized lanyards with QR codes expediting voter registration via participant cell phone, scripts to aid the in-person registration advocate's efforts, and media in the form of posters, buttons, and stickers.…”

Section: Voter Advocacy Programs Elsewhere In Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

Anesthesiologists and Voter Advocacy: A Novel Avenue for Civic Outreach

Fisher

2023

Anesthesia &Amp; Analgesia

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“…During National Civic Health Month, Vot‐ER sponsors a Healthy Democracy Campaign, a nationwide medical school competition for registering voters. In 2020, 80 medical schools helped more than 15,000 adults start the voter registration process 20 . The next Healthy Democracy Campaign begins in August 2022.…”

Section: Getting Startedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2020, 80 medical schools helped more than 15,000 adults start the voter registration process. 20 The next Healthy Democracy Campaign begins in August 2022. Consider joining!…”

Section: Join and Strengthen The Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%