2016 Voter Protection Project

The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) encourages you to support the Howard University Graduate Political Science Association (HUGPSA) in its Voter Protection Project (VP2). The project seeks  to promote the voting rights and participation of  African Americans, whose voting rights have been compromised historically. The primary objective is to monitor voter access to polling sites. The project aims to examine and expose systemic barriers to voting at the state and local level of government using a grassroots approach. 

The Voter Protection Project includes several interrelated activities (registration, absentee ballots, verification, and early-voting) that are essential to the exercise of voting; the most basic expression of citizenship. The project is structured around the following two main components:

1) Preparation for voting, including polling site arrangements and voter information
2) Poll monitoring
3) Collection of data and information on voter access and/or suppression (entrance and exit polls).

Student participants’ on-site experiences will focus on the states, within a geographically accessible range, where questionable or suspect variations in voting procedures may occur. For this purpose, eight key states have been identified. They are: Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. These states, like many others, have documented cases involving voter registration, access and participation limitations based on race, especially in areas with large African American populations.

Funds raised will be used to cover transportation costs for students to these key states on election day for poll monitoring and polling.