Wheels for Voters – Support Bull City Votes

North Carolina, with its diverse electorate and growing population is at the heart of national elections, and Durham is at the heart of North Carolina.

Durham is also home to important, vibrant university communities who vote - both at North Carolina Central University, a historically black university, and at Duke University, with over 30,000 voters across the two campuses.

North Carolina's new voting restrictions are having a striking impact on this community’s voting rights.

Disenfranchisement Challenges

At NCCU, a study by the Rutgers Law Journal showed that 95% of provisional ballots cast by students in 2020 year were rejected - ballots given to voters when there are problems verifying their voter registration or ID when voting. Also in a recent election cycle, 61.7% of provisional ballots cast by Duke students were rejected.

Where there are issues with provisional ballots, election officials inform provisional voters of problems with their ballots, which can be corrected only by the voter providing additional information within 9 days after the election. When voters can't be contacted, don't respond, or otherwise are not able to provide the needed information, their ballot can be rejected.

Many provisional ballots are issued because of new voting laws in North Carolina which require specific proof of address documents for registration and specific photo identification to cast a ballot. When a voter does not have appropriate documents or identification, they are issued a provisional ballot.

The Solution – Early Voting Support and Drive The Vote

These problems can be solved in North Carolina’s Early Voting Period which started this week and runs through November 2.

Our support during Early Voting substantially reduces students' risk of provisional balloting because under North Carolina voting laws, students can register, correct any registration issues or update their addresses, and vote with proper ID during the Early Voting Period.

When registration and photo ID issues are resolved before the student votes, they are able to cast a final - and not provisional – ballot, which is what we achieve by working with the students up front and providing the transport to actually get them – and other voters in need – to the polls.

Who We Are

Bull City Votes is a long-standing grassroots, non-partisan, volunteer group here in Durham who work during every election cycle to educate and empower voters and, in coordination with other community-based organizations, to drive them to the polls.

We counsel student voters on these laws, including what ID they need to use - which most students have or can get - and get those students to early voting sites so their voices can be heard and their votes can be counted.

We are specifically organizing transportation to take students and others in need directly to the polls and are also hiring student advocates to help solve pre-poll visit voting issues and prevent provisional balloting.

Our Goals and Needs - Now

Based on our budgeting and recruitment efforts, Bull City Votes, which has 500 volunteers county wide, is fielding more than 200 volunteers over the two campuses and is targeting to have 12 paid drivers to augment our smaller force of volunteer drivers, working continuous 10 hour shifts minimum to support at least 7,000 of those students to cast normal ballots during the Early Voting Period - and on Election Day as needed.

Our target budget is $50,000 now or in the next few days which will fully fund our targets through Early Voting and beyond.

Supporting Other Voters In Need

This project also focuses on underprivileged voters who do not have ready transport to their polling station and pass through the Central Durham transport station hub who want to vote now – and on Election Day. This is a longstanding project which has enabled over 1,000 voters per election cycle in the past to vote.

Our Ask

We are specifically asking for a minimum of $200 per donation which will fund one taxi for one day – or anything you can. Our funding goal is 12 taxis per day for the rest of Early voting and on Election Day (192 taxi days).

Why now?

Bull City Votes has always had support of the community. In this year, at this moment, however, the need for our support has become ever more clear, and we cannot in this election leave any voter behind.

In North Carolina, voting makes all the difference, and we can deliver that difference.

Funding from this campaign will go directly to direct transportation and student organizers to get Durham's students to the polls and make sure their votes are counted.

Thank you for your support.

This vote support project is organized by Bull City Votes.

Donations are not tax deductible. Donation processing is handled by Go Fund Me, which is annually audited by an independent PCI Qualified Security Assessor and complies with all the PCI Data Security Standard requirements.