Where do I register to vote?
And other questions you can answer using government resources on voting, elections, and legislation.
In Civics this Week: U.S. Elections and Voting
This was a big week for news related to voting and elections:
The 2022 midterm election year has arrived and campaigns are ramping up.
On January 6th, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris gave remarks one year after a mob of former President Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 general election results (see transcription here).1
Senate Democrats turned their attention back to two major pieces of voting rights legislation that they plan to introduce next week.
Access to government information is crucial to removing barriers to participation in U.S. elections. It helps us understand election processes, feel confident on how and where to vote, and decide who to vote for. Following a year of significant increases in restrictive voting legislation,2 there is no better time to refresh ourselves on the resources available to help us stay informed throughout the 2022 election season.
This week, I compiled a (non-exhaustive) list of government information resources to help you stay up to date with elections and voting rights legislation. Also included are a few different research platforms that can be used to take a deeper look into congressional landscapes throughout U.S. history.
Government information resources to help you prepare for the 2022 midterm elections:
Voter Resources
Find out how to register to vote in your state on Vote.gov.
Access the National Mail Voter Registration Form (with state instructions) through the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The form is now available in 21 languages (Yup’ik, Navajo, and Apache were recently added.)
Find your state or local election office website using this USA.gov lookup tool.
Obtain an overview of U.S. election processes from the Voting and Elections page on USA.gov.
Candidates & Legislation Research
Follow the Congressional seats and races using the Ballotpedia pages on House elections and Senate elections. You can also use the ballot lookup tool to see your candidates for the 2022 elections. Ballotpedia is not a governmental organization, but I would be remiss not to mention this highly credible, factual, and understandable source of information on U.S. elections.
Take a look at the texts of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 and the Freedom to Vote Act legislation on Congress.gov (try looking the bills up on GovTrack, as well!).
Data Investigation
Investigate campaign finance data via provided by the Federal Elections Commission. I’ll return to this resource another week, as there is a massive amount of information that you can dig up. In sum, it is an excellent tool to track campaign fundraising, spending, and individual contributions to candidates.
Explore the U.S. Census Bureau topic page on Voting and Registration data. Note the Voting and Registration News section. This is an interesting article by Acting Director Ron Jarmin about redistricting data from the 2020 Census (this article published by the ACLU is a useful non-governmental supplement to the subject matter).
Election Security Concerns
Visit the new Rumor vs. Reality page on election security from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Each section contains a list of additional useful sources that help fact-check rumors related to election fraud.
Exploring The Election Security Resource Library is also useful.
Historical Deep Dives
There is a wealth of information about the history of the House of Representatives on the History, Art & Archives website created by the Office of the Historian and the Clerk of the House. In addition to some fascinating collections and online exhibitions, the Mapping Congress Tool provides a visual and interactive opportunity to learn about members of every Congress by filtering with different data types.3
Explore similar resources about the Senate here.
There are several Library of Congress Digital Collections that pertain to suffrage and electoral history. The National American Woman Suffrage Association Records is one such example that you can browse online.
In Conclusion
The format of the newsletter is a little different this week, but I hope that these resources give you an idea of the kinds of tools you can tap into to learn more about U.S. elections, voting rights legislation, and the 2022 midterms. Let me know what you think in the comments!
See you next week.
To follow the investigation into the January 6th attacks, visit the website for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
These data types are limited - they should be expanded to increase accessibility to this information and improve the representation of Congressional Members. For example, you can search for Black, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific Americans in Congress but you cannot filter by Native American/Indigenous Members of Congress.