Ada's TL;DR digest
Run get-out-the-vote and voter registration programs from AdvocacyAI, in addition to your advocacy landing pages. Supporters verify their registration against their state's records, get their polling place and Election Day reminders, and every result lands on their record in your database.
Why GOTV belongs in an advocacy platform
Before advocacy, I worked exclusively on political campaigns: statewide field and digital. Advocacy, especially rapid response campaigns, uses many of the same muscles. The tools political and advocacy professionals use, however, couldn't be more different. Political software like NGP Van or various election tools often assume your program ends in November. Most advocacy software disregards elections and voting features entirely.
That gap is why we built voter registration checks into AdvocacyAI. This article covers the thinking behind the feature, what it does for your supporters, what it shows your team, and how to use it before your state's registration deadline.
Civic engagement works when it's genuinely helpful
The best civic engagement and GOTV programs are genuinely helpful. They provide helpful reminders. They offer voting information at the supporter's convenience: as calendar invites, email and text reminders, or polling place lookup links. They make your organization a trusted resource your supporters know they can count on.
Contrast that to the GOTV programs we often see: one-time ads and asks from political campaigns that will soon disappear.
Advocacy teams ask constantly how to get more engagement out of their email lists. Offer your list a free registration check and Election Day reminders, and you will get that engagement.
What the voter registration check does
In AdvocacyAI, you can now build an advocacy landing page whose action is a voter registration check. A supporter enters their name and address, the form checks them against their state's Secretary of State records, and they get an answer on the spot. Registered supporters see it confirmed. Unregistered supporters, whether they moved, were purged, or never registered, are pointed to where they can get registered right away.
The page can then give supporters everything else they need for Election Day: their polling place, poll hours, early voting and drop-off options, who's on their ballot, and their local election office. They can opt in to an election reminder and add Election Day to their calendar in one click.
The page can then give supporters everything else they need for Election Day: their polling place, poll hours, early voting and drop-off options, who's on their ballot, and their local election office. They can opt in to an election reminder and add Election Day to their calendar in one click.
Checks Voter Registration
Allows supporters to confirm their registration status with their Secretary of State, while adding themselves to a tagged audience in your CRM.
Collects Commitments to Vote
Gives you a list of members or supporters who have committed to vote or expressed interest in recieving follow up communications or Election Day reminders from your organization.
Sends Reminders
Supporters or members can sign up to get calendar notifications, email, or text reminders from your organization about their election. This is the part that is genuinely helpful, and most likely to result in measurable impact on Election Day.
Measures Turnout
AdvocacyAI matches natively to voter files across the country - over 300 million of them. Which means once results are ready, you will be able to see what impact your GOTV program had on your community.
Your data stays yours
Plenty of registration-check tools exist, and most of them work the same way for the supporter. The difference in ours is where the results go. Every check lands in your database, attached to the supporter's profile. You can see who checked, who is registered, who signed up for reminders, and who found out they weren't registered and fixed it. That last group is a list of registrations your program caused, and very few organizations can point to one.
Those results become audiences. You can follow up with the people who opted into reminders, welcome the newly registered, and in January, match your list against the voter file to report how many of your supporters actually voted. The full measurement approach is in How to Run a Digital GOTV Program You Can Actually Measure.
What to do with it in September
Registration deadlines in most states fall in early to mid October, so September is the month to put a check page in front of your list. The setup is quick: build the page, turn on the reminders you want, and send one email. Supporters get something useful, and your program gets the engagement and the data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Nonpartisan voter registration and turnout work is standard activity for advocacy organizations, including 501(c)(3) nonprofits, as long as it stays away from candidates and parties. A registration check is among the safest forms of it: you're helping people confirm their own status and find official information from their state. In AdvocacyAI, the check runs on an advocacy page you control, so the activity also stays inside your own program.
A supporter enters their name and address, and the form checks that information against their state's Secretary of State records. Registered supporters get a confirmation on the spot. Unregistered supporters are pointed to where they can register right away. The check takes under a minute and requires only the information a supporter already knows.
Use a registration check tool that's connected to your own database. In AdvocacyAI, every check attaches to the supporter's profile in real time, so you can see who checked, who is registered, who signed up for election reminders, and who registered after your page told them they weren't. Those groups can be pulled as audiences for follow-up.
A voter registration form collects a new registration application. A voter registration check verifies whether someone is already registered by looking them up in their state's records, then directs anyone unregistered to the official place to register. For organizations with an existing list, the check is usually the more useful tool, because most supporters are registered and mainly need confirmation, a polling place, and a reminder.
