TurboVote Challenge Adds Innovative Companies; Engages Majority Of Eligible Voters In The U.S.

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Sept. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Democracy Works, Inc. announced today the addition of a second round of corporate and nonprofit partners to join the TurboVote Challenge, aimed at achieving 80 percent voter turnout in the U.S. The new participants will coordinate with Democracy Works to find the best ways to engage their audience to register to vote and to turn out on Election Day. Since launching in March 2016 with 13 partners, the TurboVote Challenge has grown to more than 40 members from the retail, technology, media, and nonprofit sectors amassing unprecedented civic reach. The newest Challenge participants are:

• Alternative Press
• ATTN
• BET Networks 
• Blue Star Families
• Brigade 
• Change.org
• Defend Our Future
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Facebook
• Foursquare
• Funny or Die
• Google
• Got Your 6
• U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership
• Inspire U.S.
• Instagram
• Internet Association
• Jewish Women International 
• KCETLink Media Group 
• Kickstarter
• MTV 
• MyFaithVotes
• NY Tech Alliance 
• NowThis
• Optimizely
• Running Start
• Salesforce 
• Student Veterans of America 
• Tumblr
• Uber
• Uproxx 
• USA TODAY NETWORK
• Victory Media
• We Are The Mighty

With the most innovative companies and organizations in the country dedicated to achieving a single goal, more than 127 million eligible voters who didn't vote in 2014 need to be reached. The combination of voter engagement plans and the reach of the country's most significant collection of partners means every eligible voter in the U.S. has the opportunity to be affected by this initiative.

"For us to succeed, mass civic participation can't be someone else's job," said Seth Flaxman, Democracy Works co-founder and executive director. "It can't just be the nonprofit or political people. It will only happen if it's a job that belongs to all of us. This initiative will keep growing, with the help of more companies and organizations that decide to join, which means we'll reach even more potential voters. And there is nothing more powerful than a majority of people voting for something."

"The reach of the the TurboVote Challenge, and the passion of the people involved, is simply astounding," said Mike Ward, director of the TurboVote Challenge. "This effort is unprecedented and I think it could ensure that democracy makes good on the full promise of what our founding fathers imagined."

Democracy Works, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, leads the TurboVote Challenge by asking partners to create a civic engagement plan that works toward increasing voter turnout. This announcement comes days before National Voter Registration Day (NVRD), when many Challenge partners have outreach activities planned. To see a brief of some of the strategies being implemented by Challenge members, please visit democracy.works/tvc-implementations.

Significantly higher voter turnout can be achieved by ensuring that voting fits the 21st century lifestyle. The U.S. Census Bureau consistently reports that 60 percent of people who don't vote identify process issues as the problem. TurboVote was created to solve these process-oriented problems. Furthermore, the Challenge embraces collaboration across America from colleges and universities to businesses to nonprofit organizations, and everything in between, all focused on the one simple goal of creating greater participation in our democracy.

The 13 original launch members of the TurboVote Challenge are: Airbnb, Arizona State University, FUSION, Lyft, Mic, Spotify, Starbucks, Target, theSkimm, Univision Communications, Inc., Westfield Corporation, WeWork, and The Video Game Voters Network.

For more information on the TurboVote Challenge, visit http://turbo.vote/ and the original launch news release at http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160323005944/en/TurboVote-Challenge-Launches-Aims-80-Percent-Voter.

For more information on Democracy Works, makers of TurboVote, visit http://democracy.works/.

SOURCE Democracy Works

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http://democracy.works/