Community Outreach

At Travis County Voter Registration, we take pride in our Voter Registration Program. The key to our success is our relationship within our community. Given that Travis County has historically maintained a voter registration rate of over 90% of our residents, we are focusing on populations that have lower access to voter registration.

Our community is diverse, and it requires diverse methods for Voter Outreach. Below are populations within our community who have a more difficult time knowing how to register or having access to register to vote.

Youth

Travis County Voter Registration strives to reach communities at an early age, so that kids can grow up to become adults who have an understanding about voter registration and elections.

Since 2015, we have formed and managed projects for students from elementary school to university:

Art Mural Contest
Grad Week
The First Vote! Program
PSA Contest
Partnering with university voting organizations to organize voter registration drives on campuses
The TCVR Coloring Book
Mock Elections

Students have also bee inspired to conduct their own voter registration events! To check that out, click here

Seniors

Travis County Voter Registration pays special attention to our senior community, as well as residents who live in assisted living communities and facilities. Because of the extra challenges this community faces in registering to vote and getting to the polls, we have taken extra steps in aiding their voter registration and voting process.

Published brochures to aid in voter registration
Provide Ballot by Mail applications and information
Formed partnerships with assisted living communities and facilities

Unhoused Communities

People experiencing homelessness face unique challenges when it comes to registering to vote and voting. Because of this, Travis County Voter Registration meets these challenges in unique ways:

Building relationships with unhoused organizations, camps and, shelters
Including shelter mailing addresses in our VDR Training Packet

Incarcerated Populations

In the past, Travis County Voter Registration have partnered with the local sheriff's office and Austin Justice Coalition to register those who are currently incarcerated.

Austin Justice Coalition trains VDRs to register those in jails through their program Project Orange.

This program not only registered voters, but informed them of their voting rights, even while in jail. Currently, Project Orange is on pause.

Apartment Community Engagement (ACE)

The Apartment Community Engagement or ACE Program is a program that trains VDRs to register voters living in apartment communities. The VDRs are assigned to apartments in their zip codes in order to supply those properties with voter registration applications and supplies.

This program is crucial to voter registration because apartment communities have higher turnover. Additionally, there are new residents to Travis County who need to register to vote.

Underserved Precincts

This is the newest community demographic Travis County Voter Registration is focusing on. To do this, we refer to our data, and create voter registration opportunities for our least registered precincts.

A tool we provide VDRs is our Unregistered Household Maps. VDRs or civic engagement organizations hosting voter registration events can download map or list of residences that have no registered voters in them to target those homes.

The way we will create these Voter Registration Opportunities is to utilize strategies already mentioned, along with partnering with local non-profits and governmental institutions to provide voter registration opportunities during their events, such as:

Food Banks
School District during Back to School events
Public Libraries
The Census Project