The Vot-ER community is made up of tens of thousands of healthcare professionals who are dedicated to bringing civic engagement to our healthcare system. We’re so glad you’re one of them!
By using the Vot-ER badge in your daily practice, you can help your patients prepare for each and every opportunity to advocate for their health at the ballot box.
Our work is driven by a community of health care professionals, organizers, clinical students, and technologists united by a common vision: healthy communities powered by inclusive democracy.
Together, we’ve expanded Vot-ER programs into over 500 hospitals and clinics and helped tens of thousands of Americans register and prepare to vote.
The Next Voting Frontier—Our Healthcare System
Voting is just one tool to advocate for what we care about—but it’s a powerful one.
Research shows that our communities are healthier when more voters can participate in the democratic process. States with more inclusive voting policies and higher civic participation rates have better health outcomes.
The broad reach of our healthcare system, combined with the trusted role many doctors, nurses, and social workers hold in their communities, make healthcare an ideal arena for civic engagement to engage voters.
FAQs & Legal Guidelines
To be eligible to register to vote patients must be:
You can say, “Once you scan my badge, there will be an option at the bottom of the page to text an expert with your questions—feel free to use the hotline, they would love to hear from you.”
You can send an email to the VotER team at: product@vot-er.org Please send a description of the problem. A picture of the issue on screen helps but is not necessary.
There is no good answer or any accurate source that doesn’t have a bias outside of the party websites. You could mention the names of the current nominees for political office and their party, but go no further. Do the same as you would do when asked about who you support and tell them to ask a friend or go to the political party official websites.
Remind them that as a hospital employee, you must be nonpartisan. Your options are:
You can only answer simple facts like what party they are in, if they’re an incumbent or challenger or where they live. Don’t state your preferences.
Yes, please download and share our fact sheet.
Be sure to emphasize that Vot-ER‘s tools are nonpartisan, non-intrusive, and completely voluntary. Patients decide for themselves if they want to use Vot-ER’s platform, and can only access the platform using their own phones.
We understand how important it is to address the barriers that many immigrants face when seeking care. Vot-ER tools and programs can be implemented in a thoughtful way that doesn’t exclude non-citizens. Our partners at AltaMed and Voto Latino recommend creating a habit of asking every patient, but in an open ended way: “The same way I care about your physical health, I also care about your civic health. How can I help you or your family get registered to vote?”.
Another way is to create non-intrusive opportunities for eligible patients to connect with our voter registration platform by placing Vot-ER posters, handouts, and badges in select areas. Ultimately, we leave it up to each site to weigh the risks and benefits of promoting voter registration.
Both online voter registrations platforms and offline voter registration paperwork provide clear information about who is eligible to vote, and require the registrant to affirm that they are a U.S. citizen. Specifically, Vot-ER partners with TurboVote, powered by Democracy Works, to provide voter registration assistance and election reminders. When TurboVote users indicate that they are not U.S. citizens, they are unable to complete the registration assistance process.
Encourage your patients to vote by sharing nonpartisan, personal examples, such as “I vote because I care about the world I am leaving for my children,” rather than talking about specific candidates or parties.
For more guidance on how to start the conversation, check out our voter scripts.
We partnered with VoteRiders to create a patient helpline with a chatbot and live person available 24/7 in English and Spanish.
Patients choose whether to use Vot-ER’s platform, and when they do so, they share information on their own phones. Thus, voter information is not subject to HIPAA regulations.
In the event that you help a patient enter their information on the voter registration platform, do not use patient data from their medical record. Only use information you received directly from the patient.