PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
March 25, 2009

Contact: Brian Gumm, (202) 683-4812, bgumm@ombwatch.org

Report Demonstrates Continued Importance of Nonprofit Voter Engagement at Election Time

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2009—Today, OMB Watch released a report, How Nonprofits Helped America Vote: 2008, that demonstrates the continued importance of nonprofit voter engagement in the United States.

The report documents the various ways that nonprofit organizations helped to register, inform, mobilize, and protect voters during the 2008 election season.

• The first section of the report describes the various issues surrounding voting rights, from voter fraud to a range of deceptive practices
• The report then tracks how nonprofits protected election integrity by recruiting poll workers and helping to implement new voting technologies
• Next, the report describes a variety of tactics nonprofits used to get out the vote
• The report concludes with several recommendations and electoral resources for nonprofits to help America vote

"At a time of huge increases in voter registration and voter turnout, nonprofits led the way in providing supplementary support and assistance to voters," said Lateefah Williams, Nonprofit Speech Rights Policy Analyst at OMB Watch and coordinator of the organization's nonprofit voter engagement project. "This report illustrates the crucial role that nonprofits play in protecting the integrity of the electoral process."

Lee Mason, OMB Watch Director of Nonprofit Speech Rights, added, "This report showcases just how important it is for nonprofit organizations of all stripes to continue and increase their nonpartisan voter engagement activities." Mason also noted that these activities are part of our civic responsibility and are protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

How Nonprofits Helped America Vote: 2008 is an online-only publication of OMB Watch and can be obtained at http://www.ombwatch.org/files/npadv/PDF/nphelpedamericavote2008.pdf.

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OMB Watch is a nonprofit government watchdog organization dedicated to promoting government accountability, citizen participation in public policy decisions, and the use of fiscal and regulatory policy to serve the public interest.