2018 Campaigns

Shepard Fairey/Obey Giant, https://obeygiant.com/vote/

#DonateYourVote 2018

We are launching our 2018 #DonateYourVote campaign in Massachusetts! Sign up here: https://t.co/vycjBLxR7h 

If you are registered to vote in Massachusetts, we’ll partner you with someone who is incarcerated in prison in MA – who is currently ineligible to vote but wants to make their voice heard. You will engage in dialogue and share how you each want to vote in the 2018 elections. Then you will vote the way they ask you to in the primary and general election! You can donate your vote for one particular elected office or all of them – it’s up to you!
 
We want to break down the prison walls and show Massachusetts that we should return the right to vote to people in prison. Until 2000, people incarcerated in Massachusetts prisons had the right to vote, and prisoners organized to make that right a reality. Now, we need to end all criminal disenfranchisement and replace it with universal prisoner suffrage!
 
Need to register to vote in MA before Sept 4th primary? Go here: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/OVR/Welcome.aspx
 

Questions? Want to help support our project? E-mail EmancipationInitiative @ gmail.com.

Jail Voting Signup Project 2018

Jail Voting Signup Project Fact Sheet – Downloadable PDF

In June 2018, Ballots Over Bars launched our first-ever Jail Voting Signup Project, to ensure that the approximately 10,000 eligible voters who are incarcerated in Massachusetts are able to cast their ballots and make their voices heard in the 2018 primary and general election.

We are currently looking for volunteers to help eligible incarcerated voters secure access to absentee ballots to exercise their right to vote. Live in Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Hampshire, Plymouth, and Worcester counties? E-mail us at BallotsOverBars [@] gmail.com !

How You Can Help

Our goal for 2018 is to maximize the political power of currently incarcerated people in Massachusetts – people in jails, houses of correction, civilly committed people or people in prison not serving felony sentences. Many of these people are incarcerated because they could not make bail, and have not been convicted of a crime, but we are fighting not just for their voices to be heard, but also the voices of all people who are imprisoned. People who have been targeted by the criminal justice system, people who come from neighborhoods where someone on “nearly every street—and in some cases every other building” has been sent to jail, people who experience everyday state violence need to be at the center of any conversation around addressing our state’s problems.

We would love to connect with you – if you live nearby, please come to EI’s bi-weekly Thursday Struggle Sessions and sign up here to Donate Your Vote in 2018. In addition, please write to us at BallotsOverBars [@] gmail.com with any ideas, particularly if:

  • You live in Massachusetts near where a jail or house of correction is located, and want to help with in-person jail voter signups.
  • You know someone incarcerated in Massachusetts who is interested in voting and learning about local elections.
  • You want to help us spread the word that all formerly incarcerated people are allowed to vote in Massachusetts through voter registration drives, door-knocking and other events.
  • You are running for office in Massachusetts, and would like to connect with incarcerated voters, or are interested in organizing candidates’ forums inside jails, houses of correction, and prisons.
  • You have stamps or envelopes you could donate to us (or money to purchase these supplies) so we can stay in touch with our more than 150 incarcerated participants who are enthusiastic about voting.