votER Initiative

Medical School joins VotER’s Healthy Democracy Campaign to increase voter registration and turnout

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Whitney Delaney
2 minutes

The U of M Medical School has officially joined VotER’s Healthy Democracy Campaign, a civic health initiative and competition intended to increase voter registration and turnout. VotER is a nonpartisan organization that has developed resources for healthcare workers so that they can quickly and easily help their patients register to vote. Through the Healthy Democracy Campaign, medical students can empower the communities they serve by promoting the engagement of all members of their community in the electoral process. The competition between 30+ other medical schools across the nation aims to see who can register the most voters and runs from Aug. 1 - Oct. 9, 2020. All healthcare students and workers within the U of M community are invited to participate. 

Goal: Provide voter registration education information to patients and staff across all U of M and affiliated sites. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I4Be9AAUJQ&feature=emb_title

How to participate:

  1. Read through the Powerpoint presentation for all of the details.

  2. Watch the mandatory training video to get informed on how it works.

  3. Fill out this Google form by Friday, Aug. 14 to request either the Traditional Healthy Democracy Kit ($10 per UMN-specific badge) or to receive the link to download the FREE digital kit to use as your phone background.

  4. If you want the Traditional Healthy Democracy Kit, you can Venmo $10 to @UMNHealthyDemocracy (please include your full name). The medical students in charge will place a bulk order for those who would like the UMN-specific badges and lanyards.

  5. Many students and faculty have already obtained a badge from VotER prior to our school entering the competition. If so, please be sure to use the new school code “VOTE UMN” to 34444, instead of the older “VOTE HEALTH,” and no longer use the old QR code.This makes sure that any new voter registrations count towards our school’s total!

  6. Other suggestions for adapting your old badge to fit our new school badges can be found in the Powerpoint presentation. 

Questions:

Please see the Powerpoint for more detailed information about the Healthy Democracy Campaign, and reach out to the following students with any questions:

Katie Beck-Esmay: becke529@umn.edu 
Cecilia Di Caprio: dicap002@umn.edu
Lorenzo Castañón Gonzalez: casta077@umn.edu
Hannah Cushen: cushe002@umn.edu
Mina Krenz: krenz061@umn.edu

PS: Spread the word on social media by sharing the U of M's school-specific URL https://vot-er.org/UMN/and following @Vot_ER_Org on Twitter and Instagram, and get friends at other schools to enter the competition too!