Marc Wetherhorn, our National Advocacy Director at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), wrote a blog post for Fair Elections Legal Network this week about voter engagement efforts taking place at Community Health Centers.
Here is an excerpt:
The community based nature of health centers and the relationship they have with their patients as their “family doctor” make them an ideal vehicle for communicating with and energizing their patients to become more involved in the electoral process that has a dramatic impact on their lives and those of their families. Over 92% of health center patients nationwide have incomes under 200% of poverty; over a quarter are African-American and over a third are Hispanic or Latino. Because these demographics reflect a patient population that is historically unregistered and unlikely to vote, health centers have the power to dramatically increase voter participation in their communities by putting in place legal, permissible, non-partisan voter engagement activities: voter registration, voter education and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) activities.
Fair Elections Legal Network has been one of NACHC’s partners for Community Health Vote 2012. Learn more about Community Health Vote and how your health center can participate in voter engagement at www.CHCVote.org.