TurnOUT

Promoting civic participation by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied community is a core component of Equality NC Foundation's mission.

Our TurnOUT campaign is a non-partisan effort to inform LGBT and allied voters about the importance of voting in both primary and general elections, and to turn them out on election day. Efforts include voter registration, pledge-to-vote campaigns, and direct contact with infrequent voters.

For example, in the 2006 general elections, Equality NC Foundation partnered with Conservation Council of NC Foundation, Democracy NC, and LEAP to coordinate a combined get-out-the-vote campaign that reached more than 45,000 infrequent voters with a combination of direct mail and volunteer-staffed phone banks.

Thirty LGBT, environmental and social justice organizations participated by sharing their membership lists and recruiting volunteers for the effort. The coalition held 15 phone banks in various locations around the Triangle over the two weeks leading up to the election.

Our TurnOUT program continues to promote the vote in both off-year local elections and in statewide elections.