This year, there aren’t as many large public events with volunteers signing people up to vote in the weeks before the election, due to the pandemic. But doctors’ offices are stepping in to fill the void, through programs like VotER and Vote Health 2020, nonpartisan efforts to register patients in free clinics, community centers and emergency rooms.
In Wisconsin, when patients come in to talk weight loss, high blood pressure, or other issues, medical assistant Marshae Love, who works at Progressive Community Health Centers in Milwaukee, has also started chatting with them about getting registered, often spurred on by the badge that dangles from her neck with information from VotER.
“So, when I go in the rooms, just having conversation once I’m checking in the patients, they’ll ask like, ‘Hey, what’s that around your neck?’ So I’ll let them know it’s just a way for them to register to vote.”
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