Claire Ullman
Claire Ullman
Reclaim Our Vote: How Students for Voting Justice is getting out the vote in Georgia, Spelman and Beyond
Reclaim Our Vote: How Students for Voting Justice is getting out the vote in Georgia, Spelman and Beyond
Students for Voting Justice (SVJ) began somewhat spontaneously during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to help not only mobilize voters to engage in the election, but to rally and engage college students.
Cofounders Claire Ullman and Sandy Radoff used their experiences teaching college students, marketing background and previous continued after the pandemic, co-founder Sandy Radoff said.
“There are thousands of postcards to write, thousands of phone calls to make, and so much work to do for each election. If we could bring that work together with all these students who need something meaningful to do, wouldn’t that be a win-win?”
Since the first cohort of interns, SVJ has evolved. Now, the internship is a paid opportunity that focuses on recruiting students from primarily Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington DC to engage in conversations about voter advocacy, write postcards to potential voters in critical majority people of color communities, and engage in phone banking.
“We made a commitment after that first session that it would always be a paid internship. We felt that was really just and fair, because the interns being brought on board were doing a lot of work, and it really should be treated as a job,” said Ullman.
Interns are also responsible for creating ads that are used to encourage young people to pledge to vote, participate in leadership workshops, be mentored by professionals in a plethora of fields, and directly participate in voter outreach by recruiting volunteers to write postcards.
The results of SVJ speak for themself. Since its founding in 2020, SVJ has had more than 1,000 paid interns, recruited nearly 6,000 volunteers, and mailed more than 350,000 postcards. This year, SVJ is targeting Richmond County, Georgia, for its voter outreach efforts.
“According to the Center for Common Ground, Georgia is just an extremely critical state, and Students for Voting Justice selected Richmond County to focus on, which is 60% African American and is in a congressional district that could really possibly flip,” Ullman said.
In practice, this concentration looks like SVJ sending 47,000 postcards to every 1 in 4 registered voters in Richmond County. This effort is made possible by the work of college students at Spelman, Morehouse, and beyond, along with the help of unpaid volunteers.
“They're [interns] fantastic. Absolutely fantastic,” Radoff said. “We love working with Spelman students. But we love working with the students on all the campuses where we work. We've been extraordinarily fortunate to get to know some of the most courageous, determined, optimistic and ambitious and high achieving young people in America.”
Although SVJ is still growing to accept more interns, write more postcards, and reach more voters, their mission is bigger than Spelman or Georgia; it's about helping voters and students everywhere take control of their political future.
“In the world who met each other during their internships with SVJ and became friends and perhaps even colleagues, we would love to see more Spelman students elected to office.”
In regards to this election, SVJ is working so that more people in Georgia, specifically in communities of color that have been the target of voter suppression, can find their way to a ballot box, learn the power of their vote, and start a lifelong commitment to voting despite efforts made to dissuade them.
“I think that after this election is over, every intern and student should be able to look herself in the mirror and say, I did what I could. I made a difference. I have no regrets,” Radoff said.
Students for Voting Justice (SVJ) began somewhat spontaneously during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to help not only mobilize voters to engage in the election, but to rally and engage college students.
Cofounders Claire Ullman and Sandy Radoff used their experiences teaching college students, marketing background and previous continued after the pandemic, co-founder Sandy Radoff said.
“There are thousands of postcards to write, thousands of phone calls to make, and so much work to do for each election. If we could bring that work together with all these students who need something meaningful to do, wouldn’t that be a win-win?”
Since the first cohort of interns, SVJ has evolved. Now, the internship is a paid opportunity that focuses on recruiting students from primarily Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington DC to engage in conversations about voter advocacy, write postcards to potential voters in critical majority people of color communities, and engage in phone banking.
“We made a commitment after that first session that it would always be a paid internship. We felt that was really just and fair, because the interns being brought on board were doing a lot of work, and it really should be treated as a job,” said Ullman.
Interns are also responsible for creating ads that are used to encourage young people to pledge to vote, participate in leadership workshops, be mentored by professionals in a plethora of fields, and directly participate in voter outreach by recruiting volunteers to write postcards.
The results of SVJ speak for themself. Since its founding in 2020, SVJ has had more than 1,000 paid interns, recruited nearly 6,000 volunteers, and mailed more than 350,000 postcards. This year, SVJ is targeting Richmond County, Georgia, for its voter outreach efforts.
“According to the Center for Common Ground, Georgia is just an extremely critical state, and Students for Voting Justice selected Richmond County to focus on, which is 60% African American and is in a congressional district that could really possibly flip,” Ullman said.
In practice, this concentration looks like SVJ sending 47,000 postcards to every 1 in 4 registered voters in Richmond County. This effort is made possible by the work of college students at Spelman, Morehouse, and beyond, along with the help of unpaid volunteers.
“They're [interns] fantastic. Absolutely fantastic,” Radoff said. “We love working with Spelman students. But we love working with the students on all the campuses where we work. We've been extraordinarily fortunate to get to know some of the most courageous, determined, optimistic and ambitious and high achieving young people in America.”
Although SVJ is still growing to accept more interns, write more postcards, and reach more voters, their mission is bigger than Spelman or Georgia; it's about helping voters and students everywhere take control of their political future.
“In the world who met each other during their internships with SVJ and became friends and perhaps even colleagues, we would love to see more Spelman students elected to office.”
In regards to this election, SVJ is working so that more people in Georgia, specifically in communities of color that have been the target of voter suppression, can find their way to a ballot box, learn the power of their vote, and start a lifelong commitment to voting despite efforts made to dissuade them.
“I think that after this election is over, every intern and student should be able to look herself in the mirror and say, I did what I could. I made a difference. I have no regrets,” Radoff said.