Voter Registration Drives

Legal Guidelines for PTA Voter Registration Drives and Get-Out-the-Vote Drives

A nonprofit such as PTA may do nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns without jeopardizing its federal tax exemption, but partisan voter registration drives and GOTV efforts are not allowed under the law. Working on behalf or against a ballot measure or referendum does not count as partisan politics.

Keep in mind that these rules apply only to the PTA itself and not to members, staff, or board members who act as individuals in their own private capacity and not as agents of the PTA. They may engage in any kind of voter registration or GOTV drive that they want, partisan or nonpartisan, provided that it is clear that they are acting in their individual capacities.

Nonpartisan means that PTA is not backing or helping, in any way, any candidate or political party, and that PTA is not opposing any candidate or party. The simple idea is that you are doing voter registration and GOTV drives as good government efforts. You are promoting pure democracy. Your attitude in effect should be: “We don’t care who you vote for or what your views on policy may be, but we do think that whatever your views are, you ought to vote. That’s what makes the system work.”

While federal law encourages nonpartisan voter registration, the IRS is serious about insisting that these activities be nonpartisan. No matter how important the outcome of an election may be to PTA, partisan political campaigning (which, of course, includes partisan voter registration and GOTV drives) by nonprofits is strictly prohibited by the tax code.

Nonpartisanship requires that a voter participation program must not explicitly or implicitly endorse or oppose any candidate or party. Every aspect of the PTA’s program must be scrutinized to ensure that there is no reasonable basis to infer, from the way the program is
conducted, any bias or preference (with respect to a candidate or party).

Two Tough Questions About Nonpartisanship
1. Targeting groups who, if they vote, are certain to vote one way
You might wonder whether a voter registration or GOTV drive can be nonpartisan if it is conducted in a neighborhood where virtually all of the people who are being asked to register or vote are strongly sympathetic to one party or candidate. Can this be done? Yes, it can be, if it is conducted in a nonpartisan way and the PTA targets are historically under-represented in the political process. Therefore, a voter registration or GOTV drive directed at poor or minority groups known to be politically disadvantaged is acceptable even though the results of the efforts could ultimately favor one particular candidate.

Additionally, if the neighborhood is the community which the PTA serves, it is not even necessary that PTA targets be politically disadvantaged. The idea here is that this population is your natural constituency, such as parents in your school or district. You have selected them for your drive because they are the people you work with and care about. You are empowering them by helping them participate in the political process, and such an objective is an entirely appropriate goal for any nonprofit.

2. Talking about issues while doing voter registration or GOTV drives
Frequently, it is hard to persuade people to vote. If you can tell them about the importance of an election because of the importance of the issues that are involved (i.e., severe funding cuts to education programs), they might be more likely to vote. Can you do this in connection with a voter registration or GOTV drive? This is tricky.

The key here is that it is safe to talk about issues when they are broadly defined so that some of the issues you are talking about may not be at play in the particular election for which you are trying to get people to vote. But, if the issues you are raising are narrow in scope and the candidates running in the district in question are clearly associated with one side of the issue or the other, there may be a problem. It is fine to call attention to the importance of adequately funding education, but you can’t express support for the governor’s plan to fund education.

Some Do’s and Don’ts
To conclude, here are some practical do’s and don’ts to help give you a better idea of how to conduct a nonpartisan voter program. First, the don’ts:

• Never mention a candidate’s or a party’s name.
• If asked how you plan to vote, do not answer the question.
• If you are asked what party you prefer, do not answer the question. Rather, explain that your purpose is to promote the democratic process and not particular candidates.
• Do not ask the persons you are working with how they plan to vote or what their party preference is, or make any effort to find out their allegiance to any candidate or party—whether directly or indirectly.
• Do not select a target area or group because you believe the voters in that group or area will favor a particular candidate, even if the candidate is a member of a politically disadvantaged group that your organization serves.
• Do not publicize which candidates agree with the position your organization supports.
• Avoid any appearance that your voter registration or GOTV activities are timed to coincide with politically significant events in a particular candidate’s campaign.

Now, for some do’s:

• It is important to be able to demonstrate that you chose your target audience and location on a nonpartisan basis. As explained above, if you select your school district and your neighborhood, that is entirely acceptable. It would be helpful if, before you started the program, you had a resolution in your minutes that you selected your own neighborhood and your school’s parents as the site and target audience for your PTA voter program, because it is an objective of your program to help empower parents by helping them participate in the political process.
• Before a program is actually implemented, it is important to get together with those who will conduct the program and carefully explain to them what has to be done to ensure that it is nonpartisan. It is important to answer any questions volunteers might have. In fact, it might be a good idea to ask them, while they’re conducting the campaign, to imagine that there is someone in the room from the “other” side with an audio cassette taping everything that is said.
• If at all possible, it is a good idea to have at least two people present from your organization when this kind of work in going on. Then, if you are questioned after the fact, you can have someone testify that nobody said anything of a partisan nature.
• If you plan to use issue advocacy to motivate potential voters, keep the issues broad or be sure you identify a wide range of issues, and be careful to follow the advice above in the section titled, “Talking About Issues.”