Thank You

I feel very rested this morning, after a long sleep. I dreamed about voter turnout statistics but I should get over that soon.

I woke up proud, grateful, and ready to celebrate.

I am proud of the work that was done by the thousands of community groups and non-profit organizations that registered and mobilized millions of new voters in every state. Turnout in historically under-represented communities increased by over 5 million, dramatically changing the face of the electorate. The attached chart may give you a bit of the flavor of this.

I am grateful for the incredible financial support that this work received from individuals, foundations, companies, and churches. A huge thanks to all of these supporters is our first order of business: Thank You!!

I am ready to celebrate what we accomplished. It was a huge effort and had a big impact. It will have an even greater impact going forward. Those of us out in the streets on NOVEMBER 2 knocking on doors and waving signs know that millions and millions of our neighbors care deeply about politics and the implications of who participates in the elections and who we elect. We need to make it known around the world that we are waking up today proud of what we accomplished and ready to take this to the next level.

Our goal should be to double this effort. Next time we need to turnout 10 million new and infrequent voters in historically under-represented communities. We can do this! We need to continue their involvement between elections. Reform is the result of many small steps taken by many people over a long period of time. Over the past year we have taken many significant steps together that are making a difference. Now we must keep on – continue the effort, increase our numbers, and continue to spread the message of hope and inclusion.

First, we must carefully evaluate our work to see how we can be even more effective and efficient. Second, we need to double the number of groups and people working on this. Over 1500 non-profit and community organizations were active this year -- we need 3000 or more next time. We also will need election reform. We cannot tolerate 7 hour lines, illegal voting roll purges, fuzzy number counts and election officials who work to make it harder for some to vote. Finally, we will do this by continuing to find new ways to work together. This is the big story - historic levels of cooperation and collaboration between and among community groups that produced record levels of turnout in our communities.

We are in the first stages of creating a pro-democracy movement in the United States, one that draws on the best of all our political streams. This movement, as it continues to grow, will make it possible to bridge some of the differences that have kept us apart. We have often been divided by race, class, gender, age, religion, citizenship, and sexual orientation, but our work together over this year has been an important beginning in the process of understanding and overcoming these barriers. Our pro-democracy movement must build bridges across these divides in order to transform empowerment into power.

With pride and appreciation of all that we did together --- and with a strong belief in the hopeful future we are building, I am truly grateful to each and every one of you.

Mark Ritchie