Bread to Spread the Vote is back. Small grants, direct to community groups, so the people who actually know their neighbors can get them to the polls. No red tape, no top-down messaging. Just resources in the hands of the organizers who’ve earned trust the hard way, block by block.

Vote by Mail in Jail is expanding. It’s still the only national program getting incarcerated people access to the ballot, and it works. In 2024, we had 92% turnout among the incarcerated voters in our program. Not a typo. Ninety-two percent, from a population most of the country has written off as unreachable and most campaigns never think to organize. That number came from years of relationship-building with jails, election officials, and the people inside, and it’s the kind of result you get when you treat a constitutional right like it’s actually a right.

Neither program runs on good intentions. They run on money that shows up every month, not just when an election is loud enough to make the news.

That’s the ask. Become a monthly donor and help fund Spread the Vote’s midterm work. If you were a past donor with Spread the Vote + Project ID, that donation is currently going to the ID work that we are still doing at Project ID, you can add a donation to Spread the Vote’s work at the League at this link and make changes to your current monthly donation HERE.

A recurring gift, even a small one, will propel our work through these precious last few months until the midterm elections.

We know how to do this work. We’ve done it for years, and the numbers back it up. What we need now is the kind of support that doesn’t wait for the headlines to tell it the stakes are high.

Become a monthly donor

Thank you for being here, and for still believing that everyone gets to vote.

Kat

Here’s something I’ve learned after almost a decade in this space: the most important democracy work in this country is almost always the hardest to find. It’s happening in church basements and county jails and library conference rooms and someone’s kitchen table. It’s being done by people who don’t have communications staff or a PR budget or a major donor list. And because of that, it’s being chronically underfunded.

That’s why our new Abby Lab initiative is building a national map of grassroots democracy and civic participation work so we can direct funds to the movements that need it most, and we need your help to fill it in.

Take or Share the Survey

If you know an organization doing great work- voter registration, mutual aid, protecting undocumented children, feeding their neighbors, real community work- we want to know about them. If you are doing the work, we especially want to know about you. The goal is to create real visibility into what’s actually happening on the ground so we can connect grassroots organizations to the funding and resources they need right now, when it matters most.

Please fill it out. Please share it. Let’s support this work together.

On our end: things are very much still happening.

I know some of you have been following along as the Spread The Vote programs transitioned to the National Civic League and it has been so exciting. The team is working hard on getting our programs up and running in the new space and I am so thrilled! Over here at Project ID, we are still active and busy and heading into a fruitful summer.

Our Virginia volunteers are out in the field doing direct ID work as always, and they just received a grant from the League of Women Voters! That’s real recognition of real work, and I couldn’t be prouder of that team.

Our ID hotline is still incredibly busy. People are still calling, texting, and emailing needing IDs multiple times a day and we are working hard to make sure they get them.

The world is chaotic right now, but I remain as positive and hopeful as ever. Every day I am surrounded by people who are working hard to protect their neighbors, their communities, and our democracy. Every day I see examples of people all over this country proving that our core values of courage, compassion, and community are alive and well. I am more convinced than ever that we are heading towards a better and more equitable future for all. We just have to keep working to get there.

Have a great summer

Kat

I’m excited to share that Spread The Vote is joining the National Civic League!! Our incredible programs Vote by Mail in Jail, Encyclopedia Politica, Read the F*Ing Directions, and more will continue as part of this legendary institution, and the staff who run those programs are joining the League team as well! I am also joining the National Civic League as a Senior Advisor to help guide this transition and continue to see STV’s work grow and scale moving forward.

Founded in 1894, the National Civic League is one of the country’s longest-standing democracy organizations. For more than a century, it has worked across political lines to strengthen civic life, helping communities build inclusive governance, improve public decision-making, and expand meaningful participation. Through platforms like the All-America City Award, Civic Genius, and its Center for Democracy Innovation, the League has deep relationships with local governments, nonprofits, philanthropy, and community partners nationwide. Its reputation for nonpartisan, practical leadership makes it exactly the kind of institutional home these programs need to grow.

I cannot thank every single person who has supported us for the last nine years enough. This next chapter is an enormous opportunity for Spread The Vote to grow our work at exactly the moment when we need powerful civics and voter turnout programming across the country. This is how we win the war against voting rights, and we are so thrilled to have the National Civic League on our side.

For everyone wondering, “what about IDs?”, that work isn’t going anywhere. Project ID will continue to run a national ID helpline and help people obtain IDs in select locations, because access to a government-issued ID remains one of the most fundamental barriers to participation in American life. And, of course, Project ID Action Fund will continue to work to pass legislation across the country and in Congress to increase ID access for all.

Personally, I could not be more thrilled. I never would have imagined nine years ago that our organization would be part of such a storied civics institution, and I cannot wait to continue the fight for our democracy from this incredible platform.

At the same time, I have been thinking a lot about my next steps, and how Project ID can work to defend and improve our democracy, because if we fall into authoritarianism, we won’t be able to get IDs for anyone. So we’re launching the Abby Lab initiative, because we are in a moment that demands more of all of us. Democracy isn’t a spectator sport, and this is not the time to step back. Abby Lab will allow us to address some of the critical challenges that we’re seeing in the democracy fight on the ground today, so that we can keep working to get IDs for all tomorrow.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been on our side for this long ride, and I hope you’ll stay with us as we grow with this new chapter.

You can learn more about STV at NCL here:

STV at NCL

And continue to support our work at Project ID, including the Abby Lab, here:

Support PID

Let’s keep working,
kat

But I also understand why people are so afraid. And I get why the SAVE Act sounds scary, I do. But I have worked on the ground fighting for ID access for long enough to see what is really happening here, and I am not afraid. I am ready to fight.

I wrote my thoughts about the SAVE Act for a new anti-regime project that I am working on with some brilliant friends, The Abby Lab, which I will post here and hope that you will read and share with anyone who you think needs to be galvanize. But the important thing to remember is this: when they make moves like this it’s because they’re scared. They know we’re winning. They know their time is running short. This isn’t the time to run and hide. This is the time to show up.

The Abby Lab

Don’t Let the SAVE Act Scare You

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act is bad policy. It passed the House and may pass the Senate. It would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and impose photo ID requirements at the polls. It creates new administrative barriers in a country where access to identification is already deeply uneq…

Read more

6 months ago · 5 likes · Kat Calvin

Instead, I want to ask you for something far more powerful:

Your attention. Your reflection. And your intention for the year ahead.

Today, I’m sharing my conversation with sociologist Dalton Conley, whose groundbreaking work on the social genome fundamentally reshapes how we understand inequality in America. His research forces us to look beyond individual choices and toward the structures that shape who gets ahead, who gets left behind, and, crucially, who gets seen by our society.

Watch the Conversation with Dalton Conley

Conley’s work makes one point especially clear:

If we want real equality, we can’t wait for someone else to fix it. We have to decide who we will be in 2026, and act accordingly.

As we close out this year, I’m asking you to take time not to give, but to reflect.

Why this matters right now

2026 is more than another election year.
It is a test of what kind of country we want to be.

A year where:

• Millions of Americans still cannot access an ID and therefore cannot work, vote, or exist fully in our systems

• Inequality continues to reproduce itself across generations

• Social belonging is fraying in ways that undermine democracy itself

• The distance between those who feel seen and those who feel invisible grows sharper

Dalton Conley’s work reminds us that none of this is accidental. Inequality is structured, patterned, inherited. But that also means it can be interrupted. It can be reshaped. It can be undone, if we choose to do so.

A Different Kind of Giving Tuesday Ask

So this year, my request is simple:

1. Watch the Dalton Conley video.

Listen deeply. Let his ideas challenge you.

2. Spend the rest of 2025 reflecting on one question:

What will you do in 2026 to promote equality, dignity, and belonging?

Not “what should someone do.”
Not “what can an organization do.”
But you.

A shift in how you vote.
A commitment to learning.
A choice to engage locally.
A decision to support people who are systematically unseen.
A promise to yourself to speak up when it matters.

Whatever it is, big or small, personal or public, it counts.

Giving Tuesday isn’t just about generosity. It’s about responsibility.

The work of building a more equal America isn’t just policy or politics.
It’s a daily practice of choosing to see others, and choosing to be someone who expands belonging instead of shrinking it.

Dalton Conley’s research gives us the tools to understand why inequality persists.
The rest is up to us.

So today, I hope you’ll watch.
I hope you’ll think.
I hope you’ll imagine who you want to be a year from now.

And I hope you’ll join me in committing to a 2026 where equality isn’t abstract, it’s personal.

Let’s choose to make next year a turning point.

Thank you,

Kat

This is why I’m not worried about America.

I am often confused by the parts of history that people choose to remember and the parts we choose to ignore. Everyone is always talking about the beginnings of the Third Reich but not the fact that Germany is now one of the great powerhouses of the world full of peaceful little villages, a few too many techno clubs, and a remaining penchant for the rules that will never fade. We remember the brutal, violent dictatorship in Portugal but not the fact that today everyone and their cousin is moving to the small coastal nation to take advantage of their nomad visas and affordable wines. When I was born, Colombia was at the beginnings of a brutal civil war that would last until right after my 10th birthday, and the nation would take decades to recover. Yet here I am, at the end of a lovely tour of the country in which I shopped, enjoyed a productive board retreat, and ate almost enough arepas.

Nations recover. People survive. And there is absolutely nothing that we can’t make it through. And besides, we have two things that these other countries didn’t have: vastly more than the 3.5% of a population that it takes to overcome an authoritarian government and the will of the most stubborn, productive, inventive, ingenous people on the face of the Earth. We beat the Redcoats with a handful of starving soldiers and a very tall General. Who could possibly think we can’t beat a senile old man who cheats at golf and his ham handed halfwit followers?

I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it, we are in the “through” part of “the only way out is through” but we will get through it. How many videos have we seen of every day Americans camping outside of ICE detention centers, protesting in support of superintendents and restaurant workers, holding hands to protect their neighbors? How many Olympics do we have to win before the rest of the world remembers that our diversity is our strength, that once you’re here, you’re an American, and even the worst of us will come out to fight for this land, and these people.

We are fighters, and we are fighting. Look at LA, where swarms of people came out to support one of our more middling white male comics and we got him back on tv in a matter of days. This is who we are.

Never forget, on January 6th, after the halls of Congress had been swarmed and our elected leaders attacked, they were back on the floor before midnight to confirm the election.

I’m not worried. I’m working. Times are unbelievable hard for nonprofits, we are under attack every day, and I don’t care. I am waking up every morning and getting to work. I am planning for midterms. We will make Vote by Mail in Jail bigger than every next year, no matter what I have to do. We will ensure that our most disinvested and ignored citizens are able to vote. We will do everything in our power to make sure that midterms sends a message, and that we give each other hope every day until then.

We need your support more than ever. As we enter the last quarter of the year, we are planning to take on 2026 with everything we have. The need is great and our fundraising has taken a hit in these hard times. Will you help us help more incarcerated citizens vote? Will you help us obtain more IDs? Will you help us fight?

Support Spread The Vote in the fight

You can help us in three ways:

1. Make a donation today.

2. Become a monthly donor to help us fight from now through midterms.

3. Share this post with the person who needs to hear this most.

I’m not worried about this country. I have complete and total faith that we will come out of this better and stronger than ever. But it won’t happen by accident. It will only happen if we fight.

Are you with us?

Kat

Think about that.

Human beings who just happen to be living on the streets, most often due to no fault of their own except not being able to afford the ever increasing global housing prices, are so dehumanized in the eyes of people who are fortunate enough to have a roof over their heads, that a suggestion to “just kill them” can be made on national television with absolutely zero repercussions.

Later that day, Charlie Kirk was killed, and Brian Kilmeade reacted in a very, very different way. What’s the difference between the two? Well, other than that zero homeless people are famous for spreading racism and hatred as a career choice, Charlie Kirk was lucky enough to have been born wealthy and made more wealthy from said career to have a roof over his head.

I will never understand how any human being can look at another and completely disregard their humanity, but the idea that thousands of people should be murdered, jailed, or institutionalized just because they don’t have a home is beyond appalling, it is terrifying.

Perhaps Brian Kilmeade is the one who isn’t human.

This is why I wake up every morning and go to bed every night obsessed with helping as many of the 26 million American adults who do not have IDs as I can. It’s life or death for them, absolutely, it is vital for our economy, definitely, but also because they should not have to suffer the cruelties of “people” like Brian Kilmeade because the government makes it impossible for them to get IDs.

It’s not easy right now. Nonprofit funding has cratered in the wake of the Trump administration. Foundations are pulling back and individual donors are struggling. Just surviving has become an Olympic sport for even the largest organizations, much less tiny ones like ours. But this morning on Skid Row in Los Angeles we had a line around the block as usual. People desperate for the housing, jobs, and services that they can only get with an ID.

I’ll admit it, lately I have been thinking that it would be easier to stop. I could breathe, not have a migraine once a day, stop stress crying over my breakfast, and help my staff find employment in the private sector before I crawl into a closet and eat several large blocks of cheese. It’s tough out here. But then I hear someone say on national television that we should just kill the humans I look into the eyes of every day and I know that I have to keep going, no matter what.

We cannot stop until every single person in this country has an ID and a safe place to land.

If you’re as angry as I am, you can do three things:

1. Email friends@foxnews.com and tell them how you feel about this segment.

2. Donate to help us help the people who need it most.

3. Share this with a friend who is as passionate about human rights as you are.

I am writing this before I head to the airport for my onboarding retreat as a new member of the board of Amnesty International. I am thrilled and honored to be able to use this new position to fight for human rights at home and abroad, to be able to “defend the defenders” as Amnesty likes to say. But this segment has reminded me that ID work is human rights work too. And right now, in this moment, we either fight for the most vulnerable among us, or we’re no better than Brian Kilmeade.

Kat Calvin

If you enjoyed this video, please support Spread The Vote + Project ID so we can continue to do the hard work behind the fight for Democracy.

Support STV

Today, Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington, DC, declaring that Washington’s unhoused need to “move out” and lying about a nonexistent crime wave. This is not just unconstitutional, it’s inhumane.

Homelessness in D.C. has risen sharply in recent years, not because people suddenly decided they wanted to sleep outside, but because the cost of living has exploded.

I lived in Washington for years and watched my neighborhood rapidly gentrify. The death knell for affordability on my street came when Murray’s, the local discount grocery store, was replaced with a Whole Foods. I knew then that many of my neighbors would soon be priced out. Rent and home prices skyrocketed, and the people who keep the city running, service workers, custodians, baristas, grocery clerks, were pushed farther and farther away from the city they served.

And when people are forced onto the streets, they still need IDs to access services, housing, and jobs. Recently, I testified before the D.C. City Council to expand the list of documents people can use to get an ID. Shockingly, the city employee who testified against my proposal repeatedly lied to the Council- all to keep D.C. one of the hardest places in the country for unhoused residents to get identification.

This is not who we should be as a country. We don’t need more cruelty, more forced displacement, or more barriers. We need compassion. We need housing. And we need to make sure every single person, housed or unhoused, has the ID they need to access the resources that could change their lives.

At Spread The Vote + Project ID, we fight every day to make that possible. But we can’t do it without you.

Please, make a donation today to help us get IDs into the hands of D.C.’s most vulnerable residents and to fight back against policies that would push them out entirely.

Donate Now

Because Washington belongs to all of us.

Kat

I made a YouTube video. With movie clips and everything.

It’s called “No ID, No Vote: How Republicans Are Rigging the System.” And it’s exactly what it sounds like — a breakdown of how voter ID laws aren’t about preventing fraud (because that’s not even a real problem), but about preventing you from voting.

And here’s the kicker: we have them on video saying it.

“Voter ID, which is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania — done.”

That’s a real quote. From a real Republican lawmaker. On camera.

Voter ID laws are framed as common-sense protections. But when you dig in, and when you spend nearly a decade helping people get ID like I have, the truth becomes obvious. These laws are strategic tools of suppression. And they work.

In states like Georgia and Wisconsin, the number of registered voters who don’t have the ID they need to vote is way higher than the margin of victory in recent presidential elections.

This isn’t about voter integrity.
It’s about power.
And about making sure poor people, young people, unhoused people, and Black and brown people stay quiet and invisible.

I made this video because I’m tired of being polite.

For years, I’ve worked quietly behind the scenes- running Spread The Vote + Project ID, writing a book, even introducing federal legislation to solve this crisis. But things are getting worse, not better, and we need this movement to grow. So we’re kicking things up a notch.

The stakes are too high.

26 million adults in America don’t have ID.
And without ID, they can’t vote.
They also can’t get jobs.
Or housing.
Or food from a pantry.
Or medical care for their kids.
Or safety.

This is systemic exclusion. And it's working exactly as intended.

So here’s what I want you to do:

👉 Watch the video:

👉 Share it with your friends and fam. Especially the ones who need a little nudge to register, check their ID, or care.

👉 Check in with your people. Do they have ID? Do they know what they'll need to vote in their state? If not, we can help — that’s literally what we do.

👉 Subscribe to the channel if you want more truth with movie quotes.

Midterms are coming. And like every other election lately, they will be the most important of our lives. Let’s make sure they count.

Kat

That’s a big number, and we talk about the numbers a lot, but the numbers aren’t the point.

The point is the young woman in Los Angeles, deaf, and living in a tent on Skid Row, who came to us for help. It took months to track down her birth certificate. Months of paperwork, follow-ups, and systems not designed to serve her. When we finally got her ID, she was able to move into safe and secure housing. A few weeks later, she came running up to our table, proud and smiling, to show off her new apartment ID.

She has a home, because we helped her prove she existed.

Or Randall, a veteran living in his van in a VA parking lot. I helped him get his ID, let him use my address so he could receive his bank card, and drove him to get a phone. A few days later, he called me and said, “I got two jobs.”

Like most of our veterans, he just needed a little help and then he was off and running.

Or the man in his fifties who sat in the passenger seat of my car and wept. No one had been able to help him get a birth certificate or ID in over 20 years. He had been shut out of every system, every opportunity. All because he couldn’t prove who he was.

Fifteen thousand people. Fifteen thousand moments like that.

And in the times we’re living in, the need is only growing.

States are passing stricter voter ID laws. More people are unhoused, undocumented, recently released, or otherwise excluded. Natural disasters are hitting harder and more often, displacing families who lose everything, including their documents. And everywhere we go, the systems that are supposed to serve people are getting harder to navigate.

At Project ID, we help people get the documents they need to survive.

This work is deeply unglamorous. It mostly involves going to the DMV, possibly the least fancy thing a person can do. We spend long hours on hold with state agencies. We fill out countless forms. We spend our lives on phone calls and follow-ups.

But every time a person walks out of the DMV with a new ID, the world opens up a little.

Every one of those 15,000 IDs is a story.

Please donate today to help us write more ID stories this summer.

Write a new story

Why was Cornelius still living on the streets?

Because he didn’t have an ID.

That’s it.
He couldn’t get housing. Couldn’t get benefits. Couldn’t get out.
Because he didn’t have the one document that unlocks everything else.

The City of Atlanta, like every other city in the country, is clearing unhoused encampments without ensuring that the residents of those encampments have the ID they need to permanently escape homelessness and rebuild their lives.

This is why we do what we do. At Spread The Vote + Project ID, we fight every single day to make sure people like Cornelius can get the ID they need to survive. Because without it, doors stay closed. And sometimes, people die.

Cornelius should still be alive.

If you believe that, help us make sure this never happens again.

→ Donate today to help us get IDs into the hands of the people who need them most.
→ Share this story and talk about it—because silence is complicity.
→ Support policies that make ID access faster, easier, and universal.

This isn’t just bureaucracy. It’s life or death.

Kat

I know it might feel like 2026 is still far away—but the truth is, the next midterm elections are less than a year and a half from now. And if we want to make a real impact, our work starts right now.

At Spread The Vote + Project ID, we’re already deep in preparation mode. From expanding our ID work across the country to planning some truly exciting new initiatives (one major project we’ll be announcing soon!), we’re getting ready to help as many people as possible make their voices heard at the ballot box.

But we can’t do it alone.

If the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that democracy doesn’t defend itself. It takes all of us—every friend, neighbor, and community member—doing our part to get folks to the polls.

So this summer, I’m asking you to take some time to think about how you are going to show up in 2026. Not just on Election Day, but every day leading up to it.

Are you going to help someone in your life get the ID they need to vote?
Will you commit to bringing 5 friends to the polls next year?
Will you donate to an organization doing the work right now—before the headlines hit?
Will you start talking to your community about what’s at stake?

Give early to prep for midterms NOW

This isn’t about waiting until the fall of 2026. It’s about starting today—because every election is decided by the people who show up, and we need everyone to show up.

We’ve proven time and again that when we give people the tools and the support they need, they’ll use their voices. They’ll vote. They’ll change the world.

Let’s get to work.,
Kat

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, life just got more difficult for America’s senior citizens. Seniors have to visit Social Security offices for all kinds of things, from dealing with payment issues to getting new cards so they can get IDs. And not just seniors, our clients have to go to the SSA all of the time for new cards because in most states you need a social security card to get an ID. So for the over six million seniors and the millions of unhoused and vulnerable people who don’t drive, the Trump administration just made it much more difficult to get the card that they need to get an ID.

The irony is, of course, that most people want an ID so they can work, which ostensibly aligns with the Trump administration’s goals of reducing the number of unemployed Americans, and yet without ID they can’t do that.

This is just another way that Trump and DOGE are making life harder for the Americans who need the government most, and it is another wake up call for all Americans about how important the bricks and mortar of our government truly are. We are so fortunate to have thousands and thousands of systems that work and it is vital that we fight to preserve and improve them, now, and after this disastrous administration is over.

In the meantime, check on the seniors in your life. They may need a ride to the local Social Security office.

Support our work, now more than ever

Remember what we’re fighting for,

Kat

Eight years of stories like Robert’s.

“Without Project ID and Amy, I would still be losing job offers because of not having my ID.
You guys saved my life and I can't possibly thank you enough.”

Robert is a client in Los Angeles who needed an ID for a job interview the next day. Without it, the opportunity would be gone. But thanks to our incredible LA Field Staffer, Amy Ramirez, Robert walked out of the DMV with a license in his hand and hope for a new beginning.

“Amy was helpful, friendly, and most importantly kept her word. That is a rare quality in the homeless industry.”

He sent us this note just hours after getting his ID, and we’ve been thinking about it ever since.

This is what your support makes possible.

We don’t just get IDs. We change lives. We help people rebuild, restart, and reclaim their futures.

As we celebrate 8 years of good trouble, we’re asking you to help us keep going. If this story moved you, if you believe in this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our Substack. Your monthly support helps fund this newsletter and the work behind it, getting more people like Robert the documents they need to survive and thrive.

We’re just getting started. Thank you for standing with us, and with Robert.

With gratitude,
Kat

Since then, we’ve helped thousands of people across the country obtain the IDs they need to work, vote, find housing, access healthcare, and so much more. We’ve stood side by side with folks left behind by broken systems, and we’ve done it with determination, love, and the unshakable belief that every person matters.

I am incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished—and I’m even prouder of the people who made it happen. To my team, our volunteers, our partners, and every single supporter who has stood with us along the way: thank you. You are the heart of this work, and none of it would be possible without you.

Today, our commitment is stronger than ever. Our faith in the resilience and goodness of the American people is deeper than ever. And as we head into our 8th year, we’re not slowing down—we’re stepping up.

We need your support now more than ever to fight for every single American who still needs ID access and a voice in our democracy. Join us as we continue to make good trouble, spark change, and build a more just and inclusive nation—one ID at a time.

And to celebrate our anniversary month, everyone who donates in May will receive one of our brand-new stickers—and don’t miss our new 8th anniversary swag, available now!

Celebrate 8 years with $8

With gratitude and determination,
Kat and the STV+PID team

Because of recent changes by the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), local Social Security offices are reportedly closing, the national system has crashed multiple times, and getting basic documents like a Social Security card is becoming even more difficult than it already was.

But, in most states, our clients need those cards to get IDs.

And without IDs, they can’t vote. Can’t work. Can’t sign a lease. Can’t get healthcare.

We’re seeing it every day: our staff and volunteers spending hours, sometimes weeks, helping one person navigate an agency that’s no longer functioning. We experienced this during COVID. Social Security closed their offices for two years and we had to find new and sometimes extreme ways to get cards mailed to our clients. With this confusion and crashing, our clients—often unhoused, disabled, or formerly incarcerated—are now once again facing a wall where a maze used to be.

We were already fighting to get people IDs. Now we’re also fighting against a crumbling federal system that’s making an already hard task nearly impossible.

But we’re still here.

We’re still helping people get what they need to survive—and to be seen. And we’re asking you to stand with us.

Because even when the system breaks, we don’t.

Help us keep fighting for our clients

Thank you as always,

Kat

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Harmeet Dhillon, a virulently anti-voting attorney, to lead the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. The civil rights division is the nation’s chief enforcer of voting rights. They are the ones who bring suits on behalf of what remains of the Voting Rights Act and who ensure that racism and discrimination are kept out of our elections. And now this woman is in charge of that division:

So yeah… we’re in some trouble.

Today, more than 60,000 ballots are being challenged in the North Carolina Supreme Court Race, and voters will have to “cure” their ballots in 15 days in this election with a 1,000 vote margin of victory. The challenged ballots skew heavily Democrat, so this ruling almost certainly hands the victory to the Republican challenger. If it surprises you that both of these stories are about state Supreme Court candidates, it shouldn’t. Control the courts and you control everything.

Lastly, we are losing the voter ID battle. After 8 years of fighting to help people get IDs, of desperately trying to make people understand that IDs are life or death for individuals, communities, and our Democracy, this country is at a point when even Democrats are more in favor of voter ID laws than ever before. It truly feels as if no one cares about the 26 million American adults who deserve to have the dignity and freedom that an ID provides, but who deserve to have their voices heard at the polls whether they have an ID or not. If there was a shred of evidence that proved that voter ID laws make elections safer that would be one thing, but there isn’t, and we all know it. We are all aware that this isn’t about security, it’s about exclusion and control. They may be winning this battle, but we will win the war. One day, every American will have an ID and will be able to vote, regardless of what barriers are put in our way. And yes, voter ID is voter suppression.

This is a tough time for everyone in every sector and every area. But voting is the thing that will save us. We have a year and a half until the midterm elections. Normally we would be taking a break from elections, but we can’t afford to do that right now. We have to start strategizing, planning, and getting to work. There will be time to rest when we have our Democracy back.

Let's Get to Work

kat

For an issue that impacts 26 million American adults, IDs get surprisingly little coverage. But they are critical for millions and millions of Americans to escape poverty and build new lives. No one should have to donate plasma to get an ID.

Exactly!

I am so thrilled that this incredible judge is standing up for individuals who need IDs to change their lives. I can only hope that more people in the criminal justice system begin to understand and take action to make sure the individuals they encounter have the IDs they need.

In the meantime, we’ll keep working.

Kat

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How is it possible, in 2025, that half of California Democrats support voter ID laws? I was filled with fury and despair when I read this, before I was filled with my usual emotion- determination. Every single demographic in America other than landed white male gentry has had to fight for the right to vote and every. single. demographic. has. won. I hope, earnestly and fervently, that Californians see the light and do not allow voter ID laws to pass, for the sake of every voter in California but also for the sake of the country- if California enacts voter ID laws, it will be much more difficult for the few remaining non-voter ID states to continue to resist.

Our democracy is under attack right now. The last thing we need is another huge blow to the Constitution and the most fundamental right of every democracy- the right to vote.

Do the right thing, California.

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