CREDO’s donation to Vote.org helped drive voter turnout in the 2020 election

By all accounts, the 2020 elections were historic. More than 6 in 10 people of voting age, and two-thirds of eligible voters, casts ballots — a 7 percent increase over 2016 voter turnout, according to a Pew Research study. In total, a record 158.4 million ballots were cast in the 2020 election.

These incredible voter participation numbers were due in no small part to the great work of Vote.org, the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan voting registration and get-out-the-vote technology platform in America. 

Vote.org was an August 2020 CREDO grantee that received a $97,974 donation powered by our members who use our products and services every day. Vote.org also participated in CREDO Votes 2020 program, our voter information project that helped CREDO members take action and make a greater impact during the 2020 election.

With CREDO and other funders’ generous support, 2020 was Vote.org’s most impactful year to date, serving more voters than all other years combined. Rising to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and a polarized electorate, the organization helped voters cast ballots to reach the highest voter turnout in over a hundred years. Throughout the 2020 election cycle, the organization focused on its website and online tools that help voters verify their registration status, register to vote, and request an absentee ballot; and its record-breaking GOTV campaign.

Traffic to the Vote.org website and use of its online tools grew exponentially with 36 million voters using the tools in 2020. Preliminary analysis indicates that at least 70% of site visitors turn out to vote. Most impressively, voter registration, voter verification, and absentee ballot request tools each had more users this year than in all previous years combined. 

By Election Day, 34 million voters used Vote.org tools, including:

• 9.4 million registration verifications
• 3.7 million new voter registrations
• 3.3 million voters absentee / mail-in ballot requests
• 16.5 million polling location look-ups

And of those 34 million voters, 44% were under 30 and more than half were women.

One thing is clear — in 2020 voters turned out and broke records, and Vote.org helped them do it. 

Vote.org would also like to thank CREDO members for their donation to help this amazing success in 2020:

Thank you so much! We are deeply grateful to CREDO for including us in your consideration, and the significant support we received from you truly helped us reach more voters at a critical point in the 2020 General Election.

To learn more and get involved with Vote.org, you can visit their website at — you guessed it — Vote.org.