Secretary of State cautions Mississippians over voter registration mailers out of D.C.

• The mailers are from a group targeting the “New American Majority” – 18- to 35-year-old men who are not white or women in the same age range who are unmarried.

Mississippi’s Secretary of State says a non-profit out of Washington D.C. is planning to send voter registration mailers to Mississippi residents.

Secretary Michael Watson said the mailers are not official correspondence from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office or county Circuit Clerks and is not an indication of a change in anyone’s voter registration status.

The mailers are from the Voter Participation Center, a self-described non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 2003 “to help members of the New American Majority register and vote.” The organization defines that “New American Majority” as 18- to 35-year-old men who are not white or women in the same age range who are unmarried.

The group claims to have helped 6.6 million people register to vote and get to the polls since 2003.

The organization is led by Tom Lopach as its President and CEO. Lopach previously served as Chief of Staff to Democrat Montana Governor Steve Bullock, Executive Director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) during the 2015-2016 election cycle, and Chief of Staff to Democrat U.S. Senator Tester from 2010 through 2014.

Earlier this year, the Voter Participation Center actively opposed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act which sought to require proof of United States citizenship to register to vote to ensure illegal immigrants were not voting in U.S. elections. The measure passed the U.S. House and awaits action in the U.S. Senate.

Lopach pushed back on the need for the SAVE Act, saying it was attempting to solve “a problem that doesn’t exist.” He said voter disenfranchisement might be part of the goal of the legislation.

“Voting efforts favor older white folks. Voting locations favor people who can take time off of work, people who can get in their car and drive, and don’t favor people who may use public transportation or may need to vote after hours,” Lopach told StateScoop. “So it could all add up to strain the resources of state and county offices and to again, over-indexed on people of wealth while making it harder for minorities, women, young people, to be part of our elections. If the end goal is to keep people from voting, maybe that’s what’s all going on here.”

Secretary Watson said their office as well as county Circuit Clerks have received numerous calls about mailers from the Voter Participation Center in previous years.

“The forthcoming mailers will provide that, according to review, someone at the address may not be registered to vote and encourages completion and submission of a voter registration form,” the Secretary of State office noted, adding entities like the Voter Participation Center may obtain physical mailing address information through Freedom of Information Act requests.

However, the Secretary of State reminds voters that it is critically important to remember to get election information from trusted sources, such as local election officials and their office.

Below is the envelope and letter the Voter Participation Center is sending out for reference, per the Secretary of State’s office.