By Kelly Yue, Research & Analytics Assistant
ACLU of Colorado’s We Are the Vote campaign was the first to leverage the power of data analytics to strengthen our capacity in campaign planning, base building, and public education.
In June, the ACLU’s advocacy and strategic alliances department was considering El Paso County as the geographic focus of the voter mobilization campaign. The research and analytics team found El Paso County to have the lowest turnout among young voters and Black voters, and the second lowest Latinx turnout across Colorado’s front range counties in the last midterm election. The data reaffirmed the strategic value of focusing on El Paso County to increase voter turnout.
As the campaign progressed, the team shifted focus into looking at statewide turnout data and estimated that 500,000 young people and 620,000 Black and Latinx people in Colorado would not vote this November if they turned out at the same rate as in 2018. By capturing these numbers, the campaign staff were better prepared to work with local partners mobilizing and empowering youth and historically disenfranchised voters.
As the newest addition to ACLU of Colorado, the research and analytics team will fight alongside our organizers by identifying communities that are disproportionately harmed by new laws and by taking steps like bringing quantitative evidence to the courtroom that measures the impact of government actions. This small but mighty team is looking to supercharge the ACLU mission.
