PC2096: Vot-er: National Implementation of a Voter Registration Campaign in Pediatric Settings

Background: US voter turnout is low compared to peer nations. It is also inequitable, with turnout generally lower among young adults; people who are Black, Asian, or Hispanic; and people with less education, lower incomes, poor health, or disabilities. Voter registration is essential for increasing voter turnout, and research suggests that increased voting among adults is associated with improved child health. Our objectives were: (1) To provide the first national-level estimates of participation in voter registration efforts in pediatric settings, and (2) To describe lessons learned from leading voter registration efforts at two large, academic pediatric hospitals preceding the 2020 US presidential election.

Methods: As part of its 2020 Get Out the Vote campaign, the American Academy of Pediatrics partnered with a voter registration non-profit, Vot-ER, to provide pediatricians with novel tools to encourage eligible individuals to vote. One such tool was an ID badge backer (Figure) with a QR code linking to a voter registration website. Staff could wear a badge backer during their clinical work, and offer patients or families the opportunity to scan the QR code to register. Institutions, such as hospitals and clinics, could request a unique QR code to enable tracking of the number of people their institution registered. We obtained anonymized data from Vot-ER on numbers of badge backer orders, and number of voter registrations done with QR codes, prior to the 2020 election. We filtered these data using pediatrics-related search terms to identify participating pediatric staff and institutions.

Results: Orders for badge backers came from at least 1490 pediatric staff and 354 pediatric institutions across 41 states and Washington, D.C. Pediatric institutions registered a median of 6 people to vote (range 1-118 people per institution). These numbers are under-estimates as they do not capture: (1) Voter registration efforts done without Vot-ER resources; (2) Users from institutions that could not be unambiguously classified as pediatric; and (3) People who completed registration offline or using a URL that did not route through a pediatric institution’s Vot-ER registration counting webpage.

Numerous lessons were learned from leading voter registration efforts. One lesson is to start early, since registration deadlines can be in October. Another lesson is to obtain buy-in from numerous diverse stakeholders (eg, hospital or clinic leadership and public relations) to support widespread staff participation. A third lesson is to consider the trade-offs between active voter registration (in which providers can broach the topic of voting to patients and families) and passive efforts (in which voting is discussed only if patients or families ask about it).

Conclusion: There was widespread engagement in voter registration efforts among pediatricians. Lessons learned can inform future voter registration efforts in pediatric settings. Further research is needed to address potential barriers to these efforts.