The Races Where Democracy Lives
Vote Forward's Down Ballot Election Integrity Slate is targeting the races that determine whether democracy holds. The officials who decide whether elections actually work aren't the ones on cable news. They're county clerks. Judges who rule on ballot disputes. State Supreme Court Justices. They decide how ballots are cast, counted, certified, and challenged — often years before and after the races everyone's watching.
Vote Forward has launched a new letter-writing campaign to make sure voters show up for these races — not just the top of the ticket. In partnership with the State and Local Elections Alliance (SLEA), we're fielding a curated slate of state and local races with direct, outsized impact on how elections are administered, certified, and adjudicated across the country.
Voters often skip down-ballot races when they hit unfamiliar names for offices they don't fully understand – leaving that part of the ballot blank. But we know low turnout in key races doesn’t produce democratic outcomes. The Down Ballot Election Integrity Letter Writing Campaign includes printable ballot guides with each letter, so voters get basic information about the office and the candidates before they show up to the polls. Our hypothesis is that when voters understand why a race matters, they're more likely to carry that understanding all the way to the bottom of the ticket.
State and local elections are exactly the conditions where letter-writing has the strongest evidence behind it: low salience, low turnout, less noise. In high-profile elections like the 2024 presidential or the 2026 midterms, voters are receiving a lot of messages from a lot of directions. Our 2024 research showed that letters have more of an effect in these quieter races.
SLEA brings years of research and expertise to how we picked these races. They research thousands of elections nationwide, and direct volunteer attention to state and county level offices that decide how ballots are cast, counted, certified, and challenged. Their decisions shape turnout, legitimacy, and outcomes long before — and long after — Election Day.
Like nearly everything we do at Vote Forward, this is set up as a randomized control trial. This time we’re set up to test something we haven’t tested before – down-ballot roll-off. We’ll be able to determine if our letters made a difference not just at the top of the ticket, but all the way down the ballot. We’re sending letters to low-propensity and likely Democratic voters.
What's in the slate
Nevada District Courts — 2nd Judicial District (Washoe County) and 8th Judicial District (Clark County). These judges handle election-related litigation alongside the full range of criminal and civil cases shaping everyday life in Nevada's largest counties.
North Carolina Court of Appeals — three out of fifteen seats are up for election. This could shift the ideological balance of the court hearing election law challenges, voting rights cases, and ballot access disputes, in a state that's been at the center of election litigation for years.
Pueblo County Clerk & Recorder (Colorado) — the Designated Election Official for the county, responsible for voter registration records, hiring and training election judges, publishing election notices, coordinating ballot printing and distribution, ballot processing, and managing polling stations and drop boxes.
Montana Supreme Court — the one state high court race in 2026 with a realistic chance to shift court control. There are direct stakes for abortion rights, environmental protections, and ballot access under Montana's unusually rights-protective constitution.
FAQs
What should I write?
This is the most common question we get at Vote Forward—and we’re here to help! Our guidance centers on our shared mission of increasing voter turnout. We draw from behavioral science research, our own experimentation on messaging, and feedback from letter recipients to help volunteers craft compelling stories.
Generally, messages that are positive, heartfelt and personal, and nonpartisan work best.
Why positive? We say positive not to dismiss real challenges in our world, but rather to focus on voting as a positive, meaningful experience. Messages that generate excitement about voting help motivate letter recipients to cast a ballot.
Why heartfelt and personal? In 2021, our team conducted an experiment as part of our Vote Forward Labs initiative in which we learned that letters with “personal story” messages, written by trained volunteers, may be especially motivating for voters. Writing a short story (1-3 sentences) about a personal experience—either from you or someone you know—shows how voting affects real people's lives and can be especially motivating.
Why nonpartisan? Get-out-the-vote (GOTV) research has shown that nonpartisan messaging is more effective than partisan messaging for boosting voter turnout.
That said, we ask that volunteers do not:
Mention candidates by name
Mention political parties
Frame their overall message in a partisan or one-sided fashion
Assume that the recipient agrees on specific issues or policies
It’s fine to mention issues that matter to you, especially within the context of a personal story, just be careful not to assume the recipient agrees with your specific policy preferences (e.g. stay away from mentioning the bill you think Congress should pass).
For more support on crafting an impactful personal story for your letters, please see our volunteer training exercise.
When do I send my letter?
Adopt and write your letters now, and store them somewhere safe. The mail window opens October 1, 2026, and ends October 24, 2026.
How do I include the ballot guide in my letter?
In one envelope, include one personalized letter to the voter, and one ballot guide. The ballot guide will print along with the letter templates, so there's no need to download it separately. Fold the guide and the letter into thirds, and they will fit inside a standard #10 envelope. No additional postage is needed.
