In response to a statement released today by the Mississippi Secretary of State, the Voter Participation Center (VPC) and our partner organization, the Center for Voter Information (CVI), wish to clarify the nature of our work and assure eligible Mississippians that any mail you receive from us can be used to register to vote.

This month, VPC and CVI will send more than 100,000 pieces of mail to citizens of Mississippi making it easy for them to register to vote. Eligible Mississipians can simply use the enclosed state voter-registration form, sign it, and mail in their voter-registration application. VPC and CVI use the very same voter-registration forms used by county election officials. In fact, we provide sample letters to state election officials months before the mailers go out. If an individual receives our mailer and is already registered to vote, they can simply discard it. We make this clear in the letter that voters receive from our organizations.

We hope that all election officials will support the important work of helping underrepresented citizens register and vote this year.

The Voter Participation Center and Center for Voter Information are non-profit, non-partisan organizations founded in 2003 to help members of the New American Majority – unmarried women, people of color and young people – register and vote. Since then, the organizations have helped 5.7 million people register and cast ballots.