America Votes is an American 527 organization whose mission is to build a permanent progressive

Progressivism

Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...

 campaign infrastructure. America Votes leads national and state-based coalitions to develop shared strategies that advance progressive policies, engage communities and increase voter turnout

Voter turnout

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

.

America Votes leads the coordination, servicing and strategy of the progressive movement's grassroots

Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

 campaigns for advocacy and elections, and advances vital election reforms and voting rights in the states.

America Votes was the brainchild of Ellen Malcolm

Ellen Malcolm

Ellen R. Malcolm is an activist who has had a long career in American politics, particularly in political fundraising. She is an heiress of one of the founders of IBM....

, the founder of EMILY's List

EMILY's List

EMILY's List is a political action committee in the United States that aims to help elect female candidates to office. It was founded by Ellen Malcolm in 1984....

, former Sierra Club

Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...

 executive director Carl Pope

Carl Pope

Carl Pope is the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Pope was appointed to his position as Executive Director in 1992, and served until January 20, 2010, when he was succeeded by Michael Brune...

, Harold Ickes

Harold M. Ickes

Harold McEwen Ickes was White House Deputy Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton. He is the son of Harold L. Ickes, who was Secretary of the Interior under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ickes is a graduate of Stanford University and Columbia Law School. Ickes was a student civil rights activist in...

, Steve Rosenthal and Andy Stern

Andy Stern

Andrew L. "Andy" Stern , is the former president of the 2.2 million-member Service Employees International Union , the fastest-growing union in the Americas. SEIU is the second largest union in the United States and Canada after the National Education Association.Stern was elected in 1996 to...

, the former president of Service Employees International Union

Service Employees International Union

Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...

 (SEIU). Greg Speed serves as Executive Director of the organization.

America Votes has offices in Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, and Washington, DC.

Member organizations

• AFL-CIO
  AFL-CIO
  The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
  
  
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
  American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
  The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is the second- or third-largest labor union in the United States and one of the fastest-growing, representing over 1.4 million employees, primarily in local and state government and in the health care industry. AFSCME is part of the...
  
   (AFSCME)
• American Association for Justice
• Ballot Initiative Strategy Center
• Campaign for Community Change
• Clean Water Action
  Clean Water Action
  Clean Water Action, an organization of 1 million members, organizes grassroots groups and coalitions to protect America's waters, build healthy communities and support environmental legislation and political candidates. Created in 1972, Clean Water Action focuses on canvassing and gaining support...
  
  
• Democracia Ahora
• Education Voters of America
• EMILY's List
  EMILY's List
  EMILY's List is a political action committee in the United States that aims to help elect female candidates to office. It was founded by Ellen Malcolm in 1984....
  
  
• Human Rights Campaign
  Human Rights Campaign
  The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
  
  
• International Brotherhood of Teamsters
  Teamsters
  The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....
  
  
• League of Conservation Voters
  League of Conservation Voters
  The League of Conservation Voters is a political advocacy organization founded in 1969 by American environmentalist David Brower in the early years of the environmental movement. LCV's mission is to "advocate for sound environmental policies and to elect pro-environmental candidates who will adopt...
  
  
• NAACP National Voter Fund
• National Education Association
  National Education Association
  The National Education Association is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become...
  
  
• Planned Parenthood Action Fund
  Planned Parenthood
  Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
  
  
• Progressive Future
• ProgressNow Action
• Service Employees International Union
  Service Employees International Union
  Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...
  
   (SEIU)
• Sierra Club
  Sierra Club
  The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
  
  
• United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
• USAction
• Women's Campaign Forum
• Women's Voices. Women Vote.
• Working America
  Working America
  Working America is an allied organization of the AFL-CIO which works to build alliances among non-union working people. Working America is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization which provides workers who are not union members input into the policies, goals, and legislative efforts of the AFL-CIO...