An immigrant-driven voter outreach campaign in NYC
Creative + Strategy, Impact Artist Network
When communities feel empowered to vote, everybody wins. Too often however, complicated voting policies, unclear eligibility rules, language barriers, and a variety of other factors keep people from utilizing the power they have as voters.
In late 2021, the New York City Council geared up to approve a bill allowing 800,000 noncitizen New Yorkers to register and participate in municipal elections (Source: The New York Times). With the Mayoral Election approaching, addressing these issues was paramount in fostering a more inclusive and representative democracy.
Following up on the success of our Ranked Choice Voting campaign conducted in 2021, we teamed up with DemocracyNYC and the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs to create a bilingual voting rights campaign, dedicated to empowering immigrant voices across New York City.
The campaign leveraged the intersection of art and advocacy, as we sought out a community-based artist to represent her community and bring their experiences to the forefront. In collaboration with Impact Artist and activist Sol Aramendi, creator of the Project Luz photography collective, we commissioned a series of vibrant portraits highlighting members of the NYC immigrant community.
The final campaign was a straightforward declaration empowering people to vote for their neighborhood. Visuals featured bold colors and captivating typography inspired by Latin culture and architecture. The campaign was shown across bus shelters and LinkNYC kiosks; campaign messaging was also showcased at civic engagement community events in handheld signs in multiple languages, which brought the themes of the campaign to life. To further document and platform local immigrants, a pop up photo studio was set up at a voter registration drive in Flatbush, Brooklyn where we captured photos of individuals registering to vote for the first time. Subjects were photographed holding signs in their native language (ranging from Spanish to Yiddish) expressing their motives for voting. Signs included messages such as “For My Family”, “For a Better Future”, “For More Diversity” and more.
The multi-faceted campaign approach worked to break barriers and engage communities, paving way for more inclusivity and a better engagement in the democratic process in NYC. Results from the Board of Elections show that 1.15 million people cast their ballots in the November 2021 election (Source: Gothamist).
%202.png)
-min.gif)
