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Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Alexis Carr was able to knock on doors in Montgomery, Alabama, register people to vote, instruct them on voting rights and encourage them to cast their ballots on Election Day. 

“We were just walking around the neighborhoods in Montgomery and getting information to the residents, letting them know like, hey, if you can’t get to a polling station, there’s a number to call,” she said. “We’ll do that for you. Or even if you’re a person with a felony conviction, there are steps that you can take to be able to exercise your rights.”

But now, with almost everyone encouraged or ordered to stay home or keep a safe distance of at least six feet from other people to avoid spreading the coronavirus, Carr’s get-out-the vote drive has come to a screeching halt. 

“It’s kind of been placed on hold,” said Carr, a volunteer for Rollin’ to the Polls, a nonprofit that engages potential voters and offers free rides to polling places in Montgomery. “It felt like everything was being put on pause temporarily.”

In a normal election year, voter registration organizations like Rollin’ to the Polls are busy sending out large numbers of organizers to neighborhoods, supermarkets, churches and other community gathering places.

But as the pandemic worsens, the death toll rises and more governors across the country issue stay-at-home orders, get-out-the-vote activists across the country are looking for other ways to reach people.

Read more about digital get-out-the-vote efforts across the country.

The Editors