Advancement Project's long experience in fighting for fair elections on behalf of voters of color has confirmed our belief that the work must be ongoing, with a focus on pre-election solutions. Sustained, consistent pre-election voting rights work enhances our ability to influence registration and election management. We also understand that key decisions are made at the state, county and municipal levels. Many problems and potential problems are best addressed locally, with local leadership.

The core strategy of our voter protection efforts is to monitor registration processing and election administration, to expose problems early in the election cycle, to address these difficulties and remove obstacles prior to Election Day. Through this Program, we also build the legal and procedural framework necessary to carry out long range voter protection work. With other voter registration groups, we develop processes for verifying that applicants are indeed placed on the voting rolls as well as means of investigating unsuccessful applications. In collaboration with local organizations and stakeholders, we monitor and seek to ensure that election officials establish and implement fair and effective election administration procedures on a comprehensive set of issues, including registration processing, list maintenance (a.k.a., purging), appropriate training for poll workers, allocation of resources to election precincts, provisional ballots and challenges. While we will seek to solve problems through cooperative relationships with election officials, we use legal, communications, and other advocacy methods as needed.