Vote Detroit is a non-partisan, Detroit-based initiative aimed at raising awareness about the importance of voting in local elections and increasing civic participation amongst city residents.

Energy and interest in the city is at an all-time high. Throughout Detroit, entrepreneurs, artists and makers from all walks of life are channeling the momentum of the city’s impending renaissance. We have innovation and creativity. We have enthusiasm and passion. We have a thirst for real progress. But, what we typically don’t have is optimal civic participation.

Detroit’s long-term stability requires a functional and dependable infrastructure. Change - real change - will only happen when we start drawing the connection between informed civic participation and quality of life. The time is now. Together we can make the change.

Since 2005, voter turnout in mayoral election years has ranged from 14% to 37%, and no mayoral candidate has won a general election by more than 20,000 votes. There are 560,000 registered voters and approximately 50,000 unregistered voters ages 18 to 35 in the city of Detroit, which means an increase of even a small fraction of these nonvoters can change the outcome of any local election.

Vote Detroit is a targeted messaging campaign that uses the existing and increasing energy in the city, while highlighting its serious infrastructural shortfalls and the ease with which increased participation can put in place effective leaders, as an impetus for mobilization.