The Passport Project
Democracy Defense
Hover over photo to pause.
At every juncture in our nation's history, group after group has had to fight for the right to vote.
The three-fifths clause.
African Americans.
Women.
Native Americans.
The poor.
Asian Americans.
And so on.
And each time group barriers are removed, procedural ones are erected.
Grandfather clauses.
Literacy tests.
Poll taxes.
White primaries.
Felony disenfranchisement.
Gerrymandering.
And so on.
Today, those barriers are many, ranging from rampant redistricting to the Supreme Court's two decades of cuts to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, enacted after the Selma march.
But given the unprecedented sociological shift we're undergoing, none of these might be as consequential as the restrictive voting laws recently passed in about half our states.
Under most of these laws, driver’s licenses, Social Security cards, state-issued IDs and even Real IDs would all be inadmissible as proof of identity.
The Passport Project
is a voter empowerment strategy that goes beyond voter registration; it helps people in poverty secure the credentials to vote under restrictive state and federal voter-identification statutes, “disenfranchisement-proof” credentials that are acceptable no matter what laws are passed.
Either a passport or passport card clears that bar.
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Watch Freedom On My Mind, the award-winning, 1994 documentary about Freedom Summer in 1964 Mississippi's 1964 for free here
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How it works:
1. Any American who lacks the means to secure a passport card on their own, adds their name to the waiting list. 2. When their name comes up, they're contacted by a local voting advocate who works with them at every step in an otherwise complicated process, from ordering an official birth certificate to getting everything together, and off in the mail. 3. We cover all associated costs, at every juncture of the process. The birth certificate fees. The passport photos. The expedited application fee. The postage. The price of securing their sacred right to vote? $200. 4. If they don't have an address where they can receive their passport card, we provide one. Otherwise, it arrives at their listed address. 5. We do this for every American who doesn't know how to navigate the process, can't afford it, or both. With no regard for how they'll vote. That's because democracy hinges on everyone's right to shape the future of their country, not just those who exercise that right the same way we do. |
Mississippians waiting in interminable lines just to get the application they'll need to complete, in order to stand in another line so they could register, in order to have their application reviewed, and if approved, to vote. Leflore County Courthouse, Greenwood, Mississippi, Freedom Summer, 1964.
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We successfully piloted the Passport Project in Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia, the largest cities in two of the latest states transformed by the GSS, the great sociological shift, covered in This Land Is Your Land.
As of 2021, both Texas and Georgia, states where Euro Americans once held upward of 80% of the vote, are now places that reflect our future -- one where no demographic group holds majority power.
And ironically, that moves us closer to democracy. If we can stop building barriers to it.
That's what the Passport Project helps us do. As of October, 2026, over 1,500 people in the Dallas area, and nearly 1,000 in the Atlanta area who were in danger of being disenfranchised can now vote -- no matter what proof-of-citizenship laws are passed. Ultimately, removing this economic barrier to voting will require either the abolishment of proof-of-citizen statutes, or making passports (federal level) and official birth certificates (state level) free of charge.
Until then, we're committed to partnering with local congregations, organizations, and networks like Faith in Action and Indivisible to expand the project's services to every state where restrictive voter ID laws have been enacted, including across the states of Georgia and Texas.
As of 2021, both Texas and Georgia, states where Euro Americans once held upward of 80% of the vote, are now places that reflect our future -- one where no demographic group holds majority power.
And ironically, that moves us closer to democracy. If we can stop building barriers to it.
That's what the Passport Project helps us do. As of October, 2026, over 1,500 people in the Dallas area, and nearly 1,000 in the Atlanta area who were in danger of being disenfranchised can now vote -- no matter what proof-of-citizenship laws are passed. Ultimately, removing this economic barrier to voting will require either the abolishment of proof-of-citizen statutes, or making passports (federal level) and official birth certificates (state level) free of charge.
Until then, we're committed to partnering with local congregations, organizations, and networks like Faith in Action and Indivisible to expand the project's services to every state where restrictive voter ID laws have been enacted, including across the states of Georgia and Texas.
Even after the Mississippi murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, three voting rights activists, Freedom Summer volunteers didn't back down. They stepped up. Including this young woman. At the time, federal law already prohibited interference with people trying to vote. But African American Mississippians were required to complete a three-page application with questions about the Mississippi constitution and citizens’ duties, followed by a waiting period and, frequently, denial of the application.
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. – Reinhold Niebuhr
This land has a story. What role will you play? Duwamish Tribe, 2022
Simply put, if we exercise the power of the vote, everything can be saved. If we don’t, nothing can. - R David Moore, Doing Democracy, Letters from a Birmingham Boy.