Shoe Industry Leaders Launch Online Election Hub to Help Get Out the Vote
Click here to read the full article.
The shoe industry wants to help get out the vote ahead of this year’s elections.
Tomorrow the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America will debut ShoeVoter.com, a non-partisan online center that provides necessary voting information to shoe professionals in the United States.
More from Footwear News
The website will offer executives and other members of the footwear sector access to voting-related materials, including their state’s registration rules and deadlines, absentee ballot guidelines, voting locations and requirements, a list of candidates in their district and the latest in COVID-19-related information.
“Every state has different cut-off dates and rules for registering to vote, applying for absentee ballots, as well as ID requirements for in-person voting. Worse, many Board of Election websites across the country are hard to navigate and can be unclear on rules. This makes it hard for companies to clearly educate their workers across the country and get them out to vote,” the FDRA wrote in a statement.
It added, “Now shoe companies can provide this one website to all their workers to ensure they have exactly what they need to register, understand the voting rules and key dates in their state to ensure their vote count. Now more than ever, regardless of how you vote, we need to make our voices heard at the ballot box as an industry.”
According to the trade group, many executives across the industry plan to push out the website to encourage their own workers to vote in November, when all seats in the House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate and the office of president of the U.S. will be contested.
A number of fashion and footwear brands and retailers, such as Steve Madden and Coach, have sought to get out the vote: Two weeks ago, the Tapestry-owned brand announced that it had entered into a partnership with LeBron James’ More Than A Vote organization aimed at combating voter suppression in the Black community. Separately, in January, Steve Madden teamed up with Voto Latino, co-founded by actress Rosario Dawson, to help close the gap of unregistered voters while educating and encouraging young people to turn out to the polls.
Sign up for FN's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
