The Digital Divide Is Undermining Your Mission: 7 Ways BallotReady Helps
If your organization is in the education, government, or civic engagement spaces, the digital divide is likely affecting your impact (whether it shows up explicitly in your reporting or not). The gap between connected and unconnected communities limits who you can reach, who participates, and how effective your programs can be.
An estimated 24 to 42 million Americans live without home internet access.[1] In rural communities, 24% of residents consider lack of high-speed internet a major problem.[2] Those residents are the least likely to show up in your engagement data because the infrastructure to reach them just isn't there. The digital divide, in other words, is contributing to your outreach and information gaps.
BallotReady partners with governments, educational institutions, and nonpartisan organizations to close those gaps. Here are seven ways the digital divide may be showing up in your work, and what we can do about it together.
01) Your physical locations aren't as impactful as they could be
The problem: Without access to reliable, sufficient technology, libraries, community centers, and school buildings in your area can’t contribute as much to your goals.
How we solve it: These locations already hold a tremendous amount of public trust. Further equipping community spaces with free, high-speed internet transform them into active civic hubs. Schools with extended hours become after-school access points for entire families. BallotReady's Civic Center widgets can be deployed at these locations to give residents access to voter guides, registration tools, and local election information.
02) A third of the people you're trying to reach can't effectively use what you're offering
The problem: Access and literacy aren't the same thing. According to a 2023 Third Way report, one-third of Americans lack the basic digital skills to participate fully in the modern economy.[3] If your programs live exclusively online, a significant portion of your target audience can't meaningfully engage with them, even if they have a connection.
How we solve it: Structured digital literacy programming, hosted at the same community hubs where you're already operating, builds the skills residents need to use what you're offering. The institutions that see the highest engagement pair digital tools with on-the-ground civic engagement that meet residents where they are, like voter registration mail programs.
03) You may be leaving federal funding on the table
The problem: Many organizations and local governments are not fully tapping available federal resources for connectivity infrastructure, despite their best efforts. The BEAD Program, a $42 billion initiative under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, exists specifically to connect underserved communities, yet many eligible institutions haven't engaged with it.[4, 5, 6]
How we solve it: While it’s easier said than done, working with your state broadband office to pursue BEAD funding can resource connectivity projects that would otherwise exceed local budgets. BallotReady works with government partners to ensure that once infrastructure investments are made, the civic engagement layer is ready to go. On our end, that includes tools, data, and programming that give newly connected residents more access to civic resources than they’ve had before.
04) Your engagement data has blind spots
The problem: Most civic engagement metrics measure who showed up, not who didn't. Registration rates, turnout figures, and program participation numbers tell you how your existing audience is behaving, but they obscure the populations you're failing to reach in the process. In other words, if unconnected residents aren't in your data, they're invisible to your strategy.
How we solve it: Building out infrastructure informed by strong election data is the best way to avoid missing the folks most impacted by the digital divide. Rather than measuring only the audience you already have, focus efforts on identifying the communities you're missing and building outreach strategies around their needs.
BallotReady's election data provides a ground-level view of civic participation across jurisdictions, including where registration rates are low, where turnout consistently underperforms, and where the gap between eligible voters and active participants is widest. Paired with a direct mail voter registration program, that data becomes actionable by turning a blind spot into clear intervention with a population in need of support.
05) Election information changes faster than most organizations can keep up with
The problem: Polling locations move, registration deadlines shift, ballot measures get added or changed, and most organizations are left trying to adjust last-minute. For organizations running civic engagement programs, keeping constituent-facing information current is a real operational challenge, especially for organizations working with digitally disconnected populations.
How we solve it: Civic Center directly addresses this issue with constantly-updating election insights and a user-friendly interface designed for accessibility. For populations struggling with internet access, BallotReady's direct mail programs address this by pulling from continuously updated election data for mail programs, so the registration deadlines, polling locations, and voting logistics in every mailer reflect current, verified information rather than whatever your team has been scrambling to catch up with. Residents who have no reliable way to look things up on their own get accurate, timely information delivered directly to their door.
06) Residents without consistent access can't complete multi-step civic processes
The problem: Civic participation is a multi-step process that, in disengaged populations, can be disrupted by any barrier placed in between a potential voter and the polls. Registering to vote, confirming registration status, finding a polling location, understanding what's on the ballot, and returning a mail-in ballot or voting in person are all involved and require personal initiative. For residents who are offline or who only have intermittent access through a phone or a library visit, each additional step is another opportunity to fall out of the process. Any friction can prevent participation.
How we solve it: Rather than a single mailer, registration programs deliver sequenced outreach that maps to the actual timeline of an election. Each piece arrives when it's actionable, and because it's physical, it doesn't require a resident to be online at the right moment to receive it. For populations who can't reliably complete a multi-step digital process, a coordinated mail sequence keeps them involved.
07) You need more reliable data to power your civic engagement programs
The problem: Running effective civic outreach requires knowing who your audience is, where they are, what's on their ballot, and when they need to act. Most organizations are working with incomplete or outdated info, which means outreach is generic, timing is off, and resources are wasted on audiences who aren't ready to engage.
How we solve it: BallotReady maintains the most comprehensive proprietary election data set in the country, including candidates, races, ballot measures, polling locations, registration deadlines, and voting logistics across thousands of jurisdictions, kept current through every election cycle.
For governments and governmental agencies, this eliminates the research burden of building civic outreach materials from scratch. For nonprofits, it ensures every campaign is built on verified, hyperlocal information. For educational institutions, it provides real-world data and resources that can be used for research and civic engagement.
What Next?
The digital divide can’t be solved by one organization alone, but it also shouldn’t be ignored. Every gap in connectivity, technological literacy, and access is a gap in your impact.
BallotReady exists to help institutions close those gaps. Whether through direct mail outreach, white-labeled Civic Center tools, or one of the most comprehensive selections of election data in the US, we meet your communities where they are and help you bring more people into civic life.
Ready to see what that looks like for your organization? Contact us at sales@ballotready.org or visit organizations.ballotready.org to start the conversation.
References
Cooper, T. (2024, March 25). Broadband availability is overstated in every state. BroadbandNow Research. https://broadbandnow.com/research/broadband-overstated-in-every-state
Anderson, M. (2018, September 10). For 24% of rural Americans, high-speed internet is a major problem. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/09/10/about-a-quarter-of-rural-americans-say-access-to-high-speed-internet-is-a-major-problem/
Kendall, J., Colavito, A., & Moller, Z. (2023, January 12). America's digital skills divide. Third Way. https://www.thirdway.org/report/americas-digital-skills-divide
National Telecommunications and Information Administration. (n.d.). Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. U.S. Department of Commerce. https://www.ntia.gov/funding-programs/high-speed-internet-programs/broadband-equity-access-and-deployment-bead-program
U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2023, February 1). Closing the digital divide for the millions of Americans without broadband. https://www.gao.gov/blog/closing-digital-divide-millions-americans-without-broadband
Dine, J. (2024, May 13). BEAD report: Grading states' initial proposals for federal broadband funds. Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. https://itif.org/publications/2024/05/13/bead-report-grading-states-initial-proposals-for-federal-broadband-funds/