The AFL-CIO Executive Council called for a “high-wage” economic strategy, a new trade model and universal voter registration coupled with vigorous protection of the right to vote at its February meeting in Orlando, Fla., today. The Executive Council also addressed gender equality and commemorated the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington .

In its statement on economic strategy, the council says, “There is something fundamentally wrong with the U.S. economy,” that has resulted in “the stagnation of wages and incomes that has crippled the American middle class for more than a generation.”

The United States should adopt a universal and automatic voter registration system to boost participation and ensure all citizens have the opportunity to participate in the democratic process, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said this morning.

Speaking to the Funders' Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP), Trumka said a strong and growing grassroots democracy movement needs to come together to “push back against the next wave of state-level attacks on the right to vote.”

Want to vote early? Thirty-two states allow in-person early voting, and early voting and mail-in absentee voting is already under way in nearly all 50 states. Here are 10 reasons you should take advantage of this option.

Please share them with others who are able to vote before Nov. 6.

This week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler joined Daily Kos GOTV (Get Out the Vote) Blogathon. 

More than 450,000 new voters from union households may be going to the polls Nov. 6 thanks to an ongoing voter registration drive by the union movement, says AFL-CIO Political Director Mike Podhorzer.

We're really proud that more union members are going to be engaged. Whoever they vote for, the fact is we're increasing civic participation.

The AFL-CIO’s My Vote, My Right mobilization is teaming up with community partners around the nation to make sure eligible voters are registered and to ensure that their voting rights are protected. This week in Nevada, volunteers from the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), unions from the Nevada State AFL-CIO and others in the Nevada New Majority Coalition fanned out across Las Vegas in registration drives in conjunction with National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 25. 

"Court Order Confirms Students' Right to Vote in New Hampshire" is a cross-post from the New Hampshire Labor News.

Voting rights groups applauded Strafford Superior Court Judge John Lewis’ order to the Secretary of State to issue new voter registration forms for this election. The new registration forms will delete a paragraph that advised all voters they would be subject to registering a car and getting a state driver's license if they registered to vote. The order also instructs the Secretary of State to post new information on his website and to inform election officials in towns and cities to immediately begin using the corrected voter registration form. This decision is based upon the recognition that individuals who are in the state for a limited period of time, such as students or persons doing military duty, have an absolute right to vote here while living in New Hampshire, but are unable to get state driver's licenses because the motor vehicle law limits residents to those who intend to stay permanently or indefinitely.

It sounds counterintuitive to those of us who remember our history and civics lessons on American democracy, but U.S. voter registration laws—from early registration deadlines to voter ID laws—are some of the most restrictive in democratic nations and keep large portions of the eligible voting population out of the democratic process.

Victoria Bassetti, author of Electoral Dysfunction: A Survival Manual for American Voters (a companion book to an upcoming PBS documentary set to air in October), writes in The Washington Post that voters in most nations are allowed to register and cast ballots on Election Day and governments proactively seek out voters and continually update voter lists. But:

Today is National Voter Registration Day. Volunteers, celebrities and organizations from all over the country are "hitting the streets" for National Voter Registration Day. This single day of coordinated field, technology and media efforts will create awareness of voter registration opportunities. Want to get involved? Find a National Voter Registration Day event near you. 

Are you on Twitter? Follow the action using the hashtags #925NVRD and #voteready. 

Make sure all your friends and family are ready to vote this November. Send them to www.aflcio.org/register.

Jean Foreman, 80, had to wait four hours at the Pittsburgh PennDOT to get her voter ID last Tuesday. Foreman was denied a Pennsylvania state-issued  ID on the first try. The problem was, Foreman did not have a birth certificate (although she had tried several times to obtain one without any success). When she was born, the hospital did not record the births of African American children. Volunteer attorneys with the United Steelworkers (USW) at the My Vote, My Right event outside the PennDOT, were able to help Foreman come up with additional printouts of bills, voter registration paperwork and an affidavit from a person who swore Foreman lived at her residence. During the four-hour process hunting down paperwork, Foreman had to take a break to sip orange juice because as a diabetic, her blood sugar was getting low and she was feeling weak.