The news hits close to home for a mother-to-be.

Eight months into my first pregnancy, an 18-year-old Black man named Michael Brown was killed by police officers in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown was not the first young Black man I’d learn about only in death, nor will he be the last. But as I stood on the cusp of motherhood, weeks away from giving birth to a baby boy, Michael Brown’s death hit close to home. I remember sitting on the kitchen floor, weeping at the thought of raising my son in a country where Black boys were subject to death for acting like normal teenagers.

Our baby was coming, and crying would not change the unjust world he was being born into. I knew I had to do something, and that even small drops could make big ripples. So I threw myself into local civic causes. I had always voted, but now I wanted to make sure people who looked like me and experienced the injustices I did had a voice at the polls. I called voters, wrote letters to elected officials, and worked at polling places. In between my shifts as a nurse practitioner, I organized blood pressure check events with voter registration opportunities. I brought voter registration drives to barber shops and schools—any place that would have us.

A scannable voter registration badge for health care workers.

At about the same time that my son became old enough to join me at registration drives on weekends, I caught a glimpse of a message on a colleague’s badge buddy: “Ready to vote?” I soon learned it was a Vot-ER (pronounced “Vote-E-R”) badge—a scannable voter registration card designed for clinical settings. Patients scan the badge with their personal mobile device, and the code connects to a nonpartisan platform where voters can register, request a mail-in ballot, or preview their ballot. Instantly, I knew I had to be involved.

Soon I had my own Vot-ER badge and then joined Vot-ER’s inaugural Civic Health Fellowship. In the fellowship, I met nurse practitioners, surgeons, pharmacists, and pediatricians who, like me, knew we couldn’t write a prescription for a safer, healthier world—we’d have to build one together.

With my Vot-ER badge around my neck, I began having conversations about civic engagement with patients at the community health center where I work in Georgia. During appointments, I added a simple question, “Hey, are you registered to vote?”

Voting influence health and health policy.

Two years—and hundreds of voting conversations later— my Vot-ER badge has become part of my uniform. Though many of my patients are already registered, a large number of my patients are among the 60 million eligible voters who are unregistered, many of whom have never been asked to register. These include patients like the woman in her mid-60s with whom I spoke about chronic illness and diabetes recently. She was eager to hear the perspective that voting can be another opportunity to shape her health, and now plans to vote for the first time in the upcoming midterm elections. Or the 17-year-old who gleefully scanned my badge when I told her that Georgians can register to vote at 17.5 years old. Even patients who are not eligible to vote are often excited to share information with eligible family members.

As I talk to patients about voting, I’m continually reminded that I am not a lone wolf in this fight—we all want a better, healthier future for our families and communities. Voting is one powerful tool for making that vision a reality by choosing candidates who support policies voters believe will have a direct positive effect on health care delivery and on individual and community health.

Get Started with Vot-ER.

As we approach a momentous election that will determine our health for decades to come, now is the perfect time to get started with Vot-ER. Order a free Vot-ER badge, so you can give your patients an opportunity to register to vote and prepare to make an informed choice on the ballot.

By Tionya Lawrence, MSN, APRN, FNP-C