Rural Utah Project Education Fund

Issue Advocacy RUPEF continued to engage in organizing work in numerous communities in seven counties in rural southeastern Utah. Through this program, RUP organizers held thousands of non-partisan, issue-based conversations with voters to learn the most effective way to organize in underrepresented rural communities. RUP also advocated for and against various proposals that impact Utahs public lands and voting access.

Civic Engagement RUPEF ran a fully non-partisan voter registration program on the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation, and conducted voter registration and civic engagement work in other parts of Utah. RUPEF staff used plus code addresses to register voters into the correct voting precincts, worked with local elections officials to expand the use of plus codes to register voters effectively, and coordinated with officials in the Navajo Nation government to register eligible voters for Navajo Nation elections.

Addressing program RUPEF is running a comprehensive, nonpartisan addressing program on the Navajo Nation in San Juan County, Utah, where most residents do not have traditional physical addresses. This creates barriers to voting, access to timely medical care, and access to basic services, such as at-home mail delivery and utilities. In 2023, RUPEF continued the process of addressing approximately 3,200 inhabited and addressable structures using plus codes, an open-source technology created by Google employees. The bulk of this project was completed in 2023.