Lazy activism

June 6, 2022 5:04 PM

Please don't judge. My life circumstances are such that I don't have the time, mental energy or other resources needed to be properly engaged in local and regional civics. But I want to be sure I'm aware of what is happening and when do I can take action on stuff that matters. Like voting in local elections. I need tools that will bring that stuff closer to my attention.

I don't watch the news and avoid Facebook. I don't have regular irl conversations with people that vote like I do. I would ideally like something that I can sign up for that I can select certain topics and have an SMS sent to me when there is action to take.

Example: "Vote on local judges in two weeks. Be sure your registration is up to date and view your polling location here (link). Read about each candidate's position on issues here (link)." That sort of thing. Does that exist?

Important caveat: I need something that does this WITHOUT spamming me over issues that do matter, but for which I cannot manage all the notifications, so I tune it out entirely (thereby rendering it useless for the intended purpose). I tune out Move On stuff now because they cold call (SMS) me so often. They do great work but I cannot handle fielding unprompted communication very well, and still stay plugged in the way I want to be.

posted by crunchy potato to Law & Government (6 answers total)

If you are in a large enough area, my advice would be to sit down once a year and put your local election schedule into your personal calendar with notifications at the 2 week + 1week + 1 day marks, and then identify a local org that you generally trust and believe in that publishes an election guide with endorsements. Put their website link in your calendar event.

I am in a very large urban area, we have multiple progressive organizations that publish election guides, and I generally use the one whose emphasis is slightly more towards protection and support for the unhoused. If they are vague or unpositioned on someone, I will check the local newspaper (which tilts ever so slightly progressive) as a backup. League of Women Voters is another source I use when I need to do more research, but they don't endorse. They do, however, list who has endorsed each candidate and I just find who the police union likes and vote for the other person.

If you're in a small town, it may be more difficult to find a similar voter guide, but at least check. It's entirely possible there is one and you can do it this way. Any other service you subscribe to is going to use that as consent to over-contact you.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:15 PM on June 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

Can you set an alert to check certain websites (DSA? Local environmental org? Something else) once a month for activities? Or can you make a very small commitment to volunteer regularly but barely for an org you care about? Like once a month for 3 hours?
posted by latkes at 5:38 PM on June 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Americans of Conscience have a well-organized, actionable checklist that gets emailed out every Sunday. High impact, minimal effort and easy to scan through to focus on the causes that interest you most.
posted by platinum at 5:41 PM on June 6, 2022 [17 favorites]

Best answer: Like voting in local elections

Check your local Board of Elections website (probably a county-level government department.) Mine has a calendar of events and for each event you can add an Outlook, Apple ICal, or Google calendar reminder to your calendar. Yours may do the same, so at least you have a reminder for when to vote.

I need tools that will bring that stuff closer to my attention.

One thing that works for me for keeping stuff near the forefront of my brain is having links to websites bookmarked and in a bookmark bar in my browser, which I set as visible directly below the address bar. For example, I've got a "news" folder with a variety of home page links in it, so every time I sit in front of my computer I have an easily visible way to check the news. And a link to my bank, and to my health insurance company, and so on and so forth. Maybe you could try that, put links to the sites for organizations that cover issues you find important, and your county BoE, and things like that where it's really easy to find.

Also seconding the League of Women Voters as a source for election info, and Ballotpedia.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:29 PM on June 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Turbovote helps with reminders about local elections, registration, absentee ballot requests, etc., but you’ll probably have to a separate step of researching candidates — agree Ballotpedia is a decent source.
posted by eyeball at 6:54 PM on June 6, 2022

I've been subscribing to email notifications for my representatives. I've set up filters to send all that stuff straight to a Legislators and Government email folder, so I never actually see it until I have the time to engage.

Your federal legislators almost certainly have email newsletters you can subscribe to; in my experience, those rarely come more than once a month.

What's more useful is subscribing directly to Congress.gov. For example, if you're a fan of Elizabeth Warren, you can go here:

https://www.congress.gov/member/elizabeth-warren/W000817

and click "Get alerts" under her name, and you'll get an alert every day or so letting you know what bills she's sponsored or co-sponsored. You can do this with your own senators and House rep, and you can also get alerts for other senators (like Warren) to see if there are other bills you'd like your own legislators to co-sponsor or vote for.

You can also sign up with GovTrack (here's Elizabeth Warren at GovTrack) to get their notifications - that shows you recent votes, and also highlights one or two high-profile bills.

For more local folks, I've set up Google news alerts to email me when local politicians I care about are in the news. Some local politicians also have email mailing lists that can help you keep up with their biggest issues. Probably your favorite local activism organizations also have email newsletters that you could send straight to a folder to read when you have time.

Like you, I don't want to get overwhelmed with this stuff. For me, it works well to have it all go straight to my Legislators folder without me even seeing it, and then being able to go look at that folder and pick out recent issues when I do have time and energy to write or call.

I hope that helps.

Thank you for caring about this stuff!
posted by kristi at 1:15 PM on June 8, 2022