I want to help Democrats in swing districts on/just before Election Day
July 20, 2018 12:19 PM Subscribe
This is also motivated by a suspicion that I will very much need to be doing something active if I don’t want to completely lose my mind.
I am a blue dot in a sea of blue, but there are probably some places nearby that could be pick up opportunities for the Dems. Do they need boots on the ground on Election Day? People to drive people to the polls? Would the DNC or the DCCC be able to point me in the right direction?
I want to be doing something actually helpful with like minded people.
I am a blue dot in a sea of blue, but there are probably some places nearby that could be pick up opportunities for the Dems. Do they need boots on the ground on Election Day? People to drive people to the polls? Would the DNC or the DCCC be able to point me in the right direction?
I want to be doing something actually helpful with like minded people.
Sorry these are not specific election day ideas but some general resources:
Flippable
The Great Battlefield is a podcast that may give you some idea and links to organizations you could talk to.
posted by BeHereNow at 12:49 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
Flippable
The Great Battlefield is a podcast that may give you some idea and links to organizations you could talk to.
posted by BeHereNow at 12:49 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
Join ATNJ's Post-It Posse to reach out to registered Democrats in swing districts about voting-by-mail.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:14 PM on July 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:14 PM on July 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
As tobascodagama says, Swing Left is focused pretty heavily on marshaling volunteer efforts in the days immediately prior to the election.
posted by Ipsifendus at 1:15 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Ipsifendus at 1:15 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
Seconding Swing Left and Sister District and adding Postcards to Voters.
posted by socialjusticeworrier at 1:45 PM on July 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by socialjusticeworrier at 1:45 PM on July 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
The local Dems are doing phone banking and neighborhood canvassing. I worry that voters will get annoyed by being contacted many times prior to the election. Even my friends who are political complain about the number of calls.
I try to post Dem/ Blue - positive stuff on twitter and fb. I don't unfriend unless someone harasses me because even if they are a confirmed peckerhead, they may have friends or family who are persuade-able by my trenchant wit and excellent. Yeah, prolly doesn't matter, but it's so easy to just unfollow peckerheads.
See if your local Dems need poll-watchers; yo uhave to sign up early, but participating in democracy is kind of cool.
posted by theora55 at 1:53 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
I try to post Dem/ Blue - positive stuff on twitter and fb. I don't unfriend unless someone harasses me because even if they are a confirmed peckerhead, they may have friends or family who are persuade-able by my trenchant wit and excellent. Yeah, prolly doesn't matter, but it's so easy to just unfollow peckerheads.
See if your local Dems need poll-watchers; yo uhave to sign up early, but participating in democracy is kind of cool.
posted by theora55 at 1:53 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
If there is a campaign or candidate you really like and want to support, get in touch with their Field Director and find ask about going to that district to work in-person for the last few days of the election.
The Field Director is the person in charge of voter contact and volunteer recruitment. They can find you "supporter housing" which is essentially a local person willing to house you for free while you help out the campaign.
Start trying to get in touch with that person now because if you wait until the last minute they will be too overworked and overtired to call you back.
posted by brookeb at 2:57 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Field Director is the person in charge of voter contact and volunteer recruitment. They can find you "supporter housing" which is essentially a local person willing to house you for free while you help out the campaign.
Start trying to get in touch with that person now because if you wait until the last minute they will be too overworked and overtired to call you back.
posted by brookeb at 2:57 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
A lot of great suggestions here!
Something I will add: if you can, find an organization or campaign you like where you can do text message canvassing.
Text message outreach/canvassing to voters in swing districts have already had good results (better than telephone canvassing, in many circumstances) in places like Virginia during our governor/delegate races last November.
This is based on several conversations I and my local progressive organizations have had with Tom Periello (Tom ran against Northam in the Democratic primary for governor, was overwhelmingly endorsed by former Obama staffers, still lost to Northam, and did what good people do and threw his support 100% behind Northam to help get him elected; he also used to be representative in the US House, so he knows a good bit about campaign strategy in general). Tom said that texting is great because the voter doesn’t feel like they have to respond immediately (such as they would with a phone call they answer), it’s easy to respond once they do have time (since you can just respond with a text at any hour, as opposed to finding time during the day to return a voicemail), it’s preferable for voters who may be shy or phone-averse, and it obviously does well with younger voters who generally prefer texting anyway.
This would probably be one of the more effective uses of your time if you are doing *remote* voter outreach.
If you need a campaign to get involved in, we are trying to oust Dave Brat in Virginia’s 7th district. It’s a high profile swing district and will definitely be a top 10 district to watch as far as media coverage by the time October rolls around. (Brat is the tea party guy who ousted Eric Cantor from office; This American Life did a whole episode about it a year or so ago).
posted by nightrecordings at 3:19 PM on July 20, 2018 [3 favorites]
Something I will add: if you can, find an organization or campaign you like where you can do text message canvassing.
Text message outreach/canvassing to voters in swing districts have already had good results (better than telephone canvassing, in many circumstances) in places like Virginia during our governor/delegate races last November.
This is based on several conversations I and my local progressive organizations have had with Tom Periello (Tom ran against Northam in the Democratic primary for governor, was overwhelmingly endorsed by former Obama staffers, still lost to Northam, and did what good people do and threw his support 100% behind Northam to help get him elected; he also used to be representative in the US House, so he knows a good bit about campaign strategy in general). Tom said that texting is great because the voter doesn’t feel like they have to respond immediately (such as they would with a phone call they answer), it’s easy to respond once they do have time (since you can just respond with a text at any hour, as opposed to finding time during the day to return a voicemail), it’s preferable for voters who may be shy or phone-averse, and it obviously does well with younger voters who generally prefer texting anyway.
This would probably be one of the more effective uses of your time if you are doing *remote* voter outreach.
If you need a campaign to get involved in, we are trying to oust Dave Brat in Virginia’s 7th district. It’s a high profile swing district and will definitely be a top 10 district to watch as far as media coverage by the time October rolls around. (Brat is the tea party guy who ousted Eric Cantor from office; This American Life did a whole episode about it a year or so ago).
posted by nightrecordings at 3:19 PM on July 20, 2018 [3 favorites]
I’m in a blue area of a swing state, and we always, always, always need boots on the ground in the couple of days before Election Day, as well as Election Day itself. We can also usually find out-of-town people a couch to sleep on if they need it. Call the local Democratic Party wherever you are and see if they’re organizing to bus people somewhere. When I lived in Chicago, they always bussed huge numbers of people to Wisconsin and Indiana to knock on Election Day. Otherwise, you can contact the campaign of the nearest competitive race and ask if they can use you.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:47 PM on July 20, 2018
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:47 PM on July 20, 2018
Former campaign staffer here. Thank you for doing this!
I'd pick either a swing district that you're really interested in (maybe you like the D candidate, or you have friends you can stay with) or a state you'd want to go to. If it's a specific district, email or call the campaign maybe at the end of August or early September and tell them you want to come volunteer for a few days. If it's a state, email or call the state Democratic party. The latter will most likely have someone who has as at least part of their job to assign and take care of out of state volunteers. A congressional campaign may or may not have someone like that, but if it's well run, someone should be able to coordinate with you (they may just send you to the state coordinated campaign run by the state Dems).
If you're not sure where to start, this is a good breakdown of the most competitive House races.
They will most likely need you to do voter contact, like knocking on doors and calling voters. This is 99% of the time what is most urgently needed from volunteers at that point. They miiiiiight have you drive people to the polls, but in my experience, there are always a lot of volunteers who want to do that because it's less intimidating than canvassing or phone banking. You'll also probably have the chance to go to campaign events with the candidate and/or surrogates (other famous or not-so-famous Dem elected officials stumping for the candidate) which is fun. I got to see Obama stumping for a candidate in PA in 2006!
I'd suggest that if you want to be the most helpful, go for at least a long weekend, and go a week or two before the election, as that's when a lot of the most important work happens. Though it's its own kind of excitement and fun to be volunteering in a campaign office in the frantic 3-4 days leading up to an election.
The local Dems are doing phone banking and neighborhood canvassing. I worry that voters will get annoyed by being contacted many times prior to the election. Even my friends who are political complain about the number of calls.
With all due respect to people's annoyance - I hear this every election year. But there have been A LOT of studies on the efficacy of various voter contact methods. They vary a lot in terms of how effective they are (volunteer canvasses are the most effective) but I don't know of a single study showing that multiple contacts decrease turnout. The effect is typically the opposite - with low-propensity voters (for instance, people who usually vote in presidential years, but not usually midterms or local elections), it takes 4-7 contacts to make a serious difference in their likelihood to vote. Which is why campaigns have volunteers knock on doors.
posted by lunasol at 12:55 PM on July 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'd pick either a swing district that you're really interested in (maybe you like the D candidate, or you have friends you can stay with) or a state you'd want to go to. If it's a specific district, email or call the campaign maybe at the end of August or early September and tell them you want to come volunteer for a few days. If it's a state, email or call the state Democratic party. The latter will most likely have someone who has as at least part of their job to assign and take care of out of state volunteers. A congressional campaign may or may not have someone like that, but if it's well run, someone should be able to coordinate with you (they may just send you to the state coordinated campaign run by the state Dems).
If you're not sure where to start, this is a good breakdown of the most competitive House races.
They will most likely need you to do voter contact, like knocking on doors and calling voters. This is 99% of the time what is most urgently needed from volunteers at that point. They miiiiiight have you drive people to the polls, but in my experience, there are always a lot of volunteers who want to do that because it's less intimidating than canvassing or phone banking. You'll also probably have the chance to go to campaign events with the candidate and/or surrogates (other famous or not-so-famous Dem elected officials stumping for the candidate) which is fun. I got to see Obama stumping for a candidate in PA in 2006!
I'd suggest that if you want to be the most helpful, go for at least a long weekend, and go a week or two before the election, as that's when a lot of the most important work happens. Though it's its own kind of excitement and fun to be volunteering in a campaign office in the frantic 3-4 days leading up to an election.
The local Dems are doing phone banking and neighborhood canvassing. I worry that voters will get annoyed by being contacted many times prior to the election. Even my friends who are political complain about the number of calls.
With all due respect to people's annoyance - I hear this every election year. But there have been A LOT of studies on the efficacy of various voter contact methods. They vary a lot in terms of how effective they are (volunteer canvasses are the most effective) but I don't know of a single study showing that multiple contacts decrease turnout. The effect is typically the opposite - with low-propensity voters (for instance, people who usually vote in presidential years, but not usually midterms or local elections), it takes 4-7 contacts to make a serious difference in their likelihood to vote. Which is why campaigns have volunteers knock on doors.
posted by lunasol at 12:55 PM on July 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by tobascodagama at 12:29 PM on July 20, 2018 [6 favorites]