If you’re reading this, you know how high the stakes are in Georgia for the Jan. 5 runoff. And because the two Senate races will be decided by turnout, the real question is: Do enough Georgia Democrats know they need to come back and vote again?
Thankfully, there are now 2.4 million letters in the mail to Georgia through Vote Forward—an innovative program where volunteers write handwritten, personalized letters to voters who are likely to vote Democratic, but do not have the best track record of voting.
These personalized letters can really make a difference as to whether a casual voter turns out (as this New York Times story showed), and it’s even more likely to have an impact in special elections like a runoff. When Vote Forward started as an experiment for the Alabama special election in December 2017, a study showed that it upped voter turnout by about three points.
And at Daily Kos, it has once again proven to be one of our most popular get-out-the-vote activities. Our community wrote more than 400,000 of letters that are now on their way to Georgia after having sent 2.7 million letters to battleground states for the November election.
But Vote Forward letters need to be written and sent out in advance so that the target voters receive them on time, at just the right "moment of impact" for them to be effective. And now with the Georgia runoff still four weeks away, it’s time to move on to other activities.
That's why Daily Kos has put together this website for all your get-out-the-vote volunteer opportunities: dailykos.com/gotv. Whether you want to volunteer for Jon Ossoff, Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Georgia Democratic Party, Victory 2020, Fair Fight or New Georgia Project, NextGen America, and others, we have you covered. And Daily Kos has also put together a feed of volunteer opportunities through a platform called Mobilize America.
While many volunteers are hesitant to phone bank, this is what campaigns need you to do the most. Even for an extrovert like myself, phone banking is difficult, so I psyche myself up each time by squeezing my "Hope" rock and putting a smile on my face. Seriously, voters are more receptive if they feel that you’re enjoying yourself doing this work. Another member of the Daily Kos community also wrote this guide for introverts on how to phone bank.
Many campaigns also offer texting opportunities, but with one volunteer being able to text a huge number of voters per hour, it’s often difficult to access these. Daily Kos will do its best to direct volunteers to send text messages, but understand that most volunteer slots run out of space very quickly. So we all need to be flexible and learn how to phone bank!
Monday, Dec. 14 is the first day of in-person early voting in Georgia, so now is the perfect time to get started and volunteer to get out the vote for Ossoff and Warnock.
We need all hands on deck to win the Georgia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, and you can volunteer from wherever you are. Click here to see the Georgia volunteer activities that work best for you.