Hope Springs from Field PAC has been registering New Voters since June, 2021 in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin. Key elements of our program in registering New Voters is Mentoring (as Volunteers are available) and Replicating Campaign Communications with New Voters. New Voters rarely make it into traditional campaign’s voter contact efforts and yet, like infrequent voters, they need more, not less, communications and outreach to actually cast a ballot. So we asked volunteers from Daily Kos, Black Churches, Divine Nines and our canvassing volunteers to send First Contact Post Cards to these New Voters to encourage them to vote this Fall. Volunteers are now sending out the third Post Card to the New Voters we registered this cycle.
You may have heard/read of Democratic concerns about whether New Voters will turn out in this election. Of course, some of this may be comparing apples and oranges. “Younger voters — a cornerstone of the party’s electoral coalition — make up a smaller share of early and absentee voters so far than they did in 2020.” Of course, the correct comparison would be to another midterm election, like the stellar 2018 Midterms which saw amazing turnout for younger voters. The Fall 2022 Harvard IOP Poll of Young Voters
indicates that 40% of 18-to-29-year-olds state that they will “definitely" vote in the November 8 midterm elections, on track to match or potentially exceed the record-breaking 2018 youth turnout in a midterm election. Young voters prefer Democratic control of Congress 57% to 31% (up five points for Democrats since spring), but 12% remain undecided.
Younger voters have always been less likely to vote early or by mail than older voters. The social aspect of voting weighs heavily in this. What we saw in the Georgia Senate Runoffs was that younger people would call their friends while standing in line to vote asking, “where are you?” We even saw young adults move back in line to be with their friends. This is not your father’s SOP.
Volunteers are now reporting they have sent out the third wave of post cards. There have been some stragglers, of course, but we’ve also had a few “super volunteers” who have doubled and even tripled the amount of cards they agreed to write and send in three waves to these New Voters who we either registered at the door or through partners (primarily Black Churches in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Wisconsin).
Like any “new thing,” sometimes it takes extra motivation or encouragement to actually do it, in this case, actually cast a ballot. And that’s where Hope Springs from Field began our Get-Out-the-Vote efforts. Many new voters have no idea where their polling location is (even though it is undoubtedly printed on their new voter card) or what is involved in casting their ballot. But these New Voters have had prior contact with one of our volunteers (or their Elections Committee), and they know that Democrats are serious about preserving Democracy, protecting their right to vote and interested in maintaining the public infrastructure in their neighborhoods. We want to reinforce that message and we want these voters to understand how important it is for them to vote.
738 volunteers agreed to send Post Cards to the 15,737 brand new Voters we have helped registered in the last 16 months. (We did have 46 people sign up to send post cards who never responded to further communications, but we’re covered!).
But we aren’t just unleashing postcards written by volunteers in each wave. You see, this volunteer outreach through the mail is just the first contact in a highly choreographed effort to raise voter awareness and motivation about how important it is to vote this year. 5 days after volunteers told us they sent their first wave cards, we placed robocalls to these new voters from local “celebrities” chosen by their organizers who they felt would connect with young voters. All these post cards are sent to new voters in the 18-29 age range who have no history of voting, as verified by TargetSmart. Some of these “celebrity” messages referred to the post cards, which i thought was pretty cool. But i’m old AF and don’t really know what young people think is cool.
The point, as i said above, is to replicate the kinds of voter communications that traditionally come from campaigns to known voters. Our goal here is to make 21 attempts to reach these new voters as voting begins, through all the communications methods available, reminding them about their commitment to vote that is inherent in the process of registering to vote. Since these are all Senate Swing States, the stakes couldn’t be any higher.
That first “celebrity” robocall triggered a text from a volunteer based upon the "celebrity" and their particular robocall. And that text triggered a live call attempt by a member of either a church's Election Committee or local Democratic party organization, club or one of our canvassers (depends on the state and how involved our canvassing effort was with local Democratic organizations).
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First Round of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterpostcards
Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that repeated voter interactions are critical. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured.
At the door, and through our partner Black Churches, Hope Springs from Field PAC has registered 71,305 voters in little more than a year. While only a fraction of that are New Voters, to whom these post cards are intended. Re-registered voters are generally included in regular campaign communications because they already have a voter history. But we hope to generate the same kind of excitement among these newly registered voters as post cards did in Georgia. Outreach that matters, excites and makes them pay attention to the approaching election.
To the left was our Second Wave Post Card, the cards that are currently going out now. When these go out is more complicated, because we wanted voters to receive them just as Early Voting begins. So Arizona & Ohio 2nd Wave postcards went out earlier than others, and Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin 2nd Wave postcards went out just last week.
The second card triggered the drop off of Virgin Voter Cards (Virgin Voter Cards were delivered to all voters who have been registered either at the door or through their partner churches) and, in some places, will include all voters who registered who are new to that precinct (about 12,000 of the voters we have registered updated their voting addresses within their prior polling precinct). You can see an example of the Virgin Voter card to the left. These are basically simple directions for voters who have never voted at their assigned polling place. This will be a soft canvass/lit drop to almost 50,000 addresses.
But this drop off will be followed up with a text and possibly a live phone call from local mentors or Elections Committee volunteers who will inquire about questions these recently registered voters may have. In some places, we have even scheduled mock election or tests with the actual Election Equipment voters will use on Election Day (set up with their local county Elections Administrators).
On average, less than 24% of the newly registered voters actually cast a ballot that counts in their first election. We are hoping that we can double, even triple that amount with these voters. Of course, we exceeded expectations (which were similar) in the Georgia Senate Runoff in 2021, in some places we exceeded those expectations by more than 5% of the high-end goal that the coordinated committee had established for the runoff. And, yes, we can track whether they new voters actually vote successfully!
Finally, our GOTV Post Card (below) reminds everyone that Voting is our superpower. The card was inspired by a DKos commenter who wanted us to know to Make a Plan — Ready. Set. VOTE! I loved that.
Third Wave Post Cards are expected to be in the mail by the beginning of November (by the 3rd). Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin post card writers will no doubt have hand cramps, unless they pre-write their post cards!
Like the first wave, third wave cards trigger another (different) robocall reminding new voters how important it is to vote. For the most part, they will be voiced by a different person.
Which is followed up by texts, another live call attempt and, in some counties, an invitation to a telephonic townhall from a local Elections Office.
It seems like a lot. What is interesting (although not surprising) is that those Hope Springs volunteers who volunteered to make phone calls are generally different than those who came to knock on doors week in and week out. I get it, i hate making phone calls (although my wife and kid loved doing them).
Through the Spring and Summer, we generally stayed on budget for the printing of literature and VAN support required to canvass. This is not the case with this unique post card effort. So we could really use your contribution to this New Voter communications and outreach.
If you are able to support our efforts to mobilize these difficult, brand new voters to cast their ballots in November, especially in minority communities, expanding the electorate, or just believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterpostcards
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!