It’s a big week for Hope Springs from Field PAC volunteers! Not only are our Post Card writers sending out their last batch of Post Cards to New Voters but our legal volunteers are meeting with local, state and federal prosecutors to lay out potential issues for in-person voting next week. Much to my surprise, this has become a very popular event. When we first started asking for attorneys to volunteer for Election Protection on Election Day, it never occurred to me to talk about our plans to take the information we have developed through Incident Reports, legal documents and Election Tip Lines to District and State Attorneys and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. 16 lawyers asked to be able to attend the DoJ briefing; no one wanted to go with me in December 2020. On the other hand, i don’t have to go! But i did learn that even though not all of them would be allowed to attend, all 16 worked on the documentation that we will leave with the Civil Rights Division about voting incidents in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin!
Many, perhaps most, of the these Incident Reports we developed either from (Election) Day Of activities or by knocking on doors. Others were the results of our partnerships with Black Churches in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin. But we have broken them down to having occurred:
43% Majority Minority Prec.
20% Predominately Minority Prec.
24% Single Event Incidents
12% Outside of Polling Place
Sixty three percent of the Voting Suppression Incidents we collected happened in 12% of the precincts in the areas where we knocked on doors since June 2021. This does not mean that the GOP and True the Vote efforts that are mobilizing election deniers won’t expand this number considerably. We anticipate more problems in more places in 2022 than ever before. But we aren’t taking suspicions to the DoJ (Homeland Security covers that anyway).
But Hope Springs from Field has been preparing for an elevation of these tactics in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from the beginning. Since we canvass with the Issues Survey and ask every voter we talk to if they have concerns about the 2022 elections, we asked those who respond in the affirmative if they have had direct experience in voter intimidation or suppression. The 1373 Incident Reports that we have collected at the door are supplemented by those we have collected through partnered Black Churches, Divine Nine alumni and combined with the two major databases of election incident reports by other organizations. These have been further supplemented with recent examples in the legal system of electoral misconduct.
Through canvassing volunteers, Democratic clubs and organizations, a couple of Black Lawyers orgs, Obama alums, Black Churches, Divine Nine alumni and even people we found just by knocking on their doors, we recruited 263 lawyers to volunteer in 58 counties in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They will serve as Legal Rapid Response Teams to support Democratic Election Observers and Poll Watchers in hundreds of precincts on Election Day. This year, if we have issues on the ground, inside the polling precincts, we have a response. Even more important, we have the means to seek immediate remedies, should problems come up. Field Matters, and it matters on Election Day perhaps more than any other day!
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors, serving as a resource to Elections Committees in Black Churches and partnering with local civics and civil rights groups to raise awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights. We are thinking about how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," both informing and helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2022electionprotection
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. Election Protection was central to the Obama primary effort in 2008 because we were running against a party favorite with strong roots in state and local party organizations and we needed to appeal to voters outside that framework. We are returning to the old school basics: looking for patterns, addressing issues that have come up in the past and making sure authorities know about issues that are likely to (or even just may) come up in this election. Especially in light of True the Vote activities in majority minority areas.
This work is not intended to replace local party or candidate campaign activities. If we know that a Senate or coordinated campaign (especially) needs these expert volunteers, and we have volunteers willing to do that, we point them towards our volunteers. It is not uncommon that we will identify the same worrisome polling locations. And we encourage both party orgs and campaigns to use both the generic Incident Reports we use as well as consult the database we have built from collected reports. But just because a troublesome polling location is not a majority or significant precinct in terms of campaigns or candidates, that does not mean they should be overlooked. We are making every effort to cover the most worrisome, most frequently troublesome locations as established by our collection of historical patterns of Voter Intimidation and Suppression.
When recruiting these lawyers, we have told them that their biggest advantage is not their in depth knowledge of the law but the very fact that they are members of the local Bar. “I’m a lawyer” is their primary weapon here. We provide the armaments they need (incident reports etc). Add to that we are making sure they know the laws, rules and administrative processes, equipped with evidentiary documentation and the coup de grace, the willingness to go to court that day, if necessary, while voting is still ongoing.
During the 2008 Illinois primary (which was more hotly contested between Obama and Clinton than many realize), I actually had a polling location closed until the Chicago Board of Elections sent replacement workers for poll workers who were a little too biased in the 50th Ward. The Incident Reports we collected in Gary, Indiana led to an election being overturned there (different election). So when I talked to attorneys about the role they can play on an Election Day, they understand that they aren’t just “window dressing.” No one wants them to have a role, but, if things happen, like they did here in Virginia on November 2, 2021, we have to be ready.
We warn every lawyers we talk to that, if the local Democratic Party or Democratic campaign wants to play that role in Election Protection, we will be passing their names along, but we know that, especially in southern Georgia, these tasks will fall upon us. And our experience in Election Protection has been especially instructive for all those who we have talked to because we aren’t coming from an ambiguous, idealistic POV. Compiling this information, both local and from things that have happened elsewhere, has laid the groundwork for a much more aggressive response on the part of Democrats.
The traditional Democratic and Liberal Organization tactics of observing and recording isn’t sufficient in light of the pressure being applied to poll workers and voters from the Trump-inspired Election Deniers. We have to be able to put up a much more aggressive defense, especially in minority majority precincts. My own experience, both in 2021 and prior to 2020 suggests that these bullies generally back down in the face of a more determined response. Especially one that is based upon Incident Reports, legal and electoral precedents and additional documentation. This is just something that has to be done.
This is the week we lay down the marker for Election Protection, making sure that District and State’s Attorney, as well as the DoJ, know what we know going in. And the thing about making sure that our local attorney volunteers, the District and State’s Attorneys all know that we take this information to the Department of Justice means that they have to play by the rules. Let people vote, have their votes counted and prevent voter intimidation and suppression. Seems simple. We are prepared. But we do need your help.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is trying to reinstitute best field practices, such as canvassing with people who look like the voters we are talking to and targeting former voters thrown off the rolls. But we have also want to adopt best practices we find “out in the wild,” like these first time voter parties. But because we study and teach field work as a profession, we bring in skillsets and tactics that may be new to the Democratic party regulars as well as activists in the area. But it is a two way street. That’s why it is so important to start developing Election Protection strategies now, and not wait until a couple of weeks or so before the general election. We have a lot of work to do. Can you help?
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please donate:
secure.actblue.com/donate/2022electionprotection
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!