On August 24th, I was contacted by a member of the North Carolina ACLU about a court ruling that restored the right to vote for felons who are not currently incarcerated. She asked me if it was possible to contact the 43,058 NC residents that they knew were affected by this ruling.
There was concern that the state would appeal this ruling and a judge could put a hold to the ruling in the Community Success Initiative v. Moore case. Getting as many people registered as possible could make a reversal more unlikely, I was told (I am not sure that this is true but I understand the need to show that there are residents who would be adversely affected in future arguments). Didn't really matter, there was a since of urgency and a fear of a different judge overturning a preferred result.
The first thing we did was to cull the list for (non-cell) phone numbers and make a robocall to those numbers informing them of the decision in the Community Success Initiative case. But of the 43,058 people on the list, there were phone numbers for fewer than 20%, and the number of known cell phone numbers made it smaller. 6,810 numbers were called, some of them no longer in service. I was told that they think they can get more numbers, and weren’t surprised some of them were no longer in service.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been canvassing in North Carolina (as well as Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) since June. We already had a core group of volunteers, and when I contacted them about the weekend’s change in mission, the response was phenomenal. But I also let organizers in Georgia and Virginia know as well. This was an emergency! Little did I know that this was going to be our biggest turnout, not just in North Carolina, but in any state, since we had started this Deep Organizing canvasses this summer. 98 volunteers showed up on Saturday, and a total of 8 organizers from all three states showed up to lead them. 19 volunteers went out on Sunday, in an effort to complete the 130 pieces of turf (or 8750 doors) that had been cut for this emergency canvass.
Just like in our canvasses to find voters thrown off the voter rolls, we canvassed around clusters of the target group, making sure that we blanketed those neighborhoods in the Charlotte (led by Atlanta organizers), Greensboro (led by Virginia organizers), Raleigh, Fayetteville and Asheville (led by Georgia organizers) areas. Unlike our rejected voter canvasses, we did not designate the targeted people in Saturday’s turf. This was requested by our contact with the NC ACLU.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase 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. 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 and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopevoteprotect
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate and our cause. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors. 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.
So chasing down people whose right to vote had been restored was right up in our wheel house. And we completed all 8750 doors because not only was this important but that we also had out-of-town volunteers who had driven a ways to do this. It is not uncommon for out-of-town volunteers to feel committed to completing the task they drove miles (sometimes hundreds of miles) for. This was especially true for our Georgia-based volunteers (and organizers, who did their part!).
We all know that Republicans and their conservative allies will do everything they can to keep people from voting who don’t share their, well, skin color. We believe that super-compliance, making sure that people are informed of the changes in elections law — especially the laws changed in this year’s sessions — as well as helping them to comply (this *was* the reason why we have equipped canvasses with mobile scanner/printers so that voters can make a copy of their IDs to include with their voter registrations — and will be used for absentee ballot requests in states like North Carolina that now require IDs for those) is central to our success in 2022. There is a bonus to this super-compliance strategy. People are upset when you tell them that Republicans are trying to make it harder for them to vote. We think it will make them more likely to vote, just because they are learning that Republicans don’t want them to vote in 2022.
Our Georgia volunteers and organizers attended several black churches on Sunday to speak to congregations and elections committees in those churches. These were Atlanta-area volunteers who didn’t have experience in the work we had done during the Senate runoffs — and two of our white volunteers didn’t realize the importance that organizing black churches had in the Black Belt of Georgia for the runoff. But they got enthusiastic receptions, people wanted to hear about their experience in Georgia and find out how they could benefit from these kinds of Deep Organizing tactics. We had multiple reports of people eagerly agreeing that the Democratic slate of candidates in their area needs to reflect all the peoples in the Democratic alliance. But they also told me that people didn’t necessarily realize that North Carolina had an open Senate seat in 2022.
As in the prior week, we knocked on doors in masks and those who brought their vaccination card wore the button. Some people also wore disposable gloves and face shields. Again, people asked about the button, and we definitely feel like that they are reassured. That is just where we are right now.
These canvasses are organized and led by (mostly) Obama field alums who have volunteered their time in their states to get this effort off the ground. Their work, knowledge and skill sets are invaluable. Our Georgia efforts are organized and led by (mostly) HBCU students (at least one has graduated) at Albany State. They are truly the motivators behind this entire project, largely envisioned by them, because they are determined to not lose the voice(s) they put into the U.S. Senate. They have very big plans for keeping that seat. If you think they are sitting back, basking in the light, you’d mistaken.
Our main expenses (right now) are typical canvassing materials (water, snacks, cooling towels, walk packets, lit, buttons and access to VAN) as well as the mobile printers we are purchasing to comply with the voter ID requirements in several states. At this time, all the money we raise is devoted to this. But we are currently relying upon the Obama alumni network for organizers and cutting turf. We want to bring in other field organizers as we are able, especially since many of the people who are cutting turf now will want to devote more of their volunteer time to the candidates and causes they support.
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:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopevoteprotect
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!