This spring, Hope Springs from Field PAC volunteers registered or updated voter registrations for 5,031 voters at their doors. Each state is different, has different rules, so, like in Florida, we use internet-enabled tablets but in Arizona we use the official voter registration form that allows voters to sign up as permanent early voters to receive a ballot in the mail. But this diary isn't about that. This diary is about the Election Committees and other efforts in our partnership with Black Churches in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
We are working with 1,583 congregations participating in our Voter Registration/Protection effort in the first three states and now are adding Black Churches in Wisconsin in the Milwaukee and Madison areas. We have already added 8 Black Churches in the Milwaukee area to this effort and, through the summer, we hope to add more in all four states — and even expand into Ohio, if that experiment goes as we hope but this diary does not include numbers from our preparatory work in Wisconsin.
Starting February 27th, our partner churches began to introduce their Election Committees (if applicable) and ask parishioners who are registered to vote to hold up their voter registration cards. They were reminded that they need to be registered at their current address, that this is federal law but in states like Georgia, also state law. Some congregations have broached the subject of how the National Change of Address is being used to challenge voters and force legitimate voters to cast provisional ballots (as well as the subject of why it is important to cast a provisional ballot if one is challenged at the polls).
Many of those 1,583 congregations have already asked their members to hold up their voter registration cards three times this year. When that occurs, the Elections Committees (or other volunteers) are ready to register voters who need to register or update their voter registration. So while Hope Springs from Field PAC volunteers have registered 5,031 voters at their doors this year, our partner churches have registered (or re-registered) 41,603 voters in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.
Now we don’t include these numbers in our weekly stats diaries because they aren’t gained at the door. But our partnership with Black Churches in these Senate Swing States is based in large part that we are able to compare their memberships with the voter rolls and provide information to the Election Committees about who in their congregation is registered to vote (remember that these states have aggressive on-going efforts to remove voters from their rolls) and any address conflicts. Conservatively, this has allowed them to increase their voter registration efforts by 66-70% — and, realistically, more.
Election Committees (not all churches have Election Committees) are approaching members who are not registered or have address conflicts. So it isn’t just peer pressure on Sunday. But there are congregants who have legitimate reasons. In one case, an active member wasn’t registered because they still had restitution to pay, the amount being $75. They weren’t able to swing this, but the committee actually raised that amount among themselves. The point is, the point which they made very clear, is that they would never have known this without our help comparing their church list with the voter rolls. There were a lot more address conflicts, though, and sometimes with good reason. Even if there was no reason to update their voter registration, the voter at least knew that there could be questions at the polls, and they could prepare themselves accordingly. More than a few Georgia voters went to the polls with a recent bill as proof of their voting address last month because of these efforts.
Parishioners have also been asked to hold up their photo IDs, as required by law, in Georgia and Florida congregations. In Georgia, we have been organizing Voter ID days were voters without photo IDs would go to their local Registrar’s Office and get a Georgia Voter ID card for free. We have now done 38 Voter ID days in 14 counties in southwest Georgia so far and helped 7,953 voters get photo ID cards so they can vote before last month’s primary. This was a combination of voters we found at the door who needed photo IDs and members of our partner congregations.
We are doing something similar in Florida. Like Georgia, congregants in partner Black Churches are asked to hold up their photo IDs with their voter registration cards on specific Sundays. Posters with acceptable Voter IDs are put up in their vestibules of those churches on those days and Election Committees or their volunteer counterparts set up tables to take questions from members about what paperwork may be required to obtain a necessary ID.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors and partnering with local civics and civil rights groups, Divine Nine chapters as well as Historically Black Colleges & Universities, raising awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their right to vote. 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 and gathering locations 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/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: 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.
Hope Springs from Field PAC provides Incident Reports for Election Committees or their volunteer counterparts to have on hand for any member (or attendee) to fill out if they have witnessed voter suppression or acts of voter intimidation. In the past year, we have been collecting Incident Reports from witnesses who have experienced issues with voting in prior elections. The Incident Reports we use are, of course, designed for witnesses on election day, but they can also be used ex post facto to help warn of us where likely occurrences of voter intimidation or suppression could happen. We collected 1,078 Incident Reports at the door in the past year. But we have received 4,832 Incident Reports from the Black Churches we have partnered with.
These reports are combined with other historical data about voter suppression and polling place issues — including opening up on time (many voters like to cast ballots on their way to work and failure to open up a polling location on time can cause voters to leave without having cast a ballot in order to be at work on time). We combine historical data to look for patterns, because we have learned that voter suppression is often repeated in the same place. And not always by the same people. But patterns of voter suppression and polling place neglect are things we are looking for so that we can send teams to those locations to help deter, mitigate or possibly even take to court on election day.
One of the key reasons why we offer and collect Election Incident Reports is that we understand that voter suppression is historical. It is historical across a broad range of techniques and we now know that Republicans and conservatives share those techniques and tactics with each other, including training others in their tactics. By collecting post-incident reports, we are notifying minority voters that we are out there looking for them and actively protecting their Right to Vote. We are giving them confidence that they can vote without incident, that their vote will be counted and any attempt to prevent them from casting a lawful vote will be prosecuted.
A key element to maintaining that assurances was placing credentialed poll watchers inside polling places with a problematic history and observers tables outside as many polling locations as we could man. In the May primary, we recruited and trained 291 volunteers in North Carolina to serve as poll watchers, outside observers and legal eagles at 36 sites in 11 counties. We recruited and trained 663 volunteers in Georgia to serve as poll watchers, outside observers and legal eagles for Tuesday’s primary at 97 sites in 15 counties. Almost all of them came from either the Black Churches we have been working with (mostly providing them with materials (like Incident Reports) or access to VAN (voter file)), or Divine Nine chapters in those counties, or somehow linked to HBCUs where we have been recruiting volunteers. All save but 8 of them were African-American since we were watching majority minority polling locations (many in counties that had a historically high rate of lynchings).
Many of these outside Election Protection observer tables also set up selfie areas which were surprisingly well-used by voters after they voted. But it gave voters a reason to stop by the observer tables even if they had no other reason to do so. Which meant that they asked questions like, what are you doing here. Instilling confidence in your right to vote, in areas where it had been common to deter minorities from voting in the past.
Up until Labor Day, Hope Springs from Field PAC will continue to build out both the organizational capacity and the underlying database for cutting this GOP effort off at their knees.
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. A lot of these got forgotten because of the Covid restrictions in the last cycle, and we have an entire cycle of campaign staffers who were trained without the benefit of actually getting to do field. 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!