Since March 5, Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors (as weather and primaries permitted) in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin — all critical states that will determine the Senate majority for the next two years. And nothing is more important this election than maintaining a Democratic Senate and even expanding upon it.
What we have been doing, canvassing with an Issues Survey, Registering and re-registering Voters, asking voters whether they know of public services that need fixing, even collecting Incident Reports from voters who witnessed something unusual when they voted in the past — all of this has been designed to work towards increasing turnout by Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters in November.
Now comes Phase 2.
Starting in the middle of August, we will be reaching out to New Voters, voters who have never been eligible to vote before, through the use of Post Cards. Post cards had an interesting impact in the 2021 Georgia Senate Runoffs. When I had meetings in the Atlanta area, I’d have people show me an example of a dozen or so postcards they had received encouraging them to vote. The desk manager at the hotel where I would stay had a collage of 18 postcards and she still received at least one more after she had voted. People loved them and would talk about them on Facebook and other social media.
In Southwest Georgia, only a handful of people we encountered received postcards, and those who did certainly didn’t receive more than a couple. But they heard about them and were interested to hear about them, almost longingly.
That’s not what we are doing. There are several organized attempts at trying to increase turnout through postcard communications with voters. What Hope Springs from Field PAC is focused on are newly registered voters, starting with those whom we have registered (or our partners have registered) in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin (but expanding beyond that base of if we generate enough interest).
These are intended to be first contact communications, reminding people they are registered to vote and that there’s an important election approaching. The critical point is that most campaigns exclude them from their own voter outreach efforts because of the low percentages in which new voters — and especially young voters — actually turnout to cast ballots. And the fact is that new voters, the ones who have yet to make voting a real habit, are the ones who need the most attention.
We are looking for people who will take the time to hand write post cards to these New Voters (you can sign up here) and give them a reason to vote this Fall. Help them understand why it’s important. To help preserve Democracy, so to speak.
At the door, and through our partner Black Churches, Hope Springs from Field PAC has registered 55,098 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.
And what will create that kind of excitement is participation from people who are willing to share their story about becoming a voter, or casting a ballot that made an impact on them, or why they think this election is important, encouraging them to vote.
Ideally, we are hoping that participants (who can sign up here) will be able to send 3 post cards to the list we provide: one (a thank-you-for-registering card) around Labor Day, a first reminder card when Early Voting begins in their state and a second reminder card as Early Voting concludes. In other words, we aren’t just trying to remind them to vote, but to create a virtual relationship with them to reinforce the narrative that we are, basically, fighting to preserve democracy here in America.
So far, the efforts of Hope Springs from Field PAC and its partners in the Black Churches in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Milwaukee have registered 15,017 NEW Voters. In order to meet our goal of at least 3 post cards with those new voters, we’ll need to print 50,000 post cards at a cost of $14,550.60. And that is where we need your help.
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:
secure.actblue.com/donate/voterpostcards
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!
