One of the “benefits” of knocking on doors in a grassroots effort like Hope Springs from Field PAC is that you develop relationships with people. You learn things. They learn things (from voters they talk to). Campaigns can seem like a puzzle sometimes when you try to put all the pieces together.
One of the benefits from thinking about GOTV from the beginning is that it is easier to put some of those pieces together. This is especially true when you start with what has been a First Round objective (in a traditional Five Round canvass): understanding the (real) electorate and its potential.
Midterms are traditionally thought of as “base elections,” in large part because money has not been as readily available for them. We rejected that premise from the beginning because we know that we can mobilize voters when you connect with them. There’s no reason why voters should only be contacted when there’s an election eminent.
That isn’t what Republicans are doing. Conservative organizations like Koch’s AFP and Club for Growth have been sending out canvassers for their issues year round (weather permitting, of course) in targeted states for more than a decade now. And it has an impact. They not only identify like-minded thinkers, but they actually create a community that has an increasingly loud and forceful voice. Trump wasn’t the beginning, it was the result. Fox News certainly encourages these communities, and even directs them. But the right has numerous tentacles that can focus attention like a laser beam on things that enrages this community.
Right now, one of those things is the Trump-induced perception of election “fraud.” Now this isn’t new. True the Vote has been focused on this perceived fraud since 2012 (at least). That year, TTV “promised to deliver 1 million volunteer poll watchers on Election Day” and while TTV pursued the claim-fraud-first-raise-money-from-conspiracy-nuts-and-never-provide-proof long before Trump settled on this get rich scheme, it has built up a fraud-inspired community that makes them as potent as those who believe in Pizzagate.
The exposure of True the Vote nuttiness (i can’t think of a better word) hasn’t hampered the enthusiasm of the conspiracy. If anything, 2022 has heightened the intensity. And their goals has been adopted by group’s like Cleta Mitchell’s “Election Integrity Network” and even the Republican National Committee. True the Vote says it’s “organizing poll-watching volunteers in 35 states,” the RNC has “hired state directors and attorneys to work in 16 states — including California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan — with a goal of recruiting 5,000 poll workers in each state.” It claims to have already “signed up more than 14,000 poll workers [emphasis added] and 10,000 poll watchers nationwide” -- and that was in June:
The prospect of election deniers staffing [emphasis added] polling precincts raises new concerns for administrators, civil rights groups and Democrats who say that Republicans are positioning themselves to sabotage the casting and counting of ballots in ways they could not in 2020. Some election officials say they’re already seeing poll worker trainees with clear agendas driven by Trump’s claims.
Cleta Mitchell (the Trump attorney on the call with Georgia SOS Brad Raffensperger) has been leading so-called “Election Integrity Summits,” “marshaling volunteers to stake out election offices, file information requests, monitor voting, work at polling places and keep detailed records of their work.”
Ms. Mitchell’s trainings promote particularly aggressive methods — with a focus on surveillance — that appear intended to feed on activists’ distrust and create pressure on local officials, rather than ensure voters’ access to the ballot, they say. A test drive of the strategy in the Virginia governor’s race last year highlighted how quickly the work — when conducted by people convinced of falsehoods about fraud — can disrupt the process and spiral into bogus claims, even in a race Republicans won.
The Virginia election was instructive. Republicans placed tens of thousands at the polls, including early voting locations, many of them proudly election deniers. For many counties, poll watchers for Early Voting was a first, and the main Arlington County (where i reside) Early Voting location (a county building) had poll watchers from both sides. On election day, every precinct i was aware of in Arlington and Fairfax Counties had them (usually from both sides, there were a few precincts without Democratic poll watchers, but these weren’t normally problematic locations).
In many of the Arlington County locations, Republican poll watchers weren’t trained (perhaps the term is properly trained, but the ones i talked to said they were assigned without training) and this did cause some issues. At the polling location i was assigned to in the morning, the GOP poll watcher didn’t understand the job and eventually left because he wasn’t witnessing the kind of voter “fraud” he was expecting in this heavily Democratic location. He was pleasant enough, talked freely with several Democratic poll assignees and was extremely disappointed to learn that voters have an institutionalized complaint system in Virginia. He left the Pentagon City precinct determined to find the kind of fraud he was promised he could witness.
Fairfax GOP poll watchers and observers had no better luck:
Konopasek estimated that, in the end, there were more than 1,000 Republicans who were activated, compared to Democrats, who he said fielded "dozens to maybe 100."
But GOP efforts did effect the operations of Election Administrators. Many counties reported that they had severe demands on their preparations for the 2021 primary and general elections starting in May of last year. From verbal taunting to illegal activities, Republican observers went to extraordinary lengths to influence the outcome. In Lynchburg, a Democratic city in a very red area, poll workers filed a complaint about “Disruptive and Intimidating Behavior by Party Representatives [GOP Poll Watchers and Outside Observers] During and After Voting Hours, Including Summoning of Party Volunteers to Surround the Polling Place and Intimidate Those Inside.”
This year, Hope Springs from Field has been preparing for an elevation of these tactics in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Since we canvass with the Issues Survey and ask every voter we talk to if they have concerns about the 2022 elections, we ask 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.
Which brings us to Phase Three of our GOTV efforts this Fall. While Virginia Republicans found there intimidation activity to be checked only by volunteers staffing the polls (many of whom are sparsely trained as well), we are creating floating Legal Rapid Response Teams to support Democratic Election Observers and Poll Watchers. This year, if we have issues on the ground, inside the polling precincts, we have a response. Better Call a Dem!
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors, serve 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 campaign activities. In fact, if we know that the campaign (especially) wants to place someone inside the polls, 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.
Now Saul is (thankfully) unavailable (he might be a Republican, anyway), but our door knocking efforts have unveiled many legal professionals who — while warning that they weren’t Election Attorneys and/or didn’t know the law(s) at the time — were just as concerned as we are in protecting Democracy. And because we have this resource in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin our discussions with these Election Protection prospects wasn’t abstract. We have the receipts, and we understand what is actionable and what can only be used as a warning.
But, when recruiting these lawyers, we have told them that their biggest advantage is not their in depth knowledge of the law but they very fact that they are members of the local Bar. “I’m a lawyer” is their primary weapon here. 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. 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.
So we’ve been recruiting lawyers in the areas of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where we’ve been canvassing. 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 best part? We already have a list of attorneys who want to be a part of our presentation of Incidents, precedents and historical acts to local District Attorneys, States Attorneys and the DoJ Civil Rights Division. “That would be so cool” (things Boomers (like me) say). In Virginia, we went into Election Day 2021 armed with good intentions. In 2022, we’re bringing out the howitzers. And you can help. We definitely need financial support to be able to arm these weapons for Election Day.
Democrats and voting-rights advocates have long warned that unruly poll watchers could lead to intimidation, which could especially affect minority voters, who have historically faced discrimination.
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. I’ve gone on too long here, but I will return to the topic again in the next few weeks. This is just something that has to be done.
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!