One of the things i keep getting asked by volunteers who mentored New Voters that we registered in the last election cycle, canvassed for Hope Springs from Field PAC during that time or volunteered to write (and send) post cards that we sent to New Voters registered at the door by Hope Springs volunteers, registered to vote at our volunteer tables we set up outside of “suspect” precincts in the primaries of 2022, got registered through our partnership with Black Churches, or got registered through Divine Nine partners (specifically at high school graduation events) is: “How did we do?” Especially our volunteers mobilized through DKos, there is an interest in whether those people they sent post cards to turned out to vote in the General Election.
And we know the answer to that!
Starting in the summer of 2021, Hope Springs volunteers had been knocking on doors in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and Ohio. The latter three states were added in 2022 (Ohio, being the last, was added in June 2022 at the request of DKos commenters) and Texas was removed from our efforts because no one had better statewide field efforts than Beto O’Rourke, who was then running for governor. Plus, we don’t compete with nominees. Part of our mission was to register new voters (or re-register those who had moved) and when the final tally came in, we had registered 33,548 voters at their doors in our Senate Swing States, helped register 41,875 through our partner black churches in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, were included in efforts to register another 18,135 voters through Obama alum and Divine Nine efforts. Out of those, 16,261 were brand new voters in their states (meaning some of the new voters had moved to their Senate Swing State).
It was these 16,261 new voters who we aimed our New Voters Post Cards project at, and asked the DKos community to join our own canvassers and volunteers from Black Churches. 743 volunteers signed up for this project, although that number in not exact since we had several groups sign up under the name of one DKos member, so i have no idea how many people they enlisted and some people who originally signed up did not actually participate. One group in Colorado kept requesting names and addresses that i had to start sending them names of young people who had just registered through Wiley Nickel’s campaign! Each volunteer sent 3 post cards to each voter on their list, on a schedule that was determined by each state’s opening up to early voters. In the end, i sent out 52,950 post cards to these 743 volunteers to be mailed on schedule. Many of the DKos volunteers got back to me (usually through email, sometimes through the DK DM system) about their experience. And, like i said above, more than a few wondered if we had tracked their voter’s progress (did they turn out and vote). Of course we did (it’s not my first rodeo), voter history is available and we did the math.
Our effort was inspired by the 2007 Obama campaign, which had the mantra: “If You Register Them, You Are Responsible” for getting them to the polls. We aggressively tried to register voters in the primaries, especially voters who we felt fit “our” electorate. But we believed — and we preached — that voter registration was just the first step, that registering voters was useless unless we turned them out to vote *and* their votes counted. As you may remember, this worked out well for us in the Iowa primaries; many Obama alums have believed in it ever since.
One of the reasons — indeed, the main reason — why we brought the New Voters Post Cards project to DKos was because the community here was familiar with this kind of grassroots activity. Our biggest voter registration effort was in southern Georgia, where few received postcards in the 2021 Georgia runoff, let alone knew how to do it. Many of our Georgian volunteers who participated (in fact, had first crack at the list of voters) were mentors and only wrote to those new voters with whom they had already been communicating. And this turned out to be really smart, as many of the DKos volunteers had ideas that we incorporated into the project (one DKos member even wrote up a “Fundamentals of Post Card writing” document that we sent to postcard volunteers). So i wasn’t about to complain when participants asked me “how’d we do?”
Those New Voters who we had registered at the door have had prior contact with one of our volunteers, and they know that Democrats are serious about preserving Democracy, protecting their right to vote and interested in maintaining the public infrastructure in their neighborhoods. Developing a reputation that Democrats Deliver, just by the mere act of asking about the need for Constituent Services as part of our canvass, reinforced this message.
But interest was so strong that we had more than enough volunteers to send postcards to our 16,261 New Voters, and after we completed our list i asked the field director for Wiley Nickel’s campaign to send over their list of voters they had registered in their campaign who were between the ages of 18-29 so that we could continue the fulfill the requests from the DKos community.
So when we checked out whether our 16,261 New Voters successfully cast a ballot in November, we found that most had:
You may have heard/read of Democratic concerns about whether New Voters will turn out in this election. Of course, some of this may be comparing apples and oranges. “Younger voters — a cornerstone of the party’s electoral coalition — make up a smaller share of early and absentee voters so far than they did in 2020.” Of course, the correct comparison would be to another midterm election, like the stellar 2018 Midterms which saw amazing turnout for younger voters. But the Fall 2022 Harvard IOP Poll of Young Voters
indicates that 40% of 18-to-29-year-olds state that they will “definitely" vote in the November 8 midterm elections, on track to match or potentially exceed the record-breaking 2018 youth turnout in a midterm election. Young voters prefer Democratic control of Congress 57% to 31% (up five points for Democrats since spring), but 12% remain undecided.
Younger voters, but especially newly registered voters, have always been less likely to vote than older voters. As you can see from the chart above, the New Voters we registered — and then followed up with, through postcards, robocalls, live calls and/or texts, and our Virgin Voter canvassing — all exceeded those expectations. And those New Voters who got mentors much more so. But the point, as i said repeatedly in the Fall, was to replicate the kinds of voter communications that traditionally come from campaigns to known, frequent voters. Our goal here was to make 21 attempts to reach these new voters, in various ways, as voting began, reminding them about their commitment to vote that is inherent in the process of registering to vote. Since these were all Senate Swing States, the stakes couldn’t have been any higher.
One thing to recognize is that, outside of Arizona, the overwhelming majority of mentored voters were African-American. The Black voters we registered, whether at the door, or the church vestibule or at the Voter Protection tables we set up outside of precincts during the primaries, were generally quickly adopted by the Mentors who were largely recruited by the Elections Committees from the Black Churches who participated in this effort. Our own attempts to recruit Mentors were not nearly as successful — even though we expected Mentors to be important assets to turning out the vote among New Voters. Even our (Hope Springs from Field’s) efforts to recruit Hispanic mentors in Arizona and Florida were more successful than our efforts to recruit them among the Caucasian community. And this is something we will have to work on in this election cycle.
One more observation: there was also a disparity among those who received Virgin Voter Cards in transient communities (college or their own housing) than those who received them in their parent’s homes. Transient communities were higher than those who lived in their parent’s house. I can’t explain why this was the case, only that the numbers tell us so. Virgin Voter Card lit included all voters who had registered who were new to that precinct (about 10,000 of the voters we have registered updated their voting addresses within their prior polling precinct). You can see an example of the Virgin Voter card to the right. These were basically simple directions for voters who have never voted at their assigned polling place. This was a soft canvass/lit drop to approximately 50,000 addresses. Not all Virgin Voter cards were professionally printed.
But this drop off will be followed up with a text and possibly a live phone call from local mentors or Elections Committee volunteers who will inquire about questions these recently registered voters may have. In some places, we have even staged mock election or tests with the actual Election Equipment voters used on Election Day (set up with their local county Elections Administrators) for Virgin Voters.
Finally, our GOTV Post Card (below) reminded everyone that Voting was our superpower. The card was inspired by a DKos commenter who wanted us to know to Make a Plan — Ready. Set. VOTE! I loved that.
After the November (General) Election was over, we were left with another Runoff in Georgia. I immediately asked our postcard volunteers and the DKos community if they were willing to send 2 more rounds of New Voters postcards. Fortunately, i had had to order more post cards because when i had made the initial order, we only had 14,9++ new voters but wound up with 16,261 when the final numbers were in. Still, we did have to order more for the Runoff.
But whereas 73% of all New Voters we registered turned out in the General, 76% of them voted in the Runoff. And voters did tell me that they had expected Warnock to win in the General and that they thought he didn’t need their vote in November. 89% of our Mentored New Voters turned out in the Runoff. I expect that mail communications like our New Voters postcards were even more a factor in the Runoff since Georgia experienced both heavy rains and winds between the General and the Runoff and virtually all the yard signs fell to the ground all over the state. There was also less media attention given to the race. And yet our New Voters increased their participation — which is highly unusual.
Like any “new thing,” sometimes it takes extra motivation or encouragement to actually do it, in this case, actually cast a ballot. And that’s where Hope Springs from Field began our Get-Out-the-Vote efforts. Many new voters have no idea where their polling location is (even though it is undoubtedly printed on their new voter card) or what is involved in casting their ballot. But these New Voters have had prior contact with one of our volunteers (or their Elections Committee), and they know that Democrats are serious about preserving Democracy, protecting their right to vote and interested in maintaining the public infrastructure in their neighborhoods. We want to reinforce that message and we want these voters to understand how important it is for them to vote.
Hope Springs from Field was not successful in raising the $17,051 to cover the costs of the printing and mailing of the post cards to volunteers. So we would appreciate anything financial help you could offer. Thanks to all those who volunteered to write postcards to New Voters, both in the General and the Georgia Runoff. I think it paid off, and hopefully, you can conclude it did, as well!
If you are able to support our efforts to mobilize these difficult, brand new voters, especially in minority communities, expanding the electorate, or just believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterpostcards
Thank you for your support. Continuation of this work depends on you!