First of all, congratulations to Summer Lee for her victory last night. We had volunteers from Hope Springs from Field PAC [website] on both sides of that primary, and while i certainly do not agree with some of her positions, i DO BELIEVE in primaries, and that primaries make Democratic candidates stronger, not weaker. Primaries are not simply clarifying, but they build campaign organization and support through direct voter contact. They make us stronger (and better prepared) for the Fall. I don’t buy the old canard that primaries sap our strength and make us more vulnerable, i witnessed first hand how much stronger the 2008 Obama campaign became the longer that presidential primary went on. And while there were some hard feelings, some that persist even to this day, the fact is that that primary did make us stronger, and far better organized, for November.
I continue to see under the radar evidence that our side is still highly motivated for this election. One text i received this morning asked, “we’re walking (knocking on doors) this week, right?” Yes, Hope Springs volunteers will start canvassing this Saturday (again) in Pennsylvania. I think people are asking the wrong question. It’s not whether we are excited for Joe Biden, it’s whether we are eager to win, again, in November. Pennsylvania has a competitive presidential race and a competitive Senate race. Some of our volunteers there i’ve known since Howard Dean ran for president, and they seem as determined or motivated as ever.
That’s not all the news, though. While the focus yesterday may have been on Pennsylvania, North Caroline was in the news, as well. A federal judge struck down a North Carolina statute prohibiting the Right to Vote for people with felony convictions.
The law, originally passed in 1877, made it a Class I felony for people who vote in North Carolina without having their rights restored.
But on Monday, U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs wrote that the law “was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to dispropor-tionately impact Black voters.”
This is something that Hope Springs volunteers has already tried to tackle. In the first couple of weeks in September 2021, we started looking for people who 43,058 North Carolina residents who were affected by the Community Success Initiative v. Moore case. Until a hold was put on that ruling, we searched out, and, in some cases found, people whose Right to Vote had been restored. And Hope Springs volunteers registered them. But this act of Voter Protection cemented a bond between some of our North Carolina canvassers and the Georgia organizers who came up for two weekends that September to help in the cause.
This was where we learned the “magic” of the 2021 Georgia Senate runoff victories. Volunteers in North Carolina wanted to hear about it; Black congregations requested that they speak on Sunday. This was where we turned super volunteers into legitimate organizers.
Biggs’ ruling is separate from the state Supreme Court’s decision because it deals with a different law. People on probation or parole for a felony will still need to complete the terms of their supervision before they can vote in North Carolina. But because of Biggs’ ruling, if those individuals unknowingly or mistakenly cast a ballot before their voting rights are restored, district attorneys cannot prosecute them.
But the key thing it does for our efforts to register African-American voters who’ve been reluctant to register is that it takes that threat away. And we have run across Black men who were afraid to register just because they believed they might go back to jail. One-sixth of our Incident Reports in North Carolina were threats or warnings that Black voters could be arrested for voting. Teaching voters their Rights, especially on Challenged Ballots, has been a key aspect of our Voter Protection Tabling effort in the state.
While we will continue to canvass in suburban areas of the new NC-13 (in support of the President and the Democratic candidate for Governor), we are also canvassing in NC-01, NC-07 and NC-09, where we have been focusing on boosting voter registration, especially among African-Americans, in counties with high historical propensities of lynchings. Like in Georgia and Florida, we have been organizing Divine Nine groups for this purpose, who generally travel to canvass in these counties.
This intensive Voter Registration effort in the counties that Jhacova Williams identified with lower voter registration rates among African-Americans than the norm has become a labor of love for both organizers and volunteers. Williams wrote that “Black Americans who reside in counties in the South where there was a higher number of lynchings from 1882 to 1930 have lower voter registration today.” Hope Springs has been using this data to target Voter Registration efforts in those counties, especially in our recruiting and prepping Divine 9 chapters to canvass in counties like Chatham and Rowan (among others). Again, North Carolina is not the only state, Georgia and Northern Florida are also part of this program.
The Biggs ruling will make this easier (we hope).
But Hope Springs from Field volunteers believe that, if we can reverse this historical trend, not just by voter registration but voter mobilization, we can reverse a couple of these less Republican Congressional seats in the state. Still, our (overwhelmingly) African-American volunteers who canvass in these counties, they are (admittedly) less interested in reversing gerrymandered seats than in reversing historical inequaties.
Until Justice is Real.
Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 2nd in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of Democrats and unaffiliated voters with a systematic approach that reminds them not only that Democrats care, but Democrats are determined to deliver the best government possible to all Americans.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024
Hope Springs from Field understands that 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 — and we didn’t register new voters (while Republicans dud). 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 (and can be) cured.
367 volunteers came out to knock on doors in NC-01, NC-07, NC-09 and NC-13 last Saturday. They knocked on 25,616 doors and talked to 1,990 voters, of whom 1,247 completed our Issues Survey, at least in part. Volunteers registered 16 new voters and re-registered 43 voters, primarily correcting their current address. We differentiate between the new voters and re-registering voters because brand new voters are often ignored by campaigns and we hope to compensate for that somewhat by having volunteers send them post cards before the election and they will also receive robocalls thanking them for registering.
The Economy was the Top Issue voters expressed concern about on Saturday. Concerns about Extremism was second, and we heard fears of a “new” civil war. Reproductive Rights was the third highest issue, and we had voters express concerns they or their children could lose access to regular healthcare because of pressure on abortion clinics.
Joe Biden had the approval of 49% of the voters we talked to on Saturday. 10% of them expressed disapproval of the job the president was doing. Gov. Cooper had the approval of 53% of the voters who took the survey. Eight percent disapproved of the job the governor was doing.
108 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. In general, we send these to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican, we still send it along. For Democrats, though, we encourage them to reach out immediately to the voter who filled out the CSR and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.
5 voters in North Carolina completed Incident Reports. One other voter expressed concern about the 2024 elections but did not fill out an incident report because they didn’t say they witnessed voter suppression or intimidation (they just expressed concerns or worries about them). Incident Reports are used to plan Election Protection activities, and will be combined with other, historical incidents and handed over to District and State Attorneys, Attorney Generals and the DoJ Civil Rights Division right before Election Day as a precaution against Election Day Incidents in November. Past polling place activity is a predictor of future voter intimidation or suppression activity.
We continue to find voters who say they need a photo voter id to comply with the new law and Hope Springs organizers are already working Voter ID Days with local county Board of Elections offices and our partner Black Churches. We consider it a core mission to help voters in need obtain the required document to vote in November 2024.
We knock on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters. At every door, we leave a piece of “show the flag” lit, something that tells them we were there and hopefully reinforces the Democratic brand. The lit focuses on the things voters told us were important to them last fall, aiming to appeal to every voter.
But the main focus of our canvassing right now is the Issues Survey, asking voters for their input and concerns. Voter responses to the questionnaire are entered into VAN and made available to all Democratic candidates who use VAN in the state after the primary. Creating this kind of data isn’t done with a specific goal in mind but has the purpose of engaging voters and creating a dataset that any Democratic candidate can use in opposition to a Republican in the Fall.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or the Electoral College in 2024, as well as Congressional Districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year (specifically those where a Republican won a Congressional District that voted for Biden in 2022). There is a lot of work to be done! Especially since we have had to expand the map this year.
By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with these really, really onerous provisions (like the photo ID requirement), Hope Springs from Field seeks to undermine that strategy, while informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them.
We are also — this being an election year — adding the Post Cards to New Voters component back into our Voter Outreach, both New Voters we find at their doors as well as New Voters we target in the Voter File.
Our biggest expense is the Voter File. But it is also a fixed cost. That won’t change as we raise and spend more money. Printing literature is our second largest cost. Printing and mailing our our Post Cards to New Voters is our third cost and paying the fees for ActBlue is the smallest of our monthly costs.
Hope Springs is a seat-of-the-pants grassroots-driven operation. We don’t have employees but we realize that to formalize and professionalize this effort that will have to change.
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 help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024
If you would rather send a check, you can follow that link for our mailing address at the bottom of the page. Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!