For the last 3 years, Hope Springs from Field PAC [dated website] has recruited volunteers to send postcards to our New Voters project. These are voters who get almost no kinds of communications from campaigns (because new voters don’t have a voter history). This year’s effort focuses on the statewide (gubernatorial) elections in New Jersey and Virginia as well as the mayoral election in New York City.
Volunteers signed up to write postcards to newly registered voters through Daily Kos signups, emails to prior participants and even some of ou Super Volunteers who canvass with us on Saturdays (and may have even registered some voters!), as well as our partners in Divine Nine chapters, HBCU alums and (African-American) church Elections Committees. In all, we had more than 8,596 people volunteer to write these postcards.
I say more than because some of our signups had missing data and never responded to requests for that missing data.
As of today, all 8,596 packages of between 50 (25 each for two rounds) to 400 postcards have now been mailed. 6 local (Arlington, VA) volunteers, my wife and myself completed these packages in the last 5 days.
Boy, is that exhausting!
Early Voting has already begun in Virginia. Early Voting for New Jersey and New York City begins Saturday, October 25, 2025. (Early Voting concludes in Virginia on Saturday, November 1, 2025 and concludes in New Jersey and New York City on Sunday, November 2, 2025.) And while we did send out the Virginia postcards first, the historical data shows that only 2-5% of newly registered voters participate in In-person Early Voting.
The focus on these specific postcards are New Votersregistered for the first time in the voter file who are young (18-25 years old) with preference going first to newly registered Democrats and, then, if enough volunteers sign up, Unaffiliated/No Party voters or Independents. We do start first with New Voters in the areas where Hope Springs volunteers have been canvassing before spreading out to the rest of the state (but we have not canvassed in New York City, so volunteers who sign up for NYC will just start from the top of the list we get from the voter file). Then we fill out the remaining from other newly registered voters in those states.
First Postcard to Send
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 don’t provide wording for volunteers to use on their post cards, specifically because of the reaction that voters in Georgia had in the 2021 Senate runoffs to repeat verbage on the different postcards they received. But we do ask that volunteers remind voters in the First postcard that Early Voting, Vote By Mail (VBM) or Absentee Ballots is beginning and the Second/Final postcard mention the approaching Election Day (November 4th).
There are plenty of Democratic groups who are organizing the writing of post cards to likely voters. That’s not what we are doing. What Hope Springs from Field PAC is focused on are young, newly registered voters, in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First Round of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
We know from past experience (voter turnout analysis) that postcards to newly registered voters increases turnout from 10-14% in areas where the postcard was the only form of communication the new voter received before election day.
They create a kind of expectation that their vote matters by hearing 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.
The postcards cost 8.9 cents each to print and mailing (which just went up) them cost $11.70. Which is why we ask for help in paying for this special project.
We provide these postcards to volunteers for free, but if you are able to help defray the costs of mobilizing these seldom reached, 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 (that’s always appreciated):
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterpostcards
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!
