Hello all,
this may be coming a little late, but here is a way we have found to stimulate disaffected voters to get to the polls. It seems particularly important this time, since we know Trump will not go quietly into the good night. A decisive victory will make it more difficult for him to claim that the election was rigged, as we know he will.
A little background: I live in East Texas. My city, county, Texas house and senate officials, my US Congressman, Senator and Governor are all Republicans. When I got here in 2008 Republicans marveled that there were still Democrats left in the county, and offered to pray for me.
In 2016 we were still roughly a 70% majority Republican county, and our voters were discouraged. Add to that the fact that minority voters, especially Black voters, often feel that the powers that be ponder their existence mostly before an election and forget about them once in office.
We have a chance to change that. Two years ago we started a campaign to make our voters feel that their participation in the democratic process was valued. Their votes mattered — they mattered. The idea was that most mass mailings are not read and go straight into the trash. I got enough volunteers to hand address envelopes to everyone who had voted in the 2018 Democratic primary. I badgered my local post office to sell me “pretty stamps”. Inside the letter was the complete list of Democratic candidates down to precinct level, with each candidate’s website. We included the address for the party website, an email address and a PO Box as well.
We were lucky in 2018 to have an electrifying candidate in Beto O’Rourke. We increased our participation numbers by 12 points. Calling on other Democrats to help address envelopes created a sense of community, and we got to meet other Democrats during address-writing sessions. We no longer have that option because of the pandemic, but I have been crisscrossing the county to get envelopes and lists of Democratic voters to volunteers.
The evidence that this worked in 2018 is largely anecdotal. Precinct chairs who felt comfortable including their phone number or email address in the letter got calls from voters. Voters showed at the polls with the letter in hand. Some told us they put the letter straight on their refrigerator door. If nothing else, it made our voters feel that we thought their vote was important enough to invest in an envelope and stamp. It gave them the information needed to get involved if they so chose. And many did. In 2018 we sent roughly 3,000 letters. This year many Republicans voted in our primary — some just to mess with us, but some because they cannot stomach what Trump has done to our country. We are sending just under 4,500 letters to Democratic voters, an increase of 50% over 2 years. We will be offering information on ride-to-the-polls service for voters who are isolated.
I am crossing my fingers that this approach works this election as well. It is very time and labor-intensive. But our primary was better attended than in previous years, and the runoff for the US Senate was between a Black state senator and a woman — those two constituencies were dominant in the precinct where I worked during the runoff.
I don’t know if this is the year that Texas turns blue. But I do know that, if nothing else, the Democratic community in my neck of the woods is stronger. Buying stamps is good for our besieged Postal Service. And even while social distancing, we have a way of staying in touch with our volunteers and voters.
I hope this helps. Love and peace, y’all!
