Voter Mobilization Project: 2024 Election Season
This spring & fall, CDT and friends wrote over 10,000 letters to encourage voter registration in PA, OH and AZ. It's amazing what we can do when we work together!
10,000 Letters to Get Out the Vote
I write this upon returning from the USPS where together with other members of our Voter Mobilization team, we took 5000 letters for Working America to the US Post Office. Along with the letters we wrote in the spring through The Civics Center, to get young folks to register and vote, our community has sent 10,000 letters to GOTV this season. We did this and you helped make this happen! We had over 125 people who participated in this effort. If you are curious for more info about this letter writing effort we just concluded, you can find the specifics about Working America below.
Thank you to everyone who joined in the WA letter writing campaign, and also for your engagement in this effort that was slightly more complex than your average campaign.
We also want to note that so many of us have been working on other election related activities. The activism in this community is truly impressive and I am confident these efforts will help turn out voters. The outcome of this election will be strongly influenced by voter turnout. In 2020, 77 million citizens did not vote (per the US Census Bureau).
This concludes the formal letter writing efforts for our CDT community, but the work is not done! There are so many more ongoing efforts we can join between now and election day — from phone banking, canvassing, ballot curing, poll watching, and beyond. It's wonderful to see members sharing the resources they have found to continue the GOTV work on our VMP listserv.
Our Voter Mobilization Team will also continue to share more of these resources and encourage people to keep up the actions and join with family and friends — it's always better in community. If you would like to be added to the Voter Mobilization listserv, email Cindy Shulak-Rome (cbsrome@comcast.net) and we can add you so you can have access to more info about efforts others are engaged in to maximize voter turnout and protect the integrity of the election.
Written by Cindy Shulak-Rome on behalf of the Voter Mobilization Team:
Rachel Adler-Golden
Allison Hausman
Judy Hersh
Janet Penn
Janet Rickles
Cindy Shulak-Rome
Bonnie Tenneriello
Debbie Waber
Cheryl Weber
More about Working America (WA)
After careful research we have now committed to writing letters in partnership with Swing Blue Alliance (SBA) and Working America (WA). Learn more about Working America below or listen to this interview with Founder Karen Nussbaum.
WA is the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, a member-based organization of 4.3 million working-class members who lack workplace unions and whose voices are traditional left out of critical political conversations. Members have affirmatively joined WA in the fight for an economy and a political system that benefits working people. WA reaches out to their members, most of whom describe themselves as conservative. This campaign aims to inform the members which candidate/s will best address the issues they care most about. Working America's approach has been shown to increase votes for Democrats.
Watch this webinar about the campaign.
This video explains how Working America engages their members and gives a great overview of this letter writing campaign. If you watch the first 22 minutes you will get most of the pertinent information.
Research Driven Strategy
Working America has a robust and ongoing research department. After analyzing letters sent early this year and issues foremost on the minds of Working America members in PA from ongoing canvassing operations, the research department determined that focusing on healthcare would be most likely to persuade Working America members to vote for their endorsed candidates in November. Received just before the election, your letter persuades by making a personal appeal on healthcare that then influences the members vote.
Multiple Touch Points
One reason this letter writing campaign has been shown to be so effective is that the letters represent one of several touch points to targeted WA members. The letters don’t say to vote for a certain candidate or party, so our part of the campaign is non-partisan. It may seem counter-intuitive but the most effective way of persuading these often moderate or conservative voters that support labor issues (as demonstrated by WA studies) is focusing on healthcare rather than sending a political message. WA staff follow up with partisan in-person, text and phone contacts after they receive the letters, to promote voting and voting for their endorsed candidates.Update this content.
Questions?
Please reach out to any member of the Voter Mobilization Team if you have any questions. THANK YOU!
Rachel Adler-Goldman, Allison Hausman, Judy Hersh, Janet Penn, Janet Rickles, Cindy Shulak-Rome, Deborah Waber, Cheryl Weber