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CDT Voter Mobilization Project

Voter Mobilization Project: 2024 Election Season

This spring, CDT and friends wrote over 5,000 letters to encourage voter registration in PA, OH and AZ. It's amazing what we can do when we work together.  

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. 

Listen to the podcast here.

Watch it on YouTube

Our goal is to write 1000 letters per month between now and October. Here's how you can get involved:

  • Sign-up. You can sign-up here for one or more packets. Each packet contains 25 letters.
  • Cost. Pay what you can.  Each packet of letters costs $24, the majority of this is postage. If you can manage the full $24 that’s great, otherwise pay what works for you.  Feel free to contribute a bit more to help cover costs for others.   We do not want cost to be a barrier to those who want to participate in the letter writing project. Payment instructions will be included in your packet(s).  
  • Pick-up. Packets will be available for pick-up at homes in Newtonville, Watertown and Jamaica Plain. If you are unable to pick up at one of these sites, email Janet Rickles (janetrickles@gmail.com) and she’ll arrange to get them to you.
  • Writing. It’s summer!  And a perfect time to gather for a letter writing party, perhaps for a BBQ, glass of wine, or cup of tea. Invite your family and friends or reach out on the CDT Voter Mobilization and Tikkun Olam listservs to invite CDT members. The planning team will host a few summer parties as well. You can also invite people to join you on Zoom, or if you prefer, write them on your own at your convenience.
  •  Drop-off. Completed letters MUST be returned to us.  Drop off your completed letters to the same house where you picked them up NO LATER THAN three weeks after you pick them up (or email Janet Rickles (janetrickles@gmail.com) if you’re unable to drop them off).  Because WA members generally vote on Election Day and don’t think about the election until just beforehand, we’ll mail all the letters in October.  

The more we work together the bigger impact we will have!

Use this link to order your packets.

More about Working America (WA)

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 members 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

Sign up for letters today!

Use this link to order your packets.

Sat, July 27 2024 21 Tammuz 5784