In my last post, I exhorted everyone to vote in every election, whether the outlook was good or not. Simply put, it's the only way to build any political muscle. And, given that the right to vote in this country is now hanging by a fraying thread, there is literally no time like 2022 to start. Except in Virginia and New Jersey, where next week would be an excellent place to start, if you live in either state and you have not done so already. There are also a handful of special elections between now and the midterms as well.
But I would like all of you to do more than vote. I'd like to to get as actively involved as possible, as much as your time and treasure will permit you. I feel strongly enough about this that, for the first time, I just got involved with an organization that I highly recommend, and with which I have no connection other than as a volunteer. If you want to be able to encourage voters in swing states, and don't live in one, or you aren't able to get out and about, or you're just people-shy, which is no disgrace (or confrontation-shy, which, in this day and age, I absolutely understand), and you don't mind getting a small case of writer's cramp, this may be just the thing for you.
The Progressive Turnout Project operates a program called Postcards to Swing States. If you volunteer to participate, it mails you a supply of postcards, a list of names and addresses of swing-state voters, and instructions on how to fill out the postcards with a message encouraging each recipient to vote. As a volunteer, you supply the postage and the labor in filling out and mailing the postcards. My wife and I recently sent 500 postcards to first-time voters in Colorado. That's a lot of postcards. On the other hand, you can make a social event, or a series of social events, and get your friends involved in filling out the postcards and sharing the cost of the postage. And, in the process, generate some positive election energy that may spill over into other activities.
You can learn more about it here.
So, what are you waiting for?
1 comment:
My wife and a few of her friends have doing post cards for a few years. Pre Covid-19, they met at a coffee shop for a few hours and wrote to a voter list.
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