More than 4,000 people joined Indivisible’s Election Protection 101 training on August 19 as part of the Hands Off Our Vote program, the national effort to make sure every eligible voter can cast a ballot and every ballot gets counted. The full recording is up:
Action Items
1. Check your registration. Then check it again. Voter roll purges are the tactic being used right now to block eligible voters, and a purge can happen late. Californians can verify their status or register and update an address with the Secretary of State. Indivisible also built a text tool: text VOTER to 59798, reply with your state, and you get the official link for wherever you live. Put a reminder in your calendar to check again in a month. Flex it: a table with a few printed signs at the farmers market or a community event is all a “check your registration” action needs.
2. Make an early-vote plan and put the date in your calendar. Voting early protects your vote against everything from a sabotage attempt to getting the flu on November 2. Look up your state’s dates at 866ourvote.org, then pick the earliest day you can actually commit to. Flex it: vote together. A group trip to a vote center, or an afternoon where everyone fills out and drops off their ballots and then goes to lunch, does more for turnout than any post.
3. Volunteer locally. Every county has its own needs, and the organizations already doing the work know them best. Indivisible points to Ground Control as the clearinghouse for vetted local opportunities: rides to the polls, bilingual helplines, poll worker sign-ups, filtered to where you live and updated often. Locally that means the Ventura County Elections Division, which recruits and trains poll workers for every election. You’ll want to know the difference between:
- A poll worker is an official, nonpartisan election staffer employed by the county.
- A poll monitor, watcher, or observer is stationed by a party, campaign, or organization to watch for irregularities. The rules for the second category vary a great deal by state.
4. Talk to the people who run our elections. The more our county and state officials know that people are paying attention, the less room there is for quiet changes to voting.
And when local election workers do the job well (clear information, easy access) say so publicly. It is a hard job, and they are the people who make an election run. Thank you Michelle Ascencion!
On how we talk about this
Messaging researcher Anat Shenker-Osorio presented findings from Indivisible’s research and made two points worth carrying around.
The first is a correction. The claim that “they’ll just cancel the election” is both wrong and counterproductive: it does the work of anyone who wants people to stay home. There will be an election. Be vigilant for a government that keeps the forms of democracy while reshaping the rules underneath them.
The second is about what actually moves people. Naming a policy is not enough: most people do not translate a policy into its effect on their own ability to vote. Say the effect plainly: they are trying to keep people from voting, so they can control the outcome of elections and hold on to power. And do not soften the ending. In her research, hearing about attacks on voting made a solid majority more determined to vote, not less. People turn out against this kind of thing out of defiance.
Next: Election Protection 201, Wednesday, August 26
The follow-up training covers the higher-stakes period of the weeks right before, during, and after the election. Sign up here.