Menu for the midterms
There are many different options for volunteering this fall.
The US midterm elections in November will be hugely consequential, not only for this country but for the rest of the world. (Think about climate change policy, to take just one example.) And thanks to our peculiar political system, the outcome will be largely decided in a handful of battleground states. This is frustrating for the rest of us, but the good news is that election volunteering has changed. While some activities, notably canvassing, are still local and on-the-ground, voter outreach and voter protection can increasingly be done from anywhere via computer, telephone, and mail. That means you can have an impact even if the election results in your own state or district are a foregone conclusion.
Why bother?
Maybe you’re disappointed with what Democrats have accomplished and wonder whether it’s all worth it. For me, the answer is an emphatic yes.
The Biden administration has done some good things in 18 months. Not nearly as much as I would have liked, but that’s largely due to the political context: with a 50-50 Senate and the filibuster (don’t get me started on Manchin), the president is limited in what he can do. It’s more than that, though. The national party leadership is a gerontocracy: cautious, triangulating, fixated on white suburban voters at the expense of new, younger, more diverse constituencies. Beholden to corporate donors, the party has done little to stop the decades-long suctioning of wealth toward the top, with predictable results in terms of working-class disaffection. So yes, I have moments when I think: can I ask people to vote for Democrats again? I do it, though, for two reasons:
First, we live in a two-party system in which one party is careening toward authoritarianism. Today’s Republicans are determined to break our democratic institutions, defy the majority, and impose their narrow vision of white Christian nationalism on the country. Some would use violence if necessary. Already underway is a slow-rolling coup in which GOP-controlled state legislatures subvert their states’ electoral machinery, trying to make Democratic wins impossible in 2022 and 2024. (Shout-out to the blog Lucid for its commentary on how countries slip gradually into autocracy.) I feel we have no alternative but to work with, and bring pressure on, the Democratic Party to defend democracy and get policy wins where we can.
Second, this isn’t all about Biden, though Republicans would like it to be. There are some very good Democrats running in competitive races for the US Senate and House. We have to hold the Senate in November or things will get much, much worse. Meanwhile, the real action is in the states, where pitched battles for control are underway. State legislative races are critical, as are those for governors and secretaries of state (the officials who count and certify the vote).
If it’s too overwhelming . . .
We all face limitations of time, energy, money, maybe mobility or digital skills. So we need to choose carefully from among the array of volunteer options. If you live in a state or district with a competitive race or races, you may want to focus your efforts there. If you don’t, I’d recommend looking at the midterm battleground states, which include Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
I live in the District of Columbia, which has no voting representation in Congress and thus no midterm races. In deciding where to volunteer, I prefer to zero in on a single battleground state in a given electoral cycle so I become familiar with that state’s political landscape. In the 2020 general election, when Democrats weren’t canvassing because of covid, I made phone calls to get out the vote. I concentrated on Pennsylvania, diving into its thicket of arcane voting regulations, some of which changed literally from one day to the next depending on the outcome of court challenges. That allowed me to answer voters’ questions about where, when, and how to cast their ballots, in person or by mail, and many were grateful. I couldn’t have managed that learning curve for more than one state. But some people like variety, and that’s fine, too.
The remainder of this post lays out a brief “menu” of volunteer activities for the fall, noting their varying requirements for time, travel, and digital skills. At the end I offer a few suggestions on how to find current volunteer opportunities and get involved. (Got more money than time? Please see my recent post on donating strategically to community organizing groups and candidates.)
Canvassing
Knocking on doors boosts turnout. Early in the race, you identify voters who support or lean toward your candidate; closer to Election Day, you return to those supporters to make sure they vote. It’s labor-intensive but it works, as even a 1 percentage point margin can be decisive in tight races.
Canvassing is great exercise – you’ll get your 10,000 steps in. And you’ll meet many congenial third-age women on the canvassing trail. (I have!) Ringing strangers’ doorbells is easier than it sounds, and new canvassers can go with an experienced partner. Most campaigns use MiniVAN, the canvassing app, which is user-friendly. Canvassing might be for you if you enjoy walking outdoors; you can free up a half day or more; and you live in a competitive state or district or are willing to drive to one. I’ll write more about canvassing this fall, because I hope to knock doors again in Pennsylvania, the battleground state closest to DC.
Phone banking
Phoning is a time-efficient way to reach voters or recruit volunteers. You can make calls from home without driving, walking, or knocking on doors. It does require a level of comfort with computers, as most phone banks use software that dials the target numbers and guides you through a script on-screen. In 2020 we used ThruTalk; newer-generation dialers are an improvement, I’m told. To be honest, I don’t love phoning. I’d rather canvass, but I admit that you can talk to more voters in an hour of phoning than in a whole afternoon of going door to door.
Texting
I can’t say much about texting voters because I’ve never done it. Only certain groups offer texting as an option, and then only sporadically as lists of target numbers become available. Texting requires digital literacy, but if you like doing it, you might consider training to take on a bigger role as a texting moderator to help other texting volunteers.
Writing letters and postcards
Writing to voters is an easy, low-tech activity that can be done on your own at home or in a group of friends. It’s an on-ramp for new activists (I wrote a few weeks ago about the prodigious postcard-writing operation at my dad’s retirement community in 2020). Mostly you’re writing to registered voters in swing states and districts who lean Democratic but need a nudge to actually cast a ballot. Research shows that voters who receive a handwritten “Please vote!” message are significantly more likely to vote than those who do not. Or you might write to eligible but unregistered voters, encouraging them to register and providing registration forms.
Voter protection and voting rights
Voter protection didn’t used to be regarded as crucial, but given the GOP playbook, it is now. Vo-pro activities focus on registering voters, helping them obtain and cast ballots, and ensuring that votes are fairly counted and certified. A volunteer might staff a voter assistance hotline or recruit poll watchers. A new activity is working to identify and expose election deniers and disrupters who are running for (or being appointed to) sensitive positions in the states, where they will be able to subvert election outcomes.
Voter registration brings in new, diverse voters, a good thing for democracy. College campuses, supermarkets, and citizenship naturalization ceremonies are among the sites where groups set up registration tables. Volunteers receive training, as each state has specific registration rules. If an eligible person wants to register, you help them fill out the forms, which the organizers then deliver to the local Board of Elections.
Where to find volunteer opportunities
You can find nationwide canvassing and phone banking events on Mobilize or the Swing Left website. Set the filter for the geographic area you want, as in this example:
Also check the websites of state and county branches of the Democratic Party; grassroots organizing groups like Turn PA Blue and the Carolina Federation; and individual candidates’ campaigns. For writing letters and postcards, many people work through Vote Forward or Postcards to Swing States, though other groups do postcard campaigns from time to time. A key group for voter protection activities is VoPro Pros; sign up on their website to be notified of volunteer opportunities. Center for Common Ground also protects voting rights with a focus on voters of color.
You might like to sign up for the Weekly Update that I edit for my local group, NOPE. It offers carefully curated action opportunities, many of which can be done remotely. Scroll to the end to join the mailing list or sign up here. At NOPE’s fall kickoff meeting on September 8, we’ll hear from Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman, over Zoom, and you’re welcome to join. Sign up here.
Third Age will take a break in August (family wedding!). The next post will be Friday, September 2. Have a good summer and see you then.