Many Americans are eager to do what they can to evict Donald Trump from the White House, but many of the usual ways electoral campaigns use volunteers won’t be happening this year, due to the pandemic. Door-to-door canvassing, house parties for fundraising, and group phone banking are all unlikely to resume before the November 3 election.
But volunteers can still make a huge difference and, in fact, COVID-19 has handed campaigns a chance to rethink the ways that they use volunteers.
Even if they can’t knock on doors or sit in a room together, volunteers can still help win elections. Here’s how you can play a part:
- Text voters. Well-organized campaigns have lists of voters they want to reach with specific cell phone text messages. They could use your help—especially for getting out the vote in the last weeks before the election.
- Offer your skills. Your preferred candidate’s campaign may need help with something you know how to do. This is especially true for local candidates, and for grassroots campaigns that can’t afford to fill every slot with a paid professional. If you can design a meme, or embed a video or an attractive graphic for social media, you might find yourself in high demand. Are you a writer? See if a local candidate wants help drafting a position paper. You could offer to help make those wonky position papers more readable.
- Register voters. It’s unlikely that traditional in-person voter registration drives will be possible by autumn. On its website, Swing Left already offers ways to register voters and boost turnout in battleground states, no matter where you live. As of July 2020, forty states and the District of Columbia allow citizens to register online; Oklahoma is currently phasing in virtual registration, and the other states require mail-in. (You can check Vote.gov to see which way your state does it.)
- Write to other voters. Swing Left also allows you to write letters to voters in key states. Postcards are another option. The team that helped flip New Jersey’s Eleventh District from red to blue in 2018 wrote a total of 80,000 postcards to registered voters who hadn’t turned out for recent midterm elections. Judy Kelly, who was the group’s field director and is now its co-executive director, says she didn’t expect much of a return, but in some towns, the group turned out one voter for every thirty cards mailed. You can find postcard campaigns on Swing Left’s website, or through Postcards to Swing States or Postcards to Voters, or by contacting local activist groups.
- Call voters from your home. Time will have to pass before we sit in a room together making phone calls, but if you’re willing to take on this important campaign task, contact your candidate’s campaign and see if they’ve arranged for at-home calling. If not, visit Swing Left’s virtual organizing guide.
- “Chase Votes.” You’ll need to connect with a local group for this one, and that group will need a subscription to a voter database. The Democratic Party offers campaign workers a tool called NGP VAN (Voter Activation Network.) This database, culled from public records, can be sorted in various ways. Elizabeth Juviler, former political director of NJ 11th for Change, used the VAN during a 2018 Congressional race to identify voters, including many college students, who hadn’t yet returned their mail-in ballots. “We had an army,” she says. “We went after individual people, by phone, or texting, or even social media.”
- Make sure your friends and family vote. Ask if they’re definitely planning to vote, and if they’ve decided which candidates they’ll be voting for. These may be sensitive questions, but if you’re willing to raise the subject, you can explain your reasons for strongly supporting a specific candidate. Even if they disagree, your passion might have a delayed impact. You can do all of this on your own—or you can work with an activist group that uses a relational organizing platform—like Team by the Tuesday Company—to mobilize your friends and relatives.
Some tips for connecting:
- Contact a candidate’s local campaign office. Suggest some of the ways you’d like to help. Or, if they’re not set up to use your help . . .
- Find a local group that’s working to elect the candidates you support. Ask friends who are politically active, or look at Indivisible’s website to see if there’s an affiliate group in your town. You can also search online or call your local library and get help from the reference desk. A word of advice from long-time progressive activist Cary Chevat: “the easiest way to get involved is joining a progressive or Democratic group in your area. Don't try to do this alone, but find a community that you can be part of.”