You’ve registered to vote, you’ve made a plan (or you’re about to), and now the November election looms large and dead ahead. As people have already started casting their votes by mail, it’s increasingly imperative that every single person who is registered to vote do so. But why stop there? What if you could leverage 3X your voting power with a few simple emails or phone calls to your own friends?
While we don’t make ourselves out to be mathematicians, we do know that 4 votes are better than 1.
As part of LOACOM’s 2020 Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts, we’d like to invite you to participate in the LOA version of ‘vote tripling,’ a general GOTV strategy that helps increase voter turnout. But instead of dealing with randoms (as many GOTV efforts do), LOA’s version leverages your personal connections and peer-to-peer influence in key areas of the country.
Here’s how it all shakes out: if you know anyone who lives in the states highlighted in the map below, you’re in luck — it’s time to play!
The states highlighted above are what Swing Left considers “Super States” — states that are currently ‘in-play’ for the upcoming election because of a combination of factors including the closeness of races within the state, impact on the control of the Senate and House, prospects over future redistricting, and/or the number of electoral votes that these states carry in determining the presidency. Some of these states are literal ’toss-ups,’ meaning that the races between key Republicans and Democrats are so close that just a few handfuls of votes may tilt the outcome. Do we need to remind ourselves what a bad outcome looks like? We don’t want a bad outcome.
As you can see in our map, our Super States include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
CLICK ON THE SUPER STATES BELOW TO LEARN MORE
As Swing Left suggests, there are a number of tactics that you could deploy to help turn out the vote, including calling voters, letter-writing (the clock’s tickin’ on this one), and/or donating to campaigns in any of the targeted Super States. All of these are great!
And — there’s another way. Here’s where the fun starts.
THREE STEPS TO TRIPLE THE VOTE
At LOA, we believe strongly in the power of connection and personal relationships. We also know that voter outreach can suck big time, especially when it involves talking to complete strangers about your preferred issue or candidate. So, we came up with a modified version of ‘vote tripling’ that serves 2 purposes: getting out the vote and calling on some friends you might not have talked to in a while. Check it.
It’s all about who ya know – Scan your memory banks, Facebook account, phone contacts, email addresses, or, if you’re super old-skool, your Rolodex. Can you identify three people (or at least one) in the 12 Super States indicated? If yes, jot down their names, phone numbers, and email addresses and proceed to step 2 below. And if you don’t know anyone, you can still participate by sharing this blog post!
Script it – Practice makes perfect. Unless you’re contacting your best friend, it’s likely you’ll need to jot down some notes to make sure you cover all the key points for that person’s swing state (especially if you’re making a phone call! Bonus points for this approach). Don’t panic, we’ve made these key points easy to find – just skip to the end of this blog post for sample script/talking points.
3, 2, 1, Contact – With your script at the ready, it’s time to reach out. Phone calls are the best way to plant two trees with one seed — you can catch up with your old pal while also hitting them with your civic call to action. Emails and texts are second best, but will require a follow-up (read as: more work for you in the long run). You can also do the old 1-2 punch by calling them first and then emailing them with additional resources.
Now that your bases are loaded, here’s your grand slam: once you receive their voter commitment, encourage friends to play the game, too — there’s power in numbers. Ask your friends if they’ll commit to reaching out to 3 of their own friends in our Super States to get more voter pledges. Let’s really rock this vote!
Pro-tip: follow up with your main contacts as often as you think is appropriate to make sure they’ve fulfilled their commitment to you. Remember, they’ve pledged — don’t let them slide away without voting.
That’s it! By engaging at least one friend (but hopefully three) in our key Super States, you’ve effectively taken your one vote and multiplied it three times over. If your friends get involved by sharing with their friends, you’ve amplified your voting power even more.
Now get out there and go collect some votes!!
Please contact LOACOM at info@loacom.com with any questions or for opportunities
in helping us Get Out The Vote.
THE SCRIPT
As you prepare to reach out, here are some talking points and tips to help guide your friends to the promised land:
1. Greeting: They’re your friend/s. For this step, you know what to say.
2. Why you’re reaching out: “I just wanted to make sure you’re planning on voting in this election, etc…”
a. Pitch the importance of this election nationally (make it personal),
b. [THEIR STATE] is particularly important to the outcome of the national election because… (refer to Swing Left’s state-by-state objectives to back you up on this)
Note – they may commit/pledge to vote in step 2. Great! Keep going with the script.
3. Offer resources: “I’d like to provide you with a few resources to check your voter registration status and find other important voting information. How should I get these to you?” Briefly tell them what to expect by email/text, or walk them through the following by phone. Note that they may have already received their ballot, etc., so be flexible here.
a. Share this link with your friend/s to have them check their registration status.
b. Share this link with your friend/s to learn about state mail-in voting requirements.
c. Use this link to find your friend’s polling location.
d. Share LOA’s voter resource blog with them.
4. Secure their commitment – “This might sound funny, but can I count on your vote? 100% for sure??”
a. If your friends are frequent voters, securing a pledge from them should be easy (and/or they may have already told you they’re planning on voting). Secure their pledge anyway. If your friends are undecided or infrequent voters, ask them to pledge to you that they will vote in the upcoming election. Once they pledge, encourage them to vote early to avoid long lines on election day or to avoid postal delays in their mail-in ballot.
5. Triple it! – “Okay, last thing. How would you feel about reaching out to three of your own friends and getting them to also pledge to vote? We can triple our power (or something fun and cheesy)!”
a. Provide them a list of the Super States
b. Share this blog post with them for instructions and support.
6. See ya! Again, they’re your friend/s. Close with a bang.
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