October 8, 2024 - 27 Sleeps To Go!

Ways we can help get out the vote

• EARLY VOTING START DATES IN EVERY STATE

  By now, readers of Rogan’s List have learned about the importance of voting early for Harris / Walz and Democrats down-ballot. But when does early voting start in our state? Here are some great tools with the answers: Early Voting Start Dates and Early Voting by State (with links to each state’s official voting rules and resources) and this Early Voting Availability map. If we plan to vote early, let’s check these resources and get to it! (h/t The Grassroots Connector)

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• MICHIGAN IS MAIZE AND BLUE

  We all know what the stakes are in Michigan. Whoever takes the state’s 15 electoral votes has an easy path to the White House, and there’s an open Senate seat that Democrats absolutely need to hold. The race seems to be tightening, and our Senate nominee Rep. Elissa Slotkin is ringing the alarm bell. Let’s not leave any votes on the table! Those of us out of state can sign up for virtual phonebanks on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the Michiganders can find opportunities to door-knock and poll observer training near us here.

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• PREPARING TO PROTECT THE KEYSTONE VOTE

  The Trump team has made it increasingly clear that while we’re doing GOTV, their ground game is going to be suppressing votes wherever possible. So along with turning out Democrats, we’re going to need to prepare to ensure their votes count. Voter protection efforts are well underway, and we can take part! Let’s sign up for ballot cure and voter protection phonebanks in the next few days in Pennsylvania. 

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• ARE WE BOSSES? LET’S HELP OUR EMPLOYEES VOTE

  According to this Harvard Business School article, encouraging civic participation is good for business and for democracy.  TriNet, a human resources consulting firm, has great tips for businesses to help their employees to vote. If we employ people, let’s read TriNet’s article “Encouraging Employees to Get Out and Vote,” and let’s put those and any new ideas we come up with into action!

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• STUDENTS TO THE POLLS

  Turning out young voters will be a central part of a Harris victory – the Vice President holds a 23-point lead among registered voters under 30. Here are some resources we can promote and actions we can take to get college kids to rock the vote:

  • Swing the Vote’s mission is registering college students in swing states: “We provide college-specific instructions and 1:1 voting mentors to make sure students have the support they need.” If we’re college students, we can fill out this voting info request form and get help registering to vote. The rest of us can share this link and spread the word!

  • Voter IDs laws target students, too, with a tangled web of rules on what counts as acceptable identification. VoteRiders has a guide set up for which states let them use their student IDs and what the options are if they don’t. Let’s consult and share this guide.

  • Many students are spending this semester at an exchange program at a university abroad, and we need their votes too! Vote From Abroad has info on how they get their absentee ballots that we can share here.

  • The Department of Education allows students to use federal work study grants for civic activities like voter registration. And the Higher Education Act requires that colleges spend seven percent of their funding on civic activities. Let’s reach out to colleges and universities that we have connections to and urge them to involve their work-study students in voter registration. The group Students Learn Students Vote Coalition has put together a toolkit that can be used as a resource for this effort.

  • This report from Tufts University "highlights ways to increase youth voting and address stubborn inequities in participation: from electoral laws that make it easier to register, to engaging youth based on the issues they care about. But achieving drastic improvements and eliminating, not just addressing, inequities requires major shifts in how we approach the task of ensuring all youth are informed, motivated, and ready to vote." They give us "24 key recommendations from the report that individuals, communities, and institutions can begin working on now —starting with one recommendation to help you assess how you can have an impact.” Let’s check out their suggestions here and start putting them to work.

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• FREE BUS RIDES TO PA FROM NEW YORK TO GET OUT THE VOTE
  New Yorkers can play a vital role in winning this election by campaigning in nearby swing state, Pennsylvania. New York for Harris  is joining the official Harris/Walz campaign to offer free bus trips to get out the vote in Pennsylvania. Buses have already begun launching at 9am on Saturdays from Harlem, The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens and will keep scaling up each weekend with plans to send 70 buses from across NYS into PA by Election Day. We can find out more about  the free buses to PA and sign up here.  Groups of 20 or more interested in filling a bus from a preferred location can also fill out a request form here, too. 

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