Write letters to voters with Indivisible Eastside and VoteForward!
Dates: Every other Tuesday July 7, July 21, August 4, August 18, September 1, September 15, September 29, October 13, October 27
We host a recurring virtual letter writing party!
Vote Forward letters urge people to vote. They go to Democratic-leaning registered voters who are unlikely to move soon, and unlikely to vote. Our volunteer writers insert a personal message to finish the sentence “I vote in every election because…” . They target voters in 11 states including Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.
This effort is part of The Big Send – a 9 organization effort (including Indivisible). See Zoom registration link at the end of this event to participate in the online meetings)
In multiple randomized trials, voters who received a letter were significantly more likely to vote. Our daily lives have changed with physical distancing, and our Get Out the Vote efforts need to follow suit!
Want to join the effort? Here’s what you need:
1. Sign up at https://votefwd.org/ — you will obtain your voter addresses and record your work on this site.
2. Make sure you have a working printer and paper, as you will print the letters from home.
3. Gather your supplies:
- Pen (blue ink recommended)
- If needed, sponge and water for sealing envelopes (don’t lick the seal!)
- Optional: snacks and drinks!
- Envelopes & Stamps*
*We strongly suggest ordering your stamps and envelopes from the USPS online store in order to assist with funding their ongoing service:
4. Plan to spend about an hour writing your batch of 20 letters. You can choose which state to write for on the VoteForward site
5. Once you’ve completed a batch of letters, log them at our Letterwriting Activity Log. We’ll report out through emails how many writers, which states, and how many letters written in each 2 week period. bit.ly/LWA-Log
6. Register in advance for the 7:00 pm Zoom meeting and look for a confirmation email with the Zoom Link you’ll use to participate. Email might be in your Junk folder.
- July 7th zoom registration,
- One registration for all the remaining dates: bit.ly/IEVoteFwdLetterwriting
- July 21, August 4 * August 18 * September 1, September 15, September 29, October 13, October 27
If you have never done this or have any other questions, we can help! We have 12 Super States to target in this letter writing activity and we need your help to write to voters in each of them!
Questions? Contact letterwriting@indivisibleeastside.com
Proven in Alabama
In a randomized controlled trial in the special election for U.S. Senate in Alabama in 2017, turnout among letter recipients was 3.9 percentage points higher than turnout in the control group. (3.4 percentage points after controlling for gender, age, and other factors). This is big! It appears to be one of the most effective known tactics to boost turnout.