How much campaign/gotv vote does everyone do? We've already begun working

[Irishxs]

on our gotv plans, phone banking, door knocking, electing precinct leaders etc. Anyone else getting an early start?

[bearsfootball516]

1. I'm helping a local democrat in the Elkhart mayoral primary

I’m canvassing, phone banking, I’ve written about 200 postcards to voters, designed door hangers and I’m also a precinct chair.

[StarfishSaver]

2. I'm not doing GOTV yet

But I developed a civics education program to help residents of local underserved communities better understand government, the political system, history, elections, the courts, and the power of their vote.

So glad you're doing what you're doing!

[Karadeniz]

3. Fabulous of you! We need it here.

[StarfishSaver]

4. Thanks - we need it everywhere

I've done a lot of GOTV and through it have learned that we can't just wait until before an election and try to get people to the polls (so I'm excited to see that you're doing it now!) We have to engage with them loooooong before the next election and make sure they understand the system and how they can impact it.

The most effective voter suppression isn't the effort to keep voters from getting to the polls. It's convincing people that their vote doesn't count and won't make any difference so they don't bother to go to the polls. If Republicans can demoralize people to the point that they suppress themselves, they don't HAVE to cheat.

That's one of the reasons I have absolutely no patience for the gloom and doom I see on this board and elsewhere. We have so much more power than we give ourselves credit for but if we roll over and don't participate, we relinquish our power to the people who ARE involved.

So, I focus on working with people to empower themselves. Once they understand how the system works, how their vote influences it, that they aren't powerless, and that the people they think have all the power don't really have much more power than they do when it really comes down to it (they just understand that they have power and know how to use it), they don't have to be convinced to vote. And because they are intelligent and keen-eyed, they don't have to be convinced to vote for Democrats - they know just what to do when they get to the polls. Unlike the "I claim to have voted for Obama but now I vote for Trump" crowd, we don't have to worry about them flip-flopping all over the place. If we can empower them and engage with them, our communities will vote in droves and will make the difference.

That's my mission these days.