Getting Out the Vote in Real Life

There's more to political activism than just writing about the upcoming US election in November on Substack. Just doing some kind of political activism in real life is even more vital if we are to defeat a potential slide into fascism that only people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk would love.

Here are two ways that I dealt with it in real life this week. First I did some texting to new volunteers on behalf of the Poor People's Campaign where I informed them about upcoming get out the vote canvassing events in Maryland.

The other is through my church congregation, where they are currently participating in UU the Vote, a faith-based get out the vote effort. This particular program has partnered with a secular organization known as Reclaim Our Vote, which is focusing on increasing BIPOC voter turnout in the election.

My church is engaged in writing postcards to people living in minority areas of crucial swing states encouraging them to vote. A few months ago we sent postcards to people in Georgia encouraging them to vote in the upcoming primary. A few days ago I dropped off my most recent batch of freshly written postcards at the post office. For this batch I was writing to people living in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina. Here is the front of a typical postcard, which has the name of the sponsoring organization Reclaim Our Vote.

Here is the back after I finished writing one. (I blotted out the name in blue for privacy reasons.)

It wasn't really that difficult. I was given a sheet of names and addresses of people to send the postcards to. I was also given a script for the back that had to be followed with no deviation allowed. The postcards had to be mostly handwritten and we were encouraged to use different colored pen inks for emphasis. I was allowed to use pre-printed stickers that had basic information about voting in Forsyth County, North Carolina. I was also given dates when I could begin mailing postcards and the final deadline for dropping them in the mailbox.

You can do your part about getting out the vote and you don't even have to do it through formal organizations like I did. You can simply talk with a neighbor, friend, co-worker, or acquaintance about whether he/she is registered to vote and how to help that person get registered, if necessary. There's even a website that you can use to help with registering voters: I Will Vote.

We have seven weeks left until Election Day. Let's make them really count.

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