5 Calls 2018 Midterm Challenge Week 2: Register To Vote

Welcome back! If this is your first visit, make sure to check out our Midterm Challenge Introduction and our Week 1 Challenge.

Our challenge this week is Register to Vote! “Don’t worry, I’m already registered!” you say…but are you SURE? During recent primary elections, hundreds and possibly thousands of would-be voters found out they had been illegally purged from the voter rolls.

This week, our focus will be on identifying and knocking down this and other barriers to voting — for both you and your friends. If for whatever reason you are not eligible to vote, skip ahead to the alternate option below.

1. CHECK YOUR STATUS — Whether you think you are already registered or know that you aren’t, go to the DNC’s “I Will Vote” website or Headcount’s website and follow the links to check your status and (re)register as needed.

2. UNDERSTAND VOTING REQUIREMENTS— You must be a US citizen and over the age of 18 on Election Day in order to vote. Other requirements vary by state; needing a photo ID or lacking felony convictions, for example. Now is the time to figure out what (if anything) you need so you aren’t scrambling last minute and risking your vote not being counted. Go to the League of Women Voter’s excellent voter education fund website to see information about registration deadlines and ID requirements by state.

3. UNDERSTAND YOUR VOTING OPTIONS — Can you vote by mail or vote early? It’s always better to get your vote counted sooner, so consider switching to vote-by-mail or planning an early vote if you can. Again, voting options vary by state. Check here to see your options and pick a path that works best for you.

4. HELP YOUR FRIENDS— Send at least 5 friends a message to get them started, something like:

“Hi, can you believe so many people got illegally removed from the voter rolls? I wanted to make sure I can vote in the midterms, so I just checked mine here at https://iwillvote.com/. Thankfully it was okay. Is yours? I also found out I could [vote early / vote by mail / need to make sure I have a photo ID] here: https://vote411.org. Then I put it in my calendar so I’m good to go.”

Make sure you personalize to each person so it is more of a conversation than a spam blast. [Hot tip: use the Vote With Me app to identify the best “targets”, i.e., friends in key geographies that haven’t voted recently.]

5. SHARE YOUR SUCCESS — Make sure you are logged into your 5 Calls account and then click “I did it” to record your success in this week’s challenge. Then, follow the prompts to tell everyone on social media what you accomplished, using the hashtags #MidtermChallenge and #FightThePurge. This will not only help build momentum for yourself but also within your network.

Alternate Option: If you cannot vote for whatever reason, start with step #4 above and instead say something like “Hi, can you believe so many people got illegally removed from the voter rolls? You can check yours at https://iwillvote.com/. Is it ok? And here’s another site I found that shows if you can vote early and what ID you need: https://vote411.org”

That’s it for this week — pour yourself a glass of water, put your feet up, and rest easy knowing you and your friends will be able to vote when and how you want to.

Next week, we’re going to pivot a bit…your hint is “talk the talk”.

And our weekly reminder — 5 Calls is a volunteer-run non-profit. We appreciate your support!

More Details on Challenge Design and Supporting Data

I know a lot of people. How should I pick who to engage? We want to make sure your effort matters — here are three criteria you can use to pick which friends to engage for this week’s challenge…or you can just use the helpful app Vote With Me, which uses public databases to filter your phone’s contact list by party registration, location, and voting history so you can see who might need reminders about voting. Have a look — you may be very surprised to see who’s a secret Democrat (or Republican!) and has or has not been voting recently.

1. Key Races: Democrat votes in key races are extra critical, so focus on your friends and family that live in swing or at-risk Democratic states or districts. https://www.270towin.com/ has helpful interactive maps for the 2018 Senate, House, and Governor races.
2. Prioritize the “not-always or not-yet voters”: You only have so much time and energy, and we don’t want you to spend too much effort on people that have already been successfully voting for years. If you know (or suspect) certain people have not voted recently, focus on them for a greater impact.

Why do I need to personalize my message? Can’t I just copy-paste it out to everyone? It is totally ok to copy-paste it if time is tight (and we agree it is fair to make an argument for quantity over quality), but we do know from multiple studies about canvassing and phone banking that personalized, conversational approaches are more compelling than emails and robo-calls. So there is every reason to believe texting would follow the same trends. Just imagine receiving a copy-paste message from a friend vs a friendly message tailored to you — which would you be more likely to engage with?