It's Time to Get Out the Vote!
By Betsy Blosser
Dear Friends,
I just finished my own goal of writing five get-out-the-vote letters today. This time, the letters are to registered – but infrequent – voters in Nevada. In 2020, I wrote letters to voters in Arizona, South Carolina, Florida, and perhaps elsewhere. (I don’t remember.)
Why am I writing these now when the election is in November? Because I will save them and mail them in October, when voters are thinking about the election. If I start now – and write five letters a day (an easy goal), I can write a lot of letters between now and then, and thus have more impact on getting voters to the polls.
Local organizations [see links below] provide the printed letters, envelopes, names and addresses – and this time, stamps! (In the past, I had to buy my own stamps.) What I have to do is fill out a letter with the voter’s first name (as in “Dear Fred”), write a short statement about why I vote, sign my first name and last initial, and address the envelope. Once the envelope is stuffed and stamped, I put it in a safe place until October, when I mail it along with all the other letters I’ve written.
I want to say that, of all the people I know about who have written these letters in the past, Carol Cook and Susan Grieger are the queens of getting out the vote. They wrote HUNDREDS of letters for the last election and are probably well on their way to doing so this election. Hurrah for Carol and Susan! (In fact, Susan finished up some of mine that I couldn’t do before a trip took me away from letter writing toward the end of the campaign.)
What I’m seeking to do with this article is to suggest that you join us. If you are worried about the election and want to do SOMETHING to make a difference, you can write letters. I choose to do this because I don’t like calling voters (who needs another robo call?), because it’s non-partisan, and because it’s effective. (There is research!)
What do I say about why I vote? I say, “I vote because I believe in our democracy and I want to protect it.” What will you say in your letters?
In community,
Betsy
For Letter writing:
For Postcard writing: