Make them Fight for Your Vote

Campaigns try to appeal to voters more than non-voters.

Campaigns have limited budgets, and it makes more sense for a candidate to appeal to the kinds of people who they know will vote. Richer people and older people vote at higher rates, and so get more attention from politicians. The best way to get more attention is to show up.

Even the "radical" organizing guru Saul Alinsky acknowledged this after the 1968 Vietnam War protests:

"It hurt me to see the American army with bayonets advancing on American boys and girls. But the answer I gave to the young radicals seemed to me the only realistic one: 'Do one of three things. One, go and find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing—but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organise, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates.'"

Recent political developments show just how hard politicians might fight for your vote. Rural voters are only 20% of the country, but if you've been paying attention to the news for the last four years you'll have seen them endlessly discussed because of the perception they decided the 2016 election.

In Philadelphia, rural voters are just 1 in 5, and farmers are an even smaller slice of that, but here you can see news organizations very invested in getting the opinion of farmers:

What should I do next?

I'm not registered to vote.

You can register through Vote.org in two minutes. And you can find your polling place here.

I don’t know who to vote for.

That's okay! The key is to not stress about it, because not showing up guarantees you won't be represented. You don't need to know everything. Here are some simple ways to get started:

Find a friend whose values you respect and talk to them about how they're using their vote.
Go to Vote Smart, a non-partisan site, to find out about the stances, past votes, and issue ratings of politicians in your area.
Take this non-partisan five minute quiz to learn about how your values line up with the major political parties. If you know a party is a good fit for your values, you’re better off voting for a candidate for that party than not voting at all.
Search for a candidate's name online and see who endorses them. Endorsements send important signals about which groups trust the people running. Most states (with a few exceptions) let you bring your phone into the voting booth, in case you forget to do this earlier.
Remember, there is nothing wrong with filling out only part of the ballot. Your poll workers may ask you about it, but they just want to make sure you didn’t make a mistake. It's not a problem if you only vote in some of the races.

I'm still not convinced voting is worth it, but I'd like to make use of my vote somehow.

Even if you don't want to vote in your district, you may be able to donate your vote through the Emancipation Initiative to someone who's incarcerated, so they can have a political voice as well.

I want to get more involved.

Persuaded that more people should be voting? Be part of the change!

Remember that there will always be disinformation and efforts to interfere in the election. Talk to your friends about why voting is valuable. Feel free to share this guide.
Volunteer for a political campaign. There's a lot of work to be done, even during social distancing. It's easier than ever to help campaigns by calling, texting, or writing letters to voters.
When election day gets closer, look for apps that will help you connect to your friends and convince them to vote. Campaign apps will let you text people to remind them to vote.
Look for other local political causes to support with your time or money. Voting is important, but it's just the beginning of making change happen.

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Created by
Ben Struhl and Alexander Gard-Murray
in 2020

A Powderhouse Project