Transcript
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we share how to help your clients make sure their vote counts.
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So stay tuned.
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If you want to have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I'm Kath Patrick and I've helped dozens of progressive nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are.
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To have them seeking you out as an equal partner.
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And to have them Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath.
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Patrick.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode, because it's so relevant and timely in this moment.
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This is the third and final episode of a series that has been focused on how to help your clients make their voices heard at the ballot box.
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We're less than 30 days out from the 2024 elections.
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And I don't have to tell you there's a lot at stake up and down the ballot.
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From the presidential race to congressional and Senate races to state legislatures.
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And on down to city council, county board, mayoral and school board races.
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All of them matter.
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And all of them have the potential to have a big impact on the wellbeing of your clients and their families.
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And as you're no doubt, very aware, the polling is really tight in many of these races.
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And that just reinforces how very powerful a single vote can be.
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Hopefully most of your clients are already registered to vote, perhaps with your help.
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Yay.
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Registration deadlines have passed in a number of states, but there may still be time to register where you live.
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So definitely double-check your deadlines and do everything you can to get your clients registered before the deadline.
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But now it's time to focus on helping your clients make a plan to vote, so that they can be assured of their vote counting.
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And that's what we're going to zero in on in this episode.
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Depending on where you live, there may be minimal barriers to voting, or there may be substantial barriers.
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In either situation it's important for each voter to have a plan, to get their vote counted.
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We're hearing a lot in the news about all of the maneuvers that a lot of different legislatures and other entities are engaging in even last minute, in the couple of months leading up to the election.
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To try to make it even harder for people to vote.
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And quite honestly, the people they're trying to make it hardest to vote are the very people that we serve.
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Because frankly, they're worried that the folks we serve will not vote to keep those folks in power.
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So that's a double edged sword.
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Right.
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And we've talked about that in previous episodes, that on the one hand it's infuriating and demoralizing and worrisome, because if they're successful that can have really serious implications.
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But on the other hand, in terms of talking with your clients about the power and importance of your vote.
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It can actually be sort of a useful conversation point.
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To say, you know, there's all this stuff going on all over the country to try to make it harder for folks like us to vote.
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And you know, when somebody's working that hard to make it hard for you to vote.
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You got to wonder, what are they so scared of?
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Hmm, maybe our votes really do have way more power than we realize.
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But they realize it.
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And so they're trying to make it harder for you to use that power.
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But we're not having that.
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We want to make sure we do everything we can to help you make sure your vote counts.
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Because it does have power.
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As a nonprofit leader, you can play a hugely important role by helping your clients plan their vote.
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And there are three pieces to that.
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The first is to make sure that they're really clear about their options for voting and how to do each of those options successfully, whichever one they want to focus on.
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You could help them pick a specific date once they know which way they're going to vote.
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And you can point them to where they can learn about all the races and candidates on the ballot so that they can be an informed voter.
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And that they can elect the people that are in alignment with them on the issues that they care about.
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The good news is that there is a website that is a one-stop shop resource for most of this information.
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So you don't have to go chasing around doing a lot of information gathering.
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It's really pretty much all in one place.
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And you just have to go and check that out.
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It's a nonprofit nonpartisan operation that has a fabulous array of resources in one place.
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Called ballotready.Org.
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And I'll link that up in the show notes for you.
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It's got basically everything you're going to need.
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You can use this to gather information to share with clients in terms of what are the deadlines, what are the rules, all of that.
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But then the client can also use it to check whether they're registered, to double check the accuracy of their registration.
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To look up information about who's on the ballot for their address.
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And, depending on what's going on in your local races, it really could be quite localized.
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Just to give you an example.
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I just voted early myself about a week ago.
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I live in Virginia and our state legislature doesn't do its elections in even numbered years, so we didn't have any state legislative races.
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But we had city council and we had school board.
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Our city council members are elected at large, so it doesn't matter where your address is for that.
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But for school board, it matters very much.
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And you can only vote in the sub voting district for your piece of the school board.
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So for those municipal level elections there can be very address-specific pieces of ballot information that a voter is going to want to know about.
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So the cool thing with this website is that you just plug in your address.
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You don't have to give any other information.
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If you just want to check where you can vote and who's on your ballot.
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You can get all of that just by plugging in your street address.
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So that's super helpful because for helping a client make a plan to vote.
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The best possible way for this to happen is as a collaborative effort between the two of you.
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That you're supporting and helping, but they're doing the work.
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You're just asking good questions.
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And providing information and clarifying answers when they need clarification.
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The main thing you're doing is asking them, have you made your plan to vote yet?
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And if the answer is yes.
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Awesome.
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Are you going to vote early?
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Yes.
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Have you picked your day?
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Oh, well, no, I was just going to vote early.
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Pick a day, put it on your calendar.
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Because, you know, stuff always comes up.
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So pick a day.
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Decide now what's going to be the day that is your election day and you're going to go vote.
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And you encourage them to put it in their calendar that day.
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It's that kind of encouragement and support that will help them solidify a plan.
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Because far too many folks mean well, they mean to vote.
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They intend to vote.
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They have every intention of doing it.
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And then.
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You know, even for myself and I am a maniac on this.
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I have voted in every single election since I was eligible to vote.
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And I had every intention of voting on the first day that early voting opened up in my area.
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And for two solid weeks something came up.
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Every single day.
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Cause I was like, well, I have a window between meetings on this day.
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Okay.
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I'm going to go then.
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And then a client calls or an email comes in that needs an answer right away.
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And the one hour window that I had made available to go down and do my early voting in person.
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Now that's gone.
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And that was the only window I had that day.
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I moved it to a new slot.
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Every day for two weeks before the stars finally aligned and I was actually able to go get it done.
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So.
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No problem.
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I started this process on the first day of early voting in late September.
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But if you don't make a plan and then you say, well, I'm going to get to it.
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You know, sometime before the end of October, I'll definitely go do it.
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Well, you know how it is.
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The end of October will be here in about 90 seconds.
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And then you're like, oh, dang.
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I've only got a day or two before they cut off early voting.
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Ah, what am I going to do now?
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So.
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Just help people make a plan.
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It's a huge service simply to help them do that.
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And once you've got them making a plan, then any other questions they have about how they're going to do that.
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Those come up quite naturally.
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Once you're on the topic of making a plan.
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So that is a great way to enter into that.
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It doesn't take a lot of time and effort to just ask that one question.
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Have you made your plan to vote?
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And then a quick couple of follow up questions to determine if they actually have made a plan, or if their plan is something along the lines of, um, I'm going to get it done before election day.
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So, no.
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Get it on their calendar.
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And it's okay to nag a little bit about that, as long as you do it with the right intention and the right energy.
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Okay.
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So.
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Help them pick that specific time and method.
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Doesn't mean you're picking it for them.
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It just means you're poking them a little bit till they make a decision.
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Til they open up their own calendar and say, well, when realistically can I do this?
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Do I have like a two hour window on some day this week.
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Oh wait.
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When's the early voting thing open.
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Oh wait, it closes at six.
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Oh, okay.
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Well then that means I can only do it on Saturday.
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Hmm.
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Okay.
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Well, there's only like three Saturdays left.
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I guess I better do it.
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Right.
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So just helping them with that thought process of when you actually open up your calendar and look when it is going to be possible for you to go do this.
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All of a sudden that big month of time spreading out in front of you gets really small, because maybe there's only a handful of times when they can actually go do this.
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So just help them crystallize that.
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And then once they do, then they'll get it on their calendar and they'll have it much more clearly in their head.
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Oh, Hey, I really don't have a lot of opportunities here.
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I better make sure I do this.
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And then the last thing that you can do that's super helpful, is just point them to this wonderful website where they can learn about all the races and candidates on the ballot, so that they can be an informed voter.
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And that again, that's just going to be ballotready.org.
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So.
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Let's get into the most complicated one of these, which is making sure they're clear about their options for voting.
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And how to do each one of those options.
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And again, we're really encouraging early voting wherever possible, just because too many things can go wrong and interfere with somebody casting their ballot on election day.
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So there're going to be some options in your state for early voting.
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They vary slightly by state, but they could include in-person, absentee, by mail and by drop box.
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If you go to ballotready.org you'll find that out really fast, what the choices are.
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If you didn't already do that research when you were getting ready to register folks, when you listened to the last episode we talked about this.
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You can do that now.
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And just get super clear about what the choices are.
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Let's say you are in a state where they're all available and they have many choices.
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Then you'll want to be.
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ready with clear, concise information that explains how all those work and how to do them..
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There's a couple of states that do only mail in ballots and they don't do in person anymore.
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That's important to know.
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It would be really hard to plan to go down to the polls on November 5th, if it turns out you're in one of the states that only does mail-in ballots.
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Oops.
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So you want to make sure you know what the choices are that you can explain them clearly.
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And then you absolutely want to have clear and prominently displayed information about all the deadlines attached to those.
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Because generally speaking the way it works is early voting starts sometime in late September, early October.
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And then it'll end at some point several days before the actual election on November 5th.
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Now, depending on where you live, the window for early voting may be very short.
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Or in other places it's very long.
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So you just have to go find out what that is.
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But again, you don't want somebody making a plan to vote early and then come to find out that the day they were going to go vote, early voting's already over.
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And again, because of schedule slippage, always good to plan to vote right away.
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And then if there's some slippage, you still have more chances.
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You want to be able to provide clear information on where all the early voting locations are.
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That would include any in-person locations and any drop box locations.
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Even better is if you can provide information about any public transit routes that will stop near one or more of the early voting polling places.
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And if there aren't any, you need to be ready to let people know that.
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One of the voter suppression tactics that's become rather popular is to locate both election day polling places and early voting polling places, as far as possible from public transit.
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Which starts to dictate who's going to be able to get there.
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And then that starts to affect who is able to vote.
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So you just want to be aware that physical transportation access to the locations is important, and you want to be able to share information about that.
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You definitely want to be able to share all the rules around each of the different types of early voting that are available in your area.
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So, how does mail-in balloting work?
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Especially with mail-in.
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In-person early voting is pretty straightforward.
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It's basically the same as if you were voting on election day in terms of what you got to do when you get to the polls.
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So you can kind of categorize it as in-person voting, either early or on election day.
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And then there's absentee, which is a special category and may have slightly different rules than other mail-in balloting.
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Some states sort of combine absentee and mail in.
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So you want to just understand how that's working in your state.
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And especially, the mail-in balloting rules can be very fussy.
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And there are some states where there's two different envelopes involved.
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There's an inner envelope and an outer envelope.
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And one thing has to be done with the inner envelope.
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And another thing has to be done on the outer envelope.
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And if they're not all perfect then that goes on the provisional ballot pile and maybe doesn't ever get counted.
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So we just want to make sure that whatever those rules are.
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That you've got them written out very clearly, in simple, easy to understand language.
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That you go over them with the client.
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Once they've said, I want to do in-person early voting, or I want to do mail-in early voting.
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Then you can just focus on, okay, well, let's just walk through what that process looks like for that thing.
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Hand them the list of rules, but also flag for them any rules that are kind of places that people tend to get tripped up, like inner and outer envelopes that have to be just so.
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In general, if you live in a state with a lot of rules around all aspects of voting, it's important not only to make sure that your clients understand those rules, but that they understand the reason they exist.
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The more convoluted and complex the voting rules are, the more likely it is that the reason they exist is to suppress the vote.
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And so if your clients want to defy and defeat the forces of voter suppression, the most powerful and impactful thing they can do is to ensure that everything about their ballot is perfect.
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And it follows every rule, no matter how ridiculous or unnecessary the rule appears to be.
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You definitely want to give information about acceptable forms of ID.
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And again, we talked about this in the episode about registration.
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There's a couple of things to know about ID.
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Most states are cool with a driver's license or a state issued ID card if the person doesn't have a driver's license.
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But you want to double check what is true for your state.
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And you need to find out what is possible for a person who doesn't possess one of the accepted forms of ID.
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In some instances they will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot.
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But we want to avoid that wherever possible.
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We really want to set people up to make sure that their vote will be counted.
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So be very clear about ID requirements and specifically ask the person.
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Say, you're going to need some kind of ID in order to vote.
00:18:28.497 --> 00:18:31.376
Here's how that works with this option you've chosen.
00:18:32.277 --> 00:18:34.497
Can you come up with one of these forms of ID?
00:18:35.247 --> 00:18:39.537
And if not, then you want to problem solve with them about how they can still vote.
00:18:40.472 --> 00:18:47.633
And some of those questions may be ones that you want to ask of your local elections office to get really, really clear.
00:18:48.053 --> 00:18:54.106
Because that gets into the weeds of some very hairsplitting kinds of rules.
00:18:54.679 --> 00:19:03.019
I have a lot of faith in ballot ready.org, but I haven't worked with it enough to assure you that they're going to be able to answer that question perfectly.
00:19:03.528 --> 00:19:06.439
So that's when you may want to check with your local elections office.
00:19:07.919 --> 00:19:11.489
Do explain what provisional ballots are and how they work.
00:19:12.098 --> 00:19:14.348
This is an absolute last resort option.
00:19:14.423 --> 00:19:16.726
We would prefer not to do that ever.
00:19:17.266 --> 00:19:20.296
But it's important for voters to know that it exists.
00:19:20.986 --> 00:19:34.878
And particularly in states where there's a lot of voter suppression activity, it's very important that each voter be armed with clear reliable information so that they can stand up for their rights at the polling place.
00:19:35.328 --> 00:19:39.645
Whether it's early voting or election day voting if they're voting in person.
00:19:40.125 --> 00:19:46.123
And, they find themselves in a situation where their ballot is being challenged or their right to vote is being challenged.
00:19:46.903 --> 00:19:48.823
We want them to know what their rights are.
00:19:50.323 --> 00:19:56.532
And a thing to remember through all of this is that, you know, if you're a frequent voter yourself, which I sure hope you are.
00:19:56.682 --> 00:20:00.673
You just kind of have the routine down and you don't think about the logistics very hard.
00:20:01.032 --> 00:20:07.633
But for someone who is a first-time voter or a very infrequent voter, this is really unfamiliar territory.
00:20:08.125 --> 00:20:20.862
And so things that a frequent voter doesn't even think about may feel confusing or even intimidating to a first-time voter or an infrequent voter.
00:20:21.251 --> 00:20:30.132
And particularly if they are an immigrant and are feeling a little vulnerable around that at this time.
00:20:30.698 --> 00:20:36.892
That can also add a layer of nervousness and trepidation about showing up and voting.
00:20:37.582 --> 00:20:40.372
Every citizen has the right to vote.
00:20:40.998 --> 00:20:43.607
And we want every citizen to exercise that right.
00:20:43.897 --> 00:20:48.008
But more moral support may be needed for some clients.
00:20:49.188 --> 00:21:00.887
Along similar lines, it's really important, to the best of your ability, to identify and address any disinformation about voting as it pops up.
00:21:01.637 --> 00:21:08.107
This stuff usually starts happening in about the week or two before the election, but sometimes earlier.
00:21:08.438 --> 00:21:10.147
And it can take a lot of different forms.
00:21:10.877 --> 00:21:21.365
There have been robocalling scams in past elections where calls were made into black and brown neighborhoods, where the goal was to suppress that vote.
00:21:21.994 --> 00:21:26.164
And they would do things like, say, don't forget to vote on...
00:21:26.164 --> 00:21:27.785
And then they would give the wrong day.
00:21:27.785 --> 00:21:31.595
They would give the day after the election actually happens.
00:21:32.674 --> 00:21:40.654
They even went so far in one case as to pretend to be calling from a civil rights organization that's advocating for that community.
00:21:40.984 --> 00:21:44.464
And saying, don't forget how powerful and important your vote is.
00:21:44.795 --> 00:21:46.204
Be sure to vote on.
00:21:46.204 --> 00:21:48.275
And then they gave the day after the election.
00:21:49.055 --> 00:21:56.528
And folks who were motivated to vote because they got that phone call, showed up at the polls a day late and their vote was not able to be counted.
00:21:57.008 --> 00:21:59.948
Or sometimes there are flyers that get circulated.
00:22:00.288 --> 00:22:02.508
Just information that's wrong.
00:22:02.508 --> 00:22:09.077
And the goal is obviously to confuse voters and to get them to either not show up or to show up too late.
00:22:10.038 --> 00:22:13.157
Or to try to intimidate them around immigration status.
00:22:13.528 --> 00:22:17.260
Even people who, on paper, have no reason to worry.
00:22:17.845 --> 00:22:28.924
Obviously with the kind of anti-immigrant garbage that's being thrown around a lot in this year's election, particularly at the presidential campaign.
00:22:29.625 --> 00:22:32.355
I mean, let's just name the elephants in the room here.
00:22:32.605 --> 00:22:44.980
The standard bearers for the Republican party are spreading some pretty horrible and vicious lies about immigrant communities, to basically stir up their base and get them to be more motivated to vote.
00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:49.750
But also frankly, it's a little bit of a campaign of terror against immigrant communities as well.
00:22:49.961 --> 00:23:00.631
Because the side benefit for the Republicans in this is that if immigrant communities are afraid that if they show up at the polling place, that they might get into some kind of trouble with the law.
00:23:01.365 --> 00:23:02.265
They're going to stay home.
00:23:03.424 --> 00:23:11.018
It's very important, to the best of your ability, that you're on top of any of those activities, rumors, stuff going on.
00:23:11.288 --> 00:23:15.038
And you can address it affirmatively with your clients and say, Hey look.
00:23:15.367 --> 00:23:20.438
You know, This is again, evidence of just how powerful your vote is.
00:23:20.938 --> 00:23:24.057
It is so powerful that these folks are terrified of it.
00:23:24.730 --> 00:23:25.961
And they don't want you to vote.
00:23:26.740 --> 00:23:30.265
And so the best thing you can do is go ahead and vote.
00:23:30.954 --> 00:23:32.234
And here's what's really real.
00:23:32.285 --> 00:23:35.494
Here's what the election dates and deadlines actually are.
00:23:35.765 --> 00:23:39.394
This is how you go cast your ballot and make sure that it counts.
00:23:39.605 --> 00:23:42.095
We are with you on this every step of the way.
00:23:43.384 --> 00:23:55.817
And then if you're in a community where there's like serious intimidation stuff going on, it would be very valuable for you to reach out to any of the voter protection efforts that are occurring in your community.
00:23:56.807 --> 00:24:08.758
Pretty much wherever there is aggressive voter suppression activity going on, there is a countervailing election protection, voter protection effort underway at the same time.
00:24:08.758 --> 00:24:14.228
So find out about that in your community if it's relevant, and make sure you're connected to those folks.
00:24:14.228 --> 00:24:20.617
And maybe even have them come and talk to your staff, get information, ask how you can support your clients.
00:24:21.167 --> 00:24:22.724
And then work with them from there.
00:24:23.691 --> 00:24:26.871
I don't mean to belabor that too much, but it is a serious issue.
00:24:27.587 --> 00:24:35.161
Because of who we serve, it's likely that there are subsets of our client groups who are going to be targets of this kind of stuff.
00:24:35.371 --> 00:24:40.141
And so in order to support them well, we need to not hide our heads in the sand about that.
00:24:40.141 --> 00:24:41.280
We have to meet it head on.
00:24:42.451 --> 00:24:42.871
Okay.
00:24:43.181 --> 00:24:51.611
Now for those clients who are just bound and determined that they're going to vote on election day, because that's what they've always done.
00:24:51.820 --> 00:24:57.411
And it makes them feel patriotic and they love to do it or it's a family thing or whatever, that that's what they do.
00:24:57.931 --> 00:25:02.221
I know families, they all go to the polls together on election day and that's how they're going to do it.
00:25:02.250 --> 00:25:04.654
And nothing's going to convince them to vote early.
00:25:05.270 --> 00:25:08.990
So if you've got clients who are in that camp, they're just like, yep, that's what I want to do.
00:25:08.990 --> 00:25:10.708
So, awesome.
00:25:11.365 --> 00:25:15.724
Then really ask them, Do you know where your polling place is?
00:25:16.154 --> 00:25:17.265
How are you getting there?
00:25:17.770 --> 00:25:19.270
Is it close to public transportation?
00:25:19.280 --> 00:25:22.911
Can you drive yourself there, can a friend drive you, how are you getting there?
00:25:23.721 --> 00:25:25.010
And if they don't know.
00:25:26.030 --> 00:25:30.181
Then strongly encourage them to figure that out now.
00:25:30.911 --> 00:25:35.941
Cause once they say they're going to vote on election day, they're only giving themselves one chance.
00:25:36.361 --> 00:25:39.510
And if anything goes wrong, then they missed their chance.
00:25:40.391 --> 00:25:52.617
Everybody makes their own decisions about this, but then it just becomes 10 times more important to have a fairly redundant plan for how you're going to vote, unless your polling place is in walking distance.
00:25:53.300 --> 00:25:59.070
You don't have to beat on that endlessly, but it's important to ask a couple of questions just to drive home the point.
00:25:59.101 --> 00:26:03.000
Hey, you know, you only get one shot if you choose to vote election day.
00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:07.381
So make sure that you've got clarity about exactly how you're getting to the polls that day.
00:26:08.530 --> 00:26:09.964
So you've done all that.
00:26:10.454 --> 00:26:13.295
You've facilitated them picking a way that they're going to vote.
00:26:13.884 --> 00:26:15.384
And the date they're going to do it.
00:26:16.335 --> 00:26:18.375
Now ask them to get it in their calendar.
00:26:19.275 --> 00:26:22.365
And you can encourage them to set up calendar reminders.
00:26:22.664 --> 00:26:35.875
They can do their own, and/or they can use another cool feature in ballot ready.org, where at several points, when you're interacting with the site, it'll ask you if you want to set up reminders for yourself for any number of things.
00:26:36.611 --> 00:26:38.351
You can ask it to remind you of deadlines.
00:26:38.817 --> 00:26:42.708
If you've picked your date you're going to go vote it will offer to remind you of that.
00:26:43.357 --> 00:26:45.968
You have to give it your email or your cell phone so that it can do that.
00:26:46.028 --> 00:26:53.434
But, folks who find those kinds of reminders helpful, it's a nice little added tool that they can set up for themselves very easily.
00:26:54.540 --> 00:26:57.631
So then the last thing is helping folks be well-informed voters.
00:26:57.938 --> 00:27:02.258
And again, Ballot ready.org is absolutely your friend on this.
00:27:02.998 --> 00:27:10.887
If you want to go one step further, which I think is super helpful if you can do this, is to provide an actual sample ballot.
00:27:11.234 --> 00:27:16.825
That is a physical replica of what the ballot that they're going to fill out actually looks like.
00:27:17.305 --> 00:27:25.590
Again, for folks who aren't familiar with voting, that's like just one more kind of intimidating and overwhelming thing.
00:27:25.590 --> 00:27:28.201
Especially if the ballot's got a lot of things on it.
00:27:28.840 --> 00:27:31.871
If it's just two or three races on there, you're like, okay, yeah, that's not that hard.
00:27:32.080 --> 00:27:37.611
But if it's 10 different races plus three ballot initiatives, plus a couple of other things.
00:27:38.121 --> 00:27:40.101
A constitutional amendment here and there.
00:27:40.550 --> 00:27:44.661
All thrown in on a two-sided ballot that just seems to go on forever.
00:27:45.471 --> 00:27:47.300
That's kind of overwhelming.
00:27:47.871 --> 00:27:53.330
So for folks to just have the opportunity to see it ahead of time and go, oh, okay.
00:27:53.451 --> 00:27:54.621
There's a lot here.
00:27:54.951 --> 00:27:58.141
I'm going to have to think through all these pieces.
00:27:58.711 --> 00:28:04.820
So the very easiest way to get your hands on a sample ballot is just go to the local elections office and ask for one.
00:28:05.101 --> 00:28:06.691
They might even give you a stack of them.
00:28:06.840 --> 00:28:11.371
But even if they can just give you one that you can photocopy in your office, it's totally fine.
00:28:11.820 --> 00:28:18.765
And it'll have a big sample label smacked across it so there's no danger of it being co-opted into an actual ballot.
00:28:19.305 --> 00:28:25.365
But it's really helpful to have the physical, oh, this is what this thing is gonna look like when I get there.
00:28:26.080 --> 00:28:27.807
So if you can do that, great.
00:28:28.468 --> 00:28:37.240
If not, folks can enter their address into ballot ready.org and it'll give them all the races that are going to be on their ballot.
00:28:37.270 --> 00:28:39.641
And it will give them all the candidates that are running.
00:28:39.911 --> 00:28:44.921
If there's a ballot initiative, it'll tell them what that ballot initiative is or constitutional amendment, whatever.
00:28:45.040 --> 00:28:47.441
It'll tell them all of whatever's on their ballot.
00:28:48.280 --> 00:28:56.121
Let's say there's a Democrat, a Republican and two third party candidates running for a state legislative seat.
00:28:56.906 --> 00:29:00.781
It'll list them all, with their little pictures next to it.
00:29:00.781 --> 00:29:04.201
And you can click on that candidate and get more information about them.
00:29:05.269 --> 00:29:15.019
If you're really driven by just a couple of issues and you just want to know the candidates position on those, you can just click those couple of issues and it'll filter that and just give you that for each candidate.
00:29:15.922 --> 00:29:26.001
So it's not at the same level of depth as if you read every candidates position statements, and went to their websites, and went to all the debates and the town halls, and all of that wonderful stuff.
00:29:26.414 --> 00:29:29.174
But you know, most people aren't going to do that, quite honestly.
00:29:29.954 --> 00:29:33.765
Even the most civically engaged among us have bandwidth issues.
00:29:34.125 --> 00:29:38.414
And so we got to get our information however we can in as best a form we can.
00:29:38.414 --> 00:29:39.604
It's never going to be perfect.
00:29:40.257 --> 00:29:41.767
But we know what we care about.
00:29:41.797 --> 00:29:42.457
Each of us.
00:29:43.057 --> 00:29:48.007
And it's like, okay, if they're good on this issue and this issue, then that's probably good enough for me.
00:29:48.007 --> 00:29:48.307
Okay.
00:29:48.307 --> 00:29:48.666
Great.
00:29:48.967 --> 00:29:51.727
If that's how you're making your decisions that is totally fine.
00:29:52.237 --> 00:29:57.217
But this tool makes it really easy to do that research all in one place, pretty quickly.
00:29:57.517 --> 00:29:59.346
So that is really nice.
00:30:00.299 --> 00:30:10.750
Do remind folks that this election in 2024 is not just about the presidential election, although that is immensely important.
00:30:11.230 --> 00:30:16.150
But every member of the US House of Representatives is up for election.
00:30:16.329 --> 00:30:17.200
Every single one of them.
00:30:17.894 --> 00:30:21.910
And one third of all the US Senate offices are up for election.
00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:26.930
So there's definitely a US House of Representative election on every person's ballot.
00:30:27.259 --> 00:30:30.023
And there might be a US Senate race also.
00:30:30.653 --> 00:30:34.163
There may very well be state legislative and governor races.
00:30:34.193 --> 00:30:37.374
Lots of down-ballot races at the municipal level.
00:30:37.733 --> 00:30:39.203
All of them matter.
00:30:39.903 --> 00:30:44.277
Help folks connect to all of that.
00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:54.084
So obviously, this all can be a lot or a little, depending on how much capacity you have to invest effort in it.
00:30:54.606 --> 00:31:03.534
But at a minimum, you want to be sure that every client is getting a question from you: Have you made your plan to vote?
00:31:04.223 --> 00:31:06.023
The election is Tuesday, November 5th.
00:31:06.263 --> 00:31:07.644
Have you made your plan to vote?
00:31:08.064 --> 00:31:09.534
Have you made your plan to vote early?
00:31:10.329 --> 00:31:12.789
If they say yes, get a little more detailed.
00:31:12.789 --> 00:31:13.990
Make sure they've really planned it.
00:31:14.589 --> 00:31:17.529
Make sure they're clear about all their options for voting.
00:31:18.309 --> 00:31:20.259
And how they can do each of them successfully.
00:31:20.866 --> 00:31:25.490
Because if they're going to go to the trouble of voting, we want to make sure that their vote actually counts.
00:31:26.196 --> 00:31:33.124
So it's important that they understand that all the rules around voting are not suggestions.
00:31:33.903 --> 00:31:40.203
They are rules that really have to be followed, or chances are good their ballot will not count.
00:31:41.364 --> 00:31:42.923
So they're clear about their options.
00:31:43.163 --> 00:31:44.814
They know how to do each of them successfully.
00:31:45.114 --> 00:31:47.963
They've picked their specific date and the way they're going to vote.
00:31:48.653 --> 00:32:01.854
And you've pointed them to where they can learn about all the races and candidates on the ballot, so they can be an informed voter and feel really good about when they go to the polls, that they are truly making their voice heard.
00:32:01.854 --> 00:32:03.294
Because they have thought about this.
00:32:03.564 --> 00:32:11.693
They know what they care about and they are doing their best to elect candidates that align as closely as possible to the stuff that they care about.
00:32:12.854 --> 00:32:13.423
That.
00:32:13.903 --> 00:32:17.307
Multiplied by the number of people you serve.
00:32:17.880 --> 00:32:21.309
Is a very powerful collection of voters.
00:32:22.210 --> 00:32:24.099
And all of their voices matter.
00:32:24.549 --> 00:32:28.240
We spend so much time advocating on their behalf.
00:32:28.299 --> 00:32:33.759
This is their opportunity to 100% advocate on their own behalf.
00:32:34.534 --> 00:32:38.513
And their vote is just as powerful as the richest person in the country.
00:32:38.693 --> 00:32:39.894
They each get one vote.
00:32:39.923 --> 00:32:41.183
There's no difference.
00:32:42.513 --> 00:32:52.483
The role that you play in helping your clients be confident, ready, prepared, well-informed excited voters.
00:32:53.354 --> 00:32:55.166
Is incredibly valuable.
00:32:56.150 --> 00:33:00.797
I hope this has both given you what you need in order to go do this work.
00:33:01.237 --> 00:33:14.394
And also inspired you to really want to do everything you can to help your clients take this very empowering action that we get to do once every couple of years.
00:33:14.394 --> 00:33:17.663
And this year it matters more than it has in a long time.
00:33:18.519 --> 00:33:19.390
Thanks for listening.
00:33:19.720 --> 00:33:23.500
And I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
