The secret weapon Michigan political campaigns are just starting to learn about

Organizations in politically divided states like Arkansas, Idaho and Ohio are hard at work to protect direct democracy through community organizing and education. These groups have rallied to pass measures like minimum wage increases, medical marijuana and have even organized voters to fail ballot measures like Ohio’s recent Issue 1.

Jails in Illinois and Texas have improved voting access for people who are incarcerated by coordinating with voting rights advocacy groups and bringing the polls on-site. In June, voter turnout at the Cook County Jail in Illinois exceeded that of the city of Chicago as a whole, and the Harris County Jail in Texas saw 96 people vote in-person in November 2021 and about 200 cast ballots in the March primary.

Black and Latino organizers with the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) knocked on over 300,000 doors in between the general election and Senate runoffs. Canvassing in predominantly Latino neighborhoods, they also reached out to ineligible voters to encourage them to urge their U.S. born family members to vote in their family’s interests. Latino support of Democratic candidates increased in the Senate runoffs adding to narrow Democratic victories. GLAHR also helped elect the first Black sheriff of Gwinnett County, who quickly ended a program that allowed the county jail to collaborate with ICE.

Faith leaders from communities of color mobilized voters to support candidates and policies that empower Black and Brown people. Events such as “Souls to the Polls” and the coalition-run Black Church 75 initiative, registered new voters and urged them to the polls around issues such as police brutality and racial injustices. Support from Black church members is credited with helping elect Democratic candidates, including Democratic senators in Georgia, as well as passing ballot initiatives, such as Measure J in Los Angeles that would decrease police funding in favor of mental health and housing resources.

Voter outreach campaigns effectively boosted turnout among Native voters. The Rural Utah Project left informational flyers inside plastic bags at people’s doors (a Covid-19 tactical adjustment), held drive-through voter registration events, ran hotlines to assist indigenous voters, and partnered with Google to create street addresses using latitude and longitude-based plus codes. Senate candidate Mark Kelly ran ads in the Diné language to reach Navajo Nation voters. Precinct data shows 60-90% of Arizona Navajo Nation voters chose Democrats, a rate that pushed Biden and Kelly to a slim victory.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) identified 57 million voters who identify as LGBTQ or allies and used digital and print ads, direct mail, and text and phone outreaches to turnout these “equality voters” in the 2018 mid-term elections. The campaign registered 30,000 new voters and trained 1,600 local volunteers who logged more than 20,000 hours for HRC-endorsed candidates. The campaign effectively increased turnout in the group from 36% in 2016 to 56% in 2018. While there are many more LGBTQ and ally voters not included, the group worked with Catalist to identify voters who are motivated by LGBTQ equality.

To close the voting participation and engagement gap between historically disenfranchised groups and more affluent, white groups, organizations in Metropolitan Detroit are employing a number of strategies. One group, Girls Making Change, is creating a political leadership pipeline by mentoring high school girls of color over the summer. CitizenDetroit organizes voter education groups, candidate debates, and even bar trivia nights with a political theme.

After a Republican led state law that bans people without an address from voting took effect, Native American tribes in North Dakota began organizing to get out the vote. They even began creating their own addresses. They teamed up with Claremont Graduate University in California and overlaid “ voting precinct maps on satellite images of the reservations and assigned each precinct one address.” “The right to vote can be taken for granted until someone tries to take it away from you, and then it can be the reason you do vote.”

A digital tool called Restore Your Vote launched in the summer of 2018 to help ex-convicts understand their voting restoration status after re-integrating into society. The initiative, which has been piloted in Alabama, aims to reduce disenfranchisement in ex-convict communities by targeting unclear language, misinformation, and lack of access to education.

In Alabama, grassroots organizing targeting black voters resulted in a huge voter turnout. “98 percent of black women voted for Jones (Tyson’s initial estimate was conservative) along with 93 percent of black men.” “Just calling, knocking on doors, talking to people face-to-face, letting them know why this campaign matters, I think that’s the reason we won.”