This article originally appeared in the September-October 2004 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Election 2004

10 Steps to voting power

By Jessine Foss

If you work in an agency serving families and children, or if you're active in a community organization, you're an important part of families' lives--so you can be most effective at persuading them to vote. How to go about it? Here are some tips from Head Start, Family Support America, and others.

1. Plan your voter participation efforts. How will you recruit volunteers? Get supplies? Pay for any costs? How can you use a get-out-the vote campaign to develop parent or community leadership? What organizations can you collaborate with?

2. Work with election officials. Your county elections office can provide: a list of polling places, information about having your agency serve as a polling place, even a mock election booth. To register voters, call the California Secretary of State's office to get cards and fill out a voter registration card distribution form (see Resources). Ask the Secretary of State's office or your county elections office how to get approved to distribute absentee ballot applications.

Encourage people to sign a pledge promising to vote. Keep contact information for the people you register--to contact them again before the election and to show candidates the number of voters concerned with children's issues.

4. Give people reasons to vote by educating them on how the issues affect their families. Find out about ballot measures and candidates' positions on children's issues (see How to). Find out what people in your community are most concerned about--and show them how candidates and ballot measures would affect those issues. Invite candidates and speakers on ballot measures to a forum to talk about your issues--or go as a group and ask questions at a forum organized by a different group. The League of Women voters often holds election forums.

5. Build confidence by providing opportunities for people to learn about voting and discuss how election issues relate to their daily lives. Hold a workshop on how and why to vote. Set up a mock election booth at a forum or in your organization so that people can practice voting. Ask participants to commit to acting on what they've learned.

6. Inform new voters and others about the election. Put up a sign with key election-related dates. Provide election information in multiple languages: information on candidates and ballot measures, sample questions for candidates, instructions for using voting machines.

7. Promote absentee ballots by making absentee ballot applications available in multiple languages, reminding people to apply, and reminding them again to send their ballot in (so it will be received before 8 pm on election day). If you distribute absentee ballot applications, offer to mail them in.

8. Keep up the momentum. The week before the election, remind everyone three times to vote-in person or by phone or postcard. Ask if they have made a plan for making time to vote. Have people wear "I vote" or "I will vote" stickers. Get a list of community polling places with maps showing who votes where.

9. Make voting social. Have a party for people to fill out their sample ballots together. On election day, organize rides and child care and go to the polls as a group.

10. Encourage people to stay active after the elections and participate in advocacy efforts--such as letter-writing campaigns, lobby days, and legislative visits.

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Keep it legal

Nonprofits can register voters (as long as they register everyone who is willing and eligible), develop and send out election information, and use agency vehicles and staff to transport voters to the polls. But it all has to be nonpartisan--you can't do, say, or wear anything that supports a particular candidate or issue.

You can say...
"Register to vote because:

• "Public policy is decided at the polls. Take a position on health care, nutrition, and other issues affecting families."

• "You can have an impact on the decisions affecting your life."

• "Budget cuts are reducing services provided by this agency and many others. If you care about housing and child care, register to vote today."

But you can't say...
"Register to vote to:

• "Support family values. Vote for Smith."

• "Stop the reactionary Republican Congress. Elect Democrats."

• "Budget cuts are reducing services provided by this program. Let candidates know you won't take it anymore."

Because of its federal funding source, Head Start programs cannot use agency resources, facilities, or staff time to register voters or conduct voter participation activities (see resources).

Sources: Family Support America, National Head Start Association.

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Resources

Tips for voter participation efforts

• National Head Start Association, 703-739-0875

• NAACP, 877-NAACP-98, http://www.naacp.org/

Sample voter education workshops

• Easy Voter, 415-454-6500, http://easyvoter.org/
  

• Northern California Citizenship Project, 415-621-4808,
  www.immigrantvoice.org/ncv/index.html

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Action Alliance
for Children
e-mail aac@4children.org
1201 Martin Luther
King Jr. Way
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 444-7136