A 2nd Treasure Trove of Info: How to Promote the Vote!

Is your nonprofit organization considering the prospect of:

• registering people to vote,
• getting out the vote, and/or
• other election-related activities?

If you answered "yes," check out "The Underutilized - Yet Vital - Role of America's Nonprofits," Tim Delaney's 7/11/12 post (in Nonprofit Knowledge Matters,  a publication of the National Council of Nonprofits) on how to do so legally and where to find all kinds of additional related resources. 

If you answered "no," check out  "The Underutilized - Yet Vital - Role of America's Nonprofits," anyway; it might just inspire your organization to promote the vote! 

Why Help Wisconsinites Get the Word Out, Get the Vote Out, and Get Scott Walker Out (and How to Do It)

For many progressives, Wisconsinites' grassroots efforts to recall Governor Scott Walker are the most promising expressions of democracy we have seen in a long, long time.

To refresh your memory: 

• Almost immediately after becoming governor in 2010, Walker signed a bill that would kill public unions, 
• Wisconsinites, in response, flooded the state capitol for weeks on end, 
• Angry Wisconsinites collected over 1,000,000 signatures in support of recalling Walker, triggering a recall election of Walker, Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and  four state senators.

And now?

The race for governor is a dead heat even though Walker has used money from out-of-state donors with very deep pockets to barrage Wisconsin with campaign ads.


What happens if Scott Walker defeats recall efforts? 


Will a Walker victory embolden other far-right extremist governors to follow Walker's "lead" in making life harder for women and working people? And by "lead," I mean these things that Walker did (the list below is only a sampling): 

• making up a budget crisis as an excuse to bust unions (Busting unions had not been part of his campaign platform.)
• creating an actual budget crisis by calling a special session of the Wisconsin legislatureand signing into law two tax breaks for businesses and “a conservativehealth-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues,”
• signing a law repealing the Equal Pay Enforcement Act,
• signing laws making it harder to get an abortion in Wisconsin

Why Help Tom Barrett Win


If Walker wins, will he use his role as governor to swing Wisconsin to Romney's camp in November? And will a Wisconsin win make winning the presidential campaign easier - a lot easier - for Romney?

What You Can Do to Help Tom Barrett Win

1. Counter the massive misinformation campaign that Walker’s supporters have mounted. Share information about Walker's record with your friends, family, and other contacts in Wisconsin. There are lots of ways to do this. Some ideas:

  

• Tweet
• Text
• Blog 
• Comment on someone else’s blog post
• Send an email
• Put a reminder to vote (or to remind folks to remind their WI contacts) to vote in your email signature line
• Insert a link in an email, signature line, or …
• Forward/email an article about Walker
• Post a message on your Facebook page
• Have a face-to-face chat
• Pick up the phone

2. Get Out the Vote


Remind Urge, implore, exhort (see above list for ideas about how) your Wisconsin friends, et. al to:

• Vote;
• Volunteer to make phone get-out-the-phone (GOTV) calls. Can’t get to a campaign office? Ask Barrett’s campaign if/how you can make GOTV calls from home. To find the phone number of the nearest campaign office, visit Tom Barrett’s website;
• Report any polling place problems (i.e. long lines); for information about how to make a report, visit Defend Wisconsin;
• Offer to drive folks to the polls;
• Volunteer to be a poll watcher (election observer).

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