One of these days, millennials will experience a precedented time. This is not one of those days.
After the wildest decades long three weeks in American politics, and in one of the fastest political triumphs in human history, Kamala Harris will, without a doubt, be the Democratic nominee for President.
Thank fucking God.
We may, actually, possible, almost definitely, save our democracy. We may, actually, reverse Nero and make our country better than ever before instead of watching it burn to the ground while we binge the West Wing and imagine what could have been. We could, impossibly, not let the white supremacist patriarchy win.
Maybe.
That’s up to us.
People have been asking all day what they can do, how they can get involved. You may be wondering too. If not, you either have an answer OR YOU SHOULD BE ASKING. So here are my thoughts, and, as always, they are correct:
There are two ways to approach this: focus on voters or focus on candidates.
If you want to focus on voters, you’re choosing to focus on helping voters overcome the obstacles that prevent them from voting:
Voter registration is one, but a very small one. In every election, every year in this country, the percentage of the population that is registered but does not vote far, far, far outweighs the percentage that is not registered. We do not have a voter registration problem in this country, we have a voter turnout problem. So why do we focus on voter registration? It’s easier. It takes 15 minutes and zero dollars to register someone to vote and the vast majority of voter registration organizations that are sucking up your dollars are absolutely in no way working to get those voters to the polls. Ask them, next time you are about to donate $20, send an email and ask what percentage of those newly registered voters go to the polls and how they know. They don’t have an answer. I know because they really really hate me for asking. If you simply must donate to a voter registration organization, donate to a hyper local organization run by people of color. If you see a national voter registration organization run by a white man, run like hell. I know all of those men and they are all creeps. The one exception: registering 17 and 18 year olds. The kids need to be registered but then they also need a lot of help getting to the polls. It absolutely cannot stop at registration.
Voter education is A MASSIVE NEED. Millions and millions of people every year do not vote because it is extremely fucking confusing. I know, because half of them call my organization on election day asking for help. Voting is complicated. How to vote. Where to vote. When to vote. And, most of all, who to vote for. Do you know what the Insurance Commissioner does? Neither does anyone else. It is my dream to one day write an encyclopedia of elected offices so every American can easily figure out what every office in America actually does (Googling is surprisingly unhelpful in some cases) but I am many years and a very large book deal away from making that happen. So what to do?
First of all, if you or anyone you know are voting by mail, send them to our website, readthefingdirections.com for guidance on how to do it. Ballots mailed in by young voters are 5x more likely to be thrown out and people of color’s ballots are 2x more likely to be tossed.
Second, host a ballot party! I love ballot parties. I am an introvert, I do not like parties, but ballot parties, those I love. Invite your friends over, or your cult, or your MLM, have everyone bring their mail in or sample ballot, a bottle of wine, and information on the one office or ballot measure that you assigned them, and go through the ballot together. Throw in some food and zoom me in if you need to, and together, you and your community can work through the ballot together. You can even toss your ballots into a ballot box on your way to the bar to celebrate. It’s foolproof, it’s fun, and it’s a great way to make sure all of your friends vote.
Transportation is huge. Getting to the polls is tough. It’s actually the #1 reason college students don’t vote. As more and more states take polling places off campus, college students who, like sad little me once upon a time, don’t have a car, may not be able to get to the polls. And not just the kids, although we really really really need the kids to vote (AND THEY REALLY WANT TO, WHICH IS WHY CERTAIN PEOPLE ARE MAKING IT SO HARD) but people with disabilities, the elderly, and low income voters often have a really hard time just getting to the polls, and states are making it much, much more difficult to vote by mail since 2020. Get together with your local party, your church, your… I don’t know, sewing group or Hell’s Angels and offer rides to the polls. Host a fundraising drive and pay for Lyfts from the local shelter or nursing home. When I was a poll watcher in Vegas in 2016 an awesome woman was walking over groups of the elderly from a nursing home a few blocks away. She was a badass, and she was Black, which is probably why the Republican poll watchers called the cops on her. Be creative. Get people to the polls.
Obviously, I’m going to say IDs. I just didn’t put it at number one because I was trying not to center myself. But 26 million American adults do not have ID (have you BOUGHT MY BOOK YET?? And if you have, have you left a review on Amazon??) and we need all 26 million of those folks to vote. If you want to help with this, stay tuned, we’ll be rolling out our national GOTV program next month. Or you can donate to us. Also, you know those voter reg orgs? They don’t make sure the people they register get IDs and sometimes they send me lists of literally thousands of people and are like, “Idk, maybe you can call them?”. This, ladies and gentlemen, does not work.
This is getting long so I’ll leave it here for now and I will add more as the months go by. If you want to focus on candidates, I have just two thoughts:
Volunteer with the campaign directly. They’ll have you canvass or make phone calls, excellent extrovert activities, or maybe you’ll graduate to answering phones in the campaign office or, if you’re really lucky, pick up pizza.
Find a local candidate you care about and support the shit out of them. One of the best ways to get people to the polls is to get them to really really care about one person and then they’ll go to the polls and they’ll fill out the rest of the ballot and they’ll vote for Kamala. But get them hooked by introducing them to this absolutely badass city council candidate that they just have to have in office. The same thing works for issues. Find a ballot measure or issue that you are super passionate about (maybe, I don’t know, like, abortion?), volunteer for an organization that is supporting that issue (ballot measures have campaigns just like candidates) and fight for it. This especially works because people do not think their vote matters among 66 million others and an electoral college, but their vote really really matters in state and local elections. Convince them of that, and you’ll get them to the polls.
A note: there are a lot of national organizations that do a lot of getting people in one state (usually blue) to support candidates in another state (usually red). This is problematic for a long serious of reasons, all of which I will not discuss here for the sake of this already incredibly long newsletter. But I will say, it’s arrogant AF. Alabama regularly has higher voter turnout than California or New York but try telling that to a Brooklyn liberal (I have, and I have been cussed out by so many white people for it). No state has 100% turnout and Minnesota is the only state with bragging rights (they’ve had the highest turnout in the country since the dawn of time) so everyone needs to focus at home. And you know what else Alabama doesn’t need? Some asshole from Santa Monica telling them how to live. I know every single argument against this and I have been in many a late night bar debate with the founders of every org you’re thinking of but until Los Angeles County has solved homelessness, ended poverty, and has a higher voter turnout than the, I am not kidding you, 37% who turned out in 2022, (whatever state you are reading this from has problems too, even Alaska, which is almost perfect) I do not want to hear a fucking word about interfering in another state.
I won’t do my usual and quote Ralph Nader here because if we didn’t listen to him FOR THE LAST FIFTY YEARS we are not going to start now but, he was right and all of this could have been avoided if we had just paid attention. Thanks for the seatbelts, Ralph. But I will say, this country is ours, this democracy is our responsibility, and Kamala will not win this alone. Nor should she. Take responsibility. Get uncomfortable. Rework your schedule.
Oh, and be a poll worker. We really really need them and they pay. Not like, good money, but shoe money.
See you at the inauguration of the first Black, Asian, Woman President.
Kat
