Monday, January 6, 2020

BTRTN: What You Can Do TODAY to Help Defeat Trump in November

Tom says there is no need to wait until Labor Day to help the Democrats win in November.

This is the game plan that Democrats across the country must follow to consign Donald Trump to the junk heap of history this coming November 3rd:

1)     Find the best candidate, the one most likely to defeat Trump in the general election
2)     Unify behind the eventual nominee, whoever that is
3)     Work for that nominee -- as passionately as if the nominee had been your first choice candidate – to get out the vote
4)     Contribute financially to the nominee’s campaign if you can
5)     Vote!!!

Image result for vote blue in 2020Many of you are focused on Step 1, and are working hard for your candidate.  That’s great.

But we can all do something today that will benefit the Democratic nominee, no matter who it is.

And that is:  you can help register Democratic voters in swing states.  In such an emotional election, when most minds are made up along partisan lines, the absolute key is turnout:  getting out the vote.  And that means registering every possible Democratic voter we can.

Swing Left offers an excellent platform for registering voters.  Please focus on the following 15 swing states:  Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin and Virginia.  These states all had single digit margins in the 2016 presidential election.  If you want to throw Oregon (Hillary Clinton won it by 11 percentage points) or Ohio (which Trump won by 11) in there, fine.

If we had to pick just a few that will be crucial to beating Trump, go for Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.  

And among the presidential swing states, there are also "flippable" GOP Senate seats in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maine and North Carolina.

If you live in one of these swing states, here is a link that help you to register voters in person: 

If you DON’T live in one of these swings states (like me), Swing Left has conducted studies that demonstrate that registering voters by mail is effective.  They have created a tool that enables you to write a short letter to unregistered voters that includes a voter registration form. 

When you go to these sites, be patient.  You have to register first, and the process for getting started takes a little time.  Once you get used to it, it goes quickly.

Many of us are committed to working hard for our Democratic candidate in the 2020 election, whoever it may be.  Come Labor Day and up to Election Day, we will be phone banking, canvassing, donating and doing whatever we can to beat Trump.

But we don’t have to wait until then.  We can start right now!

And if you have other “act now” ideas, pass them on to us at BTRTN!

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And as a post-script, this from Wendy on her letter-writing experience:

Only way to combat a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness is to get in the fray.  First step, get people registered, next up, get out the vote.  Yesterday I wrote letters to unregistered Pennsylvanians using the Swing Left tool.  The info I sent included a brief cover note about the importance of voting as well as instructions and forms for registering; the recipient can mail it off postage-free (postage is covered by Swing Left's partner, Vote Forward).  The software is user friendly, took about two minutes per address to complete.  Voting happens one person at a time, and I'm hopeful that because I spent a half hour on this today, Pennsylvania will have a few more registered Democrats.  As my own private little protest, I'm considering doing a packet of five letters every time there's an inane tweet -- but then again, there may not be enough hours in the day for that.







3 comments:

  1. I live in Colorado and read LOTS of political literature. We are not really a swing state anymore. Save the effort and go work on other states.

    In 2016, Clinton won Colorado by 5%.

    In 2018, we saw a washout of Republicans losing all of the state Executive offices, the majority in the State Senate, reducing their minority position in the State House, losing one of their 4 US Representatives (a 5 term incumbent), and narrowing the winning margins of the three incumbent Representatives that won to 60%, 57% and 51% majorities.

    From Jan 1 2016 to Jan 1 2020, Republican active voter registrations increased 4%, Democratic active voters went up 15%, and Unaffiliated went up 35% to become about 40% of the overall registrations. Post-election surveying in 2018 suggested the Unaffiliated broke 59% for a Democratic Governor, 25% for a Republican governor candidate, and a scattering for other parties and write-ins. In the same survey after 2018's vote, 55% of unaffiliated voters were supporting a "generic” Democratic candidate versus 23% supporting Donald Trump. Unaffiliated can indicate a preference to get only one primary ballot for the 2020 election: as of Jan 1, 2020, the requests are 51,518 Democratic ballots, 26,317 Libertarian ballots and 2,475 Republican ballots [granted, there aren't national or statewide primaries for Republicans this year.]

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  2. This is all great info and looking for Colorado to be a strong blue in 2020! Just don't get complacent! :) Thanks.

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  3. Totally agree with you! The most effective and rewarding volunteer work I’ve done was write 450 letters in this Swing Left Voter Registration mailings you recommend. Unfortunately that campaign is over as of January 10.

    A new initiative begins: GOTV (get out the vote) letters consisting of a Personal “Why I Vote” statement inserted into a black & white, 8 1/2 x 11 “Please Vote” sheet. Voter names are available now to print but nothing will actually be mailed until October 27, just before the election. The plan is to begin writing and stockpiling.

    I wonder if Postcards to Voters (Tony the Democrat) isn’t a more colorful, and cheaper (to volunteers) alternative.

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