Mary! Fitz!
Now I have to go read the post.

Secondsies, uns uns!
Good points about reaching out to the unmarried. They could be like the Religious Right is for the Republicans if we can get them to go out and vote.

Great post filled with great ideas! I’m a single woman but I vote. I guess I’m going to have to find at least 10 girls who don’t!

Excellent points (missed the original discussion thread, so appreciate the recap) I did see a post at DailyKos about targeting non-voters, and talking about issues. Thank those who’re registered and who plan to vote, but intentionally engage with those who are unregistered. Emphasis on making it non-threatening, non-partisan, but increasing involvement and participation.

Mary, terrific job on the demograhics of both genders.
Today’s candidates have to segment their advertising and “get out the vote” efforts. This group needs to be further broken down by ethnicity, education, and ofcourse the Digital Divide.
My guess is this group has a disproportionately large percentage of learning disabilities, joblessness, substance abuse issues, and incarceration. Ethnic sensitivity probably matters more in communicating with these groups than with other voter groups.

the seemingly obscure thread that links the unmarried to the undead. Neither group votes.

I really hadn’t thought about that, Mary. But you’re absolutely right.

Thanks so much for doing all the heavy lifting. A really important post and I hope it sparks a lot of activity around here.

Great diary! I have two sisters that are single mothers who have FINALLY gotten more involved each year…starting with 2004. My two little nieces are now very involved as well. Thanks for the diary and information.

I really appreciate the tremendous sensitivity you show to the hurdles unmarried women voters are likely to face, especially from an economic/disenfranchised perspective. I think John Casper above is probably right, there are probably disproportionately large numbers of such people within this group, and those particular issues are probably going to vary by region.

“The concept of Rude Pundit as a demographic is a bit much to digest in one sitting.”

As much as I enjoy Rude Pundit, I have to agree with you. Great writing. Thnaks.

John – the study did include a breakout on hispanic women in particular, as a particularly underperforming voting segment. A lot of interesting information. It surprised me that unmarried men are about the lowest “tv addict” demographic around.

And the numbers for unmarried women accessing the internet were very small. The driving mechanisms – MSM, talk radio, blogs, etc – none of them seem poised to deliver a message to unmarried women and their main issue is not being discussed by anyone much other than Murtha.

The demographics need more breakdown, as well, because obviously unmarried older women who might be widows would likely have different concerns than younger unmarried women and unmarried women who are divorced or happily single may be very different than unmarried women who are in college or in the “soon to be married” category. Still, as an overall demographic with so many facets – the fact that the would break two to one for either party is interesting in a country where races have been 48/52 or tighter margin affairs.

That fascinates me – so much diversity and yet a relatively strong commonality. The fact that Rove is just not going to get their attention with Limbaugh, Dobson, O’Reilly, etc. is great – but Dem’s aren’t going to reach them with blogs or newsmags either.

Mary, great post. I think you touched on a big part of the problem, that many unmarrieds are “disconnected” from social organizations. When you are “rootless”, you do not feel as though you have much of a stake in the political process … so why bother? Therein lies the key: unmarried need legitimate answers to the “why bother” question. When you are not part of a strong community, it is easy to feel as though your voice, your opinions, and your vote do not matter … you get used to the idea that nobody listens to you, or is particularly concerned with your well-being.

Mary – a splendid and nicely written post!

Couldn’t we just get Willow to do that ritual with scythe again? It worked with turning potential Slayers into the real deal, why not potential voters?

Besides, she looked really cool doing it!

Perhaps not surprisingly, the only age group more underrepresented in voting turnout than young women is young men. this report (PDF file) shows that this gap has been widening in the last decade or so.

If young people don’t think that voting makes a difference in their lives, we old folks need to remind them of why 18 year-olds are now allowed to vote in the first place. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which gave Americans 18-21 the right to vote, was passed after the Vietnam War, which was fought primarily by draftees who were too young to vote. The most memorable slogan of the campaign to lower the voting age was this one:

Old Enough To Fight, Old Enough To Vote

How many of those faces you see on the NewsHour’s “Honor Roll” are under the age of 25? The majority, I think. These are kids who will never get to raise their own families, have careers, and grow into bitter old pensioners. The majority of their lives are gone, because our leaders were too stupid or greedy to avoid an avoidable war, just like Vietnam.

Bruce Springsteen once observed to young fans at a concert that “faith in the system can get you killed”. That was about the time he released Born In The USA, which was a song and an album about the post-Vietnam experience. The system won’t respond to anyone who isn’t willing to participate in it. Or, as the fictional President Bartlett once observed “Decisions are made by those who show up”. If you don’t show up, don’t complain when the decisions don’t go your way.

I’ve never missed a major election since I was old enough to vote. I’ve absorbed the lesson of what can happen when you don’t. If young people think their lives are too busy to become informed about the issues and vote, then I have just one thing to say to them: “Here’s your uniform. The front’s thataway, and have lots of fun.”

OT! OT!
There’s a internets war on NOW! Everywhere! The General, Atrios, Sadly, No! Can Firedogs DO NOTHING to help STOP THE THREAT?

Mary, ref: the photo ID requirement, many states already require photo ID. Their DMVs are set up to hand them out. Partly this is for the purpose of “carding” young people at bars. There may be other reasons as well.

I think the whole voter suppression issue is an interesting one. While I don’t agree that the Ohio 2004 Bush/Kerry outcome was altered by it, some local races might have been, and there are certainly other examples of this behavior in other states. As far as I’m concerned, if you have the right to vote, you should be allowed to vote. The ID requirements should be minimal.

Yea Mary! Thank you.

Thank you AC.

The lack of roots has an impact in lots of ways. One is that unmarried men and women both move much more than married men and women. I need to go back and look at the numbers, but unmarried women moved LOTS. Even if they did make social organization contacts, they lose or have to renew them more frequently.

Unmarried demographics tend to own their own home much less than their married counterparts too. That not only means less stability, but when, like recently, we have strength in home prices as the main economic highlight, it means they are cut out of that. IMO, the mortgage interest deduction is one of the greatest tax policies for supporting the middle class that we have – yet unmarried individuals don’t share in that that benefit, or in the tax-free value increase of their homes, at least, not to the extent of their married counterparts.

The lack of transportation probably impacts on social organization contacts as well. When you add on the fact that there is no solid clear message being sent on the main issues that interest them – and if it is being sent it is not reaching them – and it’s not hard to see that they are undermotivated to vote.

In addition, I think that if you haven’t voted – ever or for awhile – it can be harder to “gear up and go.” I taught at the community college for a few classes and gave an assignment that involved going by the local law libary and getting some info. Horrid response. I had done something similar with students in a class at a private university – great response.

I didn’t believe there was that much intrinsic difference in abilities – so I decided this was my failure and redid the whole thing. I called the law librarian to block time, I sat down with the students in groups of 2-4 to make sure everyone had a way to get their, and we met together, I escorted them, introduced them to the law librarian – spent time with each one of them actually physically walking them through parts of their assignments etc.

What was easy to see was an initial sense of unease. THey weren’t comfortable with the building (courts building) and didn’t feel like they had the same right to be there as anyone else. By contrast the private Uni kids had no such qualms. Once they had the walk through, though, I was able to give another “on your own” assignment and they did great. Getting a familiarity and having a group to work with initially sure seemed to help.

If only there were some way to get, say, a group of liberal guys, to go places where single women hang out…

Seriously, I find it hard to believe that there aren’t major marketing firms out there who haven’t cracked the case of how to reach single women. There have to be some liberal activists in those firms who would be willing to share those secrets for the right reasons.

Yeah Mary! It’s your first post, isn’t it?

I’ve thought for a long time that you should be doing posts. You’re my favorite commenter!

This is not a problem we are going to “solve” by August or November, but this post really helps us ask better questions. The question for 06 candidates is, “Where will the dollars allocated for “get out the vote,” be best invested in my district for this election?”
These posts help candidates ask those questions better.
It would also help if the National Democratic organizations could monitor what works and what does not work by district in preparation for 2008.
If anyone knows of any, “get out the vote” efforts that were successful, that would help too. What would also be nice is if the national Democratic committees were prototyping some “get out the vote” strategy for each of the individual demographics mentioned in this post in at least one district. I doubt they are. To really do it right is very expensive, because good measurement, costs a lot of money and that is not the only expense. My guess is Rove has a lot of inverse data on this wrt “suppress the vote” reasearch. Wingnut 501(c)3’s flush with laundered cash from all the proceeds of K Street, probably gave it to him, broken out by district at no charge.
I know in MS, the Republicans use the old Klan network.

Riesz Fischer @ 2:23 pm (#20) – I’ll second that. Good article.

One of the entries in Fifty Simple Things, I believe, is about supporting the YMCA/YWCA, because one of the reasons for the growth of the megachurches is that there are no other social organizations in may places that people can participate in. (I found that stunning.)

I’m thinking that on a smaller scale, block parties and neighborhood social events could be a good way to provide roots to the rootless. While there’s a significant time commitment for the organizers, there doesn’t have to be for participants. They don’t require transportation, can be kid-friendly, etc. They don’t have to be overtly political, but they provide a venue for helping people become informed enough to feel comfortable voting, talking about registering, and so forth. As for encouraging people to register, I’m not so much thinking of having forms out and pushing it, but rather being excited about participating, and providing a role model.

Guess I should get to work organizing that block party I’ve had in the back of my mind every summer for the past five years…

As Cujo359 says, “Perhaps not surprisingly, the only age group more underrepresented in voting turnout than young women is young men.” This reminded me how surprised I was to learn, I believe, that women under age 25 make up the largest segment of the audience for Desperate Housewives followed by young men of the same age group. When the storylines of shows like Desperate Housewives and daily soaps take on issues, the young group tends to get it. Young unemployed or working, single mothers may not have a computer, internet access or belong to social groups, but many get ALL their information from these types of shows — if the message was scripted there, they’d understand it and be able to relate it to their situation — and have reason to vote. IMO.

Mary, so glad to see you make your front-page debut, and with such an excellent post (no surprise). I hope this thread will give us some good ideas about how to reach this large group of non-voters. We talked about this at our Sacramento Roots gathering the other night, but had no solutions.

Thanks so much Riesz. This had me very nervous bc it’s not a lot snarking or having fun or even something I knew anything about – more “serious” stuff where I am more comfortable listening to someone like Rayne and saying — hey, yeah, what she said!

*g*

Cujo – Indiana has a photo id requirement. First, factor in that unmarried men and women use the internet less than many groups (although it seems probably the younger, the more likely?).

So to even get the info, they need to call (have you called a local DMV – it’s not easy to even get someone to speak with you here at least – very long holds, then they really don’t want to answer questions – just tell you to come down).

Then go down to the DMV (remember they are less likely to have vehicles and child care). Once there, they will find out what they would have found from clicking through this at the Secretary of State:

http://www.in.gov/sos/photoid/checklist.html

That’s the necessary documentation checklist. Scroll all through it and imagine for a first time voter how daunting that might be.

I don’t know about photo ids in general. Whether they serve a really valid place in our terrorism, keep the vote clean, immigration, carding, etc. arenas or not – I don’t know. But I do think that a lot of the unregistered, unmarried demographics are going to be intimidated by those kinds of requirements and it seems the party should be gearing up NOW to help people through this. It is going to be much more prevelant by 2008 unless someone gets a very fast strikedown in the courts.

John Casper at 21: The Young Democrats had a booklet they gave out at YearlyKos, which is available as a PDF that has a lot of the kind of information you’re talking about. It was especially refreshing because it talks about GOTV strategies (like text-messaging reminders) that were tried but didn’t work, so it’s not just a cheerleading pamphlet.

Thanks, Mary. You may be right about the undead not voting, but the dead dead have had a very high turnout in some past elections. In Chicago, I believe the motto was “vote early, vote often, vote from the grave.” But I digress.

I agree that some additional demographic breakdown would be helpful, and I hope someone out there is doing it. Any halfway decent advertising agency can then tell us where the ads should go. But there are two problems here. One is communicating the “how” of participation to those who would like to, but can’t manage the logistics or are afraid of the process. The other is communicating the “why.” With unamarried Hispanic women, the immigration issue may provide the “why” and Spanish language TV or radio may also help out with the “how.” For unmarried men and women over 40, might I suggest that a huge “why” might be decent and affordable nursing home care? Or long term care insurance for themselves? Who is going to take care of thier aging parents when the time comes? Who is going to take care of them? Just a thought.

P.S. Did the barn kitty come out?

Piggybanking on RedShift about YMWCA, in African American communities, the local Churches are the backbone of the get out the vote. IIRC, that’s where Ed Rollins paid cash to suppress the vote that led to Christine Todd Whitmann’s victory in NJ. If Ed had kept his mouth shut about it, we wouldn’t know so much and he would still be in demand as consultant to GOP campaigns.

A lot of times, you are dealing with “shame” issues. These people are not ashamed to vote. They don’t want to put themselves out in public , at a bus stop for example. Will they have presentable clothes? If there’s lightning in the forecast, forget it.

Hi Mary. It’s nice to see you posting. I have been involved with voter registration and GOTV efforts for 30 years, although not so much recently. I am planning to get back into it this fall.

I don’t know any secrets for getting unmarried women or unmarried men or any other group registered and to the polls and voting for your candidates. I think what works best is to be a part of an organized effort where you target certain precincts for VR because the numbers tell you they’re more likely to vote Democratic.

You do the same thing with GOTV, only this time you don’t knock on every door, you knock or call those who are registered Democratic or who have been determined by canvassing to be likely to vote Democratic.

It helps to have a specific, attractive candidate you can talk about so if they get interested in voting for that candidate, they will have more of an incentive to register and go to the polls. It helps to talk about local issues.

Beyond that, it just takes a lot of work. But it can be very rewarding, especially if we succeed in liberating the Congress this year. Maybe the netroots can bring new energy to the process in ways that have yet to be explored.

Thanks for posting.

Mary @ 2:33 pm (#26) – I agree it’s a pain. I went through it twice, once where I grew up in PA and then when I moved out here. Thankfully, it’s a pain you only have to go through once per state, and maybe the new state will accept the old ID as a “primary” document.

That’s one of the reasons I wrote what I did earlier. It’s not easy to get involved. People need motivation, and fear of being killed in some mindless neocon social experiment might be a good one to consider using.

Mary…thanks for this post. It’s about time your excellent comments get front paged.

On the subject of absentee voting, due to a frequently wacky schedule, I’ve voted absentee for over ten years. The experience feels like the difference between a pop quiz and a take home test. My wife and I spend election eve scouring the voter’s guide, candidate web pages, and whatever mailings we’ve received. It’s particularly helpful for locals races and primaries when the differences between candidates may not be as obvious as national races.

Anything we can do to make the voting process less intimidating and time consuming has to help recruit young unmarrieds. Does anyone know if voter registration drives can offer absentee options when you register or if you have to be registered before you can request an absentee ballot? If it’s the latter, it seems like a logical follow-up to a registration drive would be to mail absentee voter applications.

neuro – how do you do GOTV? I guess on the one had there is simple registration, but now it seems that may more and more also involve needing to educate people on the photoID requirments? Does anyone put out good info on that?

Do you organize through local branches of the party? Are there some liability issues that are raised by, for example, providing transportation, that are accomodated by working through the party (e.g., insurance)?

I had a similar take to Curious – would story lines help? VRNs?

I don’t guess you can offer a raffle drawing or lotto tickets can you? *G* It’s late for it now – but what about county fairs for registration? Pony rides for the kids while you register? ;) Wrong demos?

Malls? Parks? Grocery Stores? Parking lots? v. neighborhood canvassing?

“There’s another one in Cleveland. . . “

The flip side of this is that we’re talking about a part of America that we saw in Katrina and the Republicans want to ignore. The problem is these demographics only get more “expensive” as they grow older. FDR understood the danger of a huge, unemployed underclass. Every day someone does not work, they become that much more unemployable. That increases the chances of substance abuse, incarceration, and bankruptcy. Putting people in jail is extremely expensive, (even if you’re not torturing them).
We’re asking questions about these demographics in terms of GOTV. Johnson’s Great Society/War on Poverty, programs were aimed at the identical demographics. They did not really survive, but at least he tried something. You are not going to “save” everyone, but the State/taxpayers have a very legitimate interest in making available job skills to everyone via ongoing education and starter jobs with which to give them experience.
RANT WARNING
The problem is that a lot of those job training programs do not screen for learning disabilities and IQ. You have to “qualify” someone before you invest money in job training skills and you have to “place” them in an environment that is appropriate to their skills.
END OF RANT.

RBG, it varies from state to state. Here in Cali, a first-time registrant (or re-registrant) can simultaneously sign up to be a permanent absentee voter by checking an additional box on the form (this is a recent change). There are also separate forms to allow already-registered voters to become absentee voters.

BarbB – “For unmarried men and women over 40, might I suggest that a huge “why” might be decent and affordable nursing home care? “

That’s a definite thought. The existing report indicates that unmarried women worry about health care issues more than men, but if you broke it down even further by age — that has to be something in the back of minds. Of course, I expect my nieces and nephews to fight over me. LOL

(Abandoned kitty wasn’t grabbed when I typed that, but has been now. I suppose it’s pointless to ask if anyone wants a kitten?)

Afternoon. let’s see….actually, I was the one on the prior thread who came up with the idea of hitting the women’s hair salons. Those of you somewhat familiar with me already know that I personally “don’t do” hair salons. (chuckle). So I’ll leave the mechanics of all that up to others. And, a bunch of unmarried guys don’t vote? Well, well. Of course, any GOTV must start with….REGISTRATION. So, here’s some ideas:
1. Bars! I’m totally serious. Guys go to bars! hell, I’ll be down at my own watering hole later tonight. Now, passing out registration forms may/may not work. How about…leaving several stacks of those things on the bar! You know, like in some bars they’ll have the ash trays or the bowls of nuts sitting around? Make friends with the bartender, and get his permission to leave stacks of registration cards. You got folks coming in/out of bars all day and all night long. Next….bar parking lots!

2. Parking lots: how many times have you left a nightclub, walked out to your car, and there’s some damn leaflet on your windshield? Well? I always throw it away…but I always read it! How about if you left registration paper on the windshields? Is it valet parking? Hell…I know several valet guys. Slip ‘em a twenty, tell them what you’re doing…and the parking lot is yours.

3. Stadium parking lots: same as bar parking lots. You might have to duck stadium security…but worth a shot.

GOTV: I still think, pretty much, that absentee ballots are the way to go. In Texas, you still have to travel to the absentee place to vote. Well…perhaps, as election nears, you can do all of the above, except substitute maps/hours of absentee locations instead of registration forms.

Ok, I gotta scoot. A few errands to run, and now I’ve remembered to cruise to the liquor store…they’re not open on Sundays down here!

Ghostman

Mary @ 2:50 pm (#32) – Grocery stores might be a good idea. Everybody has to go to them, except maybe Lorelai Gilmore. Guess it would depend on whether the stores could spare the space. Lots of urban grocery stores aren’t flush with it.

in Indiana, both parties traditionally work the county fairs. I don’t believe ‘prizes’ or inducements can be given for registering… there’s a supermarket around the corner from my house that I always work for voters registration. Folk come there from 5 or 6 precincts …

Great post, Mary – so glad to see you in that role – you truly deserve it!

Read today that Voter ID cards were struck down in Georgia, thoughthe state expects to appeal that decision. I find it antithetical to the elctoral process to be putting more barriers in place to increasing voter turnout. Once again, I just don’t get it.

I wonder about voter education programs that could start in the elementary schools, encourage parental participation, which then might increase registration of the parents. By the time these programs work their way up to the high schools, it would be a snap to register kids who will be 18 by the time of the general election.

I wonder sometimes, about whether there could be a system that allowed registration portability, to overcome the problems with registration for those who move around a lot. Presentation of a valid voter registration card, and proof of current residence should be all people need to vote.

More same-day registration should be instituted, so that if you can get someone to the polls, it’s easy to register and then vote.

Day care should be provided at every polling place.

Early voting should be a given.

Voting by mail should be an option.

Would like to see some uniformity in voting regulations, as I think the more differences there are, the harder it is to accommodate a transient population.

Anyway – those are my 2 cents worth.

Again – great post, Mary!

about registering in and around bars: GLBT organizations do voter registration/education there every election cycle …

Mary at 2:55

Jesus’ General is a bad option today as far as kittens are concerned:

“Liveblogging kittybirth

It’s 2:47 AM, and we have two new kittens and probably more on the way. Mrs. (I refuse to even entertain the idea that she might be unmarried) Cat, or more appropriately, Oftom, is hiding under the bed. Ofjoshua and JC II are freaking out. The former has her incredibly beautiful head wedged under the bed, talking to Oftom, and the latter is running around with a cardboard box (because kittens must be placed in a carboard box–it’s the law or something). I’ve been tasked with finding kittybirthing info on the web, because we don’t know nuthin ’bout birthin’ no kitties.

Update: We have a third kitten. Check that. Now there are four. My suggestions for names are:

Short-Term Visitor,
Gone When Weaned,
Don’t Get Attached,
and
God Dammit, I Hope This Is the Last One

Ofjoshua isn’t too thrilled with my suggestions. Neither is JC II. His picks are Itsy, Bitsy, Eenie, and Meanie”
I thought the comments were worth a look.

I was under the impression that registration is the easy part of the equation. Actually getting singles to the polls (especially single moms, with all their responsibilities) is the hard part. Am I wrong?

RBG – I think the absentee issue could be very interestings. Some States have some requirements including certifying that you are going to be out of state at the time of the vote, and some are really loose.

Getting more accomodating mail-in voting laws in states where it is harder to vote absentee could really be a help. We’ve seen the “blue” state legislature, etc. that still votes red for Pres/Senate etc. One thing those legislatures could do that doesn’t involve gerrymandering is make it easier to get registered and vote. At least, it strikes
me that way.

Local DFA groups have done voter registration and petition drives at tables in front of grocery stores (just like girl scouts selling cookies.) Just ask the manager, and respect their decision if they say no. (Which, unfortunately, the manager of the store I go to said when I asked.)

Of course, you can’t just sit there, you have to try to engage people — thinking about that, I suddenly got this idea of standing out with a bell like the Salvation Army, ringing it like a town crier and saying “Register to Vote!” :-)

Here in Texas, high schools distribute Voter Registration cards to students on their birthdays — the problem here is getting the young to care about an issue so they vote. Registration cards are also readily available at grocery stores, libraries, etc.

Dover, great point.
IMO registration is the first part of the equation. Once they are registered, after the election, the party can determine if they voted.

Cross referencing 2004 registration lists with 2004 voting records might be a very good way to identify “low hanging fruit” in 2006, especially if they are still at the same address. I am assuming that this information is available at the precinct level?

At long last, Mary has been chosen from the FDL ranks and now formally joins The League of Extraordinary Commenters! It’s great to be here for your front-page coming-out party!!

I want to follow up on your post #18, because I think you’ve come a long way already.

Just as you did for your community college students, let’s think through the process that an individual in one of these groups would have to go through to move from non-voter to participant.

The rootlessness mentioned might apply to motivation (i.e. “will do” factors), but there are plenty of barriers such as transportation or child care (”can do” factors) that can be worked on, too. No doubt for a lot of people, the problems with can-do’s and will-do’s feed on each other to a default of uninvolvement.

Please allow me to confess a bias: the usual tendency is to think and plan for the worst case, and that can get very discouraging very quickly. But there have to be people on the edge who’d vote if only one or two barriers were removed, or with just a little motivation. Experience in the commercial world teaches that the place to start is with the easiest potentials first.

Everybody connects somewhere, and if the party can’t add much in the way of resources, how about some viral marketing? Engage some singles you know in conversation over the topic, see how their needs could be addressed, and then ask them to draw in their single friends. Then you can try to work a more organized response through the local party apparatus.

Once you have some experience with easier to reach people, you could begin to work toward more difficult ones. Hey, getting only 10% of single women non-voters could completely change the face of a national election, so you don’t need to approach perfection, right?

to heck with respecting the opinion of the manager of a grocery store! go above his head to corporate headquarters! also make sure you are indeed talking to the manager of the grocery store, not some mere flunky covering the desk that moment.

i had a new manager at my local Krogers who wasnt going to let me do registration — I happened to recall the name of the Kroger lobbyist at the Statehouse so I dropped that name on the new manager — he did an about-face and let me register my folk … grocery stores dont want to inconvenience their customers but if you are ‘respectable’ Democrats, they have to play ‘corporate good citizens’

Mary @ 3:03 pm (#44) – King County is considering going to all mail-in voting. I wonder how well that will work, considering the size of the district. It does make you wonder about those ID requirements, though, doesn’t it? Do I have to mail a copy of my driver’s license with my ballot?

Virginia has actually done pretty well with IDs for voting — you can use your voter registration card, social security card, any government-issued ID, and several other options. If you don’t have ID with you, you can still sign a statement affirming that your identity and vote.

Comparing this to the invalidated Georgia plan provides a pretty clear example of the difference between verifying identity and attempting to suppress the vote.

Thanks, LeslieCA, Ghostman, and Mary. In WA state, there’s no need to claim you’re out of state on election day and you can either mail your absentee ballot or deliver it to the regular polling place on election day.

Also, 30 states require some form of employment leave in order to vote.

http://www.timetovote.net/voter_leave_laws.html

I can’t imagine many people actually tell the boss they’re taking time off to vote, but at least the laws support their efforts.

Just my $.02, but I hate being hit up to sign a petition or listen to any kind of activists at the grocery store. When I go there, it’s not to socialize. I just try to remember what I’m supposed to bring home and get out of there. People supporting causes have a much better chance of getting my attention elsewhere.

*ilson – what’s a GLBT organization? Remember – I thougth GOTV was a an espan spinoff with horseracing.

I think bars might be a pretty good idea.

Also, maybe softball leagues tournaments?

I haven’t seen the parties pushing voter registration at the Vand Co fair – are they out more during the day than at night?

I’m gathering that I can’t give the kitten as a registration prize, eh? *s*

Getting out the vote seems to have some discreeet elements 1) simple registration, 2) obtaining photo ids if needed and/or making people comfortable that they know they have what they need to vote if they show up, 3)getting registered voters to actually vote – either getting them to the polls (transportation) working with mail-in voting if possible, providing child care assistance, providing moral support of going in groups to vote,etc.

That last part is where churches do have a built in advantage.

I agree with Anne – if you could have child care at polling places, early voting and mail in standard, and more uniformity – it would be fantastic.

I’d add use of public transport on a shuttle basis as something to think about.

States rights means all that is up for grabs.

Then there’s 4 – getting them to feel that it is worth going to vote. When Dems get sucked in to responding on moral values and terrorism — they seem set to lose the motivation for unmarried men and women who think things are going wrong in this country – but who are not nearly as concerned about terrorism and morals as they are about the war and jobs/economy.

Cujo359 at 50 — In VA, you have to mail in a copy of your ID if you register by mail, or have it the first time you vote. I would think ID at registration would be sufficient for mail-in voting. Consider: showing an ID at the polling place grants you a ballot, so it’s the same thing as being mailed a ballot if you’re registered, arguably.

Indiana is firmly in the voter suppression camp! They were turning away military folk whose ID had no expiration date (not veteran-friendly, eh?)

Of course, theres the classical case this spring of our Congresswoman who has been voting at the same place for 35 years. Live TV cameras covered Julia’s “first vote of the day” as she presented her official Congressional ID card. There on TV the clerk refused to accept it since it didnt have an expiration date! The supervisor rushed over and observed it was for the 109th Congress so he allowed it. If a well-known Congresscritter can barely vote, it dont look good for others …

If the hair salon concept refers to working with stylists to reach woman, that’s a great idea. Stlylists, barbers and bartenders are key communicators in communities. If you want to know what’s the local word on the street is, chances are all three will know.

GLBT= gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered —- some folk add a Q for queer too ….

I work in a large law firm that regularly invites candidates in to speak to the lawyers – presumably because they see the lawyers as the most likely source for contributions – and because – like lobbying firms – law firms like to spread their contributions around to make sure that no matter who wins, they have the bases covered. We just had a candidate for attorney general of MD come and speak on Wednesday.

What I plan to do is suggest to the executive committee that these meet and greet sessions be opened up to all the firm’s employees, on the basis that making a connection to a candidate is an important part of increasing voter turnout. I will also suggest that voter registration material be provided at all of these visits. And finally, I will find out which other candidates are planning to visit, and suggest to the campaign people that they request a firm-wide event, not lawyers only.

It can be tough breaking through the class structure that is part and parcel of law firm culture, but it’s well worth the effort, in my opinion. What especially irks me is the assumption that a non-lawyer does not have money to contribute to a campaign.

A bit more on viral approaches: clearly the Iraq war (and maybe the Iran war, too, shortly) and economic issues (jobs, anyone) are the leaders. Fortunately, these are topics that can arise spontaneously or without much prodding.

From there, it should be easy to probe if the single will be voting on those issues at the next election, and if not, why not. If any desire for change is there at all, it should be a case of tying voting to change, and then sorting logistics of registration/voting. It takes time, but not a lot of money.

As opposed to registration, Virginia is relatively restrictive with absentee ballots. There are a number of specific reasons for which an absentee ballot is allowed, and efforts to open that up have not succeeded yet. (On the other hand, nobody actually checks if you’re actually stuck at work during poll hours, for example.) We’ve recently starting having “absentee in person” voting (at least in our area) for several weeks before the primary or election, using regular voting machines but at fewer locations. You can avoid the lines and vote on a non-workday (such as Saturday), but since it’s technically still absentee voting, you still have to sign saying one of the absentee reasons applies. It’s kind of bizarre.

RBG @ 3:16 pm (#52) – I can’t imagine many people actually tell the boss they’re taking time off to vote, but at least the laws support their efforts.

One good thing about the defense industry is that few bosses ever thought that was a feeble excuse. I ducked out early or arrived late, as had many of my coworkers, on election day to get to vote. Lots of folks wore their “I Voted” stickers to work. Many of the people I worked with had served in the military, and they were keenly aware of what the right to vote costs.

Since Peterr’s not here (apparently), what about pastors of left-leaning congregations? They’ll probably know about disadvantaged parishoners and might be sponsoring church affiliated singles groups.

Um, correcting my earlier comment (#4) re: targeting unregistered voters. Color me embarrassed. The post I read was from this very site! …written by Oilfieldguy. To further compound my embarrassment, the title of the post was “In search of single women.” And it wasn’t an excerpt from DailyKos, it was from truthout

Some spoke only to registered voters, some only to registered Democrats, some only to registered Republicans. Swing the Vote decided to talk to everyone, Democrat or Republican, registered or unregistered.
Each volunteer was given a specific goal: so many doors per day, per week, per month.

I worked a registration table at my local farmers market in ‘04 and I felt it was a prime spot. People were relaxed on a Sunday afternoon and I was so pleased that so many gathered around to talk, even the ones who were already registered to vote.

Of course, I’m in the bluest area of a blue state, and the anti-Bush sentiment was running high. The whole experience was energizing.

But I do agree with DB above, if you’re running into the post office, or doing errands mid-week, it’s not the best way to engage.

Indiana has very lax absentee voting laws in terms of ‘excuses’. 30 days before the election you can go downtown and vote in person. if you are ‘bedridden’ they’ll send a team out to vote you. you can request to vote by mail but you have to apply using a special form.

if you are locked up in jail and havent been convicted, you can register and vote absentee. I’ve done voter registration in the county jail, its weird !

P.S. I wasn’t, of course, working an “anti-Bush” registration booth, it just headed in that direction, er, organically. heh.

Piggybacking on al-Scooter:
This is probably really crude, but I’ll bring it up, because the stakes are so high and the time so short.
Since the WaPo’s Debbie nobody can say fuck except me Howell said that the Armed Forces drew from a wide demographic, I am willing to bet everything I own that she was wrong. I would urge all Dem candidates to cull the names of the dead, wounded, and serving in Iraq/Afghanistan from their district. I suspect a relatively high percentage of these people and their families will know a lot of men and women in this GOTV demograhic. Perhaps the candidate can invite them in for a chat. Are they supporting him/her? If yes, would they be interested in getting involved in the candidate’s GOTV activities (or anything else?). OT,if they support the candidate, would they be willing to talk to the local media about their support and their GOTV activities.

I really like the idea of getting voter registration info onto daytime TV. That sounds like an issue Oprah might well want to get behind. And if not actually written into the plots of the soaps, then at least PSA-type spots during the commercial breaks.

Mary,

Wonderful post. Thank you. You’ve lured me out of lurkerhood to offer my personal POV on GOTV of unmarried/undead:

(and sort of response to Dover @ 3:01)
I’m unmarried. Not only “un” but “never”. But I’ve voted consistently since 1976. Why? What in my history compels me to vote when evidently millions of unmarrieds don’t?

I was taught that voting is a civic responsbility, meaning my personal responsibility to my fellow citizens. Not to the government, not to those in power, but to my fellow Americans. I would no more NOT vote than I would knock over the corner 7-11. Should I assume that those who don’t vote did not receive the same lessons that I did? Or perhaps they did but labeled with a lower priority.

Registration IS the easy part. Not that it’s easy, but relative to getting voters to the correct polling station on the correct day and within the allotted time, registration is easy. Voting is inconvenient – at least it is in my state, unless one knows about and proactively requests an absentee ballot.

We can brainstorm GOTV tactics till the cows come home. Ways to lessen the inconvenience of voting, ease the pain of casting a ballot. Things like free transporation to polling places (show your Voter Reg to the bus driver), door-to-door canvassing (OFG has described his efforts at one-to-one communication/education), working the bars, salons, etc.

But it’s all about motivation, IMHO. As Rover has proven, fear is the greatest motivator of all – legions of the faithful will swarm to the polls to cast out the illegal, gay, flag-burning immigrants. If I were a rat-fucking Rovian working for a Dem, I would swift-boat the opponent with a whisper campaign full of falsehoods about his/her opposition to birth control, to employer-paid health care, to immoral TV programs like Desperate Housewives and Elimidate. Shit, I’d probably throw in prohibition too.

Alas, I’m not a rat-fucker. But I am warming up to reward/punishment for voting: Either a fine for not voting or a tax rebate for voting. Or something like that. And then I’d add in free childcare at the polling stations. And maybe free lemonade and cookies.

Thanks Mary. All of the various FDL voices wishing to see your work have had that wish fulfilled. Including mine.

Great research and commentary; I’d say this opened up a lot of eyes around here. I know it has mine.

Appreciate the time and effort. Hope to see more (at your convenience, of course.)

Again, thanks for putting this together for the FDL folks.

al-scooter 49 WHOA. Do you do marketing stuff? The can do/will do breakdown is really a great, simplified KISS way to look at it, and the “edge” concept of those who only need one set of barriers down.

Thanks *lson.

Millineryman – that was the concept. Ghostman brought it up and a couple of people ran with it and it seems really a possiblity. They talked about registration and the “community” sense and encouragment and also providing voting info – about candidates and positions etc. too.

“Shit, I’d probably throw in prohibition too.”
LMAO.

Mary, thank you so much. And your comment at 18 is exactly what I think some of my neighbors felt when they were anxious about voting unless I went with them.
The lack of transportation is a huge problem. To get a photo ID in Ohio you have to go to the License Bureau, and take a number. How long is the wait? Who knows? If you have a job, or kids, this is a burden.
Your Oprah idea is GOLD. In fact, what if she gave out pins for everyone who voted, and had a few first-time voters on her show? Oprah, you reading?
The soap opera idea–wonderful.
Ads should be placed in laundromats and WIC and county health clinics and welfare offices.

One framework for talking about economic, healthcare and workplace issues is “you’re on your own” vs. the common good. The modern right-wing agenda is all about creating a “you’re on your own” society, cutting off any government action that supports people and evens out the uncertainties of making a living, claiming that everyone then gets what they deserve from their own efforts (as if their fatcats actually “deserve” what they’ve got!)

Universal healthcare, the minimum wage, work stability, these all serve the common good, the idea that we all deserve to be able to make a decent living, have time to spend with our families, and not worry every minute about whether we’ll have a job or if we can afford to get that toothache treated.

So if people need motivation, talk to them about the reasons they don’t have time learn how to register and vote, because it didn’t just happen. It’s this way because there are people who care about “the economy” and the CEOs and big businesses, not the people and the small businesses. And they’re running the show until people who think that’s wrong throw them out.

And, I’d say, if they think there’s no difference between the two parties, point out that one party tries to pass a minimum wage increase every year, one party tried to pass universal healthcare. And yes, there are some Democrats who aren’t great on these things, but if people who disagree vote, they’ll either have to change their tune or be replaced.

Mary #73:

Guilty as charged. Now in my 34th year of same. I’m so glad I was able to contribute! Please advise if you have more questions. Mods have my e-mail.

And congratulations on hitting your first pitch for a home run!!

Margot – I remember your comment about that – it really stuck in my mind. Giving someone confidence to do by being there for them. Taking the anxiety out of the process – it was a great comment.

I guess Jane’s going to have to make a stop on the Oprah show.

Great post, Mary.

Making registration to vote difficult is a Republican tactic to depress voter turnout and magnify the power of their base. They say they want to reduce voter fraud. Fraud, Republican, see the problem with that argument?

Another aspect of this is holding elections on a working Tuesday. In many, many countries, voting takes place on the weekend. We could do this or just make voting day a national holiday. I mean if we’re serious about our democracy, would it be asking that much to have one day once a year or possibly once every two years to support it? I thought not but I don’t expect it to happen either.

Cujo—excellent point. My comment was intended more for those with less enlightened employers…which is where I’d guess the “young unmarried” are more likely to be working.

Thinking about it a little further…another approach would be to push employers to encourage their employees to register. As long as the effort is non-partisan, and they offer no inducement, every employer should be grateful to have such good citizens as employees. In fact, they should be shamed if they’re reaping the benefits of our capitalist system without allowing their employees a voice in that system.

Okay – so there’s tons of stuff to try to implement that will fill the pipeline with potential voters, but the job right now is to get people to vote.

I believe parents who vote have children who vote – maybe it’s from years and years of taking them with me to the polls, but voting is part of their ethos – it’s just something it would not occur to them to not do. So, that’s something we have to work on, but the big question is still – how do we get them out in the primary and general elections in 2006?

Strange as it sounds, sometimes the local bond issues and referenda are the way to go, because these are things that often target education, libraries, environmental projects and public safety. I know my kids’ schools were vigilant about sending home stuff they wanted parents to know was going to impact education. The local community association was vigilant about informing people about rural development issues and the environment.

How to reach those who don’t have children and don’t have the school-based pipeline to feed them important info? A few years back, there was a fairly residential area that was about to get a huge expansion of the county jail, but the decision was being put to public referendum. Community associations put out flyers and held meetings to alert folks in the surrounding area that this was an issue of specific importance to them; turnout was huge.

Maybe it’s a matter of (1) identifying what areas are going to be affected by local issues, and (2) making sure people know that their vote can make a direct difference to their own quality of life. If you can get someone to the polls to vote on a local issue, there is no way they are leaving the voting booth having only voted on that one issue.

ccmask #79:

Warming up the TiVo as we speak. I bet the technical director will be riding that bleeper button, though. :-)

Hilde @ 3:34 pm (#70) – But it’s all about motivation

Yep. That’s true. If you’re motivated, you find a way. I’m all for making it easier. If there are people willing to help you, a little less motivation is required. Look at those charts from the PDF I linked to earlier. The youth vote has gone down steadily since the 1970s, when it suddenly became larger. Think it has nothing to do with motivation? The only significant spike was in 1992, right after there was another war.

Old enough to fight, old enough to vote.

Anne 41 — It’s Georgia. If you live in the South, believe me, you get it. Think “literacy test” or “poll tax.”

Mary, I expect any niece or nephew of yours actually would fight for the privilege of your company — unless, of course, you needed round the clock care and they needed to earn a living. I think the middle aged daughters and sons of elderly parents could be persuaded to take this personally. If somemeone could explain to that demographic just how Medicare and Medicaid payment rates get set, and how standards get enforced (or, in Florida, don’t get enforced) it could be a motivator. The problem is how to communicate it. Oprah, anyone?

Oh, and as to the kitten, I’d love another cat but the two I have now have served notice that it’s not happening.

Thank you al-scooter!

I had an immediate “that’s the kind of advice people pay for” reaction.

RBG @ 3:49 pm (#80) – You’re right, of course. I wasn’t working in a Burger King; it was a professional environment. But my impression is that even in other professional environments that aren’t as government-oriented, the likelihood that your employer will be sympathetic to your taking time away from work to vote is considerably lower.

don’t know if it’s been mentioned, but another source of new voters is recently naturalized citizens. voter registration forms are made available at the swearing in ceremonies.

mrs. punaise recently gained citizenship and proudly voted for the first time in the anti-Ahnold election last Nov.

Hilde at 70 — Yeah, I always voted, even when I was in the “unmarried male” demographic, well before I was more involved in politics. My parents voted every time, and took me with them; I’m sure that’s a big part of it.

Unfortunately, that makes it harder for me to figure out how to motivate others. The mindset of people who don’t vote mostly mystifies me (not so much meaning those who are single parents or carless, but people who just don’t think it’s important enough to bother with.)

I had a friend in ‘04 who had lived in Colorado and absolutely hated Gale Norton. But she hadn’t decided who she was going to vote for, or if she was going to vote at all. I’d make announcements at social gatherings that I was working on the presidential campaign, and I had registration forms and information, and get nothing. No response, not even “yeah, I’m already registered.” It’s just so completely alien to me, and these were people I knew. I’m not sure how to break through that.

Redshift #76:

I haven’t found a good way to express what you just did, that there’s more to belonging to this country than fighting and dying for it, or giving up our kids’ futures for others to do so. It damn well owes all of us some care and concern back, otherwise why not “rightsize” it, too?

John Casper,
This is so OT that it is almost on T again, but in an afternoon thread yesterday you were asking about Plan B and I don’t think the info you were getting back was accurate.

Plan B prevents ovulation. Plan B opponents, the Catholic hospitals and rapegurney Joe are all working to protect the rapist’s sperm and its patriarchy-given right to hook up with an egg. In fact this illegal sperm, or as I like to think of it as a pernicious invader, apparently has more rights to a victim’s ova then the woman does, because Plan B basically gives the woman the ability to say “sorry I’m saving my eggs for someone who didn’t rape me”

Naturally, this can’t be allowed, after all the sperm has hours and hours of viability to loiter around waiting for that egg and no stupid bitch has the right to spoil it’s chances. This makes me so furious.

You might be interested in a very good discussion about Plan B on Pharyngula, which is a really good blog in all respects. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyn….._again.php

Andy Young on why we vote on Tuesdays http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01650.html

its an artifact from the rural population of 1845 !

al-scooter- Is she still on the road with the poodles?

I think the having parents who voted point is really interesting in the negative as well – do we creat a growing group of nonvoters when children have parents who don’t vote?

A good place to give out the registration cards would be at the movie theatre as they leave from watching Al Gore’s movie. Just do up all the cars on the lot!

There are 3 different issues to consider.

1. Registering to vote
2. Caring enough to vote
3. Casting a vote on election day

#2 is all about motivation. Why don’t most Americans vote and is it just more of the same for singles or is there something else? Answering this may be the most important thing.

#1 is the practicality of registering. I’m a deputy voter registrar and one thing we were encouraged to do is go door to door and register our neighbors.

#3 is plain old GOTV. In the 2004 election, many people I canvassed weren’t going to vote until I knocked and asked if we could count on their vote for the Democrats.

If anyone wants to pitch a story to Oprah here’s the url
http://www2.oprah.com/email/re…..deas.jhtml

And as this conversation continues Anyway, in this conversation, please remember not all single women are young, and not all single women are or will have children. As a single woman with no kids, it gets tiresome to always be second fiddle to “mothers”.

Also, slip them inside books at Borders.

New Thread — by me.

Cujo359 at 83:
The youth vote has gone down steadily since the 1970s

I’ll have to have a look at that. Many sources for the periodic “lowest turnout ever!” news stories are based on turnout as percentage of voting age population, as opposed to percentage of those eligible to vote. The percentage of the voting age population that are actually eligible has steadily declined because more of them are prisoners, felons, and noncitizens.

The voting rate among the eligible overall has actually remained fairly steady over the last 30 years; I’m not sure if the same it true of the youth vote (which is likely to be particularly strongly influenced by those factors.)

(As a side note, that makes the increasing prison population a vote-suppression factor, too.)

cc mask #93:

She’s in CT for the Dem primary, poodles too.

One more possible venue: indy coffee houses. They tend to lean a bit more left, and they always seem to be on top of local issues.

Unfortunately, I now have to *poof*.

Have more fun, all!

Redshift: “The percentage of the voting age population that are actually eligible has steadily declined because more of them are prisoners, felons, and noncitizens.”

That is a pretty sobering statistical insight.

wow do the threads move fast around here. over 40 while I was typo-ing.

Cujo @ 3:55—like you, I’ve been lucky to work for some very civic-minded employers but I have no sympathy for any employer who isn’t…and believe they should be publicly shamed for reaping the benefits without sharing the rights.

1.203 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOES ON AND ON AND…

Mary:

Thank you, your essay is beautiful: style grace, intelligence and readability. I must say that I grew up in an English teacher’s house and he was always lamenting the death of the essay as an effective vehicle of communication in mass culture – you are among a group of writers includin’ Wolcott, Digby and many regulars on FDL (and our hosts) that have given me hope that maybe there is a literate resurection goin’ on.

I think your argument is a starting point for progressive GOTV folks. The war, jobs, healthcare and education…cuts right thru the heart of neofascist, anti-government propaganda. And it doesn’t require nuanced positions and ya don’t hafta use a calculus ta figure out who’s on yer side. It can be presented quickly and effectively if folks like you and some of the new adpeople (like the guy doin’ Lamomnt’s work) do the presentin’.

The fascists have won the field by reducin it…their anti-government-”all politicians are crooks”-”the government can’t do anything right” thesis has turned the non-ideologues and the innocent away from politics entirely. That reduces the field and then with a few strategic Diebolt machines and a general voter suppression effort – BINGO, welcome to minority government.

Thank you again Mary, you have effectively put the lie to the Republicrat anti-populist meme of the DLC and the beltway crowd. You are a treasure so…

KEEP THE FAITH AND DON’T LET ‘EM IN YER YARD!!!

Wow, thanks for the mention, Mary. Nice post!

Mary at 94 –

Yes, I think parents who do not vote are more likely to have children who don’t vote.

And I would agree with Redshift, too; as someone who has always voted, whose parents always voted, and whose children now vote, I don’t always understand people who don’t. Really, in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t all that hard to do – and it keeps getting easier and easier.

The hard part is for those who need a reason. A reason to believe that their one vote matters. A reason to think that their one vote will change something about their life. For me, it’s often the knowledge that I participated in the democracy – that I was an active voice speaking for what I believe.

In some ways, voting is like exercise – maybe you don’t really feel like it, maybe there are other things you’d rather be doing, but you really do feel good afterward.

Mary – great post – you’re a worthy front-pager.*
Following up tangentially on your #94 (and now Anne at 106): education.
With the emphasis on the three R’s and state test scores, it seems that courses that contribute to general cultural literacy and civic involvement get short shrift. Reversing that trend could help break the cycle of vnon-voter apathy.

I’ve actually read speculation somewhere that one of the sinister hidden agenda goals of NCLB, with its focus on results/testing, is to undercut that sort of well-rounded education, thus insuring the GOP a demographic of future voters unwilling or unable to notice that they’re voting against their own interests by voting Republican. Not sure I’d go that far – chalk it up perhaps to the realm unintended consequences.

(*title of a future mystery post by you: “There’s Mary, About Something”)

walkingg says:
July 8th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
BULLSEYE
Thank you so much.
Yes, that is quite a bit different than what BC, said yesterday, but still quite helpful.
There’s no destruction of the fertilized egg in Plan B.
IMO, this would be huge news to a lot of conservative Roman Catholics who assumed, like I did that Plan B was a chemical cocktail that “killed” the fertilized egg. This is true contraception, it prevents fertilization.
I think if NARAL and PP made a concerted effort to educate anti-abortionists on this, it could only help. You will never get all of, them but education is always a process. Plan B is not abortion.
Thank you very much.
This is also a talking point that might help Dem candidates in debates.

Always nice to see a Buffy reference.

To riff off of the ideas noted here by Mary @ 54:

Then there’s 4 – getting them to feel that it is worth going to vote.

and al-Scooter @ 48:

Everybody connects somewhere, and if the party can’t add much in the way of resources, how about some viral marketing? Engage some singles you know in conversation over the topic, see how their needs could be addressed, and then ask them to draw in their single friends. Then you can try to work a more organized response through the local party apparatus.

Just started reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. (A discussion of fads, movements, social epidemics and what dynamics are at work so that something all-of-a-sudden “catches on” and becomes A Big Thing.)

So far, I’ve been thinking in terms of “which of the three personality types am I?” Connector or Maven or Persuader (prolly Maven), and how do I use this to promote my new web site. But the same issues can be applied to How Do We Get More Voters?

Sort of side-topic, but worth thinking about: What have voter trends been like over time? Was there a tipping point where voter apathy grew rampant? (and what were the factors there?)

From the little I’ve read so far, it’d be good to identify the Connectors — people who are connected to lots of other people, who could — just by word of mouth– get single women and men registered.

Oh, and here’s one more good WHERE idea (to add to bars/hair salons/groceries, etc). The idea (in a differnet context) is courtesy of my friend Cynthia Johnston: Oil Lube shops. You’re stuck there for 20 minutes at a place. If you’re a customer, you don’t change your own oil (Single women, anyone?) Unlike a grocery store (I gotta get milk and eggs and I’m in a hurry and no, I can’t stop and talk), you’re sitting on your butt for 20 minutes cleaning out your purse or reading the paper or staring at the walls or otherwise bored out of your mind. Sure, the rate at which someone visits isn’t as often as the bar or grocery story or gym, but you can get someone registered in the amount of time their crankcase is emptied and refilled.

(this obviously targets people who *do* have cars, but hey, a multi-pronged approach is needed)

Redshift @ 4:04 pm (#98) – Well, I lied a little ;-) The other spike, though it was a lesser one, was in 2004. However, that’s the last year in this survey, it’s really hard to know if it’s a spike or a trend. I’ll point out, though, that we were once again involved in a war.

This appears to be a survey of all people in the 18-24 age bracket. What is striking though, regardless of whether it’s eligible voters or all people in that age group, is that the spikes are so large in some groups. Clearly, there’s considerable difference due to motivation. I’ll also posit that the number of immigrants and prisoners, while both have grown, still aren’t that much bigger as a portion of the population. IIRC, prisoners are about 1% of U.S. population – shamefully large, but not very meaningful in this context.

RBG @ 4:08 pm (#102) – A good idea, though how practical it may be in some cases is open to question. Quite a few seem beyond any sense of shame these days.

this has been discussed at length before: the wingnuts started their takeover at the local level, winning elections for school board, dogcatcher, and mosquito-abatement district director. from there they built up to purge the party of moderate infidels, from the bottom up.

local elections matter, too.

Norske – that makes me almost cry. Thank you (sniff).

Coz – your welcome – it was a new concept for me.

Comments fly by here so much, I think a lot of people don’t know how often their stuff “lands.” There’s no way to recognize all the really funny, or interesting, or insightful or challenging stuff that happens on the threads, but I think people should know that whether there is a specific reference in a thread acknowledging something or not — most of it lands, with someone or lots of someones. Don’t think if you put up a comment and it seems buried that it hasn’t taken seed with someone.

Thank you all for the things you bring to the comments in all the threads.

Mary@114,

Dang, does that mean the party’s over and it’s all happening in a new thread?

If the youth vote has in fact gone down since the 1970s, I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the draft was ended in 1973.

Margot @ 4:38 pm (#115) – Possibly, but lots of us got draft cards in 1973 thru 1978 or thereabouts. I think the immediacy of having to go to war has more to do with it than the draft itself. I know it was for me personally. In fact, I was considering enlisting after Vietnam. Thankfully, I changed my mind.

John Casper and walkingg — Bingo! A new frame, and it took you two to make me see it. Plan B is now framed as “prevention.” How about framing it as “postponement?” All it does it postpone ovulation. It’s not the fault of that little pill that that sperm die a natural death in a couple of days. Meantime, the egg is taking a little vacation, that’s all. It still has a date with destiny: Plan B just postpones it to a later time, and therefore a different (but still natural) destiny.

Ahbedawg, here all this time I’ve been whining to Mary to go for the front page, and when she does, I don’t show up until EPUville! Gosh-a-mickle-pickle-dickle-dawg-my-cats-an’-ROWRBAZZLE!

Well, Mary, it’s not the first time I’ve rolled in late and been wowed by your work and the responses to it, so please keep ‘em coming.

I don’t have any tactical suggestions to offer, but I will amen a couple of previously-made observations.

Clearly (though it never occurred to me before now), watching my parents vote was like watching them read the newspaper … a piece of nurturing that seemed so basic as to be unnoticeable as a “choice.” Human beings wake up, bathe and brush their teeth, eat breakfast, read the paper, go vote if it’s election day. Who knew you don’t do that as automatically as you breathe? Some of us have been way more sheltered than we imagine . . .

I’m incredibly corny sometimes, and the act of voting is one of the things that brings that out. I admit it: I actually feel a little thrill, a slight frisson of rightness-with-the-world as and after I vote, whether absentee or in person. If the good ideas at play in this thread help spread that good feeling to those who haven’t had it before — and I know they will — something tells me their pleasure will be even greater this year and in ‘08 than it might have been before. Folks have had damn enough of this gooper outfit, and I sense they’ll be happier than ever to have some help in saying so.

So a thousand thanks, Mary of Firedoglake, and all commenters, for this excellent thread. On to more ‘n’ better citizenship!

(Todja I’m corny, but you knew that already.)

Mary, great post. Motivation is the key and you have focussed us on that issue. Is the DNC ramping up challenges to the picture ID requirement? If it disproportionately impact minorities (and women) isn’t there a Section 2 voting rights act challenge? I now something about this stuff, but it is outside my area of litigation expertise.

And, oh yeah:

Imm. Hearts Mary (please post more and Willow was always my favorite — Buffy was one of the only shows ever that understood girl power).

Mary,
Let me be the first to say I would adopt your kitten. So very nice to see you join the big round table. Few things intimidate this firepup, but a solo approach to a law library might be one (shivering) awkward assignment.
As a unmarried man without children I don’t find the virtual tie all that surprising. Nice to be included in the acknowledged want my vote earn it crowd. A fair number of unregistered/not voting citizens are ready to chip chads until midnight when a leader with a plan for change comes along.
Sorry to hear about the multi-state difficulties on absentee participation. Such a perfect example of failings in common sense approach by leadership imo. Without the correct leadership one feels they can’t do anything worthy for their country with a vote. Walking out of a ballot box sure feels better than exiting a casino or even the dry cleaners.
Ghostman or anyone should register folks anywhere possible including bars, jails, or with an oil change. It’s only registration, not ballot day. Registration has to be in place for the tipping point to have it’s indelible voice. I would allow all convicted felons the right to vote once free from incarceration fwiw.
If Hilde prefers men it looks like they missed out.
Finally punaise found a position I would run for as a Summer job free of charge – mosquito-abatement district director lmao little **ckers.

I honestly think we should be looking at creating a television show that features Democratic women legislators. Politics, as presented on tv, is designed to appeal to men. It doesn’t seek to enlighten it’s audience, it seeks to trip up the interview primarily for the purpose of mockery. Women hate that kind of stuff, and it leaves people to whom politics is not a natural affinity with no way in. I bet a lot of women are genuinely repulsed by politics because when they turn on their tv, all they see is men arguing about stuff that has nothing to do with them. They don’t see their issues discussed in a sober and informed way. The trailer trash pie is not completely entertained by Fox.

I think every week, we should have a different group – the women senators, the women Congressional reps on a particular caucus, an individual who’s taking a stand on something, a woman who is running for president. Every single week, for an hour have a friendly host interview various women legislators and have them talk to single women. It wouldn’t be expensive to shoot, and it could run on sunday morning with the other news shows. If the idea of network tv is too much, why not put together a weekly interview and host on Crooks and Liars or something like that. See if it develops it’s own momentum. If we hosted it online, we could circumvent union rules maybe, and do it incredibly cheap. A host, a living room, a legislator. if it’s a bunch of women – a host, a dining room or kitchen and the legislators. A crew of three – one person with their own cameras, and a lighting kit. A grip and a PA. We’re women – we can do our own make up. If I lived in DC, I’d do it myself but I don’t.

The photo ID, as I understand it, isn’t a problem for young women. Even ones who don’t drive usually have one, or have access to a DMV. Photo ids are difficult for the elderly, rural poor who don’t drive and don’t live anywhere near a DMV. Their families work during the week so getting them to the DMV is difficult. Plus, $20 for someone who lives on $350 a month is a very big deal.

Mary at 2:50 p.m.

Sorry I wasn’t here to answer your questions. I’m leaving this message in case you come back to this thread later. What I wanted to say (aside from great post!)is that I don’t feel comfortable giving the trolls all our trade secrets, but if you e-mail me at my name at AOL dot com, I will e-mail you back and answer your questions as best I can.

Excellent post, Mary, & couldn’t agree more, immanentize @ 120. Buffy, Willow, Faith, Anya,Tara, Joyce- the strong, smart female characters never stopped coming on that show…

How to get single women to vote (I’m talking about the ones who are already registered)- for my daughter & I it’s an individual effort each election day. We both have been taking the day off from work (talk about your pocketbook issue) & personally driving everyone we have been talking to about voting to the polls. Last primary it was an exhausting all day/evening deal & let me tell you all, so worth it! We’ve succeeded in getting some others to promise to do the same this Nov. It beats waiting for our local Democratic headquarters to get it together (no offense, guys). Our grass roots have to begin in our own front yards…

I have been working on campaigns, knocking on doors and registering voters for at least 30 years. I am a never married woman and I vote. But I am also politically obsessed, I think it is fair to say. I have never been a paid political worker, have never received a dime or any other remuneration for the work. And I never got a job from someone I helped to elect.

I believe it requires door-to-door campaigning to get out the vote. I think it would be fabulous if Oprah and Desperate Housewives would have some political and VOTER education going on with their shows. Registration, education, motivation is what the Rev. Jackson says. It can’t hurt that Obrador is doing some of that educating south of the border. At least SOME of the potential voters of the US will get some new ideas about democracy that way.

I was on a d-t-d canvass last weekend in my neighborhood. I have lived here for almost 20 years and have been active in the neighborhood most of the years. I know lots of people, and we have a huge number of transient voters–apartment dwellers, non-English speakers and a pocket of poverty in the environs. In the p-o-p are large numbers of elderly Hispanic residents who have a long history of voting for Democrats (mostly). I take voter registration forms and offer to register new voters in addition to changing addresses and names for voters who have moved or whatever.

I worked as a MoveOn precinct leader in 2004. I believe I reached my target voters and turned almost 100% of them out, but it was dogged work going back and back and back to each address until I made a PERSONAL contact with each voter on my list, got their comittment to vote for Kerry, and then made sure they got to the poll on election day. It was very effective.

I have some issues with MoveOn, but their model, personal contact by going to each door, I believe is effective. People who are inclined to vote (and most people are inclined–very few actually say “I won’t/don’t vote) have HUGE respect for someone who comes to their door, more than once, to encourage them. I received more accolades from “my” voters than from any other activity I have ever been involved with, including lots of other community-oriented volunteer activities. They were genuinely impressed that anyone cared enough to WORK for their vote.

On my walk last weekend, I registered a young woman who I believe is probably a single mom. She was not educated about the campaign, nor about politics in general, and I think she did not register in any party. (Sometimes I find someone who says “what party is Bush?” I tell them, and they do not want to register Republican, at least in my experience.) We have done registration at WalMart (lots of ex-cons shop there. . .that’s another story. . . about how WalMart targets their locations. . .), at bars, at concerts, grocery stores, sports events.

I also met a young woman, also unmarried, a new mom whom I met when she was in 5th grade. She is now in college, and she is totally politically aware. She is also a first generation Mexican American. She may be the only person in her household who can and does vote. She is upset about the Iraq war.

I plan to re-visit the young woman who needs some political education and will find out what will motivate her to vote. But it takes this attention to each unlikely voter, IMO.

And then, we need to make sure THE VOTES ARE COUNTED. We lost a lot of votes in the machines last time. Now (2006 and beyond) we will have paper ballots. WOO HOO!!

Late to the party

Mary! A !

My two least favorite classes in college were first year German (where I sat next to the daughter of the German Consul and spent so much time feeling offended by competing with a native speaking German that I didn’t do quite as well as I could have done) and statistics which caused my eyes to glaze over and which (in the days before hand held calculators) required the ability to do simple math quickly. Caveat emptor my remarks on the basis of the above.

It would seem to me that to understand the why some members of a class don’t vote requires simultaneous consideraton of why members of the same class do vote–don’t they call this kind of stuff multivariant regression analysis or something? (see why I didn’t do all that well)? Here’s my point. I’m a single guy. I’ve always been a single guy. I’ve always voted. I’m sixty-five. I’ve voted when I was in school. I’ve voted when I was not. I’ve voted when I was mobile, I vote when I’m not (I like my work…I’ve been doing the same thing at the same place for 34 years). Do I vote all the time because I go to church? If so, why don’t I vote righty? I’m single, no kids. Why do I always vote for school bond issues, even if it raises my taxes? So how am I different from single males who never vote? In my voting behavior, who am I most like–single women, married men, married women, old folks, young folks? If the cadre to which I’m closest is my gender, then GOTV needs to consider that. If it is educational level, then it needs to consider that. If it is age related then GOTV needs to focus on that. etc, etc. etc. I don’t know why some other single guys don’t vote in terms of demographic analysis. For that matter, I don’t really know why I vote on the basis of demographic analysis. Maybe I vote because I drink a lot of skim milk. I know I’m an even prouder broccoli eater because I know that George Bush senior didn’t like eating it.

Bottom line, I vote because I see it in my self-interest to do so. A lot of the time that’s pretty much an act of faith on my part. But I know I have zero control over my political destiny if I sit on the sidelines, and even a tiny bit of control is better than zero.

Preview thingy ain’t working for me… apologies for nasty code if any.

bg @ 125 Beautiful neighbor.

bg, AMEN!

John Caspar’s comments at #5 and #35 scratch the surface of an important iceberg. Politics requires the ability to create some sort of coherence out of a lot of conflicting info. Rove does this well b/c he makes the Repub message so emotional and super-simple. That plays straight into the learning styles and cognitive issues involved in many, many types of learning disabilities.

One would expect more voters with LDs to support Bush, b/c to someone with learning disabilities, in a very chaotic environment, he comes across as “coherent.’ There’s zero complexity in his public statements. Contrast Kerry (and other Dems) who, by virtue of being able to formulate a complex sentence with more than one dependent clause, get slammed for being ‘fuzzy.’

Unfortunately, given the fact that ‘made-for-sound-bite’ politics prevail b/c of the commercial nature of US media, the cmu structures in the US have become almost diabolically devised for an ADHD man to become president by delivering platitudes. Being There is here.

In a communication structure skewed toward sound bites, the DeLays and Bushes prevail. They are as much captive to the sound bites as they are creators of sound bites, and it’s an ideal communication environment for them. It favors sanctimonious, short, simplistic rhetoric over any statement that includes even a single dependent clause.

Problem is, sound bites don’t translate into governance.

John Caspar is onto something here.
Mary, great, GREAT post.

Mary, I just got back, so I missed your “maiden voyage” in real time, but I just wanted to congratulate you on pulling together a very insightful take on the vote we should be getting out from disparate sources. Good job.

Gee, what synchronicity! I’ve just been pondering the issue of GOTV among unmarried women, spurred largely by a discussion with my hairdresser (who is 26 years old) who has never voted and isn’t sure even how to register. In response, I’ve been putting together a simple one-page graphic on the who-what-when-where-why-how of voter registration, with emphasis on the places nearby where one can register.

She promised to pass it along to her friends, but then it occurred to me: why not make it available to customers at the salon? And even, why not deliver stacks of these information sheets to other salons in the area? It seems like a great way to access women, many of whom are unmarried!

(And thanks to FDL for making me aware of the need to do GOTV among young women.)

Mary, thank you for your work on this and thanks to all for adding to it. One thing that troubles me is that many of the people I know who vote have no informed basis of where the candidate they vote for stands on most issues. Yesterday via a long-distance call I was told by a friend of long ago she hated Bush but had voted for him because he was the lesser of two evils. She explained that by saying “Koury” had lied so I assume the Swift Boaters’ lies worked with her but no opposite group had made her aware of Bush’s lies. I live in a red State/red state and hear similar things quite often so one thing is getting voters to the polls and another is getting educated voters to the polls.

As suggested above by Leslie and Margot, Oprah has an ideal audience to reach but I will add to that by saying there should be some way to educate those she does reach about what they are voting for or against, something I don’t think Oprah’s sponsors would approve, but which needs to be done for that same audience.

Great post Mary. I have only gotten as far as #19, but want to comment before I forget. When I was in my 20s and single, I didn’t vote. I had voted for Carter, but when it seemed like the whole country was against me and wanted Reagan, I adopted the “why bother?” mindset. I also moved very frequently, and didn’t know where I should vote. I lived in a state where I think you had to register at least a month before you voted—that always threw me off when it came to election day. However, the one time I almost registered to vote, was when some nice young men, who seemed to be about my age, were registering voters outside an area where I liked to shop. At that time I also felt very uninformed, and thought “all politicians are really the same.” I don’t remember any of my friends voting, or we might have gone together.
I think the war changes everything for young people today, and also concern for the environment.
I think your observations about unfamiliarity with the process are right on, and moving a lot really exascerbates that problem. You’re right that transportation must also be an issue, anywhere that mass transportation isn’t an option.
re Oprah—she had Cameron Diaz and other young stars on before the last election, encouraging unregistered voters to register and vote in 2004. But your ideas about demonstrating the “how” of voting, I think, are what need somehow to be done next.
i.e., Why don’t we experience what it’s like to vote, in civics class in high school?
Now I have to finish reading the rest of the comments!