PC CORNER: GET OUT THE VOTE!
By Chris Hotchkin
One of the most important
roles of a precinct committeeperson is to encourage and facilitate voting by
the Democratic voters in your precinct. By this time, we hope you have educated
your voters about the different ways to vote—Early, Vote By Mail, or on Election
Day.
Now is the time to remind
voters about Election Day. You will be surprised that there are voters who will
not know that Election Day is March 17. They may not know when the polls are
open or where they should go to vote.
So, we want to remind them.
There are different ways to
Get Out the Vote on Election Day. The best way is to knock on the doors of
Democrats in your precinct and remind them when the election is, where they
should go to vote, and the hours that the polls are open. You can do this the
weekend before the primary. If you need a list, stop in the office and we can
print one for you. If voters are not home, leave a post card or a packet with a
card that has the information and may include some candidate literature.
If walking the precinct is
hard for you, you can call the voters. You can look up phone numbers on Vote
Builder. You can also mail post cards, but you should do that a week before the
election.
Ask our township chair for a
list of voters who already Voted Early or applied to Vote by Mail. It’s a good
idea to call the Vote by Mail voters and remind them to send in their ballots.
If you will be serving as a
pollwatcher, you can check off voters on an alphabetical list as they sign in
to vote. Then late afternoon, you can call voters who have not voted yet and
remind them to vote. Leave a message if they are still at work.
We are very involved in
elections and are very aware of Election Day. Your voters are busy working,
parenting, etc. and may not be as aware. It is our job to keep them informed.
