POSTCARDS
TO WI AND MI
By
Reid McCollum
Hand-writing
postcards to voters is the gateway to activism. It is easy, fun, cathartic,
inspirational, an outlet, and it matters.
If my goal were to eventually convince you to give door-to-door
canvassing a try, my first ask of you would be to write postcards.
I
co-founded Postcards to Wisconsin, which organized tens of thousands of
volunteers in 46 states to write 603,000 postcards to voters in only 9 weeks
ahead of the Wisconsin primary in April. We knew from the success of using
postcards in IL06 in 2018 that volunteers love to write them. But I was blown
away at how quickly the project grew, with grassroots groups spreading the word
far and wide, largely on social media. And many in DGTDO helped a lot. Dozens
of volunteers within the township helped on the back-end to prep and ship
orders. Some are PCs, and others are people on neighborhood grassroots email
lists.
Now
our sights are set on sending over 2 million postcards to voters in both
Michigan and Wisconsin for November. We started taking orders on May 1, and by
May 10 we already had 660,000 postcards ordered!
Here’s
how it works. Volunteers sign up at www.postcards2WI.com and
pick between two messages, as well as if they want to write to voters in
Wisconsin or Michigan. We ship the postcards for free, along with addresses and
instructions. The minimum order is 200 postcards, and volunteers are
responsible for providing the $0.35 postcard stamps. Once the cards are
written, everyone holds onto them until October and mails them according to the
instructions. There’s a helpful frequently asked questions section at www.postcards2WI.com/faq,
which explains the messages and a lot more.
How do
we know postcards work? We are using the best tactics learned from hundreds of
randomized controlled experiments. The messages we are using can increase
turnout by at least 20,000 votes, which is two thirds of Trump’s 2016 margin of
victory in Wisconsin and Michigan. We expect each postcard will increase
turnout by 1% or more.
The
project is funded entirely by individual donations, most of which are small
dollar. We turn out an additional voter for every $6 spent on printing and
shipping postcards to volunteers. That is an unheard-of return on investment in
politics, made possible by the fact that we are leveraging volunteers. And
those volunteers spread the word and recruit others into activism, many of whom
will end up doing more and joining groups.
No one
knows what will happen in November. The pandemic, economic turmoil, and
uncertainty about voting accessibility and safety create huge uncertainty. One
thing I know for sure is that none of us want to see Trump win a second term by
a razor thin margin and regret not doing more. We have five and a half months
left!
