Campaign #96: Vote-By-Mail Enrollment in Florida
Not all states offer what is sometimes called “no excuses vote by mail.” Florida does. In fact, Florida’s Vote By Mail program makes it possible for serious voters to receive ballots mailed to them automatically. You can see how enrolling more Democrats in Florida’s Vote By Mail program could lead to more Democratic candidate wins.
With your help, we are going to promote Vote By Mail enrollment in some targeted County Commission Districts in Florida. The selected districts have imminent contested elections between Democrats and Republicans. We have a snapshot in time of the current enrollment numbers. At the conclusion of our postcarding effort, we will get updated numbers from the county. It will help us measure what effect postcards might have on increasing the participation rate in this important program. If there is a meaningful increase, we can do this again for other Florida counties to bolster Democratic turnout.
Each address assigned to you will be for Democrats who are not already registered to vote by mail. Let’s see by how much we can move the needle!
Some Background
- Studies have shown that registering someone to vote-by-mail increases the likelihood that they will vote, particularly in down-ballot races.
- Asking voters to request vote-by-mail ballots is one of the most effective get out the vote strategies there is.
- In Florida, a key battleground state, Republicans usually dominate vote-by-mail voting. This is largely because they passed a law a few years back (when they already had a huge vote-by-mail advantage) that allowed everyone already enrolled to vote-by-mail to permanently receive a vote-by-mail ballot for all elections. However, for new enrollees, they now have to re-enroll every two general elections. This means voters are continually falling-off the vote-by-mail rolls and we have to work harder to get them re-enrolled.
- The ballot in Florida this year will be really long. They have about a dozen state constitutional amendments, as well as 7-8 county charter amendment questions. This will be a long ballot, and we need to encourage as many people to vote by mail as possible.
Thanks for lending a hand(written postcard) for what could prove to be an additional winning Postcards to Voters tactic with a great November General Election payoff!
► New volunteers, text JOIN to (484) 275-2229
► Returning writers, text HELLO to (484) 275-2229
[Charts credit: Palm Beach County Young Democrats]
In reference to campaign #96, central Florida Grassroots progressives have been sending out postcards to democrats who vote-by-mail has expired in Orange County Florida. Will this campaign duplicate with what we are doing in Orange County.
Hello Marcia,
Please send us an email at postcards@tonythedemocrat.org =)
Do you still have addresses for campaign #96?
Not for the moment. We may have another county loaded in a day or two.
Do you have results on effectiveness of this campaign? Would be bery interested.
Hi Julia,
We’re are hoping to get some statistical information regarding the effectiveness of this campaign. And, we’ll keep everyone posted if, and when, we do.