GOTV on the cheap

Getting Out the Vote on the Cheap

By Karen Tamley

One evening this February, I telephoned a man who had recently moved out of a nursing home, with assistance from Access Living. I explained that I was calling for Access Living's Get Out the Vote Project and asked if he was registered to vote. "Registered to vote… hmmm, I don't think so. I don't know much about that." he responded sheepishly. I explained that voting is a way to show our elected officials the need to listen to us and that it is one way to change the policies that affect the lives of people with disabilities – such as being forced to live in a nursing home. "Well, now that you put it that way," he said, with a hint of excitement, "I think I would like you to tell me how to get registered."

One major reason that people with disabilities do not vote in large numbers (aside from polling place barriers) is that we are not asked to vote. Access Living's Get Out the Vote (GOTV) project uses individual human contact to emphasize the importance of voting and its link to political power.

Last summer, I was daunted by the prospect of undertaking an ambitious, long-term voting project without dedicated staff, grant funding or previous experience. However, with support and guidance from both AAPD and Kelly Anthony at the Missouri Disability Vote Project, Access Living has begun an intensified GOTV campaign not with financial resources, but a handful of committed individuals, creativity and common sense.

Our local Chicago effort began with a small group of staff, from all levels of the organization willing to make personal commitments to drive a voter registration and turnout campaign within Chicago 's disability community. With Illinois' March 16 primary as our deadline, our small group met regularly to develop strategies to get as many people with disabilities as possible registered to vote.

Our group created a simple flyer that included three important points: Why – the reason to vote; How – to register; and When – the registration deadline. Every staff member was asked to disseminate this flyer at trainings, peer support groups, rallies, community meetings, etc. Our receptionist began asking all visitors if they were registered to vote. If not, we helped them to register. Registration information could be found in our waiting area, on our website, in our newsletter, on outgoing voice mail messages, and we even convinced a local TV station to do a story on our GOTV effort. Most importantly, we recruited ten volunteers to work the phones for three consecutive evenings before the registration deadline.

Despite our concern about being mistaken for telemarketers, a majority of consumers were appreciative of our message. While many responded emphatically that they were registered and vote in every election, other calls strongly reinforced the need to make personal contact. One consumer we telephoned said that he was not allowed to vote, due to his disability. Others responded that getting to the polls was impossible, due to inaccessible housing or lack of transportation. Several family members insisted that their relative was too disabled to vote.

We repeated our phone campaign after the voter registration deadline, urging folks to go to the polls for the primary election. In just over two months, these simple outreach efforts enabled us an estimated 3,000 Chicagoans with disabilities with a voter registration and turnout message. Our only direct cost was dinner for our volunteers and copying costs of the fliers (distribution of the fliers was included in our regular mailings).

While our reach and impact could have been greater with more money, we are maximizing our impact by collaborating with other disability organizations. In January, the Illinois Disability Vote Project was launched – a statewide effort that includes fifteen cross-disability organizations as well as all of the 24 CILs in Illinois. Pooled resources are supporting the development of uniform voting outreach materials, a GOTV "cookbook" and a "list enhancement" service – allowing us to perform targeted registration and turnout activities among our consumer bases.

Through our efforts, we have learned that any GOTV effort must ingrain the importance of voting into the culture and routine activities of your organization. While the upcoming election may be a motivating factor to start–up a GOTV project, the work cannot and must not end in November. It needs to be viewed and treated as a long-term commitment by all of us in this nation to build the political power of people with disabilities.