Seattle Driving Votes Meeting: Tuesday, Aug 3rd
*Thank you Jo and Matt for hosting*
Attendees:
Katie, Miller, Spike, Sarah, Roe, Roger, Kyle- WELCOME!
Nicki, Richard, Jo, Maya, Oliver, Lisa, Paul, Matt, Kristin, Maegan
UPDATES:
* Successful Oregon Trip - Maegan lead 3 carfuls of Driving Votes
volunteers to Portland this past weekend. They registered over 100 swing
state voters! Feedback from one member asked that, when planning trips to
OR, we choose locations that 1) are not inundated with other voter
registration drives and 2) have a population not as likely to already be
registered. Maegan's car went to transit centers and libraries and found
that, while people weren't always friendly, they often needed to be
registered.
* Seattle Driving Votes 2nd Fund Raiser at the Crocodile last week was a
great success. We raised $1100 and almost 200 people enjoyed the music of
the Radio Nationals, Dear John Letters and The Mores. Thank you Richard
for making this event happen!
TAKE ACTION!
AUGUST TRIPS
AUG 8: Kristin is planning a trip to Portland to register voters this
weekend: AUG 8. She'll leave on Saturday and register voters all day
Sunday. Please contact her at kmariet13@earthlink.net if you want to join
the fun!
AUG 14: I am leaving for Portland on Saturday, August 14th to do voter
registration. Please contact me at coleen@drivingvotes.org if you would
like to join me and several other of our DV cohorts.
Please consider leading/joining a trip down to Oregon in the latter half
of Aug. Some of us will be on the cross-country trip and it will be great
to have others driving votes in NW swing states. Kyle, our friend at
Washington Citizen Action, also recommends stopping in Vancouver, WA to
register voters. This town is key in winning control of the state
legislature in WA and is place where there are easily motivated swing
voters.
HEMPFEST: August 21-22
Katie Kennedy, from the Seattle Hempfest Voter Registration Project
offered us the opportunity to do voter registration right here in our
hometown. Hempfest attracts 150,000-180,000 attendees and Washington
Citizen Action, ACORN and Washington Voter Registration Project are some
of the groups who will be joining forces to register voters at this event.
I'll be sending a separate email next week to call for volunteers to do a
4-hour shift during one of the days of this 2-day event. Thanks Katie!
WASHINGTON CITIZEN ACTION
Kyle Tanner from Washington Citizen Action joined our meeting to let us
know that his group offers structured opportunities to do voter
registration in Washington EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK! His organization has set
a goal of registering 60,000 voters in Washington, concentrating on low
proclivity young voters, people of color and the LBGT community. They work
events, food banks, transit centers, community centers and have already
registered 32,776 voters. They will also be making 130,000 contacts of
registered voters for the Get Out The Vote Project, concentrating on swing
precincts in Tacoma. Please contact Kyle at kyle@wacitizenaction.org if
you want more opportunities to do voter reg in WA. Thanks for joining us
Kyle!
OPERATION ESPRESSO
Michael Schultheis started this project here in Seattle make registering
to vote EASY by targeting places of commerce where people wait in line.
We are joining Michael & Co. by installing a stack of voter registration
forms, and a sign in the window that says "Register Here to Vote" at
businesses all across the city. Cafe owners have told Michael that
customers REALLY appreciate the convenience of registering to vote while
ordering their double tall latte! Thousands of voter reg forms have been
scooped up - the project is proving to be VERY successful. Please feel
free to make this project Operation Hair Salon, Operation Grocery Store,
and Operation Laundromat, etc. We ask that you follow up with the
businesses that you solicit to make sure they do not run out of forms.
Leaving your email with the manager may be a good idea too so they can let
you know if they need more materials. Also, let me know where you've been
successful, so we can keep track of our efforts. If you need packets of
forms, please let me know!
Thank you all for your support and hard work. Our next meeting will be
next Wednesday, August 11th (8:00pm) at Maya and Oliver's home.
All the best ~
Coleen
coleen@drivingvotes.org
// posted by coleen at
12:54 PM
