All eyes are upon Texas right now. State Democratic legislators have flown to D.C. to prevent Republicans from reaching the required quorum to enact their onerous Voter Suppression bills. But while there is little else Democratic legislators can do in Texas, there is a lot that we can do on the ground.
A lot.
Last weekend, Hope Springs from Field PAC organized Voter Suppression mitigation canvasses in Texas, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Because of the weather, we had to cancel canvasses in Florida and North Carolina, but at least those states offer a longer canvassing season. In Texas, we have been canvassing in Harris and Tarrant counties for weeks, asking voters to update their voter registration if they have moved, registering new voters (especially young people and recent arrivals to the state), making sure that they understand the rules, asking for their opinions and for messages they would like sent to their elected officials and, when needed, helping them fill out Constituent Service Request forms. We want to leave them with a smile and the impression that Democrats Care!
It probably won’t surprise you that there were a lot of questions about this special session and what people could do about Gov. Abbott’s determination to keep minorities and, especially, Harris County from voting (and that was before Dems left for D.C.). In the Houston media market, the attack on Harris County’s Covid-mitigation efforts is all over the news. Harris County had a record 1.6 million people cast their ballots in the 2020 presidential election, including more than 1,344,915 votes cast early. 10 percent of Harris County voters cast ballots at drive-thru locations. But its 67% turnout encouraged people to think Joe Biden could actually win Texas and
Harris County voted blue Tuesday, flipping a formerly Republican state House seat and giving 56% of the presidential vote to Biden with a margin of more than 200,000 votes.
So keeping Harris and Tarrant counties in check is a high priority for Republicans. “Voter ID laws, limits on qualifications for absentee ballots and rigidity in the mechanics of balloting all weed out untold numbers of voters along the way.” Reminding (or informing) voters of these are the point of the deep organizing and canvassing that Hope Springs from Field PAC has been doing in five of the states that will decide who has the majority in the U.S. Senate in 2023. (We remain committed to Arizona in the future, but need more sustained funding to find an organizer there.)
76 volunteers drawn primarily from county Democratic clubs, the Obama volunteer list and Facebook Texas Democrats groups canvassed in the Texas heat and humidity on Saturday. They knocked on 4,408 doors and talked to 494 voters. Residents filled 58 Constituent Service Request Forms, 37 in Tarrant County and 21 in Harris, all of which have now been turned over to the appropriate Democratic public officials who can help them with their issues.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights. We are thinking how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterprotection
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate and our cause. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters).
Democrats need an all-in, all-encompassing approach in dealing with Republican attempts to suppress the vote over the next two cycles, especially in states like Texas and Georgia. Attorney General Garland has promised to examine the new voting laws, and take them to court, if they violate federal laws. Marc Elias is pursuing overturning these laws in the courts, on broader grounds. And Congress tries to negate them with HR1. And we support those actions. But those efforts are largely unknown by the voters they affect. These voters are much more likely to be aware of state efforts to affect their ability to vote.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been involved in the efforts to respond to these new laws and expanded voter suppression practices by thinking how to mitigate them, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance" with them in 2022, helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets) of these new voter suppression laws. Some of our actions are very simple (asking voters if they are registered at their current address instead of just asking if they are registered to vote) and some are more complex (such as helping voters in these communities meet the ID requirements).
As part of this "super compliance" strategy, we have been canvassing with mobile printers allow us to minimize the attempt to suppress absentee voting by minority communities by allowing voters to scan and print a copy of the necessary identification for free. This is what we mean when we talk about "super-compliance." Attempts to make VBM more onerous are negated by making the means for meeting the requirements available during canvassing.
Mobile printers will allow voters to bring their acceptable identification to the car, scan the ID themselves and take the copy back to their home for inclusion with their absentee ballot. They will do the scanning and printer so that they know that their "numbers" are secure. It will also strengthen their confidence in the VBM process, if they choose to take that route. But the primary reason for canvassing with mobile printers is to increase voter confidence that they can vote absentee and to get volunteers comfortable with this strategy before 2022. And it reminds everyone that Republican efforts to choose their electorate will be fought on the ground, with the means to negate it.
Ever since Tom DeLay, Texas Republicans have fought tooth and nail to keep electoral turnout small. They are doubling down on their formula of curtailing early voting, funneling voters to the polls and forcing as many Democrats as possible to cast provisional ballots. Even if the Democratic state legislators are successful (again) in preventing a vote on the current bills, Texas will remain the state where it is most difficult to vote in. Which, again, is why we are canvassing now, this far out from election day.
This isn’t our only strategy, but it is — necessarily — the beginning. We will be assigning new voters we register with Mentors (people who will take on the responsibility for encouraging those new voters to vote in 2022 and 2024), attempting 3 more in-person contacts before Labor Day 2022, clean up lists in the targeted areas, Partner w Black Churches and their Elections Committees and attempt larger project Voter Registration Drives (like Graduation ceremonies and Registered Voters Thank You picnics). Presidential cycle level stuff.
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation, please do:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterprotection