Crunch time to GOTV
Dear Crawford County Democrats:
We have 34 days until the general election. Early voting starts in 15 days. There is still so very much to do!
Every Tuesday, from 4 to 8pm, we are phone banking at HQ. Once you are comfortable, if you'd like, you can phone bank from home.
We are having a Crawford County "Day of Action" every Saturday starting at 10 am at HQ. Know that you need to door knock, but nervous about getting started? Come and find an experienced canvasser to take you out! It seems scary at first, but it's actually wonderful once you're started, I promise. And the weather looks amazing. Get your steps in!
Every Sunday at 1pm from now until the election, we will be meeting at HQ to provide updates, to toss around ideas for getting out the vote, to plan, etc.
Still nervous about phone banking or knocking on doors? Here are some other ways to help:
1. Postcards from the Congressional District. We'll need help getting them addressed.
2. We have an "Adopt-A-Voter" program, where you can peruse the rolls to look for friends, family, and neighbors who maybe don't vote as often as they should, so that you can help them get to the polls!
3. We need walk bags for canvassers stuffed.
4. We have old signs from prior campaigns that can be repurposed for current issues.
5. We need volunteers to staff HQ so that we can stay open longer.
6. Are you good at designing flyers? We need help crafting advertisements, flyers, mailers, etc!
We know that knocking on doors is the single best thing that you can do to get Democrats elected, followed by phone banking. So if you think you can, or you think you might, I implore you to give it a try! But if you can't, we still need you. Join us. Let's push our candidates over the finish line.
The General Election will be here before we know it. The time to start preparing is now.
***The first and most important thing to do is to check your own voter registration by visiting www.ksvotes.org.***
Last day to register to vote in the upcoming general election is October 15th.
Early voting begins October 16th. Starting on October 16th, you can early vote in person at the County Clerk’s office in Girard during business hours up until Monday, November 4th at noon, or at one of the following early vote locations:
PSU Bicknell Center Lobby - October 22nd 8am-4pm
Homer Cole Center - October 26th 9am - 4pm
Meadowbrook Mall - October 27th 9am - 4pm
You can also receive an advanced ballot by mail by registering at www.ksvotes.org.
An important note about receiving an advanced ballot by mail: During the primary election, over 1,000 Kansas ballots were mishandled by the USPS and were therefore not counted. (Read more about this here: https://kansasreflector.com/2024/09/09/kansas-election-official-says-nearly-1000-primary-ballots-tossed-due-to-mail-processing-issues/) I personally love getting my ballot by mail, because then I can review it at my leisure. HOWEVER, because of the issues with the USPS, we recommend that you either return your advance ballot in person to the County Clerk’s office or to one of the drop boxes (I use the one by the court house in Pittsburg.) Returning your ballot in person also lets you get one of the very excellent “I Voted” stickers, which are critical to taking your social media voting selfies.
Election day is November 5th. If you would like help either getting to polls (for early voting or on Election Day), registering for an advanced ballot, or have questions about your polling place or the ballot, please either reply to this email or call our office at 620-670-6867. If you are available to help get voters to the polls, again either reply to this email or call our office.
Other frequently asked questions: if you are a college student, you can choose whether to vote at your “permanent address" or at your college address. If you are living in Pittsburg to attend PSU, we would love it if you voted at your Pittsburg address, and we can help you do that! If you are from the area but currently attending college in a swing state like Pennsylvania, by all means, vote in the swing state.
If you have moved recently, the best thing to do is to go to www.ksvotes.org and update your voter registration with your new address before October 15th. The address on your photo ID does not need to match your voter registration, but when the poll worker asks you for your address, you will need to tell them the address where you are registered. It is best to check now, just in case there is a clerical error. County party volunteers are going to try to reach out to Crawford County democrats who have a change of address form on file, but there is so much work to do that we aren’t sure if we will get to everyone.
We always need volunteers. We need people to work in the office, we need people to make phone calls, we need people to drive voters to the polls, we need people to do clerical work, we need people to make friendship bracelets, we need people to put up signs… But most of all, we need for you to vote. Our elections in Crawford County are going to come down to a few hundred votes at most. Every single vote matters. *Your* vote matters. Questions about any of this? Reach out. We are here to help.
To the stars, my friends.
Sincerely,
Dr. Emily Walters
Chairperson, Crawford County Democratic Party
