potential-voter outreach

[chhotii]

The fabulous hammercock and I are planning a letter-writing party-- where we get together and write a bunch of letters to people who live in a swing state and weren't registered to vote, begging them to register. Probably the list of addresses we use will be unmarried women in Nevada. We have lots of addresses, a sample letter to give you some idea what to write, voter-education materials to mail, stamps, etc. I will provide food, wine, etc.

Just think, if Nevada turns into 2004's version of Florida, how much you will wish you had done this.

The soonest we can do this is this Thursday, September 23. We should do this as soon as possible. The deadline for registering to vote in Nevada, October 12, is rushing up. There's a couple of swing states with later registration deadlines, but not by much.

We have 3 possible venues in mind:

a) My house in Wilmington. Advantages: fairly clean at the moment, and big enough that in spite of the clutter, we have room-- free sofa and table space can be had quickly. Disadvantages: not in Camberville; you have to either drive (in the same direction as most of the commuters for most of you) or get a ticket on the commuter rail to Zone 3 to get here.
b) Chez hammercock. If it's even an option, I'll let her comment on the advantages and disadvantages of that...
c) One of those community meeting rooms maintained by Wainwright Bank or some such thing. Advantages: Clean, conveniently located in the Camberville area. Disadvantages: Kind of a sterile, formal setting. I had in mind more of a relaxed party-like setting, in which it's easier to dual-task political letter writing and social time. I can't imagine serving pots of spaghetti and a jug of wine in Wainwright's meeting room, although we would certainly order pizza or something.

Please comment: would you be interested, at any point in time, in maybe helping us with this? If so, what are your preferences for venue?

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i'd be interested. my house is an option, too.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

There are so many thousands of names in the database, MMOB suggests having these parties on a regular recurring basis. So even though hammercock hosted one and I hosted one, I wouldn't consider this task "done". It would be really super-cool if you would host one of these. I'll help if I can. It might seem to be getting too late, but now the focus of the letter-writing campaign is shifting from writing to unregistered potential voters to writing to people who are registered, but have a history of being lame about getting to the polls.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i think that's a good idea. would saturday oct 2 work for you?

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

October 2nd would be perfect for doing this. I have a bunch of addresses in Oregon of unregistered voters. The deadline for registering to vote in Oregon (either by mail or in person) is October 12, so MMOB sez, get the Oregon letters into the mail by October 5 to have any reasonable chance of doing any good with these. (The sooner the better.)

I may or may not be in town this weekend. I'm trying to find out from the Kerry campaign if there are any Pennsylvania canvassing trips organized for this weekend, and if so, I'll be away. If that happens, I'll drop off what materials I have at your place before going. (Note to self: print some more Oregon registration forms.) Let me know your estimated attendence, so I can figure out if I need to get more addresses etc. I have 44 addresses left, this should keep 9 or so people busy. More advice later, not that I have any grand insights...

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

yes, the jbvb thang is in the evening. i was thinking of doing this in the afternoon -- say two to four -- with baked goods and tea. does that make sense?

see entry in my journal....

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

That sounds great.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, 'nother thing. October 2nd conflicts with jbvb's party, doesn't it? Unless you're thinking early in the day, which might be best for a Saturday anyway. Letter-writing brunch? Hey, that would be cool, I'll come with my waffle iron and some berries if the Pennsylvania thing falls through. I don't know if you care or not about the jbvb thing, just mentioning.

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

I'm interested and would prefer your place.

[gosling.livejournal.com]

I would be interested in going (and Chip almost certainly would too, but I'm not going to wake him to ask him...) However, we are much, much more likely to make it there if it is in Camberville (and the chances of us being able to go on a school night if it is not drop to pretty much non-existent.)

I want to double check with Chip, but, if folks can put up with our mostly still packed house, our place is available too (although lyonesse has a bigger and nicer place.) :-)

[roozle.livejournal.com]

I love this idea. My house is not an option in the timeframe mentioned. I'm not free the particular date, I've already agreed to help bridgetminerva strip wallpaper. But I hope you pull it off.