How to increase voter turnout

What doesn’t work, what does, and how to do it right

As many of you may know, I work with an organization called Turnout Nation that focuses on increasing voter turnout in the US. Turnout Nation just started a Substack newsletter that I will cross post to this group. So for those who don't want to be on Substack, no need to go there, you'll get it here. Hope it's of interest. Stay relentless, siblings.

Here's the link for the post on Substack

In the United States, voter turnout isn’t low because people don’t care, are lazy, or are disengaged. It’s low because the entire system for getting people to vote is built around short bursts of panic, a frenzy every October in an even numbered year permeated with sports and war metaphors, trying to beat the other side, winning the campaign, and getting over the finish line.

This candidate campaign focus turns off the people who we most need to vote.

Many campaigns today are built on a logic of division: get just enough of our voters to freak out about the other side and vote against them that we can eek out a win. The dominant emotional fuel is fear rather than hope or responsibility, “It’s an emergency. We must stop them.” And then, once it’s over, the GOTV machine shuts down and disappears for the voters and volunteers.

Voters are forgotten until next time except as fundraising targets. Volunteers are exhausted and abandoned in WhatsApp groups to commiserate, and to distribute articles and birthday greetings to each other. Nothing is built, nothing remains for regular citizens and their voting habits. In this current system there is really nothing for these volunteers to do but wait for some new candidate to appear...in many months.

But the truth is, people who vote in every election rarely do it because of the candidates, or even the cause. They do it because it’s a habit. A civic rhythm. And that kind of habit doesn’t come from apps or ads. It comes from people, from friends, from trust. Many voted with their parents. The thing that predicts best if somebody will vote in any given election? If they voted in the election before that.

We’re trying something new. Turnout Nation is a non-partisan, volunteer-run nonprofit dedicated to growing that habit of voting, quietly, steadily, and permanently. We do it through something called the Captain Method, a simple strategy that can be used by any club, union, team, congregation, college, community, or even neighborhood.Here’s how it works: volunteers within an organization step up to become Voting Captains. Each Captain picks ten people — friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and commits to helping them vote. Not persuading them how they should vote, just talking them through their plan to vote, being sure they know the relevant deadlines, polling stations, etc. After each election, Captains find out who of their ten voted, and who didn't, thank them, or learn what happened and how better to help next time.

That’s it. No apps trying to game your social graph. No partisan scripts. No batch texting, no door knocking, no phone banks, no stranger-to-stranger stuff at all. Just people helping people they know to vote. It's been tested through randomized control trials and proven to work better than any campaign outreach by an order of magnitude. And because it's not tied to candidates, it can keep going, election after election, including primaries, referendums, by-elections, ballot initiatives….each time building something enduring.

Turnout Nation doesn’t aim to replace campaigns. People will always run for office and they will always have campaigns. Issues and messaging will come and go. We aim to build the base layer beneath those campaigns. A culture where helping communities, communities that we are already a part of, to help their members and their members' friends make voting and easy and a normal part of life rather than a last-minute scramble.

Because when more people vote, no matter who they vote for, democracy gets stronger.

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This newsletter/blog/community is where we will talk about what we have learned about our friend-to-friend voter turnout efforts, why we focus on this particular part of democracy and the political system, our many spectacular failures, and our big wins. We want to connect people who are looking for new ideas in US democracy and to offer something that may be worth their attention or even engagement. We’ll try to post once each week or so. We very much appreciate subscriptions (it’s free!) and forwarding to those who may be interested.