With 26 days until the election and only 5 days left to register to vote, this is the time when things really heat up. We’re ready for it. At Next Up, we are executing on a 3-prong strategy for making sure young people’s voices and votes are counted during this pivotal, life-changing election. Find out how we’re making it happen – and how you can join us!
3 strategies to get out the vote
- Run a voter registration campaign through beregistered.org. In September we hired an amazing team of 23 young organizers to register student voters – our Youth Vote Interns! – and we are dialing ourselves into classrooms all over the state!
- Get out the vote with a dedicated phone banking team. We just hired another amazing team of 12 young organizers to phone bank for 5 solid weeks – our Elections Interns! – to help us reach Oregon voters ages 18-29.
- Recruit hundreds of volunteers to phone bank and text bank with us, 6 days a week until November 3!
For our internships, we prioritized recruiting and hiring Black, Indigenous & People of Color (BIPOC).
These internships also offer young people the chance to build important organizing and communication skills and build relationships within our political ecosystem, preparing them to be lifelong organizers. That’s one reason why paid internships are key to our theory of change!
Voter Registration & Youth Vote Interns
While Oregon is the #1 easiest state to vote in, thanks in part to Automatic Voter Registration (which we fought for! woo!), we know that thousands of young people have not been registered yet. With COVID-19 sending many high schools and colleges online, we turned to virtual class raps as a way to reach young people and share information about registering.
We hired 23 Youth Vote Interns to make it happen!
By the numbers:
- Youth Vote Interns are reaching out to a total of 116 schools to schedule class raps
- Our goal is 240 class raps
- Over half of those have been completed and 60 are scheduled for next week!
- In just the last week, 431 people filled out our form to register to vote!
If you’re a high school or college teacher who would like a virtual visit from one of our amazing interns, email isabela@nextuporegon.org!
GOTV & Election Interns
With older generations’ disproportionate impact on our elections, it’s critical to mobilize young people to vote. We’re doing this by calling up voters ages 18-29 and making sure they have everything they need to vote.
We just hired 12 interns to join us for the last 5 weeks before the election, expanding our capacity to reach voters all over the state. This awesome team will do non-partisan voter outreach, contacting our target group via texts and calls. Their goal: making sure our voices (and votes) will be heard and counted!
By the numbers:
- 12 Election Interns
- 180 Get-Out-The-Vote shifts
Volunteer Recruitment & GOTV Phone Banks
One week in, and our get-out-the-vote phone banks are off the hook. We’ve already recruited 190 volunteers and we’re not slowing down!
Want to join us? You’ll be part of a communal effort to turn out voters between 18-29 in Oregon with our virtual phone banks and text banks. We’re hosting a phone bank every day of the week (except for Fridays, got to rest) and twice a day on weekends. If you’ve been wondering how to plug into this election, you can join us as many times as you want by signing up on our events page. Even if you’ve never phone banked before, every phone bank starts with a training, and you’ll be in good hands. Invite your coworkers, family and friends!
Join us in turning the tide
By taking many small actions together, we build up to a larger, powerful movement demanding that young people’s voices be heard and our leadership recognized! This month, with the election looming, those small actions are oriented around voting.
- Take 2 minutes and head to beregistered.org by October 13th to register to vote! And if you’re already registered, get your friend registered.
- Sign up to phone bank with us! The more often you dial, the easier and more fun it becomes!
- Chip in to cover technology costs (texts and dials), volunteer recruitment, and paid fellowships. Can you support us in building youth power not only for the election but for the long haul? Become a monthly donor!
For more, follow us at @nextuporegon on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.