In my never-ending quest to make our government more progressive, I’ve gotten myself mixed up in an exciting new campaign. Actually, I’m running it.
It’s called Vote Today Ohio, and its an effort to turn out 10,000 new voters in Ohio during what we call the “Golden Week.”
What’s Golden Week? Two years ago, Ohio changed its voting laws to create a 7-day span — Sept 30 to Oct 6 — where Ohio residents can walk into an early voting center, register to vote, and vote on the spot. This has never been possible before.
Why does it matter? Because it takes what is normally a two-step process (register, wait a month, THEN vote) and turns it into a one-step process (register AND vote at the same time). For progressive organizers, that creates a much more efficient way to bring new voters into the process AND lock in their votes — before those votes can be manipulated, stolen or lost.
If you really want to make a difference this political season:
1. Donate via our Act Blue page. See if you can get your friends and family to join together a sponsor a van for the week ($750).
2. Spread the word. Tell friends, especially in Ohio, to check out our Facebook page.
3. Come to Ohio! Ideally, we need folks to arrive in Columbus on Sunday night, Sept 28 and stay until Oct 6. If you can do any part of that, fill out the Online Sign-Up Sheet and we’ll get in touch.
(Note: This is going to be a super-intense campaign, without much time to blog, much less eat or sleep. Forgive me if I go radio silent for a while.)