Weekly Check In November 4

[tanaqui]

Election day is almost upon us! And there's encouraging news about how some of the elections on the various slates are tightening to within the margin of error.

We also have a post where you can wave your hipster credentials and tell us about how you knew candidates "before they were famous".

So time for the final push! We've had plenty of suggestions for last-minute donations and actions, as well as a few things to keep going with once the results are in. As well as voting yourself (if you haven't done so already), we also have suggestions for effective ways to encourage the people you know to vote.

(We'll be making a couple of posts on Tuesday as well, so you can let us know how things are going where you are on the day.)

Upcoming Elections - Encouraging others to vote
New this week: Useful Twitter Links
Excellent thread on effective voter contact
Encourage your friends to vote with VoteWithMe app
Motivote sort of "gamifies" the midterm voting process (you sign up at the site and as you complete various actions to prepare to vote, you're entered to win prizes.)
Here Comes The General
Find a DNC event near you and phonebank with MomsRising
Get out the vote with letter writing and texting, focus on local elections
Volunteer to help elect Democrats
GOTV Resources from Organising for Action

Upcoming Election - Information to share with other voters
Lyft are going to be providing half-price or free rides to the polls on Nov 6 for those in need
Useful How-to Guide For Voters
Link(Spam): US Voter Information
BallotReady.org lets you research all races in your location
Voto Latino partners with Lyft to enable Dodge City voters to get to the polls
Register or check your voter registration

Upcoming Elections - Where to donate
New this week: Getcha Last Donations In
GiveSmart Women (slate number 4!)
Maximize your donating efficiency with SCIENCE! (yes, it's another slate)
More Slates!
And Now There's Give Smart 3!Matching Donations for the Great Slate
If you fancy some long shots in your rage-donating
For Your Rage-donations
District funds for the mid-terms
Support progressive Congressional candidates in competitive rural districts
Information on State Primary Dates and list of pro-NRA Republicans who are vulnerable

Other Actions - New
Boycotting Fox: Call To Boycott Companies That Advertise On Fox, We Got A List and Petition
Defunding Steve King: Angry? Bored? Can You Phone Or Tweet Or E-mail?, The Campaign To Get Support Pulled From Steve King Is Working!!!, And Now The Pac and Steve King Boycott Update

If you're looking for actions not related to the elections, take a look at past check-in posts where we have suggestions specifically for immigration (and also here) and for other issues

Housekeeping (the usual stuff)
Reminder that we now have a Friending Meme and a (locked) post where you can connect with others who live in the same area. We hope you find both of these posts useful!

We also have a suggestion post if there’s a topic that you’d like to see discussed but would like to ask the mods to look into. This can be anything from general information, or a how-to-do-a-thing, or something you may want to discuss as a community. Folks are welcome to post directly to the comm as always, but if you’re not comfortable/don’t have spoons, we can help too.

As we don't always get the time to pull things out of the suggestions post into their own separate posts, it may be worth checking every week (or tracking the post) to see if there's any new information you're interested in.

Also if you need help with tags, PM redbird, who is our tag guru. Both tassosss and I are very grateful for the help.

So, what have you all been up to in the last week or are planning to get involved in next week?

Poll #20670 The Week

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

View Respondents

This week, I...

View Answers

called my one senator
2 (9.5%)

called my other senator
2 (9.5%)

called my representative
1 (4.8%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

called my state reps
1 (4.8%)

sent a postcard/email/letter/fax
7 (33.3%)

attended a town hall
0 (0.0%)

donated money to a cause
12 (57.1%)

attended an in-person activist group
1 (4.8%)

participated in phone/online training
5 (23.8%)

went to a protest
0 (0.0%)

signed up for alerts
3 (14.3%)

worked for a campaign
5 (23.8%)

VOTED!
12 (57.1%)

took care of myself
10 (47.6%)

not a US citizen but worked in solidarity in my own community
2 (9.5%)

did something else
8 (38.1%)

committed to action in the coming week
6 (28.6%)

Comments

[juliet316]

Not sure about transportation issues, but I will be voting this Tuesday, someway, somehow.

[tanaqui]

Good luck on getting your transportation issues solved and being able to get to your voting place without too much trouble!

[sathari]

...snickering over my "hipster cred" post. But thinking back on it, it's also a, "Which candidates have an awesome ground game that got you into them early (and possibly how can the Democratic party replicate this in the future)?" post.

[tanaqui]

Glad you took my teasing over "hipster cred" in the spirit it was intended. :-) I found your post -- both the idea and your own stories -- really uplifting.

You're right that it's about candidates who can inspire and engage people quickly and from early on -- and that we need to figure out how to bottle that and spread it around.

[sathari]

Oh, totally, you made me laugh at myself which is great! And I'm so glad the idea and stories were uplifting--- that was what I'd hoped by making the post!

And on the other hand, you also totally made me see what I did there, in that the underlying important thing about "candidates you liked before they got large-scale attention" is how to build a solid freaking support base in politics--- how candidates who eventually come to national prominence build their initial support networks. (And, on the flip side, how much the "hipster cred" vibe plays well with that--- Andrew Gillum's people made me feel smart because I knew about him "before he was cool" and in fact THEY are the smart ones because they made me know about him when other people didn't!)

[rosefox]

[x] did something else -- shared a lot of links with friends who have more time/energy for phonebanking than I do.

[tanaqui]

Also very important -- thanks for doing that!

[j00j]

My household has our voting plan, and I spent yesterday textbanking with Indivisible, messaging over 2000 potential voters.

[tanaqui]

That's awesome! You're awesome. :-)