Add to the College To-Do List: Absentee Voting!

Image: Sign on UW-Madison's Bascom Hill saying #BADGERSVOTE
Photo Credit: Yara Changyit-Levin

Image: A disorganized pile of belongings meant
to be packed for college.

A heap of my child's belongings is growing on my dining room table. Every day it grows, and things are even sliding off the top. Do I yell at her to put them away? No. They are exactly where they should be. This is the staging area where she gathers things she'll need for her freshman year of college.

If you have a college-bound student, you're probably hounding them with never-ending To-Do lists. Collect everything on the college packing list, visit the dentist and eye doctor, refill prescriptions, replace the ratty tennis shoes, and don’t forget to get a haircut, please! But I have one last thing of utmost importance for you to do if your child will be 18 or older by Election Day…register to vote and register for ABSENTEE voting.

Out-of-state college kids will not be home for their very first presidential election. This is true not only for the incoming freshmen but also for anyone who wasn’t old enough to vote in 2020, including my oldest child who will enter their third year of college this fall.

With stakes riding high on issues that affect college students so directly (like, climate, reproductive rights, and gun violence), we need to make sure every eligible voter can cast their vote without problems. It’s tempting to say they can take care of it later, but it’s not easy for new adults to navigate ever-changing voting systems. For example, my state of Missouri requires a notary for excused absentee voting. Many incoming freshmen have never even heard of a notary, much less know where to find one on a campus they’ve never lived on before! Better to take care of the things parents can help with now, so that kids can be free to do things in October like hunt for notary offices, canvas for candidates, and help other students get their ballots.

Image: Yara holding a URL code in front of 
the #BADGERSVOTE sign.
Photo credit: Yara Changyit-Levin

In November of 2022, my oldest child, Yara Changyit-Levin, was a 18-year-old activist discovering how difficult it was for UW-Madison students who waited until the last day to figure out how to vote. As part of the Sunrise Movement, they travelled to Wisconsin to help students vote on campus and assist in encouraging friends to vote as well. (See our blog about it here) For out-of-state students, it wasn't as simple as showing up at a polling place. Yara intercepted several out-of-staters who didn't know they had to go to a specific building to fill out a form before casting a ballot. Woe to those who waited for the last minute and couldn't make the run across campus on time! Of course, it was far too late to vote for candidates in their home state.

Vote.org

Every state has their own rules for absentee voting that can vary widely. In lucky Colorado, every voter receives a mail ballot! I can’t cover everything everyone needs in this blog. But I will point you to the www.vote.org website. Besides an anxiety-producing countdown to election day, you’ll find links to help people in every state find resources to check their registration, register to vote, and vote by mail.

Missouri Voting Rules

If you live in Missouri, which many of my readers do, here is a link from the St. Louis County Board of Elections: https://stlouiscountymo.gov/st-louis-county-government/board-of-elections/elections/absentee-voting/

That’s where I got this handy Missouri absentee voting chart. If you know you’ll be away from home on Election Day and the two weeks leading up to it, you’ll need to apply online, by email, fax, mail, or in person. Out-of-state college students fall in that category. This option is open now and the deadline is two weeks prior to election day.

Image: Absentee voting quick reference guide from the 
St. Louis Board of Elections

Keep in mind, you can’t just drop something in a mailbox two weeks before. The Board of Elections must receive and process it two weeks prior to Election Day at 5PM.

This absentee registration means you’ll get an absentee ballot sent to you. If your child doesn’t have a school address yet, have it sent to your home and make sure they get it ASAP when you see it. They will need to fill out the ballot and then take it to a notary on or near campus. Common places for notaries include banks, libraries, and campus financial aid/services offices, but that will vary by campus. Your kid will have to bring the ballot there in person along with a valid photo ID that meets state requirements (driver’s license, passport, military ID). Payment might also be required depending on the notary, but it’s usually $5 or less.

“What If My Kid Doesn’t Register Before Leaving?”

Don’t panic if they don’t finish this task before moving to school. Most states can register citizens to vote online and have other options besides in-person absentee voting registration, like email or US postal services. In Missouri, family members like parents, step-parents, grandparents, and even in-laws can request it for the voter if your kid truly can’t figure it out.

Youth Voter Turnout

The last presidential election showed a significant jump in youth voter turnout. It was at a high of 55% not seen since 1972, up from 44% in the 2016 presidential election. (Data from Statista.com)

Image: Data from Statista.org showing percent voter turnout for presidential elections
from 1972 to 2020. Photo credit: www.Statista.org

In an era when adults are letting kids down so badly, youth voices are critical to shape a future of their own making. Let’s give them every opportunity to make their votes count!

Image: Book cover

Buy an autographed copy of "From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started" at my website www.changyit.com or order it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any independent bookstore!

When Advocacy & Voting Aren't Enough: Election Campaign Volunteering

I spend most of my time telling people that building relationships with members of Congress is an empowering way to change the world between elections. There are a few weeks of the year when I "get out the vote." But there comes a time when advocacy isn’t enough and an individual vote isn’t enough either to get the change we need. This is that time! If you truly care about the outcome of an election (and everybody should this year more than most), you should be turning your vote into 20, 50, or 100 votes.

In 2020, we need to rid ourselves of the notion that our candidates are going to win because "somebody else" is going to do the work. It's time to get personal. It's up to all of us.

When I speak to people about campaign volunteering - even those who are very vocal about out against the President of the US or the general state of the world - I get this pushback:

• I just feel so overwhelmed with all this political negativity and COVID

• I’m super busy and don’t have time

• I’m not good at talking to strangers and wouldn’t know what to say

If you feel overwhelmed, I get it. I hear you. Yet consider that we may feel even more overwhelmed in December if gun sense candidates lose, reproductive rights are reduced, and we have four more years of a president inspiring racist acts of murder as happened in Kenosha recently. Helping get new people in office and ousting people not living up to their jobs can ease anxious feelings. It may not seem like it, but campaign volunteering can sometimes be self care.

If you are busy, I get that, too. But most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, have an hour here or there.

As far as talking to strangers, I’ve got splendid news for you! Read on about ways to volunteer that either give you help in talking about candidates or don’t require you to talk to anyone AT ALL!

Making sure like-minded friends/family have a voting plan 

Usually, we’d be doing this kind of work 2-3 weeks before an election, but in the context of COVID-19 people need to request mail-in or absentee ballots early. In Missouri, that means explaining to people the difference between mail-in and absentee ballots and ensuring people make solid plans to do one of those options very early or vote in person. 

Here’s an infographic about Missouri, but make sure you find up-to-date info about your own state. Voting rules differ from state to state!

No-Contact Canvassing 

Canvassing doesn't mean knocking on doors to talk to voters anymore. COVID-19 has brought on the "No Contact Literature Drop." You get a map and a stack of door hangers with campaign info on it. You walk around a neighborhood wearing a mask and hang the info on doorknobs. That's it!

The closest I ever got to anyone while doing literature drops for Helena Webb (running for Missouri State Rep for District 100) was calling out to people doing yardwork from a distance to ask them, "May I hang this on your door?" They always just gave me a thumbs up or waved me toward their door.

Phone Banking 

Phone banking used to happen at campaign offices with stale coffee & donuts. But like everything else in 2020, it’s now done from home. Because of COVID-19, this is now the ONLY way many campaigns can have interactive conversations with voters.

Most campaigns invite you to a zoom call to receive training on how to use an on-line tool. The tool provides a script to read from a screen with info about the candidate. Sometimes, it even gives you the voters' polling places to help voters make a voting plan. Some especially cool campaigns (like Sunrise Movement) use an online dialer. A dialer automatically calls voters for you while concealing your own phone number. Those are helpful because it reduces the number of times you get an answering machine.

You’re always encouraged to customize the script with your own reasons you support a candidate, but you can just stick to the script if you prefer! Heck, you can even use a fake first name if you’re that worried about exposing yourself.

Is this effective? You bet. Your experience will contain a lot of hang-ups and people who won’t want to talk to you. But when you get someone who is undecided, those conversations are golden! When I was calling for Cori Bush’s primary, I got a voter who went from a very skeptical “I heard she started a fake church” to an enthusiastic “I’m going to get my whole family to vote for her. There are five of us here and we’re all going together. We’re all voting for Cori Bush!” It shocked me that a phone call from me, a stranger, had that much impact on that woman. I don’t even live in her district, but my voting power soared from zero votes to five in that one conversation. That night, when Cori won by a VERY narrow margin, I was glad I made the effort.

For more detailed info on phone banking with the Sunrise Movement, here is my daughter’s blog about it at “Thrill Seeking for Nerds (who want to change the world)”

Text banking

Text banking is similar to phone banking except it uses only texting. The concept is the same in that you’ll probably be asked to download an app to help you text voters. You won’t see their contact info and they won’t see yours. I don’t have a lot of experience with this except as a text banking recipient. I’ll admit that my failing eyesight doesn’t make me a fan of texting, but my 14-year-old likes this method. Maybe you will, too!

Postcards

Postcards are one of my favorite ways to help because I don’t interact with anyone and I can do it while I’m watching Dr. Who or Umbrella Academy and still feel like I’m helping our democracy! You get a stack of postcards along with a list of voter addresses and a short sample message to write. Fill them out, put your own postcard stamps on them, and drop them in the mailbox. Easy! I like to use colored sharpies to make them pretty. My kids sometimes draw little pictures on them. Anything that makes them more eye-catching and personal is great!

Recruiting Friends to Volunteer

Did you read through those options and still can’t bring yourself to do any of them? Try making a handful of calls to ask friends if they would do volunteer for a campaign. You probably know someone of your own political mindset who has some time. Recruitment of even two active volunteers still multiplies your own influence!

What are your favorite ways to volunteer for campaigns?