Let's talk a bit about how we win this election.

It's coming soon and we need to have all hands on deck to maximize our impact here.

I believe there are several areas we should focus on in order to improve voter turnout based on my research and discussions. 1/

#BeTheChange4USA

One area of focus should be addressing what prevents many voting eligible adults from participating.

According to research the biggest issues are:

1) Lack of info about how/where/why to vote/early & absentee voting.

2) No transport to polls.

3) Not relating to platform.

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To address the lack of info that stops many that could vote from voting, I recommend a resource like http://vote.org  as anyone can check their registration, find out where to vote, get their absentee ballot and much more.

It's easy, it's free and it's safe.

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There's more that we can do to help people get the info that they need to vote and help inspire them to do just that.

And I think we should call upon the activist living inside each of us to do just that.

AAUW has a fantastic resource to check out.

4/ https://www.aauw.org/resources/policy/get-involved-in-elections/

Transportation is an issue for some voting in person, but there are a number of ride sharing and poll transportation solutions coming in to play.

Among them are websites like https://rideshare2vote.com/  which seems to be working on exactly this quandary.

Look out for others!

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Many that do not vote also don't relate to the platform of the major candidates--whether it's a national, state or local election.

Often this may just come down what one has been told vs the reality of the platform.

But sometimes it also has to do with disenfranchisement.

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When we're talking about connecting voters with candidates, one of the best things that we can do as activists is volunteer for campaigns so we can align our messaging with that of the candidate and provide direct feedback to the campaign about our efforts for outreach.

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Social media does have a role to play here, especially when we're talking about platforms that tend to be popular with younger audiences.

But it is not the end all be all -- and it should only be one piece of our activism to get out the vote.

Other outreach methods are key.

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Ultimately we need to be mindful that our electoral system is rather broken and confusing.

We don't get they day off, each state has a different way of doing things, younger people and poorer communities are often not given the same level of attention for election info, etc.

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My advice to maximize your impact on getting out the vote is to make the human connection.

Be compassionate and be real with everyone that you reach out to.

Try to inspire others to join you in your activism.

We're all in this together and we can win if we work as a team.

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Insofar as other methods outside of social media, look toward the tools we use to communicate all the time:

-Text and phone banking

-Postcards w/candidate and election info

-Emails w/candidate and election info

-Socially distanced canvassing (where safe)

-Virtual events

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Right now is crunch time!

We have to factor in that many more are voting early/by mail than in any previous election.

So that means that every day leading up to November 3rd is much more consequential than previous electoral cycles.

We have to do everything that we can.

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