I have written postcards (many other grassroots organizations ) for them in the last 4 years which is one reason why I am blown away with the numbers from Tom Bonier. Mind boggling. I guess FT6 needs to review their effectiveness. What do you think Emmy?
Thanks. I confess that I haven't watched the video yet. I've seen some other materials which say that people trying to register Democrats should make sure that they're really registering them rather than other voters. I thought FT6 really tries to do that by using slightly provocative prompts. I'll try to watch the video soon.
I am not shocked regarding the texts. I did some calls to democratic voters (I don't think it was voter registration, but probably for a candidate) in swing states. Almost no one answered the phone, and if they did answer, they were often hostile because they were being bombarded with phone calls. They would tell me to get them off the call list, and I would try and it was IMPOSSIBLE to get them off.
To me, the texts are the same thing except that you never talk to anyone. They just make people angry because they are so impersonal and people get way too many of them.
Still, all 25 Mil texts weren't ignored. I get it; that is why I don't participate in texting. But 25 Million? you'd think it would have made a dent in registering some in the overall scheme if things.
Morris's analysis of the rise of unaffiliated as the registration declaration of choice, especially among younger voters, makes a strong argument in favor of opening up our 2028 presidential primaries to independent (not GOP) voters. Tomorrow the Rules and Bylaws Committee at the DNC meets for the first time under Chairman Martin's leadership. They should take up this topic of changing our rules for 2028 in order to allow independent voters participation in our presidential primaries as one of the first orders of business when they start working on the call to the 2028 convention.
I admit that my husband and I, two old folks are registered independent in SF, Ca to avoid begging money emails and phone calls, messages. Never voted for anyone but D in every election. We are not the only ones in this category. It will be great if we can vote in the primary but if it means the possibility of sabotage, I will be fine with the current rule.
So I'm not really sure how to find non-registered voters where I live. I know we have a lot of them, but I don't really know how to organize a voter registration type drive.
Local park districts. Schools. Hospitals. Talk to your local, state, and federal senators and reps. I made a deal with a nephew. $ for college in exchange for voting and maintaining a reasonable GPA. He knows I want some proof that he voted. The younger siblings aren't 18 yet.
Hi Simon. I have. Repeatedly. I've tried to get my local party to attend local functions to do a voter registration table. They haven't stepped up to the plate, which is more than a little frustrating. There haven't seemed to be any voter registration drives in my city in the two plus years I've been on the municipal committee.
Last spring I met two women who with Auburn Dems who had been registering students at a local community college for years. They showed up with their table outside the library once a week, had weekly “vote by sticker” topical questions to draw people in, and were known by many of the students.
Hi Roger, if you aren't familiar with Indivisible, they are one of the major grass roots organizations co-founded by two former staffers, Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg. I learned about them in 2016 from a friend. Their team is amazing and on their website you can find an Indivisible Group in your area who is already registering non-registered voters. They can also help you start a group for your area with kits and information on how to do so.
You can sign up to become an Indivisible member at no cost to you. They always welcome a few dollars to help fund the work they provide to us. Their reach is now global, which is awesome.
Once you're a member, you can sign up for their Weekly To Do email which is a call to many actions and full of timely news and information, easy to understand!
Plus they hold a weekly chat every Thursday at 3pm EST. The next one is this week on 8/28 which you would need to register for, again at no cost. It's a time to gather and flesh out the news, answer questions, and provide timely calls to action (as per their website).
My only advice is to focus on what you want to do and don't overload yourself. It's easy to do that once you read the weekly to do's. I hope this helps! Onward!
Hi LD. I have been going to Indivisible events locally all year and the local branch is helping me put together a voter outreach campaign I'm trying to put together to grow turnout in my specific ward. I will discuss it with some of the folk I know from the group when I see them this week. Thanks!
Hi Roger, that's great and your very welcome! Thank you for doing this work. I know it's not easy. Maybe if you and or you and the members of your group can jump on the Indivisible call this Thursday, you can send your question in advance or drop it in the chat. I'm sure Ezra and Leah would have guidance for you and may have info to direct you too. All good!
Bonior may discuss this in your video, but I heard the other day that Dems use volunteers to register voters while Repubs have used paid professionals to it, and apparently some of these pros are very good. Dems do need to get serious about this, and I would contribute $ to this effort.
That is not correct Larry. Voter reg has been left to 501 c4 and c3 orgs. The Democratic Party got out of the voter reg business 20 years. It is coming back now.
The Sonoma County Democratic party (my county party) does do voter registrations. I'll try to find out for how long they have been doing them, but I seem to remember that they were doing them in 2018, and maybe earlier.
As Rick Wilson pointed out yesterday, he is on our side now, the Republican party has paid canvassers who register voters for years. The last elections they are likely even paying people to register and to vote, despite the illegality. When are we going to pay canvassers, etc. So that people register to vote? It's really tragic and unforgivable that we may have lost the lack election due to preventable lower voter registration. Let's now do better!
Rick Wilson was making this very same point today (or maybe yesterday) on Molly Jong-Fast's podcast, suggesting that if Dems are really going to get serious about this on either national or state level, they have to invest in paid voter registration teams. Not that volunteers can't play a role too. I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on this.
I think if Democrats want to up democratic voter registration, paid 'volunteers' are a good idea. I hate saying that - I guess it's a bit of a 'purity' test where you want people to do things because they believe in it. But I've always had to really psych myself up (as a volunteer) for these types of personal interactions, and am always looking for excuses to skip the volunteering that day or that week. Plus you have to organize all the volunteers... which is a big piece of work.
I lived in Arkansas for several years. When I lived there, they had many 'dry' counties where you cannot buy alcohol. Walmart HQ was in Benton county, and Alice Walton opened a museum in Bentonville which is in Benton County. The idea was to make Bentonville a tourist destination, so she wanted alcohol to be available in the county and Benton county was a partially 'dry' county. AR had a law on the books that to convert a 'dry' county to a 'wet' county via a referendum, you had to get 2/3 or 3/4 of the voters to agree to put it on the ballot instead of a simple majority. I think there were 3 attempts to get a referendum on the ballot to convert Benton county from a dry county to a wet county. They ultimately succeeded on getting it on the ballot by getting paid 'volunteers' to collect signatures. And the referendum easily passed once it was on the ballot.
Seems to me that the Democrats are facing a similar uphill battle so paid 'volunteers' would be a good way to make more significant progress on registering Democratic voters. And with so many people losing jobs, there are probably a lot of people who might want to do this. And if they lost their jobs due to Trump and MAGA, they are probably highly motivated too (and maybe could even pass the 'purity' test).
I have been supporting Hope Springs From Field PAC, which knocks on doors in swing states. They currently have a heavy presence in Texas. If they find an unregistered person, they get them registered to vote. This is a model that the Democratic Party needs to amplify.
we are the only party fighting for democracy and people! always have been. forget the rebranding corporate speak crap. we just need to be authentic and fighting and social media savvy. and we also must demand new, energized leadership for the moment. so maybe schumer, jeffries, chairpersons of committees should be stepping aside now too. top to bottom new party, led by grassroots, who are in the trenches, newsom, crockett, aoc, bernie, warren, etc etc. if we are going to be the new dem party, we need to be new! this energy will attract new voters, young voters, etc. no more being frady cats looking over our shoulders, testing everything we say. just say it. directly to the people. we have to save this country and we need new dem leadership to do it. the dem party is too old & top heavy. it needs to be from the grassroots up.
So many of you are writing my thoughts today. Thank you all. Yes, Schumer and Jeffries need to step aside. I am surprised that we do not talk about Mamdani and Deja Fox anymore.
I agree, but I think there's an important obvious lesson that blue dog Dems like Schumer and Carville refuse to learn: People want progressives. Bernie and AOC are speaking to enormous crowds, and he's not running for anything! If the DNC hadn't muscled Bernie out in 2016, we wouldn't be in this mess. A whole slew of independents were set to vote for Bernie back then.
Today, Bernie's message is more powerful, essential and resonant than ever. Obama gave us hope, Bernie gives us fairness: make the rich pay their fair share, everyone gets a living wage, and everyone gets healthcare. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why this is so "radical" to so many old Dems.
Agree with all 7 points. I am curious, Simon, to hear your thoughts (relevant to points 3 and 5) about Robert Reich’s assertion that Democrats need to “name the villain” of corporate greed, risk antagonizing big-money donors, and lean hard into a “tax-the-rich” message (to fund childcare, eldercare, healthcare, research, education, etc), demonstrating their commitment to the working class.
I am curious about that, too. I agree with Reich. The root cause of the problem we're in now is Citizens United. Get money out of politics, and you remove Trump, Musk, Thiel, etc., and suddenly, you'll see Republicans developing a conscience.
People mistakenly think the Republicans are afraid of their constituents. They aren't. They're afraid of losing donors. Remember what happened to Kevin McCarthy after Jan. 6? It's about the money, not the cult followers.
My weekly congresspersons call script that anyone can riff off of:
1. Free Kilmar.
- Sending him to Uganda is murder.
- using tariffs to bully Uganda into taking human bodies we don’t want is human trafficking.
- The Trump regime is organized crime. Kilmar is innocent. That’s why they’d rather send him to Africa than let him have his trial.
- When Democrats are back in power: amend the INA to prohibit nonconsensual third country deportations.
2. Redistricting arms race. We need to be all in. I support Wes Moore saying he’ll redistrict the GOP out of a seat in Maryland. We need more of that. All blue states need to participate in this effort.
3. Stop playing along w/ the false premise that domestic military deployment is about crime. It’s about suppressing and intimidating the political opposition. It is anti-American.
4. Americans deserve the freedom to get our covid and flu shots this year. Protect vaccine access.
Here in NJ, we have had a significant majority of voters register unaffiliated for some time now. I think that speaks to the entrenched power structure (and longtime Dem supermajority) that bred political dysfunction in this state, which is a lot to get into, but involves not having county govt services but instead municipalities handling things like fire, rescue, police, schools, etc.
We have a TON of registered voters, our problem is turnout. We are working on this, that is our focus this fall as much as or more than registration.
The very local Dems, of whom I am one, here in our “take one on the chin for the team” receiver district for Red voters, are focusing on getting the Election Rigging Response Act passed in California in November ‘25. We are few so our focus must be narrow and laser sure.
I just want to alert everyone in California and beyond, this is by no means a slam dunk. I walk to my post office box almost daily to get my mail. Last week I received full page, full color, cardstock flyers, arguing No on Election Rigging Response Act, on Monday, Thursday and again today, and each had a different message.
This is BIG BIG MONEY right out of the gate to defeat this effort. Deep State Billionaires are going to do everything they can to tilt the playing field, and not just in California.
Do not despair. Remember Susan Crawford won the Wisconsin Judgeship by double digits, despite Musk's $20 million donation. But we are going to have to work it to get it done.
So I sent a contribution AND I bought the "dont poke the bear" yard sign. I can put it next to my small American Flag in the front yard so people wont think I'm maga with my flag. Thanks Emily
I remember Tom B.’s talk and watched it live. Highly recommend. One thing I took from it was the importance of registering voters in odd-numbered years. We weren’t just out registered in 2024, but in the 3 years before that too.
Hell Yes!!!
Field Team 6 does a lot of registering of Democrats.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I have written postcards (many other grassroots organizations ) for them in the last 4 years which is one reason why I am blown away with the numbers from Tom Bonier. Mind boggling. I guess FT6 needs to review their effectiveness. What do you think Emmy?
Thanks. I confess that I haven't watched the video yet. I've seen some other materials which say that people trying to register Democrats should make sure that they're really registering them rather than other voters. I thought FT6 really tries to do that by using slightly provocative prompts. I'll try to watch the video soon.
We sent 25 million texts to try to register new Dems last year so I too am shocked.
I am not shocked regarding the texts. I did some calls to democratic voters (I don't think it was voter registration, but probably for a candidate) in swing states. Almost no one answered the phone, and if they did answer, they were often hostile because they were being bombarded with phone calls. They would tell me to get them off the call list, and I would try and it was IMPOSSIBLE to get them off.
To me, the texts are the same thing except that you never talk to anyone. They just make people angry because they are so impersonal and people get way too many of them.
Still, all 25 Mil texts weren't ignored. I get it; that is why I don't participate in texting. But 25 Million? you'd think it would have made a dent in registering some in the overall scheme if things.
Morris's analysis of the rise of unaffiliated as the registration declaration of choice, especially among younger voters, makes a strong argument in favor of opening up our 2028 presidential primaries to independent (not GOP) voters. Tomorrow the Rules and Bylaws Committee at the DNC meets for the first time under Chairman Martin's leadership. They should take up this topic of changing our rules for 2028 in order to allow independent voters participation in our presidential primaries as one of the first orders of business when they start working on the call to the 2028 convention.
Yes! We need these in NJ too.
Definitely worth talking about! They can't hide behind shibboleths on this topic.
Concern about sabotage?
“Primary elections cost taxpayers roughly $75 million annually. So why does PA shut out the 1.4 million independent voters who help pay for them?”
https://www.ballotpa.org/issue
I admit that my husband and I, two old folks are registered independent in SF, Ca to avoid begging money emails and phone calls, messages. Never voted for anyone but D in every election. We are not the only ones in this category. It will be great if we can vote in the primary but if it means the possibility of sabotage, I will be fine with the current rule.
So I'm not really sure how to find non-registered voters where I live. I know we have a lot of them, but I don't really know how to organize a voter registration type drive.
Local park districts. Schools. Hospitals. Talk to your local, state, and federal senators and reps. I made a deal with a nephew. $ for college in exchange for voting and maintaining a reasonable GPA. He knows I want some proof that he voted. The younger siblings aren't 18 yet.
If you live in an urban area, asking the local coffee shop is you can set up a table can work. Also, outside metro or bus stops.
Call your state and local Dem party and volunteer for when their voter reg drives start.
Hi Simon. I have. Repeatedly. I've tried to get my local party to attend local functions to do a voter registration table. They haven't stepped up to the plate, which is more than a little frustrating. There haven't seemed to be any voter registration drives in my city in the two plus years I've been on the municipal committee.
Roger, vote them out.
Last spring I met two women who with Auburn Dems who had been registering students at a local community college for years. They showed up with their table outside the library once a week, had weekly “vote by sticker” topical questions to draw people in, and were known by many of the students.
Hi Roger, if you aren't familiar with Indivisible, they are one of the major grass roots organizations co-founded by two former staffers, Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg. I learned about them in 2016 from a friend. Their team is amazing and on their website you can find an Indivisible Group in your area who is already registering non-registered voters. They can also help you start a group for your area with kits and information on how to do so.
You can sign up to become an Indivisible member at no cost to you. They always welcome a few dollars to help fund the work they provide to us. Their reach is now global, which is awesome.
https://indivisible.org/
Once you're a member, you can sign up for their Weekly To Do email which is a call to many actions and full of timely news and information, easy to understand!
Plus they hold a weekly chat every Thursday at 3pm EST. The next one is this week on 8/28 which you would need to register for, again at no cost. It's a time to gather and flesh out the news, answer questions, and provide timely calls to action (as per their website).
My only advice is to focus on what you want to do and don't overload yourself. It's easy to do that once you read the weekly to do's. I hope this helps! Onward!
Hi LD. I have been going to Indivisible events locally all year and the local branch is helping me put together a voter outreach campaign I'm trying to put together to grow turnout in my specific ward. I will discuss it with some of the folk I know from the group when I see them this week. Thanks!
Hi Roger, that's great and your very welcome! Thank you for doing this work. I know it's not easy. Maybe if you and or you and the members of your group can jump on the Indivisible call this Thursday, you can send your question in advance or drop it in the chat. I'm sure Ezra and Leah would have guidance for you and may have info to direct you too. All good!
I'm actually hosting a postcarding potluck this Thursday, because with the NJ gov race happening this fall, there's no time to lose!
Fantastic! You've got this! I hope you have a GREAT turnout! You are an inspiration!
Bonior may discuss this in your video, but I heard the other day that Dems use volunteers to register voters while Repubs have used paid professionals to it, and apparently some of these pros are very good. Dems do need to get serious about this, and I would contribute $ to this effort.
If I remember correctly, some time ago the DNC decided that the voter registration work should be done by the state (and hence, the county) parties.
That is not correct Larry. Voter reg has been left to 501 c4 and c3 orgs. The Democratic Party got out of the voter reg business 20 years. It is coming back now.
The Sonoma County Democratic party (my county party) does do voter registrations. I'll try to find out for how long they have been doing them, but I seem to remember that they were doing them in 2018, and maybe earlier.
As Rick Wilson pointed out yesterday, he is on our side now, the Republican party has paid canvassers who register voters for years. The last elections they are likely even paying people to register and to vote, despite the illegality. When are we going to pay canvassers, etc. So that people register to vote? It's really tragic and unforgivable that we may have lost the lack election due to preventable lower voter registration. Let's now do better!
This is all in the process of changing.
Rick Wilson was making this very same point today (or maybe yesterday) on Molly Jong-Fast's podcast, suggesting that if Dems are really going to get serious about this on either national or state level, they have to invest in paid voter registration teams. Not that volunteers can't play a role too. I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on this.
I think if Democrats want to up democratic voter registration, paid 'volunteers' are a good idea. I hate saying that - I guess it's a bit of a 'purity' test where you want people to do things because they believe in it. But I've always had to really psych myself up (as a volunteer) for these types of personal interactions, and am always looking for excuses to skip the volunteering that day or that week. Plus you have to organize all the volunteers... which is a big piece of work.
I lived in Arkansas for several years. When I lived there, they had many 'dry' counties where you cannot buy alcohol. Walmart HQ was in Benton county, and Alice Walton opened a museum in Bentonville which is in Benton County. The idea was to make Bentonville a tourist destination, so she wanted alcohol to be available in the county and Benton county was a partially 'dry' county. AR had a law on the books that to convert a 'dry' county to a 'wet' county via a referendum, you had to get 2/3 or 3/4 of the voters to agree to put it on the ballot instead of a simple majority. I think there were 3 attempts to get a referendum on the ballot to convert Benton county from a dry county to a wet county. They ultimately succeeded on getting it on the ballot by getting paid 'volunteers' to collect signatures. And the referendum easily passed once it was on the ballot.
Seems to me that the Democrats are facing a similar uphill battle so paid 'volunteers' would be a good way to make more significant progress on registering Democratic voters. And with so many people losing jobs, there are probably a lot of people who might want to do this. And if they lost their jobs due to Trump and MAGA, they are probably highly motivated too (and maybe could even pass the 'purity' test).
I have been supporting Hope Springs From Field PAC, which knocks on doors in swing states. They currently have a heavy presence in Texas. If they find an unregistered person, they get them registered to vote. This is a model that the Democratic Party needs to amplify.
This is a damned good newsletter today.
Yes. You wrote what I was thinking.
we are the only party fighting for democracy and people! always have been. forget the rebranding corporate speak crap. we just need to be authentic and fighting and social media savvy. and we also must demand new, energized leadership for the moment. so maybe schumer, jeffries, chairpersons of committees should be stepping aside now too. top to bottom new party, led by grassroots, who are in the trenches, newsom, crockett, aoc, bernie, warren, etc etc. if we are going to be the new dem party, we need to be new! this energy will attract new voters, young voters, etc. no more being frady cats looking over our shoulders, testing everything we say. just say it. directly to the people. we have to save this country and we need new dem leadership to do it. the dem party is too old & top heavy. it needs to be from the grassroots up.
Is there perhaps a parallel to Biden moving aside for Harris? That generated a groundswell of excitement.
So many of you are writing my thoughts today. Thank you all. Yes, Schumer and Jeffries need to step aside. I am surprised that we do not talk about Mamdani and Deja Fox anymore.
Hello everyone,
Check out my latest on “kicking the cat”: https://davidsalzillo.substack.com/p/kicking-the-cat. Read on to find out what that means lol.
As always, appreciate anyone’s feedback on all this. Thanks.
I agree, but I think there's an important obvious lesson that blue dog Dems like Schumer and Carville refuse to learn: People want progressives. Bernie and AOC are speaking to enormous crowds, and he's not running for anything! If the DNC hadn't muscled Bernie out in 2016, we wouldn't be in this mess. A whole slew of independents were set to vote for Bernie back then.
Today, Bernie's message is more powerful, essential and resonant than ever. Obama gave us hope, Bernie gives us fairness: make the rich pay their fair share, everyone gets a living wage, and everyone gets healthcare. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why this is so "radical" to so many old Dems.
Agree with all 7 points. I am curious, Simon, to hear your thoughts (relevant to points 3 and 5) about Robert Reich’s assertion that Democrats need to “name the villain” of corporate greed, risk antagonizing big-money donors, and lean hard into a “tax-the-rich” message (to fund childcare, eldercare, healthcare, research, education, etc), demonstrating their commitment to the working class.
I am curious about that, too. I agree with Reich. The root cause of the problem we're in now is Citizens United. Get money out of politics, and you remove Trump, Musk, Thiel, etc., and suddenly, you'll see Republicans developing a conscience.
People mistakenly think the Republicans are afraid of their constituents. They aren't. They're afraid of losing donors. Remember what happened to Kevin McCarthy after Jan. 6? It's about the money, not the cult followers.
My weekly congresspersons call script that anyone can riff off of:
1. Free Kilmar.
- Sending him to Uganda is murder.
- using tariffs to bully Uganda into taking human bodies we don’t want is human trafficking.
- The Trump regime is organized crime. Kilmar is innocent. That’s why they’d rather send him to Africa than let him have his trial.
- When Democrats are back in power: amend the INA to prohibit nonconsensual third country deportations.
2. Redistricting arms race. We need to be all in. I support Wes Moore saying he’ll redistrict the GOP out of a seat in Maryland. We need more of that. All blue states need to participate in this effort.
3. Stop playing along w/ the false premise that domestic military deployment is about crime. It’s about suppressing and intimidating the political opposition. It is anti-American.
4. Americans deserve the freedom to get our covid and flu shots this year. Protect vaccine access.
I also called my governor’s office about the redistricting, military deployment and vaccine access issues.
I am in NJ, in the midst if high profile governor's race. I am politically active. I see no voter registration efforts happening.
Thanks, Mary B. I’m in NJ, too. I’ve been concerned about the lack of registration. I’m going to check w NJDems.
(I tried registering voters w FieldTeam6. Their strategy and technique are not for me. )
Here in NJ, we have had a significant majority of voters register unaffiliated for some time now. I think that speaks to the entrenched power structure (and longtime Dem supermajority) that bred political dysfunction in this state, which is a lot to get into, but involves not having county govt services but instead municipalities handling things like fire, rescue, police, schools, etc.
We have a TON of registered voters, our problem is turnout. We are working on this, that is our focus this fall as much as or more than registration.
Keep going!
NOT NECESSARILY AN ENDORSEMENT BY ME but you might have fun with it.
https://store.gavinnewsom.com/the-patriot-shop/
The very local Dems, of whom I am one, here in our “take one on the chin for the team” receiver district for Red voters, are focusing on getting the Election Rigging Response Act passed in California in November ‘25. We are few so our focus must be narrow and laser sure.
I just want to alert everyone in California and beyond, this is by no means a slam dunk. I walk to my post office box almost daily to get my mail. Last week I received full page, full color, cardstock flyers, arguing No on Election Rigging Response Act, on Monday, Thursday and again today, and each had a different message.
This is BIG BIG MONEY right out of the gate to defeat this effort. Deep State Billionaires are going to do everything they can to tilt the playing field, and not just in California.
Do not despair. Remember Susan Crawford won the Wisconsin Judgeship by double digits, despite Musk's $20 million donation. But we are going to have to work it to get it done.
So I sent a contribution AND I bought the "dont poke the bear" yard sign. I can put it next to my small American Flag in the front yard so people wont think I'm maga with my flag. Thanks Emily
I remember Tom B.’s talk and watched it live. Highly recommend. One thing I took from it was the importance of registering voters in odd-numbered years. We weren’t just out registered in 2024, but in the 3 years before that too.
Daily calls are in to WI members of congress regarding our 4 part agenda. I will call later this afternoon regarding famine in Gaza and Abrego Garcia.