REACH OUT! The Elections Educator Newsletter 6/4/25
Weekly Highlight: Advice for Building an Elections and Voter Outreach Program from Scratch (or a Tight Budget). Advice for Election Admins, 501(c)3s, and Community Volunteer Groups doing GOTV Work
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’m coming to you LIVE from the Washington State Elections Conference! Thanks for your patience as this newsletter was delayed by two days. (This conference had a *crazy* amount of walking between two locations which triggered a three day consecutive POTS-related migraine. Staring at a screen while furiously typing a newsletter between breaks ended up being not feasible.) Once again, thank you all for baring with me. You’re the best.
This issue is a Part 1 of Part 2 with both focused on giving advice for building a voter outreach program from scratch. This week is geared towards the administrative back end of what goes in to setting yourself up for success prior to reaching out to the community.
(Next week’s Part two will focus on Outreach Communications and In-Person Outreach Event Planning/Strategies.)
If you find anything shared that is inspiring, intriguing, informative, please leave a comment about what has been helpful and then subscribe to continue getting updates!
Another side project that coincides with REACH OUT! is me preparing a Resource Hub where all the awesome outreach and education resources I find can be publicly accessible and easily navigated in a (currently a work in progress glorified spreadsheet) database. Later this year it will go live. Knowing when it goes live is another reason to subscribe!
IN THE NEWS:
ELECTIONS OUTREACH:
Fairport, NY, event offers info about voting to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities -By Beth Adams, 5/30/25
San Diego, CA, announces high school winners of the Dr. Shirley N. Weber Voter Registration Challenge - Debbie L. Sklar, 4/24/25
Three Berk County, PA schools honored with the Governor’s Civic Engagement Award for their voter engagement work with high school students - By Karen Suey
Wayandotte County, MO, announces the winner of their first ever ‘I Voted’ sticker contest - By Bryan Dulle, 5/27/25
WV Secretary of State presents Shady Spring High School with prestigious Jennings Randolph award for civic engagement -By WV Daily News, 5/27/25
ELECTIONS EDUCATION:
WA State OSOS Creates Fun Voter Education Video Series to Combat Mis-Informative Rumors in “Rumor Has It”. View Full Series here. Read Article on OSOS Website.
Carrie Levine is named editor-in-chief of independent nonpartisan elections newsroom Votebeat -5/30/25
Prominent New Hampshire politicians working with the Democracy Defense Project, along with the NH Secretary of State, spoke at a Q&A elections panel at the State Archives - By Charlotte Matherly, 6/2/25
ACKNOWLEDGING ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATORS:
Minnesota Secretary of State launches new Excellence in Elections Award; recognizes three Crow County Election Workers who are “gold standard” -By Daniel Pursell, 6/2/25
DOING MORE WITH LESS: STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING YOUR ELECTIONS OUTREACH PLAN
The following civic engagement info will be useful for elections administrators, 501©3's, and local community groups alike!
At the Washington State Elections Conference for elections administrators, I (Pierce County, WA, Election Division’s Outreach and Education Specialist) and my two superstar co-presenters
Laura Arce, WA Office of the Secretary of State, Elections Bilingual Outreach Specialist
Martha Jimenez, Yakima County, WA, Elections Division, Bilingual Program & Office Coordinator
spoke to a live audience of 85 in person and virtual attendees. Our presentation, titled “Doing More With Less: Strategies for Building Your Elections Outreach Plan” was created to help elections administrators throughout WA who have
limited (or no prior) outreach strategizing experience
a tight budget
limited employee man power
start brainstorming how they could feasibly kickstart an outreach program FROM SCRATCH.
What follows is my perspective on our best advice, tips, and tricks for anyone looking to start up an elections/voter outreach program!
PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION TIPS/SUGGESTIONS
Do a SWOT/SWOB analysis as a brainstorming activity before developing a program
You may have heard of a SWOT analysis. You brainstorm what your organizations Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats as an exercise before starting on a project. We altered the “Threat” to “ Barriers” to evaluate.
Doing a SWOB analysis for your elections office will help you better grasp what resources and capabilities you already have that you can leverage as well as what actions and priorities you can take moving forward.
Here’s a hypothetical SWOB analysis example:
Strengths:
Auditor’s Office already has established Facebook and Instagram pages we can start putting elections content on
The Elections Division has a good relationship with local newsrooms
We have an outdoor event tent leftover from when we moved services outside during the pandemic during an election
Weaknesses:
We have a limited budget for this calendar year
We don’t have graphic design experience on the team for creating social media content
We have a small staff; we can’t dedicate someone full-time to outreach
Opportunities:
Our Secretary of State’s Office creates sharable social media content and messaging we can leverage.
There are community resource fairs and farmer’s markets where being a vendor is free that we could be an information tent/booth at
We can invite local journalists to tour our facilities, ride along with us as we go to drop boxes, and interview us for stories as elections near
Barriers:
It’s difficult to find the right contact on the military base to establish partnership to do outreach to military voters
Some people organizing events think elections are political and thus are wary to entertain having an elections administration information booth
We don’t have any bilingual employees for offering language accessibility at in person events
Determine your overall program purpose(s)
It probably isn’t feasible for your purpose to be singlehandedly statistically increasing the rate of voter registration or participation to 100%… especially if you’re limited in your resources of time you can dedicate to outreach, manpower available, and money or physical materials.
Here are some more manageable purposes you can consider as your core reason for starting voter outreach efforts:
Improving voter access to and public awareness of election participation/accommodation resources
Providing engaging educational opportunities to the public both in person and online
Increasing positive public perception of and trust in election employees and processes
Building collaborative community relationships with civic-minded non-partisan entities to promote civic engagement through regular voting habits
Identify your Outreach Employee(s) or Volunteer(s) specific Responsibilities and Related Tasks that are Unique to the Role
Examples of Possible Responsibilities:
Liaison for County Advisory Groups
Designated Outreach Event Planner and Booth Attendee
Public Speaker and Presentation Prepper
Lead Developer of Educational Handout Materials
Point Person for External Community Relationship Building
Examples of Tasks Related to Responsibilities:
Solicit Accessibility Program Update Suggestions from County Accessibility Advisory Committee
Schedule and Coordinate Outreach Vendor Booths
Visit High School Classrooms for Mock Elections and Registration Drives
Create Informational Pamphlets with County-Specific Information
Network with Local Civic Organization Leaders and their Staff
CONNECTING WITH YOUR UNIQUE LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Determine what Demographic Groups are in Your Sphere of Influence
You’ll have to do your own research on which demographic groups are at-need for your support. You should be aware of and willing to serve all of your demographic groups, especially if community groups or organizations reach out to you first to come to one of their events. You may already have connections in some groups. You may have to put in networking effort to find connections in others that will help you to build trust and integrate into the community fabric. Do the research to fit in before you step out in public. While you are researching you will learn about niched accessibility and knowledge barriers you to provide targeted resources for.
Examples of Demographic Groups:
Age/generational groups
Language-speaking groups
Cultural Heritage groups
Institution-related groups: Schools, Military, Faith-based
Communities with Historic Difficulty Accessing Resources:
Disability
Rural
Unstable Housing
Incarcerated
Research Cultural Needs, Celebrations, Traumas, and Communication Preferences of Local Demographic Groups
Be mindful of what community expectations are for interacting in the community in the first place. What would be considered disrespectful that you should avoid doing or saying? Is there a preference for what medium information should be primarily communicated in (Examples: radio for latino communities and rural, social media for younger generations)? What successes or holidays can you celebrate with the community? What historical traumas (such as disenfranchisement, racism, respect of identities, difficulty becoming a naturalized citizen, etc.) can you take extra care to be sensitive of when planning your outreach and educational material delivery?
BUILD STRATEGIC COMMUNITY NETWORKING INTO YOUR STRUCTURE
If rumor has it, you’re likely facing a limited budget, an upcoming budget shortfall, or literally no budget at all except hopes and prayers. Lord, grant us some grant money to make democracy function. Money has practical usage for outreach. It pays an employee wage. It can help you buy a table and tent for an outreach booth. It you budget right and shop smart, you can get some awesome freakin’ swag to entice voters to interact with you.
But we can get too hung up on thinking about money when in actuality, money is just one type of resource and it isn’t even the most important resource available to us. PEOPLE are our most important resource. PEOPLE have passion, skills, ideas, and the physical energy to get the ball rolling. People gather together in groups, whether formal or informal, to work together to support one another socially and civically.
501©3 organizations are allowed to do non-partisan civic involvement work like voter registration drives and information booths. Local organizations are the perfect partners for election offices to reach out to FIRST to find opportunities for collaboration. As genuine trust is built, a natural exchange of non-monetary resources starts. Think:
volunteers (Co-manage an outreach booth at a community fair! Solicit poll workers! Ask for official drop box observers!)
event space (lead election office tours! Give organizations educational civic classes and invite their staff and patrons! Bring snacks.)
informational handouts (exchange brochures and display them in lobbies!)
advertising (on social media, by word of mouth, on a community message cork board, weekly newsletters)
Insider knowledge (nonprofits KNOW their community intimately. They have rapport with specific groups of people and frequently know exactly what the silent needs are of those around us. Value service providers because they are invaluable.)
It can take awhile to build up a network of collaborating organizations. I’d suggest creating a shortlist of the top 5-10 you really think would be a strategic partnership for you to maintain a connection with and then focus on finding a contact in those orgs to connect with to try and spark a conversation to guage interest in supporting civic engagement through possibly joining in on some kind of elections education activities.
When I first started out, I went to the Secretary of State’s Office website, dug through their business licensing directory and downloaded a MASSIVE spreadsheet of all the non-for-profits in the state then narrowed it down to my county. After getting rid of all the HOAs, I then spent a few weeks during my down time reading through the list looking for civic groups, cultural groups, and any influential organizations like Downtown Business Associations, Chambers of Commerce, or Veterans groups. Having moved to the county for the job, doing this helped me both familiarize myself with my new county of residence but also figure out the breadth of the culture of service I could potentially tap into.
END NOTE:
Tune in next week for part two of Doing More With Less: Building Your Outreach Plan!
Part two will focus on Outreach Communications and In-Person Outreach Event Planning/Strategies.
I’ll also be highlighting some of the organizations I met at the conference this week who were vendors. We had some great teams of people wanting to connect and share resources. I’m excited to dig into their websites and find specific projects, research, and tools to relay to you all!
Until then. -EWM