Trick or Vote Goes National

Yoink. Stolen from Loaded Orygun. The Oregon Bus Project's innovative "Trick or Vote" canvassing program is going national this year:

While ghouls and goblins roam the streets, volunteers in 21 cities and 12 states will distribute voter guides and vote reminders in what will be the nation’s largest non-partisan get-out-the-vote canvass.

Trick-or-Vote is going nationwide this year with the help of youth advocacy partners like 18 in ’08, Rock the Vote, United States Student Association, League of Young Voters, Forward Montana, New Mexico Youth Organized, New Era Colorado, Washington Bus, Change the Game and Generation Vote. “What’s the one day of the year we culturally are ready for a knock on the door?” asks Trick-or-Vote National Coordinator, Alex Aronson. “Halloween conveniently falls a few days before the election every year. You may be too old to trick-or-treat, but you’re never too old to trick-or-vote.”

The Best Way on the Best Day: Studies show that face-to-face contact is the most effective method to boost voter turnout—increasing participation by as much as 8–12% (“Getting Out the Youth Vote: Results from Randomized Field Experiments,” by Donald Green & Alan Gerber, Yale University, 2001), and nonpartisan contacts further increase the likelihood of electoral participation. “It’s important that we engage young volunteers,” explains Bus Project Executive Director Jefferson Smith, “Not left, not right, but forward.”

That's awesome. It's so great to see a best practice like Trick or Vote move outside the organization that spawned it and become a nation-wide best practice for youth outreach. Halloween is the one day of the year that people expect to have strangers knocking on their door. And who can resist earnest young volunteers in costume encouraging you to go to the polls? If you and your organization aren't already using Trick or Vote in your neighborhood, it's time to hop on that bandwagon.