Trick or Vote

Don’t worry, no one’s going to ask you to pull out your fake cobwebs yet, but it is a good time to think about Trick or Vote. As the nation’s largest get out the vote canvass (…in costume) gets a running start this year, we’re asking you to get (your organization) involved.

This year Trick or Vote will be bigger (and scarier) than ever.

In 2010 our goals include:
· 200,000 voter contacts nationwide
· Over 5,000 volunteer engagements
· Over 50 cities nationwide
· Launching the Adopt-a-monster fundraising program

We’re so committed to Trick or Vote this year that we’re offering re-grants to partner organizations (that means cash money in your organizations pockets). But this money will only be available to organizations that want to be the exclusive organization in their community. We came to the conclusion that in locations with large Trick or Vote events, we want to grant an exclusive license to our local partner so that competing events don't drain from the energy and power of a coordinated effort.

These big exclusive events will be the backbone of Trick or Vote this fall and will be first in line for support, training, and national resources. We'll also have a large DIY program for organizations and individuals to plug in to, but that will be a mile wide and an inch deep.

In short, if you've got some "communities" (could be a neighborhood, a city, or a college campus, etc.) where you want to own Trick or Vote this fall and get assistance from your friends at the Bus Federation Civic Fund to make it happen, you should apply for exclusive status:

Organizations interested in applying to host Trick or Vote in their communities can go to the link below to fill out the application:
Apply Here!

Contact Trick or Vote National Field Coordinator Richelle Devoe at Richelle@forwardmontana.org if you have any questions or would like further information.

Yesterday, at Netroots Nation some good friends of the youth movement presented a panel on the successes of the youth movement and discussed where we go from here in terms of policy and continuous engagement for the young voters that elected Barack Obama.

Here is the Introduction by Jefferson Smith of the Oregon Bus Project and Biko Baker from the League of Young Voters. I'm dealing with a pretty sketchy internet connection as the hotel seems to be stuck in 1999, but as it uploads I'll post here and comment.

Erica Williams from Campus Progress

Sorry for my miss on the usual Friday blog, I was traveling home from the Inaugural festivities. But an exciting thing happened in the world of recognition of youth campaigning.... Campaigns and Elections Magazine - the end all be all mag for politico's who work in ... well... campaigns and elections had their regular post-election vote on best practices that worked and which were the super best for their Reed Awards.

Trick or Vote, the Halloween GOTV program that gets young people to canvas in costume just a few days before the election, was voted the best GOTV.

"Our volunteers just did amazing work on Halloween," said Matt Singer, CEO of Forward Montana in a release. "We managed to reach out to over five thousand households in Missoula, Bozeman, Dillon, and Great Falls."

"We might be too old to trick or treat, but we’ll never be too old to trick or vote,” added Rep. Jefferson Smith, founding chair of the Bus Federation, which oversaw the national Trick or Vote operation. “The really important part about this event’s success was our ability to translate a cool idea to being used all across the country. This was a shared success of the youth vote movement, with a number of local organizations using this model."

The Campaign & Elections’ Politics magazine Reed Awards were awarded by a prominent bipartisan committee of political heavyweights, including Morton Blackwell, Tucker Carlson, Tom Davis, Monica Dixon, Ben Dworkin, Vic Fazio, Martin Frost, Julie Germany, Shane Greer, Ken Khachigian, Mike Hennessy, Ron Klain, Mike Krempasky, Kevin Madden, Mark, McKinnon, Dick Morris, Terry Nelson, Christie Pelosi, Amy Pritchard, Larry Sabato, Ron Silver, Jamal Simmons, Michael Steele, George Stephanopolous, Robert Traynham, Joe Trippi, Suzanne Turner, Vaughn Ververs, Amy Walter, Christine Todd Whitman, and Reid Wilson.

Also, if you haven't seen, the Scary Man himself, Wes Craven announced Trick or Vote as one of his favorite scary videos on YouTube this Halloween.

If you don't have a Trick or Vote near you, don't worry... you can have one. Go to TrickOrVote.org and grab the tool kit and start gearing up early for a great Trick or Vote in your city.

UPDATE: CNN Picked up this story on iReport. Its on the lower right hand corner of CNN.com and the video on iReport is here

We've said it before and we'll say it again... its the best way on the best day. Best way because its face to face communication with voters, and its the best day because its the day when people expect strangers to come to their door, knock on them, and ask for something. This year, don't just ask for candy, ask for votes!

30 Cities and 12 States across the country are hosting this Halloween Canvas Extravaganza that gets young voters involved by canvasing in a fun and unique way. The plan is 100,000 doors, and we expect there will be even more than that as the cities hosting the event have grown by leaps and bounds in just a few short months.

Some states, sadly, aren't doing the program... I'm looking at you Kansas and Oklahoma (despite my push for YD's and local candidates to consider the program). But those that are will reap the benefits (pun intended) of a huge number of young people doing something you hardly ever have happen... canvasing on a Friday night.

The best thing about a program like this, other than its funness, is its proximity to Election Day. Just a few days from one of the most important elections in our nation's history young people are stepping up not just on the weekend before, not just the day before, not just GOTV the day of... but on the Halloween before.

Find the Trick or Vote near you by visiting the website TrickOrVote.org and in the next 365 days persuade your local organizations, partisan groups, candidates, whoever... to use this open source tool to host their own Halloween Canvas.

This is me as Republicans for Obama....

If you've been on here lately you've seen Mike's hit on 20/20's Libertarian reporter John Stossel for his questioning of whether young voters are smart enough to actually vote.

Well.... Trick or Vote Groups have decided to ask whether old people should have the right to vote... since they are so ill informed.

I know we've posted a ton of stuff about Trick or Vote this week, but thought I'd share this article I wrote for AlterNet. - Mike

What is the one day of the year that you expect a stranger to knock on your door? Halloween. And what's comes less than a week after Halloween? Election Day. What does that make Halloween? If you are a member of the Bus Federation or one of its partner organizations, it makes Halloween the best day of the year to launch a massive door-to-door canvass to Get Out the Vote (GOTV).

That's the pitch that Jefferson Smith, one of the founders of the Oregon Bus Project, gave to a group of young activists, insiders and media in Denver today at their Trick or Vote Launch Party.

Trick or Vote is exactly what it sounds like. Each year on Halloween, members of the Bus Federation (the Orgeon Bus Project, New Era Colorado, Forward Montana, New Mexico Youth Organized, and the Washington Bus) don their costumes to canvass neighborhoods to turnout the vote – especially the youth vote - in their communities. The program began with the Oregon Bus Project in 2004. That Halloween, hundreds of young Oregonians turned out to canvass, making it one of the largest door to door canvasses in the state history. Not only did the unprecedented effort get out the vote, it helped flip a number of state legislative races.

But don't just call it a canvass in drag. Organizations involved in the Bus Federation look at Trick or Vote as more than a way to get people to the polls, it's also a smart way to engage young people who want to make a difference, and care deeply about the issues, but may be turned away by a traditional canvass or a dreary job phonebanking. Programs like Trick or Vote function as a gateway drug to encourage deeper and deeper political action from their members.

This year Trick or Vote will go national, with at least nine organizations participating in 21 cities. With such a big push on the horizon, in what may be one of the most significant elections of our lifetime, the members of the Bus Federation are determined to sell their innovative program to the insiders and activists flooding Denver for the Democratic National Convention. It's not possible to walk past the Colorado Convention Center without being accosted by zombies, or mummies espousing the virtues of costumed canvassing. Even CBS anchor Katie Couric sported a Trick or Vote Button on TV at one point this week.

At the Trick or Vote party in downtown Denver, Bus Federation staffers walked around sporting cat ears and fangs, and Jessica and Roger Rabbit were in the audience to hear speakers like progressive icon Jim Hightower heap praise on the local grassroots organizing of the Bus Federation.

Guests were also given a look at a series of viral videos meant to spread the word about Trick or Vote:

So far young voters have turned our in record numbers and overwhelming chosen to lend their support to Barack Obama and other Democratic Candidates. If this trend continues in November, it might be due in no small part to the work or groups like the Bus Federation and innovative programs like Trick or Vote.

uploaded as fast as i could.
see more at Flickr Page

So the post I wrote on the Trick or Vote Party may go up on AlterNet. I'll post a link when that happens, or post in full here if it doesn't. In the meantime, though, I wanted to point people to a video - one of three or four - that the Bus Federation showed at their trick or vote party.

This is the only one online at the moment, but these are some of the best videos I've ever seen come out of a youth vote organization. It's fun, witty, it doesn't feel like it is trying too hard, and it's selling some serious activism.

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.

The author prepares for Trick or Vote in 2007

Pop Quiz Time:

1. What is the single most effective way to mobilize voters?
   a) Visibilities
   b) Sitting on a couch and bitching
   c) Talking to ‘em face-to-face
2. What holiday always immediately precedes Election Day and has a built-in tradition of door-knocking?
   a) Halloween
   b) The 4th of July
   c) Festivus
3. What does everyone love?
   a) Rick Rolling
   b) Costumes!
   c) Voting
   d) All of the above

All of us who work in the field of youth engagement face big competition. The biggest competition we face – for volunteers, for attention – is not from one another’s organizations either. It’s from the Wii (which is sweet) and the bar scene and friends and loved ones. Our biggest challenge is overcoming that noise and building a politics that is fun and exciting and relevant to people’s lives.

That’s what makes Trick or VoteTM so freaking sweet. It’s the Best Way on the Best Day.

It’s actually such a sweet idea it doesn’t even really need an explanation. But here it is in a nutshell: Get some people who are a bit too old to trick or treat (go as young as high school and as old as the retirement home for your recruitment), rally ‘em in costume, meet in a centralized location, train these folks to canvass effectively, and knock some doors.

In short, we combine a cultural more (knock doors on Halloween) with hard-minded political research (knocking doors is an effective voter mobilization tool).

The result?

• More volunteers. In Portland in 2004, 850 canvassers assembled for the largest mass canvass in the history of the state. By all accounts, this year will be even bigger.
• More virgin volunteers. Out of that same crowd in Portland, more than one-in-three were first-time political volunteers who came out of the woodwork for a program well-suited to help our fellow citizens lose their voter virginity.
• More conversations. On Halloween evening, people are home – either waiting for trick-or-treaters or getting ready for their parties. They’re even prepared to open the door. And they’re definitely ready to engage in a conversation. All of which means that we don’t just hit more doors, we hit more doors in a more effective manner.
• More voters. Do the math -- more canvassers, more conversations, and more doors? More people are hitting the polls.

The Bus Federation wants to take Trick or VoteTM national this year – and we can do it with your help. If you’re part of a local or national organization that is serious about doing Trick or VoteTM, get in touch soon so we can coordinate our efforts. Contact Alex Aronson at the Oregon Bus Project @ 503-233-3018.

Just looking for a project for the fall and think you could pull off a kick-ass Trick or Vote in your hometown? Or even just want to assemble 15 of your closest friends and friends-of-friends and friendly-friends-of-friends’-friends and go hit some doors? Drop us a line. I swear to you, you’ll be glad you did.

Major props, by the way, to our friends at the Bus for this innovative program -- Trick or Vote is their brainchild.

Answers to the pop quiz: 1-b, 2-c, 3-a

Matt Singer is the CEO of Forward Montana, dedicated to training, mobilizing, and electing a new generation of progressive leaders. Forward Montana is a charter (get it?) organization of the Bus Federation.