NY VOTE

Mobilizing the Grassroots Vote of NYC


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What is NY VOTE? Building Organizations The NY VOTE Program

What is NY VOTE?

NY VOTE is an alliance of New York City organizations that is:

  • giving community residents the skills and materials to go door-to-door in their neighborhoods,
  • educating voters about progressive issues, and
  • turning these voters out to the polls.

In our first year of the program, we identified voters who supported progressive values and reminded them to vote on Election Day.

The people we contacted - both infrequent voters and newly registered voters - were twice as likely to vote as people with the same voting history who were not contacted by NY VOTE. Click on the graphs for more details.

NY VOTE is More Than Just Mobilizing Voters

If we want to create lasting change we need to do more than mobilize voters at election time. We need to build organizations with roots in the community that know how to organize progressive voters at election time and how to engage them in meaningful policy and organizing campaigns between elections.

2005 #'s
24,790 doors knocked
8167 infrequent voters spoken to
4427 progressive voters id'd at doors
953 voters talked to on the phone
629 progressive voters id'd via phone
471 volunteers recruited

And that's exactly what NY VOTE is doing. Of the 24,790 doors we knocked on, 8,167 voters we spoke to and the 5,056 progressive voters we identified, 471 people said they would like to volunteer with a NY VOTE organization. After the elections, NY VOTE community organizations recruited these potential new members into their ongoing community programs. We ultimately expect to retain a significant percentage of these new members, growing our organizations and building power in our communities.

The NY Vote Program

  • NY VOTE focuses on neighborhoods with historically low turnout where our member organizations already have a base.
  • Election district captains who live in those neighborhoods commit to going door-to-door each week leading up to the Primary and General Elections to educate voters about key issues affecting the community.
  • People we talk to who support NY VOTE's core issues are reminded to vote the weekend before the election and on Election Day, too.
  • People who show strong interest are recruited to become members of our organizations and will be on the doors themselves next year!