No canvassing, no problem: Liberal groups launch letter-writing campaign to reach infrequent voters

Some grassroots political groups are taking a decidedly old-world approach to politicking in the age of the coronavirus pandemic.

Beset by deep restrictions on how they can campaign during the outbreak, an alliance of more than a half-dozen left-leaning organizations said Thursday that they would begin a massive letter-writing campaign to urge low-frequency voters to turn out for the November elections.

And unlike most messages in modern campaigns, these partially handwritten letters will be sent not over email but by the U.S. Postal Service — packaged in an envelope with a stamp attached as if people were communicating in a pre-internet age.

It’s a personal touch, leaders of the initiative say, but one that’s necessary for groups trying to redirect their political advocacy at a time when many traditional outreach efforts are forbidden.

“It’s giving people things to do during this horrible time that’s still focused on the November elections,” said Ethan Todras-Whitehill, the executive director and co-founder of the liberal grassroots group Swing Left. “Despite everything that’s going on, the election is still a priority for many people.”

The organizers hope to have 10 million letters written and ready to distribute to low-turnout voters in October, a month before Election Day and a time when campaigns and other political groups are a frenzy trying to persuade Americans to show up to the polls. They’re calling the campaign “The Big Send.”

The unconventional effort is indicative of how political advocates of all stripes are now scrambling to reassess how to conduct their voter outreach efforts and looking for different ways to communicate. Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, for example, has been forced to end in-person campaign rallies in favor of virtual town halls conducted over Zoom.

Especially difficult for some smaller, grassroots-oriented groups is the restriction on neighborhood canvassing operations, in which staffers or volunteers walk door to door trying to advocate for a cause or candidate. Swing Left volunteers, for instance, knocked on more than five million doors during the 2018 midterm election.

The hope from Todras-Whitehill and others is that efforts like handwritten letters can be an effective substitute.

“I see letter writing as the remote version of the doorknock,” he said. “They’re both this old-world type thing. And that’s why I think they’re so effective.”

Along with Swing Left, other progressive advocacy groups involved include Indivisible, Democracy in Color, Stand up America, the Women’s March Foundation, and People for the American Way. And the effort is spearheaded by Vote Forward, a non-profit organization that since 2017 has specialized in writing hand-written letters to mostly young men and women and racial minorities, groups traditionally underrepresented within the voting public.

Scott Forman, the executive director of Vote Forward, and Todras-Whitehill both said the groups had planned to do more letter-writing before the pandemic struck, convinced that the personal notes motivated people to vote in a way other types of outreach couldn’t.

But when the COVID-19 crisis arrived, and other forms of politicking began to stop, they said they realized that the letter-writing campaign would be central to their work. Forman said he saw a noticeable uptick in participation with his group, so much so that by his count, people are now writing 10,000 letters a day.

“It didn’t tail off like everything else did in the month of March,” Forman said. “It actually started to accelerate as individual volunteers were looking for something to do.”

Todras-Whitehill said he didn’t know if groups like Swing Left would be able to resume person-to-person contact before the fall.

“We’re still hoping,” he said, “although we are making plans for a world in which canvassing is not possible.”

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