It's Time: Please Vote & Encourage Others to Vote!
One week left until Election Day 2024!
Greetings! Just one week left until Election Day 2024. If you haven't already, please consider going to the polls to make your voice heard. If you’ve already voted, please help those who haven’t voted yet make a plan to vote.
Over 2.8 million of North Carolina’s 7.8 million registered voters have voted. That’s great, but the work isn’t over. With just one week left, I thought I’d share some thoughts on two of the major “debates” that will rage right up until Election Day when it comes to voter turnout.
First, a lot of people like to group voters as “persuasion” voters or “turnout” voters. A persuasion voter is someone who will likely vote, but is undecided on their preferred candidate. A turnout voter is someone who may or may not vote on their own, but will definitely vote for a particular candidate if they do vote. There’s some benefit to these distinctions for campaigns, but most of us are not making decisions on target audiences for campaign mailers, digital ads, phone banking, canvasing, and the like.
Instead, consider everyone a persuasion voter. We either need to persuade them to vote, who to support, or perhaps both. Regardless, we need to persuade them their vote matters and persuade them which candidate will make their life better.
Second, for messages, let’s look to the Harris-Trump race. Of all the messages you could land on, I suggest some combination of the following three, depending on your audience: 1) Harris is better for the economy, 2) Trump is a fascist, and/or 3) abortion rights. Don’t believe me? Check out the Harris team’s final major ad:
It doesn’t touch on abortion rights, but that’s been a major issue for countless voters ever since the Dobbs decision overturned the half-century of precedent of Roe and took away a fundamental freedom for the first time in the nation’s history.
Try watching the ad on mute. What do you see? “Project 2025.” “Deny coverage.” “Cut Social Security and Medicare.” “Tax Cuts for Billionaires.” “Lower Income, Higher Costs.” “You pay the price.” Now go back and listen to the voice over. They add in “while the middle class pays the price with lower income and higher costs.” I’d say they hit the economic message hard.
How about fascism? I shy away from that word in conversations not because it’s inaccurate, but because a lot of people aren’t sure what it means or their eyes gloss over like they’re back in a social studies classroom. Instead, focus on the outcomes like this ad does. “It’s all about getting unchecked power while you pay the price.” “Donald Trump: more Unhinged, Unstable, and Unchecked.” Don’t waste time explaining how fascism uses the levers of government for personal gain while suppressing individual liberties, opposition, and dissent. Instead keep it tied to the economic message.
There are countless other arguments, and maybe you find that something else works for a particular person or group. That’s great too. Whatever you do, just remember — the single most effective voter turnout strategy is encouragement from family and friends to go vote. And that’s on each and every one of us!
Oh, and of course here are several links to help you prepare for the General Election in North Carolina this year:
And don’t forget, you can still help these pro-democracy, state-wide North Carolina judicial candidates via ActBlue. These candidates need our support right up until Election Day!
The slate, pictured above from left to right, includes all four state-wide Democratic judicial candidates:
Judge Carolyn Thompson, North Carolina Court of Appeals;
Justice Allison Riggs, North Carolina Supreme Court;
Ed Eldred, North Carolina Court of Appeals; and
Martin Moore, North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Support the 2024 NC Judicial Slate Here!