Almost a year ago, Hope Springs from Field PAC took up the challenge of “checking” the accuracy of the removal list that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made of voters he believed no longer lived where they were registered in Doughtery County. At that time, Brad Raffensperger, had announced he was removing 101,789 people from Georgia's voter files, a majority (67,286) of them based upon the National Change of Address database.
When we expanded our organizer base, one of the first questions they asked was whether we could “correct the error” in these other counties we were canvassing. So we designed special canvasses around the 2021 Raffensperger list and this diary reflects the results so far — in large part because we could see another list from the Secretary of State’s office removing more Georgians from the voter rolls before the general election. Most of these additional counties were those counties where the lingering effects of lynching had suppressed voter registration and political participation among African-Americans, as identified in the research by Jhacova Williams. (The paper is called “Historical Lynchings and Contemporary Voting Behavior of Blacks” and can be found easily if you Google it.)
This paper had really lit a fire among the little text group that arose among those Albany State students with whom I had worked in the Georgia Senate Runoff in 2020. In fact, most of the organizers came out of ASU. But this paper really pissed them off. Specifically this conclusion by Williams, “Considering that lynchings were aimed at preventing blacks from voting in the past, the findings indicate that the historical lynching environment created voting norms among blacks that persists today.” For some of them, their experience at a Historically Black College and University paired with their reading of the Williams paper gave them a new dedication to social justice, civil rights and voter participation in their community.
We have also been able to use the Williams paper to motivate other groups, specifically members of Divine Nine chapters and people who had attended an HBCU (not necessarily in Georgia). We try to get these groups involved in voter protection/restoration canvassing because they reflect a heavy majority of those voters who have been removed from the rolls in these counties.
As we did in Dougherty, as well as Wisconsin and North Carolina, we use the “obsolete voter list” as a foundation for canvasses in these counties. It is not simply that addresses on the list can be far apart, but that knocking on the doors of the Democratic and independent houses around the addresses on the list, and explaining why we are tracking down former voters reinforces the work we are doing.
But chasing down people whose right to vote had been taken away was right up in our wheel house, in line with our super-compliance strategy. We know that Republicans and their conservative allies will do everything they can to keep people from voting who don’t share their, well, skin color. We believe that registering *new* voters, making sure existing voters are registered at their current address (which is part of our super-compliance efforts), making sure that people are informed of the changes in elections law — especially the laws changed in last year’s sessions — and chasing down voters who were removed from the rolls (sometimes wrongly) as well as helping them to comply (this *was* the reason why we have equipped canvasses with mobile scanner/printers so that voters can make a copy of their IDs to include with their voter registrations) is central to our success in 2022. There is a bonus to this super-compliance strategy. People are upset when you tell them that Republicans are trying to make it harder for them to vote. We think it will make them more likely to vote, just because they are learning that Republicans don’t want them to vote in 2022.
Almost every name on this list has been contacted at least three times this year. There are people we have attempted to contact in multiple ways and some have had their doors knocked twice. But we’ve also been able to get our partner Black churches (specifically those with Elections Committees) to make phone calls to those “obsolete” voters for whom we could find phone numbers.
What has happened, though, is that this comprehensive approach has resulted in other people getting registered, as well. In all, these efforts have resulted in 935 voter registrations in southern Georgia. A handful of these may have been reported in our weekly (and quarterly) datadump diaries.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights. We are thinking how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopevoteprotect
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters).
While we mark the names and addresses that were on cut list, we tell everyone we talk to that we are canvassing in their neighborhood because Republicans are trying to remove voters in the area. We learned to be inclusive in the messaging when we were doing the same thing in Wisconsin in 2011 and 2012. Making sure that every voter we talk to knows that this is part of why we are knocking on their doors reinforces our messaging, especially in the case of removals due to the National Change of Address database. It encourages people to talk about it to their neighbors, to ask themselves, am I still registered to vote? Are you? Do you have the necessary photo ID?
The NCoA database has numerous errors, and those errors are not corrected by the Secretary of State’s office. Plus, we see that partisans, especially conservative groups like True the Vote, are overeager in using this database. Because they don’t direct it towards precincts (heavily Republican) likely to support their candidates and causes, they don’t see harm. They aren’t challenging their supporters, forcing them to cast provisional ballots. So while the NCoA sounds like a good idea, it isn’t designed to verify addresses or who lives where. The most common error in using the NCoA database to cull voter files is when children leave home and ask for their mail to be forwarded (thereby getting the entire family on the list).
This is exactly what we have found in Georgia. So far, we have found 63 voters who still lived at their same address and were included in Raffensperger’s “obsolete voter list” in error. This is by no means a clean list. This is why we are sending those 63 voters names and documentation to Matt Elias and the Lawyers Committee. They may be able to use them in their work before the courts.
But because these names have been on the “obsolete voter list,” we fully expect them to be on challenge lists for poll watchers, especially those trained by True the Vote. This requires a response, and we take it as a responsibility to protect these voters who we can reasonably expect to be challenged should they decide to vote on election day. So while we are not informing the voters that we expect them to be on Republican challenge lists — being unceremoniously removed from the rolls is embarrassing enough — we are doing what we can to protect their right to vote at the polls. This is why, after Labor Day, our emphasis will not be in voter contact but upon voter/election protection
The Obama campaign dealt with a very similar situation like this in 2011-2012 in Wisconsin. These are all tried and true techniques, tactics we would hope others would follow. But what we are hearing about is millions of dollars are being spent on digital organizing and advertising with the hope of educating the public and possibly reaching those affected by these new laws. As you can see, that is not our approach. We are touching these voters (figuratively), helping them to navigate their special circumstances. We shouldn’t have to do this, but, alas, we do.
If you support grassroots efforts to protect the vote and our voters, especially in minority communities, please contribute (if you are able):
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopevoteprotect
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!