The Student Pirgs

2016 Project Packet

1 The Student PIRGs Someone once said that America has more problems than we should tolerate and more solutions than we use.

That’s an especially big challenge to college students and recent graduates: After all, we’re the generation that will inherit America’s problems.

And perhaps that’s why, on any college campus, you can find students who feel driven to take on the biggest problems facing our communities and our country. Some students feel driven to help solve global warming. Some want to get big money out of our democracy. Others feel called to help feed the hungry and house the homeless.

We need to take on these problems together. That’s why the Student PIRGs recruit and train students to take on these and other pressing social problems outside the classroom.

For all of our campaigns, we combine the power of professional advocates with student activists to persuade or pressure our elected officials to serve the public interest. We do this by educating the community, building public support, demonstrating that support through petition signatures, getting media coverage and partnering with other powerful groups or individuals.

For over 40 years, students working with their campus PIRG chapters have been making a real difference in people's lives and winning concrete changes to build a better world.

We do have more problems than we should tolerate in America. We do have more solutions than we use. But to really start winning solutions, we need a new generation of people who know how to organize and advocate for change. www.studentpirgs.org

The New Voters Project The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is America’s oldest and largest nonpartisan youth voter mobilization program. The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project, a 501(c)(3) organization with 4945(f) status, has run peer-to- peer young voter mobilization drives to turn out the youth vote on college campuses for more than 30 years. We believe that the full participation of young people in the political process is essential to a truly representative, vibrant democracy. The New Voter's Project does not endorse, either explicitly or implicitly, a political candidate or political party for elected office. Our goal is to engage as many students as possible in each and every election cycle in order that our generation be represented in the political process, regardless of ideology or political affiliation.

A Thank You The Student PIRGs would like to thank our allies in our three-decade effort to increase the youth vote: United States Student Association, Oregon Student Association, Arizona Students’ Association, University of California Student Association, California State Student Association, United Council of Wisconsin, Associated Students of Colorado, the hundreds of campus student government associations too numerous to mention, Rock the Vote, the Bus Federation, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Campus Election Project and the Young Invincibles..

We would also like to thank Dr. Donald Green and Dr. Alan Gerber of Yale University, and Dr. David Nickerson of the University of Notre Dame and the folks at Circle for their groundbreaking research on voter turnout techniques. And, of course, we want to thank the hundreds of thousands of hardworking Student PIRG volunteers, project coordinators and staff who have worked tirelessly to strengthen America’s democracy over the last 30 years.

Together, we have and will continue to make a difference! 2 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

In plain English, this means you may:

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Under the following conditions:

• Attribution. You must attribute this work to The Student PIRGs (including the title of this document with a link to www.StudentPIRGs.org). • Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. • Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

3 Campaign Overview

When we turn 18, we have a voice in our the power. We’re the largest, most diverse community that we’ve never had before. generation alive right now, and voting on Election Day is the first step in making sure our We get to go to the voting booth and help elected officials take the issues we care about decide the direction our country goes. into account.

And yes: It’s important. But, it’s also pretty cool! So put this in your mind right now: “It’s our turn.” But where do you register? Where do you go to vote? On campus this fall, there will be volunteers at every corner to help you cut through the clutter At a time when we have more technology in our of voting: get you registered, help you figure out pockets [hold up smartphone] than they had where to go and what to do, and tell you more when they landed on the moon, why does about the issues at stake. voting seem so complicated? Together, we can show those who seek to That’s exactly what the New Voters Project is represent us that we are paying attention. Our all about — we’re here on campus and we help generation is active, involved, and ready to cut through the clutter of voting, so you can participate in the decisions that impact our make your voice heard on issues that matter to community. you: So mark your calendar now for November 8. It’s Just imagine the way you want the future to be: time to turn the tide, and show decision-makers  A strong, stable economy where that they should look to us for answers, everyone has access to work; because — truth be told — our generation is  Air and water that you feel confident is already imagining and creating a lot of them. clean and safe;  Affordable higher education so students Together, we can push our country in the right don’t have to graduate in debt; direction. We just need to show up.  And neighborhoods that are safe for you and your family. 2016 Goals

That world you’re imagining — we will never get This makes our work (and your work) in 2016 there if we let everyone but us decide. very important.

November 8 is Election Day, and it’s our turn. We have several goals for 2016. First, we want to increase youth voter turnout in the The next president will have a big impact on communities where we are running the New what our country does for on the environment, Voters Project. Second, we want to continue to money in politics, affordable education, and use our successes to show the political women’s health and we will help decide who establishment that targeting young people that person is. works.

There is no more important time to make our This year the Student PIRGs’ New Voters voice heard. Project plans to make more than 350,000 personalized vote reminders and help more There are whole generations invested — than 60,000 young people register to vote in at literally invested — in the status quo. But we’re least 14 states. not. More than any other generation, we have

4 This guide will give you the tools you need to making sure that they then turn out to the polls boost voter turnout on your campus by helping on Election Day. as many voters as possible register to vote and

5 Key Elements of the New Voters Project

Here are the steps to running a successful voter door-to-door canvass of on-campus and off-campus drive. student housing; phone banks; online visibility through email and Facebook; and educational 1. Build a Vote Coalition events in the campus main areas. A key part of our ability to reach the entire campus is to build a campus-wide coalition with student 6. Media government, student groups, faculty and One way we’ll show the whole campus is voting is by administrators. There’s no group or person that can’t getting it in the media, so make sure you invite the get involved and make an impact. The administration media to every event you organize throughout the has a particularly important role since they control campaign and that you host events the media will resources that can help large numbers of students want to cover. Examples would be hosting a debate register to vote. on campus, hosting debate watching parties or doing a tailgate for the debate, and inviting all candidates 2. Recruit a Volunteer Base to speak on campus. Members of the media may You will need your own sizable volunteer base to also want to join you for your door-to-door events help the coalition achieve its goals. The number of and other actions on campus. You can also alert the volunteers you will need will vary depending on your media at each major milestone, like the completion school type and your goals, but either way, you will of your voter registration drive. need a lot of people. For example, at a traditional 20,000-student school, you will need upwards of 250 7. Dealing With Election Problems volunteers to maximize turnout, including some There are some areas of the country where no experienced leaders to help with recruitment and matter how much preparation you do, elections training. procedures and laws create obstacles to students registering and voting. Although we advise that you 3. Work with the Registrar focus most of your energies on registering and A very important part of a good voter drive is having turning out as many voters as possible, there are a good relationship with your local elections official. some additional things you can include in your vote Good communication with your local registrar from program that can help document systemic problems the very beginning will ensure that as many people and build the case for longer term reform. as possible are able to vote. First, meet with your local elections officials before 4. Voter Registration you start your voter registration drive. During the There is no more effective way to turnout voters than conversations with the registrars, take good notes so to help them register to vote. 80% of the people we that you can identify problems early. If you hear help to register to vote will turn out to vote. We help something that seems amiss, send a note to your young people register to vote both in-person and organizing director or to the New Voters Project online. To do this well, you need a team of Director, Laura Deehan, [email protected] committed volunteers, interns, and student groups While you may not be able to solve the problem right that use four major tactics: visibility, tabling, away, we can start figuring out how to solve it in the class/group presentations, and door-to-door long term. canvassing. While helping people register to vote, you should database the information from the Second, check in with the registrars throughout your completed voter registration forms, to use for get out voter registration drive to make sure people are the vote efforts. ending up on the rolls. If there are problems with rejected forms, make sure you understand why and 5. Get Out The Vote (GOTV) alert Student PIRGs staff. While you should focus on GOTV mainly at the end Third, on Election Day itself, have a couple of of the campaign, building your list of students to volunteers stationed at the polling places to keep an contact starts during the registration drive and eye out for election problems. If you notice a lot of continues all fall. All of that build up will turn into a people being turned away, figure out why and alert huge outreach effort in the final two weeks to boost Laura or any New Voters Project staff member voter turnout on your campus. You can use a immediately. number of tactics to make this happen, including a

6 7 Setting Your Goals

There are a lot of factors that determine your success: cooperation from the campus administration, the size of your coalition, the number of volunteers, and the fact that none of this is an exact science. But we have a lot of information from the past 20 years that can help you set meaningful goals, and we suggest you aim high.

The two main goals you should set are voter registration goals and Get Out the Vote (GOTV) contacts.

The most important is voter registration. 80% of college students who are registered will actually vote. So helping a large number of voters register to vote is the single most important thing you can do. Once the voter registration deadline has passed, the most important part is making personalized Get Out the Vote reminders.

Here are some basic statistics to help you understand this more:

For Voter Registration…

 80% of college students who are registered will actually vote.

 It is possible to achieve 90% registration on your campus, assuming: 25% of the average college campus is registered to vote at the start of classes; 10% of the average campus will never register to vote no matter what (non-citizens, etc); and 65% of the campus is “registerable”.

 These “registerables” are made up of two kinds of individuals: those who are likely to register to vote on their own, and those who will only register if asked by another student in person.

 You probably can’t get all of the “registerables” to register to vote because a lot of them will actually want to register to vote on their own. At the most you can help 50% of the campus to register to vote through your efforts.

 However, the more “registerables” you help to register, the more likely it will be that the remaining people will simply register on their own since that large of a voter registration campaign will make the election highly visible and make registering to vote seem like the norm.

For Get Out The Vote…

We know the following from our research:

• A text message from PIRG to someone who gives us their cell number increases turnout by about 4%.

• A personalized phone call from one student to another increases turnout by about 5%

• A personalized face-to-face contact at someone’s dorm or house increases turnout by 11-12%.

• While there are no studies on GOTV tabling, we think that every contact at a table is a little better than the phone but not as good as at the door – we predict a 6% increase in turnout from tabling.

8 Sample Campaign Timeline

Setup (before the semester):

 Meet with administrators like the Dean of Students and ask them to promote StudentVote.org by putting it on major websites and sending an all-campus email.

 Build the core of your vote coalition. Start by contacting the Student Government and get them signed on first. Then, work with the Student Government to contact the biggest and most active groups on campus and the groups you already know.

 Meet with the local elections official to get to know them and learn your voter registration rules.

 Recruit some friends or work with your existing volunteers to help register voters during welcome week or freshman orientation. Shoot to help at least 100 people register to vote during this time (or more if you can get a lot of volunteers to help!)

First 2 Weeks of Classes—Recruitment:

 Identify and start to train our volunteer base for the rest of the semester. Do class presentations, set up tables, and call the people that express interest and ask them to come help at an event or come to a meeting.

 Add the remainder of our coalition partners to the campaign and identify faculty members who are willing to have 3 waves of class presentations throughout the semester —recruitment, voter registration and get out the vote.

 Finally, help people register to vote while we are tabling and in class announcements, so you’ll register about 5% of your goal in these two weeks.

Week 3—Test Blitz:

 Coming out of the recruitment drive, we run a 2 day test voter registration blitz. This is a great way to get some experience running a blitz, while figuring out systems for managing volunteers and registrations. This is also you chance to turn volunteers into coordinators by letting new folks take on more responsibility and leadership so they’ll be experienced and confident for the big blitz.

 Between you and your coalition, you’ll want to help close to 15% of your voter registration goal over the three days.

 In addition, we’ll start signing up volunteers for the actual blitz—shoot for getting ½ of your volunteer hours needed signed up.

Week 4—Promoting the Online Voter Registration Page:

 With good promotion, we should be able to get at least 4% of the campus to download a registration form through our website. We then think 70% will actually turn that form in and register to vote. This week, we’ll get the word out about the website and schedule the remaining hours we need for the blitz. To promote the website, we’ll:

- Confirm that the student government president or college president’s office is sending an all- campus email about registering to vote and linking to the online voter registration form. - Ask everyone who has been involved so far to message their friend list on Facebook. We’ll also ask everyone to change their status to say they’re registering to vote at www.studentvote.org and ask everyone to change their profile picture to a button for the website. 9 - Confirm that all of our coalition partners are sending an email to their email lists, that 10 departments are sending an email, and that 1/3 of the faculty that let us do recruitment raps also sends an email to their class lists. - We’ll do raps in 1/3 of the classes that let us do a recruitment rap. - Do a ton of additional visibility like table tents in cafeterias, hang large banners, chalk classrooms and sidewalks on campus, etc.

 We’ll sign up the rest of the volunteers for the blitz and run trainings for those volunteers.

 We’ll also take care of setting up the logistics for next week’s blitz—reserving tabling locations, making materials, ensuring we have enough voter registration forms, etc.

Week 5—Voter Registration Blitz (week of the deadline):

This is it! We’ll do the bulk (2/3) of our registration this week. To make sure we nail it, you’ll want to:

 Confirm volunteers nightly  Collect and send out the totals daily  Database all of the forms, turn them in  Celebrate your success.

Note: When the voter registration blitz happens could vary depending on your state’s voter registration deadline so adjust this timeline as needed. For more information, please refer to the Legal Memo for your state.

Weeks 6 and 7—List Building:

For the two weeks heading up to early voting, we’ll continue to build our list by asking people to pledge that they’ll vote. We’ll also sign up all of our volunteer hours for the big get out the vote push in the final two weeks.

Weeks 8 and 9—Get Out the Vote:

These last two weeks (both during early voting and in the lead-up to Election Day) are dedicated to reminding people to vote and reminding them what to bring to the polls. We’ll do the following:

 Call the entire list of potential voters we have so far (registered voters, people that pledged to vote). We’ll ask everyone we contact to text their friends a reminder too.

 Tabling—we’ll ask people to pledge they’ll vote and ask everyone that says yes to text their friends.

 Class raps—we’ll go back and do a “remember to vote” rap in classes and ask everyone to text their friends a reminder as well.

 Finally, we’ll use email and visibility to remind people as well. We’ll remind people to vote by getting the administration to send an all campus email, getting reminders put on major school websites (homepage, blackboard, email login, etc.), asking everyone that attended the kickoff to invite their Facebook friends to become fans of the page, change their Facebook status and picture, emailing listserves, chalking classrooms and sidewalks, putting table tents in the cafeterias, having 2 large banners and hanging 1500 posters.

Note: Early voting (also known as in-person absentee balloting in some states) time periods and rules vary from state to state – stay tuned for more information from the New Voters Project that will give clear guidance on early voting rules in your state!

Key 2016 Dates

National Voter Registration Day – Tuesday, Sept. 27 10 Voter Registration Deadline – varies by state, usually in October [Want to insert this by state] Early Voting – varies by state Trick or Vote – Friday, Oct. 31 Election Day – Tuesday, Nov. 8

11 How to Be Non-partisan

The New Voters Project is rigorously nonpartisan. What does this mean? It means that we don’t endorse, either explicitly or implicitly, a political candidate or political party for elected office. We also don’t target our registration efforts based on how we think people will vote on candidates or issues. Instead, our goal is simply to engage as many students as possible in each and every election cycle in order that our generation be represented in the political process, regardless of ideology or political affiliation. No matter what your party affiliation or political bent - please remember to keep it out of your voter engagement activities. Our voter engagement campaign should be a comfortable environment for everyone to participate.

All the components of the New Voters Project can be done as long as there is not reference to candidates or parties (except for purely informational purposes), and as long as there is not discrimination towards voters’ political beliefs. Here are some do’s and don’ts DO

Voter Registration

 Drives must be designed to educate the public about the importance of voting and civic participation.  Make sure your activities are not biased for or against any candidate or party.  Register everyone, not just those who you think agree with your own views on candidates or issues.

Voter Education

 Educate the public on voter registration issues and encourage participation in the political process.  Tell people it’s important to vote, no matter what their views on issues or who they plan to vote for.  If discussing the important issues of the day, make sure you mention a range of issues and don’t just focus on one issue or on issues that divide the parties or candidates. Talk about a range of issues that most or all students care about.

Get Out the Vote (GOTV)  As with voter registration, your GOTV drives must be designed to educate the public about the importance of voting, cannot be biased for or against any candidate or party, and may be targeted to underrepresented communities or those the nonprofit serves DON’T  Endorse or oppose a candidate—implicitly or explicitly.  Contribute money, time, or facilities to a candidate.  Coordinate activities with a candidate.  Urge people to vote based on the importance of affecting one particular issue area—especially where that issue area is one that divides the candidates or parties.

EXAMPLES 12 When conducting nonpartisan voter engagement drives, we are frequently confronted by individuals who would like to engage in a partisan discussion. Here are some helpful suggestions for disengaging from these conversations:

Voter Contact: “Which of the two mayoral candidates should I vote for?” Our Response: “I’m not here to tell you who to vote for. I respect your ability to make that decision for yourself. I would encourage you to check the candidates’ websites, attend a candidate forum, or speak with the candidates directly to see who is most in line with your values and the issues you care about. Also, I have a voter guide with me that you can use to help make your decision.”

Voter Contact: “We need to get out the vote for Candidate X – I hope you are telling everyone how great she is and to vote for her!” Our Response: “This is a nonpartisan voter engagemtent project. We just want make sure that everyone is participating in our democratic system and getting their voice heard today! We believe that the full participation of young people in the political process is essential to a truly representative, vibrant democracy.”.

13 Campaign Leadership Roles

Overall Campaign Coordinator Goal: Meet voter registration and GOTV. The Overall Campaign Coordinator will coordinate the entire project, running weekly project meetings, identifying and training coordinators, facilitate planning and strategizing and pushing to meet the project’s goals.

Coalition Coordinator Goal: Build the campus coalition of student groups, administrators, faculty and local elections officials. The coordinator builds a team to establish relationships with administrators, student groups, and faculty and elections officials; helps organize regular coalition meetings; and works closely with the local elections officials.

Visibility Coordinator Goal: During voter registration drive, to get as much of the campus as possible to register online. During GOTV, to increase the number of people who vote. The coordinator builds a team to run a massive online and offline visibility campaign. During the voter registration phase, the objective is to get either the Student Vote Voter Registration Website – www.studentvote.org – in front of as many students’ eyeballs as possible. During GOTV, the objective is to get the message “Vote on November 8!” in front of as many people as possible.

Lists/Logistics Coordinator Goal: Ensure that all systems are in place to run an effective voter registration and Get Out the Vote campaign on campus. This person will see to it that all completed voter registration forms are entered into a central database system nightly. The coordinator will ensure that forms are turned into the county clerk twice per week. She will see to it that each team has voter registration forms and other materials necessary to run the drive. To make it all happen, the Lists Coordinator will need to recruit a team to database, be responsible for returning forms to the registrar and prepare materials.

Class Rap Coordinator Goal: Recruit new volunteers, help people register to vote and remind voters about the election through three waves of class presentations: one at the start of the semester to recruit volunteers, one right before the voter registration deadline and during get out the vote.

Dorm Coordinator Goal: Turn out as many on-campus residents to vote as possible. The coordinator builds a team to conduct two waves of dorm canvassing: one right before the voter registration deadline and one right before Election Day.

Tabling/Events Coordinator Goal: Turn out students by stopping students at high-traffic areas of campus and high-attendance campus events. In order to hit these goals, this person will also be responsible for recruiting and training tabling coordinators, planning highly visible tabling events and tracking the volunteers and voter registration forms they work with.

GOTV Phone-Bank Coordinator Goal: Ensure that at least half of your voter turnout list receives a personalized Election Day reminder by phone from another student. Again, to hit the goals, this person will have to recruit and train coordinators and have good tracking systems to keep on top of all the comments you're making.

Media Coordinator Goal: Get the on and off-campus media to feature positive stories about the youth vote throughout the Election. To hit these goals, the media coordinator will be responsible for contacting the media around big events, preparing other leaders in the chapter to speak to the press, writing press releases and advisories. The media coordinator will also be responsible for keeping a press list and building relationships with reporters throughout the semester.

14 Materials and Resources

Go to the intranet to download additional resources:

1. Toolkits – Each of these go into a little more detail for how to organize different elements of the New Voters Project, including how to’s and sample materials.  Build Your Vote Coalition  Working with the Registrar  Running a Big Voter Registration Drive  National Voter Registration Day  Get Out the Vote  Trick or Vote  Election Day  Voter Protection  Working with the Media  Student PIRGs’ Activist Toolkit

2. Raps / Sample Scripts  Voter Registration Class Announcement  Voter Registration Tabling/Canvassing  Voter Registration Volunteer Recruitment Phone Bank  GOTV Class Announcement  GOTV Tabling/Canvassing  GOTV Volunteer Recruitment Phone Bank  GOTV Voting Reminders Phone Bank

3. Forms and Tracking Materials  Pledge to Vote Cards  Master Volunteer Tracking Form  Volunteer Scheduling Form  Class Rap Scheduling Form  Voter Registration Batch Forms  Voter Registration Tracking Form  GOTV Calling Tick Sheet  GOTV Tabling Tick Sheet

If there are additional materials or resources you’re looking for, contact Laura Deehan, New Voters Project, at [email protected].