5 Ways to Get Climate Votes in the Final Days Before the US Presidential Election – Grist

Vision

“For a long time, we assumed that when the climate crisis got bad enough, everyone would just wake up, get together and solve the problem in some great kumbaya moment—and that’s not necessarily how history will go. When crises worsen and shortages worsen, sometimes it becomes more difficult to love your neighbor. And I have no doubt that the compassion and respect we will need for our fellow citizens to tackle the climate crisis can only exist in a healthy democracy.”

— Nathaniel Stinnett, executive director of the Environmental Voter Project.

In the spotlight

Climate change poses a threat to democracy. That threat has manifested itself in some immediate ways this year, with incredibly strong hurricanes sweeping through the southeastern United States. damage to roads and polling stations and disruption of postal services.. The researchers also found that the effects of climate change could lead to fertile ground for authoritarianism.

On the other hand, democratic participation is crucial for ambitious climate policies. You’ve almost certainly heard it before: one of the most important things you can do to make your voice heard and stand up for the causes you care about is to vote.

“I think it’s worth emphasizing that we have an absurdly large number of solutions to all the climate problems we face,” he said. Nathaniel Stinnettexecutive director of the Environmental Voter Project. “We just have politicians who don’t want to make these decisions, and the lack of political will to get politicians to lead the fight against climate change is the real problem.”

He founded the Environmental Voters Project to address this problem by identifying environmentalists who don’t vote and using behavioral science to try to turn them into more consistent voters, creating a stronger climate voting bloc. “At the end of the day, politicians always go where the votes are because they like to win elections,” Stinnett said. “This, more than any other reason you can come up with, is why anyone who cares about climate change should come out and vote, because this force is just sitting there waiting for us to grab it.”

The organization is data-driven—and is already seeing some promising results for 2024. More than 214,000 first-time climate voters have already cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election in the 19 states in which the organization operates, according to a press release Monday. And in some key swing states, climate-identified voters tend to outperform other early voters. In Pennsylvania, for example, 12.8 percent of registered voters have already cast ballots, and 21.7 percent of climate voters have done so, Stinnett told me when we spoke last week.

However, participation in democracy remains easier for some than for others. Voter suppression is alive and well in 2024 as some groups, fueled by conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen, ramping up efforts to clean up voter listsamong other tactics. And these efforts are damaging to the climate movement.

“Laws have been passed to make it harder for young people and people of color to vote,” Stinnett said. “And this has been the case historically—it’s nothing shocking or new—but we continue to see in our data that young people and people of color are at the heart of the modern environmental movement. Thus, these laws disproportionately impact climate and environmental movements.”

The perniciousness of voter suppression, he said, is how it permeates the cultural consciousness. When people believe that voting is difficult, or when they realize that it is actually more difficult for them than for others, they may simply refuse to participate.

The Environmental Voter Project is one organization that is fighting this by sharing information to clarify the process and helping people make a plan to vote.

You too can help more people cast their votes—in some discreet (and even fun!) ways. If you’re feeling an ever-increasing sense of anxiety and fear in these final days before the 2024 election (hi! Same!), getting involved may be one way to quell those feelings. Read on for five ways you can help get out the vote.

Call and knock on doors

Environmental Voter Project has opportunities for volunteers willing to make voter calls, specifically designed for inactive voters who consider the environment their top concern. “In the last five days of the election alone, which is Nov. 1 through Nov. 5, we’re going to fill 4,825 phone bank shifts,” Stinnett said. Modern phone banking technology allows volunteers to do this from a computer, using a system that automatically dials target numbers and shows that the calls are coming from the organization, while hiding the individual volunteer’s phone number. Find out more here.

The organization also has outreach capabilities to environmental voters in Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Austin, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona. If you are in any of these cities and want to go door to door to get out the votes, you can register here.

Local leadership is another organization working to unite environmental voices, with a focus on securing support for losing candidates with strong climate platforms. He has two more “Climate Calls” events before Election Day—one today, Oct. 30, and another on the Monday before the election. You can find out more and register here.

I offer trips to polling stations

Do you have an electric car? Do you live in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or Wisconsin? If so, you can volunteer to give people rides to the polls with ChargeTheVote, a nonpartisan initiative designed to increase voter turnout and reduce transportation emissions on Election Day. Find out more here.

If you don’t drive an electric vehicle, there are still ways to help with transportation. Look for groups in your area – e.g. Manage your newsletter is a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit that coordinates volunteer drivers and volunteers who can help arrange rides. Check it out here.

And you can always take a more personal approach: Plan a car ride to vote with friends, family, co-workers, etc. Research has shown that something as simple as making a joint plan can make a person more likely to follow through on their intention to vote.

Delivering free food to voters in long lines

Beyond just getting to the polls, long lines at the polls can be a huge barrier for many—and historically, voters in black and brown neighborhoods face longer wait times on Election Day. Access to food and water can help ease the burden of waiting. Pizza for the elections coordinates pizza delivery (it also has a food truck program) to locations where there are long lines. Anyone can report a crowded polling station online and then help organize pizza delivery. Pre-ordering is also available for nonprofits and other groups planning voter registration and turnout events.

Keep in mind that each state has certain restrictions on the activities that can be conducted near polling places, and in some cases this extends to providing a livelihood (sometimes called “warming lines.”) For example, in Georgia it is illegal to offer free food or water within 150 feet of a polling place. Still, local groups are finding ways to get around these restrictions.

Holiday support for voting

What about the bigger picture, you ask? Of course, there are many ways states and the national government could make it easier for people to vote. One idea is to make Election Day a federal holiday to make it easier for working people to go to the polls.

If you like this idea, and if you’re the kind of person who calls your Congressional Representative (or if you’re even interested in calling your Congressional Representative), you can do this to show support Law on election day holidaya bill introduced this year by California Representative Anna Eshoo.

We talk, write and publish about it

If you’ve made it this far in the newsletter, you probably care at least a little about voting and making sure others can and are motivated to vote too. The last, very simple action you can take to encourage others to vote is to let them know you did.

“Often the best thing you can do is say loud and proud that you are a climate change advocate,” Stinnett said. “We think it’s very satisfying when we can rationally convince people to do something. But the truth is that we are social animals rather than intelligent animals.”

He cited a 2012 study published in the journal Nature that found: Facebook users voted more often when they received a voting message that included profile photos of their friends who had already voted. It may sound silly, Stinnett said, but people are constantly looking at each other to determine what behavior is good and appropriate. “Don’t waste time (and emotional labor) trying to create the perfect argument to convince someone to vote,” he said. “If you make it clear on social media or in real life that you are a voter because it is an integral part of your identity as an environmentalist, or as a good neighbor, or as a good child, or as a good parent, then anyone else who wants to be like that, will say, “Oh, I want to be a good environmentalist, so I should vote too.”

— Claire Elise Thompson

Parting Shot

In the spirit of being a loud and proud voter, here’s a photo of me (and my dog) bringing in my own ballot in Seattle yesterday! I did it! As is typical in Washington State, a ballot showed up in my mailbox a couple of weeks ago, and the ballot box was only a 15-minute walk from my house. (I could also mail it, no postage.)