TAKE ACTION: THROW A PARTY AT THE POLLS

A few days ago my friend Molly at Music For America gave me call to tell me about a new program they've worked out with Working Assets to help boost voters participation November 7. It looks like a great idea to me and I want to get it out there for anyone who thinks it might be useful locally and who wants to participate in the pilot program. According to a recent study, Election-Day parties can boost turnout by as much as 10% at a fraction of the cost-per-vote of more traditional get-out-the-vote methods.

Here's the general idea: You throw a party, open to everyone (yes, even Republicans) at a local polling place from 3-7pm on Election Day. Attendees are not required to vote or be registered to vote. Everything at the party is free. To be successful the party must be advertised and promoted--  residents in the precinct must be invited to attend; that means flyers, community announcements, automated phone calls and even radio and newspaper advertisements if that's feasible.

Music For America is suggesting hot food and drinks, musical entertainment, activities for kids (if appropriate), voter registration, an hourly raffle (to ensure we have a list of everyone attending as well as to make it more fun for everyone attending).

To help ensure success of the events as well as the integrity of the research, Working Assets will provide both material and organization resources to groups carrying out the parties. All participating groups will have a weekly check-in progress call with Nicole Batdorf of Working Assets and Elizabeth Addonizio of Yale.

In addition, Working Assets will provide the following resources to party organizers (some of these items may NOT be available for early pilot parties):

Letter from Yale academics explaining experiment-- to help explain concept to officials and get permission for location use
Templates for flyers
Press release template
Newspaper advertisement template
Scripts for robo calls
Budget tracking worksheet
Raffle prizes: ice cream coupons, iPod shuffle
Raffle tickets
Volunteers, recruited online & managed by you through VolunteerForChange.org

Because this is part of a serious study they need to guarantee the integrity of the research by a certain standardization. So, what's required of each party is that following:

Every party must be well advertised, including lawn signs and robo calls.
There must be music at every party.
There must be a raffle at every party.
There must be food at every party.
The duration of each party must be 4 hours.
Outdoor parties must have a tent or covering in case of bad weather.

So if you want to organize one of these, what's next? Glad you asked. You can e-mail Mark: mark@musicforamerica.org and he'll guide you through the process. And if you're a band, same thing: Mark's the man.