This page is about actions you can take to help EVERYONE be registered and ready to vote! For detailed state-specific voter information FAQ’s, for Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, such as how to vote early & from home please see our FAQ page.

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For an action menu, check the calendar on our EVENTS page which lists lots of scheduled texting and calling opportunities… Or, check the UUtheVOTE.org national website & see GET INVOLVED (scroll down to the search box that lets you find the type of event you want, such as textbanks or phonebanks, or find your favorite state to support). Be aware that the PHONEBANKS page only lists a few of the major, top priority, nationally sponsored events! And, for delectable local treats, peruse our #MUUSJAtheVOTE menu, below!

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APPETIZERS

POST NONPARTISAN LAWN SIGNS: Ask your congregation to post a lawn sign from the League of Women Voters (see pictures below): Contact Karen at director@muusja.org to get signs in English, Spanish, and/or Somali. Or, check with your own local LWV to see if you can get signs locally!

OCCUPY SOCIAL MEDIA: Share the links and videos from We Make Minnesota … Share videos from When We All Vote. AND Post on your own and congregation social media about your voter engagement work!

Your ability to influence your OWN friends can help them reach out to others. For example, when our friend Diana posted on her Facebook page that she was writing postcards to voters, 5 of her friends asked how they could do it, too — so instead of 120 postcards, Diana became responsible for sending nearly 2,000. That’s known as “relational organizing” and it’s POWERFUL!

FIRST COURSES

ACTIVATE YOUR FRIENDS: Who do you know? If they’re all set to vote, invite them to join you to reach out to more voters. Relational organizing treats voters like people and people like voters. To download Empower, an app to track your voter contacts, sign up at: https://getempower.com/muusja — it works best on your cellphone. Upload your own congregational and other contacts, and you’ll be prompted to consider which of your contacts you’d like to reach out to, as we send out calls to action.

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BOOST COLLEGE STUDENT VOTING: This just takes a few minutes: Join UUSJ’s effort to make sure any college(s) with whom you or your family or friends have a relationship will encourage and help their students to vote: http://uusj.net/wp1/ask-your-college/

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BOOST HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT VOTING: MUUSJA is a partner with When We All Vote, a nonpartisan nonprofit started in 2018 by Michelle Obama, which runs the program “My School Votes” https://www.whenweallvote.org/schools/  Talk to Karen at director@muusja.org about getting connected with school voter programs. In some communities, UU’s are teaming up with local chapters of the League of Women Voters to reach out to the high schools & community colleges. Check with us or contact your local chapter of LWV directly to find out if they’re doing this, at  https://www.lwvmn.org/

MAIN COURSES

REACH BEYOND YOUR OWN CIRCLES TO REGISTER VOTERS to text or call voters who are resisting suppression. Everything’s being posted to the MUUSJA EVENTS calendar. Drop in every Tuesday at 6pm for special guests, new topics, and updates. Subscribe to MUUSJA’s monthly email message, and to UUtheVote.org to receive updates. Our nonpartisan outreach is to voters whom the Parties and Candidates often overlook, and we are building a network that will carry us into 2021 and beyond no matter what happens.

To join the Tuesday 6pm Central Zoom meeting, click here. 

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USE THE POWER OF THE PEN (BEFORE OCTOBER 17th): We have surpassed our goal of 20,000 notes to voters in Georgia, Texas, and Florida, in districts with intensive voter suppression … we sent postcards with Reclaim Our Vote and letters with Vote Forward, both national UU partners. There’s a little time left to do more letters! HERE are the instructions and links to write letters with VoteForward.org/UU to under-represented voters. If you have access to a printer, envelopes and stamps at home, you can just print your own and follow the instructions on the website. If not, MUUSJA can provide you with a packet of pre-printed letters, envelopes, and stamps, just call or message us. Talk to Karen or Allison at director@muusja.org or awmuusja@gmail.com with questions.

DESSERTS

Protect the Vote & Election Defenders: 866-OUR-VOTE is the hotline!

Ranting about rampant “voter fraud” is bogus, but concerns about inappropriate or even illegal interference with voting are warranted, based on recent experience in other states.  Several organizations (including Common Cause, Frontline, the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, and the National Lawyers’ Guild) have created online training with opportunities for anyone to protect free and fair elections. Some actions can be done from home whereas others involve in-person engagement. LAWYERS AND PEOPLE WITH SOME LEGAL TRAINING ARE ESPECIALLY NEEDED, AS ARE ALL MULTI-LINGUAL PEOPLE. Check out protectthevote.net to learn more and sign up, or come to our meeting on Tuesday evening, 10/3/2020, to hear more about what’s happening around election protection in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Meanwhile, some GOOD NEWS is that all of the polling places around Minnesota and our Dakota cities have enough election judges and pollworkers now! A few sites are still working with the political parties to balance their representation.

REFRESHING BEVERAGES

SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE: This work can be so hard at a time when equality, economy, employment, education, equanimity all are threatened. Call on us personally & join us as needed for spiritual sustenance from UU leaders at https://www.uuthevote.org/spirit/

Bon Appetit!