…until October 5, the close of voter registration, and there are troubling signs Indiana is headed toward lower turnout than 2016 and 2012. First, there are 200,000 fewer voters registered today than were registered for the 2016 general election. That’s right, despite population growth, Indiana’s registration rolls have actually shrunk. Only 32,000 names have been added to the registration rolls since the June 2nd primary.
At the same time, the leadership of our state has resisted bipartisan calls to permit no-excuse absentee voting in November. You will recall we were very visible in the spring when we praised the bipartisan decision to move the primary back a month and permit every voter to vote absentee; 51% of primary voters made that choice, in contrast to 16% and 12% in the 2016 and 2012 primaries, respectively.
On the evening of the June 2nd primary, we were the first organization to call for no-excuse absentee voting in the general election. Since then, many nonpartisan and bipartisan voices have joined the call to permit every Hoosier to vote absentee in November, including former Lt. Governors Davis and Mutz. Sadly, these calls have fallen on deaf ears. It appears we are headed to a “normal” general election despite these abnormal times. Indiana will be lucky to duplicate 2016 turnout at this rate.
One More Voice Campaign Launch
So have we run up the white flag in our battle to increase registration and turnout? Hell no!
Thanks to your support, the Indiana Citizen and our One More Voice campaign forges ahead.
Next week, we launch our effort to reach out to our 1.7 million unregistered fellow citizens, beginning with the youngest, who have the highest unregistered percentage. We will start connecting to younger Hoosiers through paid social media ads. We have also sent radio and TV ads and billboards to every Indiana outlet, asking that they be run for free.
I am very proud of the Element Three team that conceived and created the One More Voice campaign, and I want to be sure you see and hear their good work. We will host a Zoom call on Thursday, Aug. 13, from 3:00-3:30 p.m. If you would like to attend, please email me at bill.moreau@indianacitizen.org, and I will send you an invitation.
Growing Support for Our Work
We have gotten this far because of supporters like you. I hope you will take a moment to refresh your recollection of the great company you are keeping.
There are many new donors since I last wrote. Let me call your attention to just two.
The effectiveness of the One More Voice campaign is the way it challenges non-voters to realize how much power they have in their local communities. One organization that immediately keyed into that message is the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County. Its energetic and influential president, Rose Meissner, watched my presentation to the Indiana Philanthropy Alliance and immediately sought her board’s support for a generous grant that will be used to encourage registration and turnout in that county. As if that weren’t enough, she is recruiting other St. Joe County funders and convened a meeting of her fellow community foundation directors to spread the word. Rose is especially supportive of the unbiased information side of our mission that is being skillfully developed by Kevin Morgan and his team.
It's always been a high priority for us to connect with younger non-voters. The youngest of them are high school seniors, and they are about to be on the receiving end of a focused registration, education and turnout effort. Thanks to a substantial grant from the Indiana State Teachers Association, we are actively recruiting high school seniors to take ownership of a One More Voice campaign aimed at their classmates. Working with civics teachers and civic-minded student organizations, we hope to create in Hoosier 18-year-olds the “muscle memory” of what it means to be an engaged and informed Indiana citizen. A big shoutout to Sydney Brown, a recent IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy graduate, who is our volunteer field director and responsible for our high school campaign.
How YOU Can Help
Let me conclude with a request. This one may surprise you.
In reflecting on how I have spent my time over the last year since Ann and I embarked on this quest, I am struck by how much time I have spent in an echo chamber. It’s an echo chamber populated by people just like you: active, engaged, informed, idealistic Hoosiers who are engaged in pure civic philanthropy, toiling tirelessly with no agenda other than the perpetuation of our piece of the American experiment in democracy. I did spend a few hours outside the echo chamber and in the world of the 1.7 million unregistered Hoosiers to ensure our platform actually works; it does, quickly and efficiently.
So here’s the challenge: register five new voters.
Just five.
Find them in your neighborhood, your church, your workplace, your club, perhaps even your own family.
Urge the person to pull out her/his driver’s license or state ID, go to onemorevoice.com and walk through the process of registering. It’s easier for us oldies to do it on a laptop, but you can do it on your phone. It will take no more than three minutes.
And, yes, contribute if you can by clicking on the DONATE NOW button below.
Let me close with something John Lewis wrote before his death:
"Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it."
Ann and I hope this finds you and your family safe and well.
P.S. This newsletter will reach our biggest audience thanks to the hard work of Donna DeVault Clark. In addition to her full-time job and family responsibilities, Donna is pursuing a master's degree at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and volunteered to be our Donor Relations Assistant. Donna has brought order to the chaos of managing and updating our various lists. As the one who caused the chaos, I am extremely grateful to Donna for her painstaking persistence.