1The Frustrations OfGetting Out The VoteGetting Started In 2007 I volunteered tobecomeaprecinctcaptaininPalm BeachCountysPrecinct4178.Ilearned aboutknockingondoors.Ilearned aboutmakingphonecalls.Ilearned howtousethedatabaseofregistered voterscalled the VAN (Voter Activation Network).Usingthedatabaseformy precinctIlearnedwhosephonenumber was available to me. I also learned whose emailaddresswasavailabletome.And I learnedhow to make lists of all of this information.FindingVolunteersIassembleda teamofvolunteers.Asyoumayknow, volunteersarenoteasytofnd.After mucheffort,Iwasabletofnd15 volunteers to cover the 714 Democrats in myprecinct.Wewereinstructednotto bothertotrytoreachouttothe533 registeredasNPA(nomajorparty affliation). VolunteerTeamsIdividedmy volunteers into teamscovering about 30-70voterseach.WithalistIgavethem, their job was to contact each voter before each election by phone and/or by knocking on doors to give them information about thecomingelectionandtourgethemto vote. When they reached someone, it was unusualforthemtohavefveminutes with them.ContactRate:25%Myvolunteers foundtheyhadasucccessfulcampaign if they were able to speak to 25% of their lists. That means 75% of their phone calls eitherdidnotanswerorwenttovoice mail.Thatmeansthat75%oftheirdoor knocking found no one home.The Norm In talking with many of my precinctleadercolleagues,25%appears torepresentthenorm!Inmyprecinct, outof744Democratsmyvolunteers wereunabletogiveourmessageto588 of themnot an effcient use of their time and energy. A Voter Turnout Motivation Study2The Frustrations Of Trying To Reach Out To All The Voters In Your County.Precincts Covered Then I discovered how fewofPalmBeachCountys850precinctshad volunteerprecinctleaders.Iwasappalled.Of PalmBeachCountys850precincts,the Democratic Party had only 350 active volunteer precinct leaders. Volunteers Needed For 350 Precincts If eachofthe350precinctsneeded15volunteers (asminedid)todothejob,thatmeansover 5,000 volunteers had to be found! And not one of the uncovered 500 still had a single volunteer! NoRepresentationThatmeantthat500 precincts got no personal representation at allno phone calling or door knockingfrom a local volunteer. True, calls were made from a central boiler room, but this type of contact was seldom effective.Oftenitturnedofftherecipientmore than turned them on.ThatslikeWalmarthavingjustafewstores andactivelysellinglocalresidentstheirwares. Walmart did not become the powerhouse it is by keeping 350 stores with few customers. They did alotbetterbyhaving850storespackedwith customers. WhyIgnoreOurCustomers?So,Isaid tomyself,whyareweignoring75%ofour customers?Why do we think were doing a great job if our store in Precinct 4178 is attracting only 25% of its possible customers.I decided to see if there were a better way. A New ApproachRather than touching 178 voters in my precinct I decidedtocreateanewsletterwhichwould contactall714Democrats.Notonlythat,I decided to also reach out to the 533 NPAs as well. That meant that instead of touching 178 potential voters I would be touching 1247!18 Times Per Year And instead of touching 178potentialvotersforperhapsfveminutes, three times a year between Municipal, Primary, and State/National elections, I would touch 1247 potential voters 18 times per year. 318MonthlyNewslettersIcreateda monthly8-pagenewsletter(12issues)plusan extratwoissuesinthemonthbeforeeach election, for a total of 18. Realistically expecting the average reader to spend at least 10 minutes looking at each issue, instead of a voter contact ofabout890minutesthetraditionalway,I wouldbecontactingpotentialvoters249,400 minutes!Totestmyidea,in2014Iarrangedtosend18 issuestoeveryoneoftheDemocraticandNPA prospective voters in my precinct by email or by mail. Theresultsofthe experimentwere beyondmyexpec-tations.Theturn-outinprecinct 4178wasbetween 19% and 71% great-er than the County precinct averages. Hereisthegraph-iccomparisonfor the August Primary election:CommonWis-dom Not Wisdom Now common wisdom says thatnoonereadsanymore.Noonewillreadan 8-page newsletter, 18 times. How do they explain the 71% improved voting turnout of the non-read-ers of the newsletter they receivedand suppos-edly didnt readcompared to the non-readers of the newsletter who actually didnt receive it?4Belowisthegraphiccomparisonforallthe elections in 2014 (*VBM - Vote By Mail).Of special note is the turnout for the August 2014 15th Circuit Judge VBM. How can that 1233% advantage be explained? Itswellknownthatdown-ballotchoicesare oftenleftblank.Voterswillselectfromthe topfewchoiceswhichtheyknowsomething about.Theyskiptherestbecausetheydont feelknowledgableenoughtomakeaselection. The readers of The Enlightened Voter had been informedaboutwhowasrunninginadvanceandabouttheirbackgrounds.Votersweretold ofhowtheelectionofajudgecouldaffecttheir whowasselectedtobeajudgecouldaffect thempersonally.The1233%defnitelyhad something to to with voter education!5Our Mission1. Create the necessary nationwide framework to increase voter turnout by up to 70% by placing a copy of The Enlightened Voter:Into every voters hands.Do it every month, andAssure higher voter turnout in every election. 2. To educate and share with . . .Precincts,Counties, andStates.3. To consult and train . . .Precincts,Counties, andStates. . . to master voter trust and education skills.Where Do We Go From Here?AsofJanuary1,2015,wehaveestablishedanot-for-proftcorporationinFlorida:TheVoter Publications, Inc, also DBA Voter Education, Inc. You may fnd out more by visiting our website www.votereducation.netWe already have created the structure to accomplish all the goals in our Mission:We have included a rationale to motivate using a voter education newsletter in addition toor in preference tousing door-knockers and phone callers.We have Spanish and Creole translators ready to go. We have training materials to guide County workers to adapt The Enlightened Voter - Palm Beach CountyEdition for their counties already available on our website. We have shared a job description for the volunteers and skills needed to accomplish the tasks (visit our website to view them).We have a method to harvest many thousands of email addresses And the number of volunteers needed to educate all the voters in a county is less than 20 as compared to the thousands of volunteers needed for door-knocking and phone-calling. We now need the Seed Money for a staff to implement that structure.