This presentation was delivered online on June 21, 2018 as part of the Religious Action Center's campaign for "Every Congregation Counts". The video is online at https://tinyurl.com/RAC-Voter-Engagement-Video. The simple URL for this presentation = https://tinyurl.com/RAC-Voter-Engagement-Present.

1. Presentation
Title
@theRAC @theRACgram
Voter Engagement Training Webinar
6-21-2018

2. Rabbi Michael Namath, Religious Action Center
Rabbi Michael Holzman, Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation
WELCOME!
• Why does voter engagement work matter?
• What is Jewish about doing voter engagement work?
• What will we be learning on today’s webinar?

3. Shira Zemel, Religious Action Center
PRINCIPLES OF VOTER ENGAGEMENT
WORK
Principle #1: Make sure your contact
with voters is personal and relational
• Voter turnout is more effective when
people are contacted by others they
know or are connected to
• Voter turnout is more effective when
you have conversations

4. Principle #2: Make sure your contact
with voters is repeated
• One voter is contact is not enough to get a
new or infrequent voter to the polls!
• Build out your community’s voter
engagement strategy to account for
reaching voters multiple times prior to
election day

5. Principle #3: Keep track of who you
contact
• Keep track of who you contact, how you
contact them, and the result of your
contact
• Start with a list of your congregation or
community members!

6. ADDITIONAL THINGS TO REMEMBER:
• Voter Pledge Cards
• Voting is habit forming
• Voting is meaningful
• Voting is fun!

7. Lee Winkelman, Religious Action Center, RAC-CA
MODEL FOR VOTER ENGAGEMENT
• Remember the principles:
• Relational contact
• Repeated contact
• Keep track of your contacts
• Adapt this model to fit your community!
• Aspire to 100% voting

8. PREPARING FOR VOTER ENGAGEMENT
WORK
• Assemble and train your team
• Prepare your lists and tracking contacts
• Read the RAC’s “Planning Your
Community's Civic Engagement Work”
resource

9. FIRST CONTACT: VOTER PLEDGE
• Ask members to sign voter pledge card
• Make the ask relational
• Pledge cards as a tool to talk about voting
• Register teens and other unregistered
Write in the chat-box: What happens if you put
the pledge cards on a table outside services or
on your website and don’t do anything else?

10. Write in the chat-box: Where can you go to find people in
your community to ask them to sign a voter pledge card
and have a conversation about voting?
• Services/oneg
• Sisterhood
• Youth group
• Torah Study
• NFTY Event/meals
• Board Meeting
• Religious school drop-off and
pick-up
• Pre-school parent
orientations/pre-school drop-
off and pick-up
• Choir rehearsal
• High holidays
• Committee meetings (religious
school committee, finance
committee, etc.
• Wherever people are!
FIRST CONTACT: VOTER PLEDGE

11. • Preparing to use voter pledges to talk about voting
• Have a sample script and practice, practice, practice
• Order pledge cards for you community
• Record each voter contact on your list
FIRST CONTACT: VOTER PLEDGE

12. • #1: Traditional Phone Bank
• Have call lists
• Prepare a script
• Have people bring cellphones and
chargers
• Train and practice, practice, practice
• Have a leader to help volunteers
and answer questions
• Record results of phone bank
• You will need more than one night to
reach people who are not home
SECOND CONTACT: PHONE BANK
Two ways to do a phone bank-both have the same goal!

13. • #2: Friends and Family Plan:
• Research shows: most effective voter
contact method during 2016 election
cycle
• Write in the chat-box: Have you ever been
in a group that asked everyone to bring 1 or
2 people to the next meeting or action?
Did it work?
Two ways to do a phone bank-both have the same goal!
SECOND CONTACT: PHONE BANK

14. • #2: Friends and Family Plan accountability
measures :
• Have people identify 10-20 people to
call and share the list with group
• Script for conversations and practice
• Call together or set a specific deadline
for calls
• Check in with volunteers
• Report results back to the whole group
• Record results in tracking list
Two ways to do a phone bank-both have the same goal!
SECOND CONTACT: PHONE BANK

15. • Do during 48 hours before election
• Use cellphone numbers collected
throughout voter engagement work
• Send personal text (ideally from
someone they have already talked to)
• Mass emails may also be helpful 48
hours before Election Day
THIRD CONTACT: TEXT MESSAGE BANK

16. • Principle #1: Multiple contacts with
potential votes
• Principle #2: Relational contacts
• Principle #3: Using lists to track voters
• Adapt the model for your community
• Use RAC resources to help!
MODEL FOR VOTER ENGAGEMENT

17. Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, California
CONGREGATIONAL STORIES
Eric Stockel
Bea Richman
Co-Chairs, Community Organizing Leadership Team (COLT)

18. Temple Emanu-El, Dallas, Texas
www.tedallas.org/vote
CONGREGATIONAL STORIES
Rabbi Kimberly Herzog Cohen
Rabbi
Alex Horn
Assistant Director, Social Justice & Young Adult
Community

19. Q&A!
PLEASE POST YOUR QUESTIONS IN
THE CHAT BOX FOR US TO
ANSWER OUT LOUD!

20. www.rac.org/VoterEngagement
RAC VOTER ENGAGEMENT
RESOURCES
• General Resources
• Making a plan resource
• 501c3 guidelines
• Voter Engagement Resources
• Voter Engagement Toolkit
• Voter Contact Spreadsheet Template
• Pledge to Vote Postcard Order Form
• Communications And Publicity Resources
• Coming soon: text studies, community
voting pledge, blessing for voters, tools for
engaging young voters, friends and family
plan guide.

21. www.rac.org/VoterEngagement
NEXT STEPS
• Take this back to your community and make a plan!
• Download our online resources
• www.rac.org/VoterEngagement
• www.rac.org/CEC
• Use #ReformJewsVote on social media
• Join the Social Action Group in the Tent
• Register for our Candidate Engagement Training Webinar
on June 28 at 2:00pm ET
All icons sourced from the Noun Project – thenounproject.com.
Stay on this zoom line if you are joining the
California state training at 3:00pm ET/ 12:00pm PT