5 Ways You Can Volunteer This Election Season

I don’t know about you, but my favorite season is election season.  There is so much at stake, which makes it that much more important to get involved and volunteer.  Here are five simple ways that you can become politically active and make a difference locally, statewide or nationally:

 1) Phone bank

Making phone calls is one of the most crucial and effective methods of a grassroots campaign to reach voter contacts.  One of the great advantages of making phone calls for campaigns is that the campaign you make calls for does not have to be in your state.  For example, if you want to make calls for a U.S. Senate campaign, but there is not a Senate seat up for re-election in your state, then you can make calls for a U.S. Senate campaign in a different state.  

If you’d like to make phone calls for a campaign, you can contact the campaign. A script is typically provided, but you don’t have to read it word for word, you can slightly modify it to provide a more personal touch.

 2) Knocking doors

Knocking doors is another crucial and effective method of a grassroots campaign to reach voter contacts.  Not to mention it’s a great way to get a little bit of exercise and Vitamin D all while getting a candidate’s name out in front of voters. Door knocking can be intimidating at first, but you can go with a partner to get more comfortable. Over time, you develop great people skills which are great to have. If you’d like to knock doors for a campaign, you can contact the campaign and express your interest.

 3) Voter registration

A unique way to get involved is registering people to vote. Two great locations for registering voters is at high schools and college campuses because the youth is new to voting and many are not yet registered. They are also an important demographic to reach because the youth makes up 20% of the voting population. If you’d like to register people to vote, Rock the Vote has a lot of great information about registering voters.

4) Intern

One of the best ways to get involved is by interning for a campaign.  You can experience the different aspects of volunteering. As an intern, you will do a variety of tasks such as making phone calls, door knocking, event planning, data entry, and much more. There are plenty of advantages to interning such as great networking opportunities and the possibility of doing a remote internship. If you don’t want to intern for a specific campaign, the Republican National Committee offers a great intern program called the Republican Leadership Initiative which involves you in multiple campaigns.

Being an intern is a great resume builder and will help you become more well-rounded in the world of political campaigns. If you’d like to intern for a campaign, you can contact the campaign or apply on the campaign’s website. If you’re interested in the Republican Leadership Initiative, you can learn more about it by clicking here.

5) Recruit volunteers

Volunteers are critical to a campaign’s success. If you’re already volunteering or interning, a simple and easy way to help out even further is by gathering friends to volunteer. One way to involve your friends is by hosting a phone bank for a candidate or having a “block walking party” with your friends where you all door canvass together.  

Most campaigns have a few beg days (often on a Saturday) before the election that is typically known as “Super Saturday” or “National Day of Action” where they see how many voter contacts can be reached in one day to prepare for reaching voter contacts on election day.  This is a great day to involve your friends because campaigns need all the help they can get.

If you are not already volunteering, I highly suggest you start. Volunteering will not only help you professionally, but will also leave you with fond memories and great friends.