Postcards!

I’ve been anxious about the upcoming election since I-don’t-know-when, and I am truly feeling much better and more optimistic now (sorry-but-thanks, Joe), but that doesn’t mean that I am in any way comfortable. It absolutely helps to do something with the anxiety, and this season, I’ve been sending postcards.

I have done door knocking and phone calling and I just really, really hate it. I thought if I pushed through and did it enough that I’d get more comfortable, but it is just not my jam. I actually liked texting voters, but I realized that I personally hate receiving those texts, so I’m not going to send them.

Oh, actually, I was thinking about how I like the crafty aspect of postcarding, and that reminded me. . . how did I never share this sign with y’all?

I made a couple of these and then stood them next to signs for the Republican gubernatorial candidate a couple years ago. Wow, come to think of it, this picture was tucked into a folder labeled “Empty Nestin'” from my first time as an empty nester in September 2022 — this is one of a bunch of pictures showing how I was spending my newfound free time. But I never got around to posting it. Hopefully I’ll be better at actually using some of my extra time to post here this go-around.

But I digress.

Back to the postcards!

There are tons of different ways that you can send postcards, but I do PostcardsToVoters.org.

Postcards to Voters focuses on down ballot Democratic turnout, and there’s ALWAYS something going on. Recently I wrote postcards in support of a school board candidate in Florida going against a Moms for Liberty candidate (she won!), inviting Texans to a local Democratic volunteer kick-off meeting, and lately it’s been encouraging people to sign up for vote by mail in Florida, but the various campaigns will change as all the postcards are sent. It’s pretty quick to get started: they send you instructions, you write a couple of sample postcards to show that you can follow instructions and write legibly, and then you can request assignments of between 4 and 50 addresses at a time, which they ask you to write and mail within 3 days. I do this via Slack, which I also use for work. I type “Hello,” which prompts the system (it’s made to look like Abby the Robot) to send addresses. It looks like this:

Then you click the link to download a document, which includes some background information, instructions, and a list of addresses with no names attached (for people’s privacy). There are usually three required lines of text that have been approved by the specific campaign or party and the message that they want to send, and then you can add optional messages if you’d like. We’re encouraged to make it clear that it’s a real person who’s writing (nothing mass-produced), and many people like to make the postcards so cute that it’s a cheerful piece of mail even if the recipient doesn’t need the reminder. I like to make flowers, so after getting through the most important stuff, I use any spare space to say, “When you vote, democracy grows!” with some flowers.

So: part of me feels like this isn’t doing enough, and maybe Cute W and I will have to travel to some swing state and knock on doors, too, but in the meanwhile, it’s something. So if you’ve been meaning to do something and you are not a massive extrovert, I highly recommend postcarding. It’s easy to fit it into whatever free time that you have. From now until November, I’ve set aside the embroidery, and this is my evening while-watching-TV activity. And it’s absolutely helpful for Generalized Election Anxiety Disorder (this is not an actual diagnosis, but it should be).

Other postcarding options include: Grassroots Dems, Blue Wave Postcards, Turnoutpac.org, Georgia Postcard Project, Michigan Postcard Project, Mobilize US, Volunteerblueorg, VoteSaveAmerica.org, and Activate America. You can read to see if one organization or another is more your style. The great thing is that they all strive to make it as easy as possible to get involved.