CCL and Voter Participation Outreach
Partnering with the Environmental Voter Project
The Environmental Voter Project (EVP) is focused on increasing turnout of the eight million unlikely-to-vote environmentalists. You can help by phone-banking or sending postcards from anywhere in the U.S. to EVP's 17 key states. The decisions on which states are key, were based on the number of non-voting environmentalists who could be reached and the percentage of the vote they might represent. “These are the states where there are disproportionately large populations of these non-voting environmentalists. This is where we know we can have the greatest impact.”Chapters can make this a group activity or encourage people to do it on their own. Some chapters have met on Zoom before and after phone banking to share the experience and build camaraderie. Learn more tips and tricks by clicking on the "Watch" tab above to see the recording of the live training video.
If your chapter would like to phone bank or send postcards as a group, ask everyone to go to environmentalvoter.org/events to see the many open training webinars and frequent days of action (which include training) and then as a group decide which one is most convenient for everyone. Then everyone can sign up individually. When you register, please be sure to select CCL in the pull down menu "How did you hear about this opportunity" so that CCL can tally the number of people doing good work with EVP.
Note: Campaign season is March through September and EVP’s target states for 2022 are: Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. You also have the option of working with EVP on special, state and local elections.
EVP has set its sights on is drop-off voters, who represent about a third of the 2.9 million voters the group is targeting. These are people who may have voted in the presidential election but then fail to show up for the midterms. “These drop-off voters are particularly important because they at least have some recent experience voting,” said Stinnett. In other words, drop-offs are the low-hanging fruit, of which EVP is looking to pick up 259,703 voters in the state of Florida alone.
Hundreds of Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers have worked with EVP during previous election cycles, canvassing door-to-door, making phone calls and sending postcards to potential voters. EVP does not tell people which candidates or parties to support. Jeff Joslin, a CCL leader in the North Atlanta chapter who volunteered with EVP, said, “We’d ask if they signed up for early voting and provide information on how to vote early. If they brought up a candidate or party they didn’t like, we kind of side-stepped that.”
CCL Executive Director Madeleine Para says it’s important for environmental voters of both parties to be consistent voters. “That would create an environment where every Republican and every Democratic candidate has to have a strong position on climate change in order to be viable.”
With election season gearing up, many Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers are looking for ways to strengthen our democracy and increase voter participation. CCL is again encouraging people to check out EVP. You can sign up to receive updates and volunteer opportunities on their website.
Work locally or work your own circles
In addition to volunteering with EVP, CCL has a number of suggestions that can be found in the 2022 Chapter Action Guide on CCL Community:
- Use your democracy: Make sure you vote and that you understand what you need to do in order to vote.
- Help others participate: Work locally to help the people around you vote, either personally one-on-one with people you know or by working with a local organization that helps people register and vote. The League of Women Voters is one well respected organization that you might partner with.
- Ensure that all of your friends and family members are registered to vote at their current address. Everyone can register and request a ballot by mail (where available) at turbovote.org.
- Help students vote. CCL’s campus leaders and campus groups are working with Rock the Vote this fall to encourage students to vote. Rock the Vote is a U.S.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose stated mission is "to engage and build the political power of young people" and for more information, check out rockthevote.org.
- Take off your CCL hat and help campaign personally for candidates of any party that align with your values.
- Help highlight the importance of voting for the climate with this Environmental Voter Handout and/or CCL's Climate Voter yard signs!
- Open dialogue with people you disagree with. Join our Braver Angels Action Team and/or the Braver Angels organization.
- Consider supporting other organizations that take a bi-partisan approach to keeping democratic systems strong in our country. Here are two examples: Issue One and Unite America.
As we often say at CCL, democracy is the solution to climate change, and there are many ways to wield that essential tool.
Video 1: Extended Q&A w/ Nathaniel Stinnett (July 21, 2022)
(59:41)
(34:53)
- Nathaniel Stinnett
- Shannon Seigal
- Jeff Joslin
- Whitney Larsen
- Carol Kravetz & Dublin Galyean
- Video 1: Download the video.
- Video 2: Download the video.
- Video 2: Download PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation.
Audio 1: Extended Q&A w/ Nathaniel Stinnett (July 21, 2022)
(59:41)
(34:53)
- Nathaniel Stinnett
- Shannon Seigal
- Jeff Joslin
- Whitney Larsen
- Carol Kravetz & Dublin Galyean
- Audio 1: Download the podcast
- Audio 2: Download the podcast