In a Third Act blog post, Vicky Shapiro from The Civics Center wrote about why this time is particularly important and how you can help.

1. Do It Yourself: You can use our tools to move your money on your own now.
2. Book a 30-minute Office Hours session with one of our Peer Facilitators.
3. Join a Cohort: Gather a group of at least 4 people and receive personalized assistance from our experienced facilitators. Fill out our contact form below.

Please note: THIS! volunteers and staff are not financial advisors and we are legally prohibited from giving financial advice. The resources and support we provide are for educational purposes only and all financial decisions are your own.

Postcard Party Ideas 

• A club or group of friends or neighbors
• Friends, family, grandchildren, young people – Get your teenagers to participate in democracy in action!
• Host a postcard party at your retirement center.
• Host a postcard party on Zoom with friends near and far.

Tips for Organizing Your Postcard Party

1. Invite people to your home, a local coffee shop, out for happy hour, a park or another gathering place, or online on Zoom.
2. Gather your supplies and ask other participants to help. Decide on whether you (the host) are supplying all the postcards and stamps or whether you are asking participants to bring their own. If hosting a virtual event, everyone will provide their own postcards, stamps, writing supplies, and voter addresses. Provide as many of the tools to make actually writing the cards easy: postcards, pens (lots of colors makes it extra fun!), stamps (it’s totally reasonable to ask people to contribute to the cost of the stamps), addresses, talking points, etc. Extra copies really help, so there are plenty to go around. You can divide addresses onto separate pages so everyone can get their own page (just remember to have them mark off the ones they’ve written to avoid duplicates).
3. Requesting voter addresses from Activate America – make sure that you (as the host) or participants request the voter addresses at least two days before the party. Plan to print the voter addresses on enough pieces of paper so you can share with participants.
4. If meeting in-person, provide some snacks and drinks. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but postcard writing can be hard work. A bowl of mini chocolate bars or cookies, and even water somehow help reduce the stress level. If you’re meeting at a restaurant, ask people to buy something to support the business. If you are meeting virtually, you can ask people to bring snacks and drinks to nosh while they write and chat.
5. Start off with a conversation about the effectiveness of personalized contact in voter mobilaization.

Read “Why Postcards? Why Vote by Mail?” to learn more about the effectiveness of writing postcards. Go over sample GOTV postcard scripts, the addresses, how to check them off, stamps, etc.

1. Write your postcards. Aim for each participant to write 5-10 postcards each. The short messages and addresses should be handwritten. Remind them to write clearly!

1. Collect the postcards at the end of the event and encourage participants to host their own postcard parties. Don’t forget to thank all participants before they leave.
   
2. Mail the postcards. Follow the deadlines given to you by Activate America. There are different deadlines depending on the specific postcard campaign.
3. After the party send a thank-you message and update to all attendees.
4. Keep it going! Ask one of the attendees to host the next postcard party.
   

While these increases may seem small, they are significant! Especially in tight races or elections with low voter turnout such as primaries or off-year elections, where the outcome can be decided by just a handful of votes.

Mail voting is a convenient, safe, and secure method of voting that is crucial for ensuring high turnout, especially among older Americans: it saves time, transportation, and Covid and other exposures, as well as allowing more time to consider the issues and candidates.

Learn more about Third Act’s Safeguarding our Democracy initiatives, including increasing participation in elections, senior to senior intergenerational voter registration, advocacy to ensure voting access, voter education, cultural engagement, and mutual aid.

While these increases may seem small, they are significant! Especially in tight races or elections with low voter turnout such as primaries or off-year elections, where the outcome can be decided by just a handful of votes.

Mail voting is a convenient, safe, and secure method of voting that is crucial for ensuring high turnout, especially among older Americans: it saves time, transportation, and Covid and other exposures, as well as allowing more time to consider the issues and candidates.

Learn more about Third Act’s Safeguarding our Democracy initiatives, including increasing participation in elections, senior to senior intergenerational voter registration, advocacy to ensure voting access, voter education, cultural engagement, and mutual aid.