So, I know a few weeks ago when I published the first “Where Do We Go From Here?”
video I said that the next election wasn’t for another two years.
And that’s true for most of us.
But, because neither U.S. Senate race in Georgia ended with a candidate winning more than 50%
of the vote, that state is holding run-off elections for both of its Senate seats on
January 5.
If you’re an eligible voter in Georgia, you have until December 7 to register to vote
— although hopefully you don’t have to, since you just voted in the general election
earlier this month.
Early in-person voting begins on December 14, but if you’re planning to vote by mail,
you can request your absentee ballot right now by going to ballotrequest.sos.ga.gov — and
that’s also linked in the video description.
The Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate are Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
I urge you to vote for them, because control of the Senate hangs in the balance.
The Democrats need to win both seats in order to take a majority in the Senate, and both
races are going to be incredibly close so every single vote counts.
Of course, all of that only applies if you live in the state of Georgia.
What can the rest of us do?
Well, if you have a few spare bucks lying around, you can donate to the campaigns of
Ossoff and Warnock.
Their websites are also linked in the description.
And that’s only for fellow Americans, by the way — sorry, international viewers,
but our political campaigns can’t take your money, or your assistance of any kind, because
that’s election interference.
I know the outgoing President of the United States doesn’t think it’s a big deal,
but it is, and he’s wrong about a lot of stuff, pretty much everything, in fact, and
it’s good that he won’t be the president much longer, it’s very good.
Anyway, there’s something else we Americans can do to help the Democrats win the run-off
elections in Georgia, whether we live in Georgia or not.
That something is phone banking, and it’s what I’ll be discussing in the rest of this
video.
Generally speaking, phone banking is when people make phone calls to encourage others
to participate in an upcoming election.
These are cold calls, meaning the person you’re calling isn’t expecting to hear from you,
you’re just dialing their number and hoping they answer and are receptive to what you
have to tell them.
That can be scary.
I’m not all that great on the phone to begin with, and the prospect of calling a stranger
and attempting to persuade them to do what I want them to do is a little terrifying.
It’s not a rational fear — what’s the worst that could happen?
They’ll hang up on me?
Maybe yell at me or cuss me out?
That wouldn't be pleasant, but it’s not like it would kill me or anything.
I’d get over it.
Still, recognizing that a fear is irrational doesn’t automatically make it go away.
So, if you’re watching me talk about phone banking right now and thinking to yourself,
“Nope, there’s no way I could ever do that,” I understand.
I know exactly how you feel.
I had never done any phone banking before this year.
I was scared to do it, and I didn’t think I’d be any good at it.
But when I saw how close the polls predicted the presidential election would be in Georgia,
a state that hadn’t been won by a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, I decided
I wanted to help.
Maryland, the state where I’ve lived all my life, is one of the most solidly blue states
in the country.
But Georgia actually had a chance to flip this time.
So I went to the website of the Georgia Democratic Party, found some phone banking events that
fit my schedule, and I went for it.
It was all done virtually, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I signed on to a website at the scheduled time, was shown a screen containing the contact
information of a person I was supposed to call, along with a script telling me what
to say to the person.
And I started calling.
There were a couple of things I noticed that put my mind somewhat at ease early on.
First, the purpose of this phone bank drive was to “get out the vote” — to call
Democrats or people who might have been leaning Democratic and encourage them to make sure
they turned their mail-in ballots in on time.
So, the pressure of having to engage with potentially hostile people was off.
Second, most people didn’t even pick up the phone.
I phone banked for a total of four hours, across two days, and I might have spoken to
half a dozen real people the whole time, if that.
Which was fine — the event had been designed around the assumption that we would mostly
be leaving messages in people’s voicemail boxes to remind them to return their ballots,
anyway.
So that’s what I did.
I left a bunch of voicemail messages encouraging voters in Georgia who had requested mail in
ballots to make sure they turned them in on time.
Once I had made a few calls and left a few messages, the anxiety mostly went away.
It also helped that, even though I was in Maryland, calling people in Georgia six hundred
miles away, I wasn’t alone.
I was on a Zoom call with my friend Dana, who lives in Georgia, and who convinced me
to phone bank in the first place.
If not for her encouragement and support, I doubt I would have had the guts to go through
with it.
We took turns making calls, congratulating each other when we actually got to leave a
message on somebody’s voicemail, and getting especially excited when one of us got to talk
to a real person, which as I said was relatively rare.
Something that I had been dreading actually became fun.
And I’d like to think it counted for something.
I don’t know, of course, if any of the people who got messages from Dana or me voted when
they otherwise wouldn’t have, but maybe they did.
Given how close the election was in Georgia, and how crucial mail-in votes were to Biden’s
victory, it’s likely that the phone banking campaigns designed to make sure people turned
in their ballots had some impact on the result.
It feels good to know I played some small part in that.
Between now and the January 5 run-off election, I’m going to play that small part again.
And I would encourage you to do the same.
The Georgia Democrats are holding regular phone banking events right now.
If you’re nervous or you’ve never done it before, there are special training events
you can take part in before you try the real thing.
The Georgia Democrats website is linked in the description — you can go there and find
a virtual phone bank event that fits your schedule, and help turn Georgia and the United
States Senate blue so we can really start rolling back some of the damage done these
past four years by the Trump administration.
And here’s the thing — phone banking is something you can do not just to help out
in this Georgia run-off election, but in every election.
If there’s a candidate you believe in and you don’t have money to spare for a contribution,
or you want to do more than just donate, phone banking is an excellent way to help out.
Once the pandemic has run its course — I know it’s hard to believe right now, but
it will be over eventually, in theory — you can support candidates in your own state or
district by phone banking at a local campaign headquarters.
You know, the old fashioned way, in a room with other people, calling people on phones
that have been arranged together in a kind of bank.
Or, if you can’t make it to an in-person phone bank, or if the candidate you want to
support is out-of-state, or if the pandemic isn’t over yet — because who wants to
wear a mask, am I right? — you can participate in a virtual phone bank, like I did.
Defeating Republicans at the polls, electing more progressive candidates to serve in all
levels of government, is absolutely vital to the future of this country.
And getting out the vote is crucial to accomplishing that goal.
Higher voter turnout tends to favor Democrats and progressives, which is why suppressing
turnout and making it as difficult as possible for people, especially people of color and
those living on low incomes, to vote is a key part of the Republican Party’s electoral
strategy.
Phone banking, calling people and reminding them about the election, encouraging them
to vote, is one of the most powerful tools available to counteract that Republican tactic
and help ensure the highest turnout possible for progressive voters.
So, if you’re searching for things to do now that the general election is over, how
to keep politically active, looking for a way to make a meaningful contribution, think
about doing some phone banking as one possible option.
As this series continues, I’ll be discussing other things you can do, but I wanted to start
with this because the run-off election on January 5 is really important, and the Georgia
Democrats need your help between now and then!
And beyond that, there will always be future elections.
Or, you know, at least I hope there will be.
I guess it kinda depends, doesn’t it?
Every vote counts, which is why reaching out to people to make sure they do vote is so
important.
Find a candidate you can believe in — or at least a candidate you believe will be better
than who they’re running against.
If you’re nervous, find a friend to partner up with — believe me, it really helps.
And do some phone banking.
Who knows?
You might discover you’re better at it than you thought you’d be.
You might enjoy it.
And best of all, you might make a difference.