2020 Election Resources for Nonprofits
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11/5 at 2p ET.
Post-Election
Now that election day has passed, it’s important to now focus our efforts on amplifying the message that we must take the necessary time to count every vote. Click here to read more from Combined Defense Project about what you can do now to ensure we #CountEveryVote.
Ensure We Count Every Vote
Typically, we expect a decisive outcome on election night. This election is different. It could be days, weeks, or even months, before the election is decided. This uncertainty is due, in part, to the unprecedented numbers of Americans voting by mail. Counting all votes could take days, weeks, or even months.
What’s most important during this period of post-election uncertainty is that Americans stand together to protect our democracy and demand that every vote is counted.
As water protection organizations, our ability to achieve policy goals on everything we care about—from environmental justice to river protections to climate action—depends on a free and fair election where every vote is counted. Only when every vote is counted will we achieve a legitimate result that sets the stage for us to pursue or defend mandates for elected leaders to ensure access to clean water for all, protect the environment, tackle the climate crisis, and protect the public’s health. Our waters, our health and safety, our environment, and our climate depend on the health of our democracy.
The network of water protection organizations across the country can make a difference to help ensure all votes are counted.
To learn about actions your organization can take to ensure we #CountEveryVote, see the Combined Defense Project’s #CountEveryVote Post-Election Digital Campaign.
We look forward to working together with our network to spread the word that our priority is a fair election, not a fast one. #CountEveryVote
Protecting Democracy Resources
- Protect Democracy
- From Combined Defense Project (CDP)
- #CountEveryVote Post-Election Digital Campaign
- Legal memo
- Community Toolkit for 501c3 organizations
- CDP staff contact Phillip Ellis
- National Task Force on Election Crises and their Roadmap to a Free and Fair 2020 General Election
- Protect Our Election’s “Election Integrity Index”
- Navigating Elections in Unprecedented Times October 26 webinar from Training Resources for the Environmental Community (TREC). Watch the recording here.
- Bolder Advocacy’s Post-Election Advocacy Podcast, contested election information for 501c3, video overview, and follow-up podcast.
Notes on Post-Election Timing:
Nov 4 – Vote Counting Continues
Dec 8 – Certification “Safe Harbor” Deadline
Dec 14 – Electoral College Votes, States Submit Election Results to Congress
Jan 3 – A New Congress Convenes
Jan 6 – Congress Ratifies Election Results
Jan 20 – Inauguration
Pre-Election & Get Out the Vote
Due to COVID-19, the 2020 General Election will be like no other. In typical years, many NGOs work to make sure their audiences are motivated to vote, are registered to vote, and know where and how to vote. Now, with COVID-19, there’s a new, crucial role NGOs can play – make sure your audiences know how to VOTE BY MAIL.
Here is how you can help more people in your state know how to vote in the upcoming election:
- Share reminders to register to vote and verify registration status on your social media, newsletters, e-blasts, etc.
- Share links to register to vote (e.g. https://www.vote.org/register-to-vote/)
- Share links to check registration status (e.g. https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/)
- Share deadlines to register to vote in your state
- Plug a form into your website that lets people register to vote (e.g. https://www.vote.org/technology/)
- Plug a form into your website that lets people check if they are registered to vote (e.g. https://www.vote.org/technology/)
- Share reminders on dates and information for in-person early voting in your state
- Share reminders and information on how and where to vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2020
- Share information on how to Vote-From-Home (i.e. Absentee Vote) in your state
- Share links to request an Absentee Ballot (e.g. https://www.vote.org/absentee-ballot/)
- Share deadlines and information how to request and return an Absentee Ballot in your state
- Find your deadlines here
- Find and share information on how to EITHER Mail-in OR Drop-off an Absentee Ballot in your state
- Share information on how to properly cast and check an Absentee Ballot in your state
- Plug a form into your website that lets people request an Absentee Ballot (e.g. https://www.vote.org/technology/)
- Share information on how to sign-up to become a Poll Worker
Resources
- State-by-State voting information
- State-by-State voting information on how to vote from home, rules, and deadlines
- LINKS:
- Choose Clean Water Coalition/Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed River Watershed’s Civic Engagement Toolkit – includes sample social media posts, email messages, images, and other valuable information and resources
- Clean Water 4 All Coalition’s #VoteForCleanWater Community Toolkit – includes social media guidance for both 501c3 and 501c4 organizations.
- New Jersey League of Conservation Voters’s 2020 c3 Election Digital Kit for Watershed Partners
- #VoteForCleanWater Day – September 1
- National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) – September 22
- Website plug-ins:
- Register to vote tool: a form you can plug into your website that lets people register to vote
- Verify voter registration status tool: a form you can plug into your website that lets people check if they are registered to vote and if their information is up to date
- Absentee ballot tool: a form you can plug into your website that lets people request an absentee ballot
- Rules for 501c3s and elections:
