Encourage Others

If you can, ask or help someone else to vote every chance you get. Just one more vote amplifies your vote. You can ask your friends, family, neighbors and even strangers, if you're comfortable. You may find you get into it and want to use your social media and creativity to encourage others to vote everywhere you go this month and next.

If you're retired, you might have the bandwidth to do more. So get out there and have some fun with encouraging younger people to vote. You'll feel good about giving more people a voice and getting more involved in helping America become less polarized. Here are some things you can do:

• Become a "vote" walking billboard or cheerleader
• Make your car a mobile "vote" billboard
• Check out areas around you with low voter turnout (google it)
• Hang out at unexpected high volume locations and ask people to vote
• Get some friends (or grandkids) together for a "vote" event
• Do a "vote" vacation - bring your friends

It's important to remember that PurpleTheVote is about getting more people to vote, not specific parties or candidates. Voting preferences are personal and private for many and should be respected. It's bad form to ask someone their voting preferences. And even if you have strong political preferences, you'll need to keep them to yourself if you want to encourage more moderates to participate in the political process. 

I'm planning get-out-the-vote vacations in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Reno and Dallas/Ft. Worth... 

I intend to have some fun by engaging people with an ice cream truck, free popcorn and over-the-top voting attire. I have purple "vote" t-shirts, button covered purple hats, "vote" signage and banners to wave and even "vote" earrings (see my blog page for pictures). I hope the fun element will help people be more open to my "please vote" message.

I will also give everyone I encounter a few "vote" stickers and postcards and ask them to encourage someone else to vote. I have QR code buttons to help people register and buttons with early voting dates and registration deadlines to encourage action.

Lastly, I will contact local TV stations to request coverage. And I'll ask the young people I meet to post videos and comments on their social media accounts to increase my reach.

While I'm fortunate to be able to offer freebies and "vote" collateral to improve my effectiveness, not everyone can or wants to do the same. Simply asking the people you know to vote or telling others you're proud to be voting can be very personal and engaging. But if you're interested in other tools, check out the resources page. You can also post other ideas and resources there.