Get Started with Get Out HER Vote !

Now that your group has decided to register and mobilize students on your campus to vote this fact sheet is your guide to planning, launching, and executing an effective Get Out HER Vote (GOHV) campaign. These GOHV activities should energize your group and help you become established as a powerful and visible multi issue group on campus. While you increase the votes and voices of young people this fall, you will also build key alliances with other student groups.

Step One: Prepare

1. Know the rules and don't be intimidated! States vary on rules for registering voters, but remember you have the right to vote where you live.

2. Go over the GOHV materials! FMLA leadership should read them first, and then recruit GOHV chairs to coordinate the campaign and volunteers.

3. Before the first FMLA general body meeting, the GOHV Chairs should stock up on official voter registration forms from your local county registrar. Consult with your FMLA campus organizer, download them or call your Secretary of State or County Registrar of Voters to find the nearest location to pick up a large supply. For a quick supply, you can usually find forms at public libraries and post offices.

4. Some states may require you to become deputized in order to register others. Don't worry - this is usually just a 5-20 minute process to make sure you understand how to properly register others to vote. Some states even let you do it online!

5. The GOHV chairs should present an overview of the GOHV campaign and recruit volunteers for the committee at the first general membership meeting (and on the group's listserv). Remember to have a few committee sign-up sheets at the meeting. Before the meeting ends, also make sure you have registered everyone who attends to vote at their current address.

6. Immediately following the general body meeting, or soon after, schedule a GOHV committee meeting to walk through your state's voter registration form, instructions, guidelines, and voter registration deadline. Remember that FMF has compiled information for you.

7. Develop a plan of action. The average person registers 6 people per hour, so the more volunteers you have the more students you will register. Assign teams to places where feminists and students of color might be the majority, such as the women's and multicultural centers or lounges, ethnic studies classes, and women's studies courses.

Step Two: Registering

1. Have all volunteers start with who they know first! Have them register their friends and classmates first; new voters are more likely to register and vote if their friends are involved.

2. When registering students at the voter registration tables in the women's centers, and women's and ethnic studies departments draw attention to your table with balloons, signs, and banners. (No materials other than the registration form that allows registrants to select a party affiliation should reference political parties or any candidate.) At least two or more FMLA members should work together. Don't wait to be asked or sit behind the table- approach passersby! Talk with potential registrants and ask them if they are registered to vote. Encourage them to register on the spot, and make sure you have them also complete the voter pledge sign up sheet!

3. Go classroom-to-classroom targeting women's studies, queer studies, sociology, anthropology, government, nursing, and ethnic or cultural studies classes. Ask professors to allow you to pass out voter registration forms at the beginning of class and explain how to fill out the form, collecting completed forms at the end of your presentation.

4. Have as many students as possible complete the voter pledge sign up sheet - newly registered voters and already registered voters. Completing these sheets will provide the local GOHV committee and FMF critical contact information to check that everyone who registers actually gets on the voter rolls and for you to mobilize GOHV voters to the polls on November 4th .

5. Be prepared to talk about the issues. You are not able to endorse specific candidates or parties, but you can target women and people of color because they are underrepresented groups and educate students on the issues as stake for young people.

6. Deliver your voter registration forms !! At the end of every day and before the registration deadline, have a team of FMLA organizers collect all of the completed voter registration forms and deliver them to your local country registrar. **This is one of the most important steps !! * * If you don't turn in the forms, you could be violating state law. Try to make several trips; local county clerks offices tend to have small staffs so it is important to not overwhelm them by delivering large stacks of forms all at once.

7. When you drop off completed registration forms, check the voter rolls for a random sampling of names that you previously submitted. This is a great way to verify that the voters you register are getting onto the rolls.

8. Fax or mail a copy of your voter pledge sign up sheets to your campus organizers at 703-522-2219 (East Coast) or 310-556-2509 (West Coast).

Step Three: Mobilize

1. Between your state's voter registration deadline and November 4th is the best time to mobilize registered students. Print information about where and when students can vote and make it widely available. Also leaflet with the FMF frequently asked questions to help students who may be targeted by voter suppression efforts.

2. Some states permit early voting. If your state is an early voting state, encourage students to vote as early as possible. Statistics show that early voting increases the voter turnout!

3. Some states allow registration on Election Day. Again, know the laws for your state (posted on www.feministcampus.org/vote ) and pass out flyers reminding students who have not registered to vote before the deadline that they may do so on Election Day.

4. The Night Before Election Day - The GOHV committee and other volunteers should set up a phone-bank: call students from your voter pledge sign up sheets, remind them to vote, and let them know poll locations. If the main student polling location is off-campus, find out if the student needs a ride.

5. Election Day - Organize voting rushes on Election Day to rally and lead hundreds of your peers to polling locations.

Remember: every step of this process is vitally important!

You can register voters, but if they don't vote, your work means very little. Don't rely on other groups to get feminists registered and voting. Feminists must be leaders, and we must lead our own. This way, we'll see feminists voting at the polls and feminists in public office.

Good luck !!

NOTE: GOHV voter registration, education, and mobilization activities must be conducted on a non-partisan basis. This means when you are registering people to vote you cannot support or oppose any candidate and you must make your voter registration materials and services available to all individuals without regard to their political views.