Election a Culmination of Months of Community Outreach Work
Alene Lindley, VP Community Outreach | Published on 11/19/2022
In June, 2022, the Community Outreach Committee began planning for the fall election season with a focus on the following groups:
- New Citizens. Community Outreach volunteers provided voter registration assistance to new citizens following their Naturalization Ceremony. Since June 1, LWVSA has registered 683 new citizens of Bexar County and, in partnership with VDRs from neighboring areas, 240 citizens of surrounding counties.
- Over 65. Community Outreach volunteers provided voter education and registration information to San Antonio Senior Centers. Eight of the 11 Comprehensive Senior Centers were covered. An emphasis was on answering questions and supporting these voters with information related to Voting by Mail.
- Marginalized Groups. Community Outreach volunteers held voter education distributions and presentations at events such as San Antonio Food Bank distributions, Haven for Hope, and Back to School events. Materials were distributed to NAACP, LULAC and other community support organizations. A concerted effort was made in several Low Voter Turnout Precincts with an Every Door Direct Mail Postcard to every resident and a follow up mailing to registered voters in the same precincts. Tabling events were held in the East, West and South Segments of the city to reach out in person to these communities.
- High School and College Students. Community Outreach events highlighted the Youth Initiative efforts. Community Outreach events were held on college campuses for voter registration and voter education.
- General Voter Education. Community Outreach connected with potential voters via distributions to area libraries, presenting voter education options to librarians and offering presentations to library communities. Community Outreach continued to hold tabling events at high traffic events to reach out to voters.
The Community Outreach Calendar focused on Voter registration/education from June 1-October 11 and Getting Out the Vote from October 11 through November 8.
The Fall 2022 election bookmark was our initial outreach to voters with information on the methods of voting as well as resources to support informed voters.
Efforts to reach low voter turnout areas and to encourage voter registration included the Every Door, Direct Mail Postcard. This communication was distributed to 15000 households in precincts 4010, 4011. 4003, 2075, 2007, 2004, 2103, 2105, 1015 and 1040.
8100 Promise to Vote Postcards were direct mailed to registered voters in the same precincts.
Additional Promise to Vote Cards, in English and Spanish, were distributed at face to face events.
Thank you to the Universalist Unitarian Church for their support of our work with a $3600 Grant for the Promise to Vote Cards and the Spanish Translations.
Community outreach continues to educate the voting community through a variety of outreach methods–tabling events at community gatherings, presentations and distributions. We had events at senior centers, colleges, fairs and other community gatherings.
To date, Community Outreach has had approximately 8600 conversations with potential voters; registered over 700 Bexar County Voters and 240 other county registrations; and, distributed an additional 2000 mail in voter registration applications. 15000 residences received a postcard prior to the voter registration deadline; 8100 registered voters received an additional reminder to go vote.
Additional LWVSA materials were distributed via other organizations such as NAACP, Meals on Wheels, SA Food Bank, LULAC, Esperanza for Peace and Justice, SA Public Libraries, UTSA, SAC and AM-SA College Libraries.