Write Letters to Voters from Home
Vote Forward letters encouraging the recipient to vote have been proven, through scientific testing, to increase the likelihood that a voter will turn out in an election. They are more effective at turning out voters than handwritten postcards. This is the power of a grassroots activist movement, and what we can do when we work together.
How does writing letters to high-potential voters work?
Swing Left is partnering with Vote Forward to write letters to turn out voters in key states. Volunteers will personalize a pre-printed letter, which is hand-addressed to targeted voters. Volunteers supply their own postage and envelopes.
We may also write letters for special elections, or participate in smaller Vote Forward Labs experiments that will help find the most effective ways to turn out and register voters by mail.
Get started writing letters
For detailed written instructions on how to write letters from home, please visit Vote Forward.
Tips for using Vote Forward
- When adopting letters and clicking on the “Adopt 5 more voters” or “Adopt 20 more voters” buttons , wait a few seconds for the website to respond before clicking again to ensure you don’t get more letters than you planned!
- We recommend you don't download more than 500 one-page letters or 250 multi-page letters at a time or you may get an error! If you need more letters than this, adopt and download less and then move those voters to the "Letters You've Prepared" Column (don't worry that you haven't prepared them yet) and then adopt more voters.
- If you don’t know where the PDF files of letters download to, check the help content for your browser or your operating system.
- You may be writing letters to send many months ahead in October so make sure you have a safe place to store them and you put a reminder in your calendar! Volunteers are choosing a designated place in their home to store all their letters and including a note about where the letters are stored in their calendar reminder. It’s also helpful to package up letters from the same campaign (in a manila folder or by using rubber bands) and label them with the campaign name and mail date on the front of the package. You can also collaborate with friends or team members to find someone who has additional space to store letters and help each other remember to mail letters on the designated day by planning a celebration!
Tips on letter writing
- Make sure the messages you write on the letters are non-partisan, don't mention candidates or politicians, and stay positive and inclusive!
- Please only write in English unless instructed to do so otherwise by Vote Forward. You often can't tell from the voters' names what language they speak.
- Use a blue pen when writing your letter and addressing the envelope. We don't recommend decorating the letter or envelope.
- These letters are personalized for each recipient. The unique recipient is at the bottom of every letter. Double check that you are writing to the correct recipient listed on the bottom of the letter and addressing the envelope with the correct return address from the bottom of the letter.
- Since each letter is personalized, if you make a mistake, you can either fix the letter using white out, or reprint it.
- You may want to wait to seal your letters until you finish writing all of your letters to double check you have the right letters in the right envelopes by checking the bottom of the letter. In addition, make sure you have the right return address (also at the bottom of the letter)!
