The ACLU-PA is looking for volunteer activists from across the commonwealth to assist with critical nonpartisan voting rights and election protection efforts. Whether you’re interested in texting people from the comfort of your own home, assisting voters, or stepping up to help lead advocacy efforts in your county, we’d love to plug you in!
- Voter Ambassadors
- With so much mis- and disinformation out there, you can be a trusted source of information to your friends and family, backed by the legal expertise of ACLU-PA voting rights experts!
- Our VA’s have five primary duties:
- Attending a training and receive ongoing information updates from ACLU-PA staff
- Identifying and creating your personal network (we have tools to help!). This can be tailored to how you communicate with your networks - social media, email, videos, etc.
- Sharing information and updates with your network
- Encouraging your social network to prepare & plan their vote
- Flagging any misinformation you see circulating for ACLU-PA staff
- Raising any questions or concerns you and your networks are seeing around the election with the ACLU-PA voting rights staff.
We can also help you do a know-your-rights presentation for your community group, whether it be a book club, a religious community, or some other group.
ACLU-PA staff will provide ongoing training, regular insider updates about the voting landscape, answers to your voting questions, social media graphics and know your rights materials to share with your networks, and assistance with voting-related issues people in your network might encounter.
- County Action Teams
- In Pennsylvania, elections are largely run at the county level. That means that how you vote and the potential to have your mail vote thrown out varies depending on where you live. We are organizing people at the county level across the commonwealth to push for pro-voter policies with their county boards of elections, including informing voters if their mail-in ballot has an error such as a missing date that would cancel their vote and providing accessible drop boxes. We also want to hold boards of elections accountable when they put up obstacles to voting or try to undermine the election results.
- Outreach and Engagement
- The ACLU-PA often uses phone banking and text banking to reach out to voters and supporters. Sometimes it’s to share information about activities in their area, sometimes it’s to quickly mobilize folks when there is a critical action happening, and other times it’s to let voters know their voting rights and how to contact us if they encounter a voting issue. These activities can be done from the comfort of your own home. Or if you are looking for more social interaction, you can join us and other volunteers to team up together for outreach socials.
- Also, if you are looking for other ways to mix and mingle while engaging voters, tabling is a great opportunity to attend festive and fun local community events while spreading the word about the ACLU-PA, providing know-your-rights resources to the public, and recruiting new volunteers. Tabling events are a great way to connect with your community and talk about the issues that you’re passionate about.
- Election Day Poll Monitors
- The ACLU-PA is part of a coalition that runs the nonpartisan voter hotline 866-OUR-VOTE program. The 866-OUR-VOTE hotline is a one-stop-shop for voters to call for all voting-related questions and problems. We work closely with our partner Common Cause to recruit, train, and deploy hundreds of Election Day poll monitors and social media monitors.
- Our partners at Common Cause share our commitment: every eligible voter deserves to have their vote counted. Common Cause works to ensure eligible, registered voters are not turned away from the polls, are able to find their polling place, or aren’t otherwise blocked from exercising their rights. All volunteers receive training and support.
- Legislative & Administrative Advocacy
- Systemic change happens via direct action and policy change. Are you interested in joining us for lobbying visits with elected officials such as county commissioners and state legislators? Or attending boards of elections meetings to provide public comment on the need for protecting voters’ rights and access? If so, consider joining us in our legislative and administrative advocacy efforts.
- Hosting House Parties
- Are you interested in getting your friends and neighbors involved more deeply in this work? Consider hosting a house party for voter education. In this kind of house party, the host provides a relaxed atmosphere with the goal of educating their peers, neighbors, and community members by leading a discussion on their topic of interest, and encouraging them to show up to opportunities events in support of this issue. Are you ready to host some friends for a good conversation?
Questions? Contact us at volunteer@aclupa.org.
To find out more about the ACLU-PA’s voting rights campaigns or to sign up to volunteer, fill out a volunteer application today!