The vision
“For so long we’ve assumed that when the climate crisis got bad enough, everyone would just wake up, get together and solve it in some big ‘kumbaya’ moment – and that’s not necessarily how the story will play out. When crises get worse and scarcity gets worse, it sometimes becomes harder to love your neighbor. And there is no doubt in my mind that the empathy and respect we will need for our fellow citizens to address the climate crisis can only exist in a healthy democracy.”
– Nathaniel Stinnett, executive director of the Environmental Voter Project
The spotlight
Climate change poses a threat to democracy. That threat has manifested in some immediate ways this year, with devastatingly strong hurricanes tearing through the southeastern U.S., damaged roads and polling stations and interrupted postal service. Researchers have also found that the impact of climate change can be predicted fertile ground for authoritarianism.
On the other hand, participation in democracy is crucial for ambitious climate policy. You’ve almost certainly heard it before: One of the most important things you can do to make your voice heard and stand up for the issues you care about is to vote.
“I think it’s worth emphasizing that we have an absurdly large number of solutions to all the climate problems we face,” said Nathaniel Stinnettthe executive director of the Environmental Voter Project. “We just have politicians who don’t want to implement those solutions – and that lack of political will to force politicians to lead on climate is a real problem.”
He founded the Environmental Voter Project to address that problem, identifying environmentalists who don’t vote and using behavioral science to try to convert them into more consistent voters — creating a stronger climate voting bloc. “At the end of the day, politicians always go where the votes are because they like to win elections,” Stinnett said. “That, more than any other reason you can come up with, is why anyone who cares about climate change should show up and vote, because it’s power just sitting there waiting for us to seize it.”
The organization is driven by data — and it’s already seeing some promising results for 2024. According to a press release shared Monday, more than 214,000 first-time climate voters have already cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election, across the 19 states the organization covers. work And in some key swing states, climate-identified voters generally seem to outperform other early voters. In Pennsylvania, for example, 12.8 percent of registered voters have already cast ballots, and 21.7 percent of climate voters have, Stinnett told me when we spoke last week.
Yet participation in democracy remains easier for some than for others. Voter suppression is alive and well in 2024 as some groups, fueled by the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen, increase efforts to purge electoral rollsamong other tactics. And those efforts hurt the climate movement.
“Laws have been put in place designed to make it harder for young people and people of color to vote,” Stinnett said. “And this has historically been the case – there is nothing shocking or new about this – but we still see in our data that young people and people of color are at the heart of the modern environmental movement. And so these laws have a disproportionate impact on the climate and environmental movements.
The pernicious thing about voter suppression, he said, is that it seeps into cultural consciousness. When people believe that voting is complicated – or when they are aware that it is actually more difficult for them than for others – they may simply opt out.
The Environmental Voter Project is one organization working to combat this by sharing information to demystify the process and help people make a plan to vote.
You can also help make it easier for more people to cast their votes – in some simple (and even fun!) ways. If you’re experiencing an ever-increasing sense of anxiety and dread in these waning days before the 2024 election (hi! same!), getting involved might be one way to quell those feelings. Read on for five ways you can help get the vote out.
Making calls and knocking on doors
Environmental Voters Project has opportunities for volunteers to make calls to voters, specifically targeting inactive voters who cite the environment as their top concern. “Just over the last five days of the election, so November 1 to November 5, we are busy filling 4,825 phone bank shifts,” said Stinnett. Modern phone banking technology allows volunteers to do this from a computer, using a system that automatically dials the target numbers and shows the calls as coming from the organization, protecting the individual volunteer’s phone number. Find out more here.
The organization also has recruitment events for environmental voters in Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Austin, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona. If you’re in any of those cities and interested in going door-to-door to get the vote, you can sign up here.
Lead locally is another organization working to recruit the environmental vote by focusing on building support for down-ballot candidates with strong climate platforms. It has two more “Calls for Climate” events before Election Day – one is today, October 30, and another is Monday, Election Night. You can learn more and sign up here.
Offer rides to the polls
Do you have an electric car? And do you live in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or Wisconsin? If so, you can volunteer to give people rides to the polls with ChargeTheVote, a nonpartisan initiative to increase voter turnout and reduce transportation emissions on Election Day. Learn more here.
If you don’t drive an EV, there are still ways to help with transportation. Find groups in your area – for example, Manage your ballot is one nonprofit organization operating in Pennsylvania that coordinates volunteer drivers as well as volunteers who can help organize ride dispatches. Look here.
And you can also always take a more personal approach: Plan a vote with friends, family, colleagues, etc. Studies have shown that something as simple as making a plan with someone can increase the likelihood that a person will follow through on their intention to vote.
To get free food for voters in long lines
Beyond just getting there, a long line at the polls can be a formidable obstacle for many — and historically, voters in black and brown neighborhoods face longer wait times on Election Day. Having access to food and water can help ease some of the burden of waiting. Pizza to the polls coordinate pizza deliveries (it also has a food truck program) to locations with long lines. Anyone can report a crowded polling station online and then help coordinate pizza delivery. There is also an option to pre-order for nonprofits and other groups planning voter registration and turnout events.
Keep in mind that every state has some form of restriction on the activities that can take place near polling places, and for some this extends to serving food (sometimes known as “line heating.”) For example, in Georgia it is illegal to offer free food or water within 150 feet of a polling place. Still, local groups find ways around these restrictions.
Support a voting holiday
What about the bigger picture, you might ask? There are, of course, many ways that states and the national government can make it easier for people to vote. One idea is to make Election Day a federal holiday, so working people can get to the polls more easily.
If you like that idea, and if you’re the kind of person who calls your representative in Congress (or if you’re even curious about calling your representative in Congress), you can do so to express support for the Election Day Holiday Acta bill introduced this year by California Representative Anna Eshoo.
Talk, text and post about it
If you’ve made it this far in the newsletter, you probably care at least a little bit about voting, and ensuring that others are able and motivated to vote as well. A final, very simple action you can take to encourage those around you to vote is to let them know that you have.
“Often the best thing you can do is be loud and proud about being a climate voter,” Stinnett said. “We think it’s so satisfying when we can rationally convince people to do things. But the truth is we are more social animals than we are rational animals.”
He cited a 2012 study published in Nature that found Facebook users were more likely to vote when they received a message about voting that included profile pictures of their friends who had already voted. It may sound silly, Stinnett said, but people are constantly looking at each other to figure out what behavior is good and appropriate. Don’t waste time (and emotional labor) trying to craft the perfect argument to convince someone to vote, he said. “If you make it very clear, on social media or in real life, that you’re a voter because it’s an integral part of who you are as an environmentalist, or as a good neighbor, or as ‘ a good child, or as a good parent, then anybody else who wants to be those things will say, ‘Oh, I want to be a good environmentalist, so I have to vote too.’
– Claire Elise Thompson
A parting shot
In the spirit of a loud and proud voter, here’s a photo of me (and my dog) casting my own ballot yesterday in Seattle! I did it! Like in Washington state, the ballot showed up in my mailbox a few weeks ago, and the drop off box was only a 15 minute walk from my house. (I could have put it in the mail too, without any postage required.)
