Resources to help you—and help you help others!—cast a ballot

Our team started DoneGood because we believe in the power of people voting with our wallets. Whenever any of us makes a purchase, we are giving a business our money so that they can do more of… whatever it is they’re doing.  We’re casting a ballot for that businesses’ practices, and for the kind of economy and the kind of world we want to exist. 

Also though—of course we still think it’s really, really important to vote at the ballot box (or drop box or mail box) too!  While our collective purchasing power can make a huge impact on issues like economic justice, climate change, equality for all, so too can our power to elect leaders on all levels with the will to address these issues.  The last presidential election was decided by dozens of votes per precinct in a few swing states. In 2017, control of the State House in Virginia was decided by drawing out of a hat after a tie vote in one race left the House tied for the number of representatives serving from each party. And lots of other important recent races have been decided by literally a few votes. Your vote—and your assistance helping others make sure they vote—matters.

So we wanted to take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to provide resources to help you—and to help you help others—cast a ballot on November 3^rd (or ideally, before then):

-Make sure you’re registered and encourage your friends and family to double-check that they are!  Make sure you’re registered here.  If you’re not registered, in many states it’s still not too late!  Check your state’s registration cutoff date.  If you’re not registered and your state’s deadline hasn’t past: *Register now*!

-Vote before Election Day if at all possible.  Voting early (in person or by mail) this year helps minimize risk for you and others during the pandemic. Every year, voting early means you know it’s done, avoids long lines, and helps keep lines shorter for others who may need to get back to work, pick up kids from child care, or have other time constraints. Voting by mail is easy and secure—although due to high volume and new US Post Office policies put in place, if you have the option to drop your ballot in a drop box instead of a mail box, we highly recommend that to make sure your ballot gets in on time. Check your state’s early voting and vote by mail procedures. 

-Locate your polling place, hours, and rules.  If you need to vote in person, make sure you’re positive about your polling location, hours polls are open, and check whether you need to bring a form of ID. 

-Vote safely.  If you’re voting in person, make sure to bring your mask and hand sanitizer (you can find ethically and sustainably-made masks and hand sanitizer on DoneGood if you need some). 

-Help more people vote by:

-Volunteering to be a poll worker, or volunteer for Get Out the Vote efforts with a candidate or party campaign office in your area.

-Get your place of work to Make Election Day a holiday (like DoneGood does!), and lobby elected state and federal leaders to do the same.

-Call your elected leaders and encourage them to allow same-day registration if your state doesn’t already allow it, expand early and mail-in voting, and otherwise make it easier for more people to vote.

Finally, after Election Day, make sure you don’t nullify your vote!  Read about  how to do that here.