Faith Communities Organize to Get Out the Vote for May Primary

Visuals: Hundreds of Philadelphians from diverse religious, ethnic, and class backgrounds gathered to commit to voter turnout strategies
 
PHILADELPHIA - Feb. 7, 2014 - PRLog -- Contact: Bishop Dwayne Royster, 215-237-4503

PHILADELPHIA – On Feb 11, 2014, 7pm, at St. Paul’s Baptist Church (1000 Wallace St. Philadelphia, PA 19123) an interfaith group, comprised of 40 congregations with 25,000 collective members from across Philadelphia, will launch an ambitious “Get Out the Vote” effort for the May 2014 primary election.

POWER – Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild (http://www.powerphiladelphia.org) – will use its broad network of congregational, denominational and neighborhood-based relationships, and voter targeting strategies to boost the turnout of those who favor living wage policies and increased public school funding, but who don’t turn out to the polls regularly.  POWER’s goal is to move 5,000 infrequent voters to participate in the May primary.

“As people of faith – of all colors and backgrounds – we are called to ensure that our laws and policies and structures serve the poor, not hurt the poor,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, Executive Director of POWER. “As citizens, we do that through the voting booth” he added.

One of the issues that POWER aims to spur would-be voters for is a referendum to appear on the May ballot asking Philadelphia voters to strengthen the City’s minimum wage law.  POWER – along with labor local SEIU32BJ and other allies – have been pushing for expansion of the 21st Century Minimum Wage Standard, which requires a $10.88/hour wage to workers on city contracts.  POWER and its partners have argued that firms regularly, and unfairly, skirt that requirement by subcontracting out large parts of their contracts.  If passed, the referendum would close that loophole and extend the higher wage standard to thousands of subcontracted city workers who now live in poverty despite working full time.

In addition to traditional community mobilization strategies – house meetings, congregational gatherings, community forums – POWER plans to employ the kinds of sophisticated voter targeting and engagement tactics used by successful political campaigns.

“Policy makers don’t just want to see 1,000 people at a town hall meeting to press them on an issue.  Something we easily and regularly do; they also want to know: how many voters can you move?”  said Carol Duncan, co-chair of POWER’s Jobs Strategy Team.  “To make sure that policy makers are listening to the cry of the poor – on wages, school funding – we need to do more than educate our congregants, we need to make sure they get to the polls,” Duncan added.

On February 11, POWER is bringing together several hundred of its core volunteer leaders for the official kick-off of PhillyFaithVote 2014, where each of POWER’s 40 member congregations will announce their goals for voter contacts and voter turnout for the May 20th Primary.

POWER will use the Voter Activation Network, or VAN, database and predictive dialer phone technology to target voters who are likely to support boosts in minimum wage laws and school funding, but who don’t vote frequently.

“We intend to reach those people who just don’t get to the polls as much as they should.  Maybe they are disgusted with the local machine or polarized national politics, but who are struggling with low wages or an underfunded neighborhood school.  We will say to them: here is your chance to do something,” said Royster.

POWER plans to create teams at each of its 40 member congregations who will make phone calls, and knock on doors, of targeted voters in their communities, each weeknight for the eight weeks leading up to the election in May.

“We have a faith army in our member congregations and they are ready for deployment.  We will show local and regional political leaders that people of faith don’t just pray for an end to poverty and school inequality – they vote to end them,” added Royster.

Media Contact
POWER: An Interfaith Movement
info@powerphiladelphia.org
215-237-4503
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