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100 Days and 100 Ways to Get Ready for Election Day

100 Days and 100 Ways to Get Ready for Election Day  

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No matter who you are or what resources you have at your disposal, there are countless ways for you to empower voters and prepare for the next election. Which will you choose?

Get Ready to Vote 

  • Register to vote or update your registration if you’ve moved or changed your name. 
  • Check your voter registration! It’s always good to check the information your local election official has on file.
  • Share an “I’m registered” image after registering, updating your registration, or checking your registration status.   
  • Ask 10 people you know if they’re registered to vote or if they need to update their registration. Make it a community affair by ensuring your family and friends are prepared to vote. 
  • Learn about early and mail-in voting opportunities in your state. 
  • If you’re eligible to vote-by-mail in your state, request your ballot by mail as early as you can. 
  • Encourage your friends and family to request their mail-in ballot as early as possible if they’re eligible to vote-by-mail in their state. 
  • Check VOTE411 to find your polling location, if you’ll be voting in person. 
First Time Voter Checklist VOTE411
  • Know someone who will be voting for the first time? Share our First Time Voter Checklist to help make sure they're prepared.
  • Find out who’s funding the candidates running for office on your ballot. 
  • Find out if any of the organizations you trust are endorsing any of the candidates on your ballot.
  • Use VOTE411 to print out a list of your preferred candidates so you can take it to the polls to speed up the voting process.  
  • Share which candidates you’re supporting and why with your friends and family.  
  • Learn about the ballot measures, if any, you’ll be voting on. Who’s funding them? What organizations are supporting or opposing them? 
  • Volunteer for an organization that is supporting or opposing a ballot measure you feel strongly about.  
  • Check if you need an ID to vote. Some states require it. 
  • Sign up as an organizational or individual partner for National Voter Registration Day.  
  • Have friends or family who speak Spanish? Let them know that VOTE411.org is fully translated into Spanish.
  • Return your ballot as soon as you can. Don’t forget to sign and seal it, as required. 
  • If returning your ballot by mail, make sure you added enough postage and return it by your state’s deadline! 
  • If you are voting in person, make an Election Day plan. Find your polling place. Decide when you’re voting and how you’re getting there.  
  • Ask 10 friends and family to make an Election Day plan as well. 
  • Remind your friends and family to sign and seal their ballot and return it as soon as possible. 
  • Check polling hours. Know when the polls open and when they close. 
  •  Encourage your friends to vote early, if that’s an option in your state. 
  • Secure the supplies you may need to protect yourself and others from COVID-19 or other illnesses. The Center for Disease Control has great guidance for voting safely.  

Volunteer and Participate in Your Community

  • Reach out to your neighbors and friends to see if they need help mailing their ballot or getting to the polls. 
  • Remind your networks when you're fewer than 100 days to Election Day! 
  • Research the candidates on your ballot. Find out who stands for what you care about!  
  • Sign up to volunteer with your local League of Women Voters.  
  • Sign up to be a poll worker and work to help voters! 
  • Talk to your friends and family about the issues you’re prioritizing this year.  
  • Donate to a candidate or ballot measure you believe in!
  • Watch a candidate debate and talk to your friends about it.  
  • Host a debate watch party for friends and family on Zoom! Watch the debate and discuss it afterward. 
  • Ask your employer to provide paid time off for employees to vote.  
  • If you are a business owner, give your employees paid time off to vote. 
  • Check in with a young person in your life. Are they registered? Do they need help voting?  
  • Connect with a local campaign or nonpartisan organization and sign up to make phone calls, hang door hangers, write postcards, or otherwise help get out the vote!  
  • Host a virtual postcard writing party to encourage registered voters to vote.  
  • Order a yard sign or bumper sticker to support the candidates and issues you care about.  
  • Talk to kids about voting. Research shows, early exposure matters!  
  • See or hear a problem with voting in your area? Call the Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE for help.  
  • Volunteer to be an election observer through a local campaign or nonpartisan organization.  
  • Learn the difference between a poll worker and an election observer! 
  • Read a book/article about civil rights or voting rights.  
  • Now watch a movie about civil or voting rights! 
  • Read about how the 19th Amendment left behind many women, including black women, from equal voting opportunities.  
  • Volunteer, protest, donate, and make your voice heard on racial justice issues in your community.  
  • Buy a voting themed shirt or face mask. Wear it proudly!  
  • Offer to drive a loved one to the polls
  • Research a voting rights hero like Ida B. Wells-Barnett or Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee
  • Write to your local newspaper about why voting matters to you. Share your story! 
  • Encourage your friends and family to be poll workers
  • Reach out to your neighbors and support a community nonprofit that strengthens your community—volunteer at a food bank, help neighbors who can’t get groceries during the pandemic, or mentor kids who want to explore new fields. 
  • Make your neighborhood a friendlier place—reach out to new neighbors, let them know where the local polling place is, and get them involved in the local community. 
  • Make sure your vulnerable neighbors are protected! Reach out to local organizations that protect the rights of women, refugees, people of color, LGBTQIA, children, the economically disadvantaged, and anyone who feels left out or at the margins of your community. 
  • Donate to their causes. 
  • Break down barriers. Get to know your neighbors of different faiths, ethnic backgrounds, or races.
  • Join a community group for cross-cultural dialogue. 
  • Get to know your local YWCA, Boys and Girls Club, or community center where you can mentor or tutor kids. Let them know that they should register to vote when they are 18! 
  • Reach out to your local senior center and make sure their residents are registered to vote and have the information they need to safely participate in the upcoming election. 
  • Suggest that local teenagers and college students learn how to register voters online
  • Do you know military personnel or US Citizens stationed or living abroad? Remind them that their vote counts, too
  • Learn about redistricting and gerrymandering and how it undermines democracy. 
  • Join the People Powered Fair MapsTM campaign as a volunteer to stop gerrymandering. 

Celebrate Important Dates 

  • Celebrate the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on August 6.  
  • Honor 100+ years of the 19th Amendment on August 18 by thinking about how far we’ve come in the last century—and how far we still have to go. 
  • Celebrate Women’s Equality Day in August! Check out how your community is honoring the day. 
  • Make a note of Vote Early Day in October. Encourage your friends and family to vote early! 
  • If you are a citizen living abroad or a military service member or family, request your absentee ballot ASAP, but no later than your state’s deadline. 
  • If you are a citizen living abroad or a military service member or family that requested an absentee ballot by your state’s deadline but you won’t receive your regular ballot in time to send it back before the election, you can vote using the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB)
  •  Celebrate Election Day!
  • Celebrate the first-time voters in your family! Bake an “I Voted” cake, take a photo with your new voter, and share it on social media!

Contact Your Officials 

DC Statehood Hearing
  • Contact your local elections officials to find out what their plan is to ensure a safe voting environment this fall.  
  • If your officials don’t have a plan to ensure a safe voting experience, demand a plan. If they do have a plan, share the plan throughout your community.  
  • Contact your state officials to find out what they’re doing to ensure that polling places are accessible to all people

  • If they’re doing nothing, demand they take steps to protect voters’ and poll workers’ rights such as: implementing no-excuse absentee voting or adding “health concerns” as an acceptable excuse, mailing all voters a prepaid absentee ballot request form, increasing the numbers of polling places, increasing the number of early voting locations, expanding the hours early voting locations are open.   

Spread the Word!

  • Make a 15-second video about voting and why it is important! 
  • Share information online about an issue of concern to you—gun violence, a local dump, long lines to vote. 
  • Use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok to remind everyone to check their registration and vote.
  • Use one of our VOTE411 Instagram filters to share Election Day tools!
  • Share on social media that you pledge to vote this November.
  • Take an “I Voted” selfie after casting your early, mail-in, or Election Day ballot! Post it on social media.
  • Share on socials when you've cast your ballot! 
  • Post an "I Vote Because..." image on Facebook or Instagram about why you’re voting this year. 
  • Follow the candidates on social media—ask them about issues important to you! 
  • If a candidate hasn’t responded to the League’s questions on VOTE411.org, encourage them to do so through social media. 
  • Participate in virtual town halls and ask your elected officials about voting by mail and early voting. 
  • Post an image on Facebook or Instagram regarding why you’re going to be a poll worker or election observer this year. 
  • Text your friends instructions on how they can register people to vote. 
  •  Post a picture or video of you mailing your ballot! 
  • Host a virtual BYOB (Bring Your Own Ballot) party. You and your friends and family can talk through the choices on your ballots and make sure you’re all signing and sealing your ballots, as required. 
  • Post information about your local polling location on your neighborhood listserv or Nextdoor group. 
  • If you live in a state with Same-day or Election Day registration, make sure your friends on social media know so they can take advantage of this if they missed their voter registration deadline. 
  • Spread the word about VOTE411.org, every voter’s one-stop-shop for the election information they need. 
  • Share this article on Twitter and get more people involved! 

 

The following LWV staff contributed to this post: Megan Brown, Maggie Bush, Jessica Jones Capparell, Alma Couverthie, Caitlin Rulien, Jeanette Senecal.

Post updated on July 14, 2022.

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