The number of people who don’t vote in major elections bothers me. I’ll spare the rant about that, and just provide an idea on the matter: on Monday (the day before the election) I’m going to post simple flyers in the elevators in my building telling my neighbors where to vote. I suggest that if you live in a big building that you should do the same. It isn’t hard, because everyone who lives in your building should be able to vote at the same place (assuming they’ve properly registered to vote at their current address).
People don’t vote for three basic reasons: they don’t care, they don’t know how, or they forget. You can’t do much about the first one very easily, but you can remind your neighbors when and where to vote.
A few guidelines:
- Keep it simple. All we want to do is remind people to vote. At the top, put a simple header like, “Remember to Vote on Tuesday, November 7.”
- Include the name of the polling place, like “Springfield Elementary” or “St. Charles Church.”
- Include the address of the polling place and a simple map.
- Include the times that your polling place will be open. You should be able to find this info online. (Here’s Virginia’s voting information page.)
- Do not include any politics. Don’t tell people for whom to vote, and don’t busy up the page with a summary of the issues. They can look this up themselves, and the parties will probably have people handing out flyers at the polling place.
Again, the idea here is just to post a simple reminder to your neighbors, not to persuade them to vote one way or another.