Getting Started
The UUA and the Interfaith
Alliance 
have two excellent handbooks for electoral work:
Priorities and Partnerships
If your congregation has not already done so, form a voter task
force. Decide together the issues that are most relevant to your
congregation and your community.
The UUA Advocacy and Witness staff strongly believes that voter
activities should be done in partnership with community groups,
with the knowledge that relationships formed during this work often
last beyond it. We recommend that congregations explore opportunities
for partnership early on in the process—before making big
plans. Community based organizations know the ropes, know their
communities, and need allies. Working with these organizations provides
a way for those of us with more power and privilege to form needed
alliances across race and class.
Brainstorm About Choosing a Partner
What existing relationships or memberships does the congregation
have in interfaith or secular groups? What groups do members of
your congregation work for or with that would make good partners?
What groups work with communities with traditionally low voter turnout,
such as young adults, people of color, and people with low incomes?
Often partner churches in low-income areas, immigrant communities
and/or communities of color have connections that can provide further
suggestions for partnerships and projects. Check Faithful Democracy
for faith groups active in your area.
The UUA has joined three major coalitions to engage in voter work.
To learn more about these coalitions and find a local partner near
you, see:
Faithful
Democracy
for faith groups active in your area.
Campaign for Communities member organization’s websites
Form an Action Plan
We recommend planning your work so that it includes some activities
in each of the five areas: voter registration, voter education,
Get Out The Vote (GOTV), advocacy and poll monitoring. Start your
planning by brainstorming goals in each area and then narrowing
them down to manageable list. From there repeat the process by brainstorming
activities to meet those goals. For example, one goal might be to
have everyone in the congregation registered. Having a voter registration
table at coffee hour could help you achieve that goal.
Legal Considerations
Congregations have tax-exempt 501(c) 3 status and therefore must
conduct voter registration, education, and GOTV drives in a non-partisan
manner. See The Real Rules: Congregations and IRS Guidelines
on Advocacy, Lobbying, and Elections, a publication of the
UUA Washington Office for Advocacy.
Also, see our Legal Info page
Get Funding
The Fund for UU Social Responsibility of the Unitarian Universalist
Funding Program will award grants of $500 - $2000 between June and
November 2004 to UU congregations that are working to register voters
and to get out the vote. The grant must go to UU congregations for
UUs doing the work. It cannot be a pass-through to another organization.
Applications will be decided on a rolling basis, and will close
when the funds are depleted. Please request our short application
form by email at uufp@aol.com
 .
U.U. Funding Program
PO Box 1149
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
617-971-9600
Stay in Touch!
The more we know what you’re doing, the more we can help you
and other congregations share knowledge and inspiration. The UUA
is committed to our leadership role in non-partisan faith based
voter registration. We want to know (and tell others) how many voters
our congregations are successful in registering
in 2004. Please send us the results of your registration
drives, tell us how many people you registered, and let us know
which actions worked best. Your participation will help us plan
effectively for future elections! Have the chair or a person from
your group let the UUA’s Voting Project Coordinator,
Sarah Craft, voting@uua.org
,
know that you are working on voter mobilization by emailing or calling
202-296-4672 x22. For weekly updates from Sarah and to share best
practices with other congregations, sign up for UUA’s
Voter-News E-mail List.
Get media attention
In brainstorming sessions, consider activities that would be exciting
to local media. Partnerships and joint activities are often covered
positively. Issue a press release to inform your local media about
your congregation’s dedication to voter and civic participation.
Email Janet Hayes in the UUA Public Witness Office for assistance
or call 617-948-4386.
A basic timeline for your voting work:
Present-September 2004: registration and voter
education activities (see our Voting Events Calendar). Try to commit
to holding at least four activities during this
period.
August-October 2004: Intensive voter registration,
approaching most state's 30 day registration deadline.
September, October: Get Out The Vote (GOTV)! Phone
bank; call voters and remind them of their registration, their polling
place and ask what their needs are for election day. Begin registering
and training people to work as poll monitors for Election Day.
November 2, 2004: Work as poll monitors; facilitate
rides to the polls.
Post-Election: Report back from voter activities; share best practices
with the UUA (through the Voting Project Coordinator), other congregations
and community organizations.
Contact Sarah Craft, UUA Voting Project Coordinator, voting@uua.org
,
with questions, resources, concerns, news, reports, and ideas about
your congregation’s current or potential voting project.
Sign up for the UUA’s
Voter-News E-mail List for weekly updates on voter resources and
a chance to share your congregation’s activities and successes.
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