Guerrilla Voter Registration

Ten easy steps to change the world

1. Go to http://www.fec.gov/votregis/pdf/nvra.pdf and print out pages 2-5. (This is a .pdf file, page numbers refer to the Acrobat reader pages.)

2. Scroll down to locate the specific voter registration instructions for your state. Print the page listing the instructions for your state. (State-by-state instructions are listed in pages 8-32.)

3. Go to Kinkos or go to work and wait for the boss to leave. Make one double-sided copy with the registration form (pg. 4) on one side and the mailer (pg. 5) on the other.

4. Write the mailing address for your state's voter registration office on the mailer. Write neatly and use dark ink. Make 50 photocopies of this double-sided page.

5. (optional) Purchase 50 first-class U.S. postage stamps. (This will cost you $18.50.)

6. Get a bunch of cheap pens and a clipboard. These are available from local office supply stores, or from the supply closet at work (again, wait for the boss to leave).

7. Select a public location where people gather. If you wish to target a demographic that is more likely to vote for candidates from a particular party then you should factor this in your choice of location. If you are a Republican, try a local country club or a corporate trade convention. If you are a Democrat, try pretty much anywhere else.

8. Take your voter registration forms, clipboard and pens to the chosen location and help 50 people register to vote. If you have completed step No. 5, you can offer to mail the completed forms on behalf of your newly registered voters. You may wish to encourage these new voters to consider the candidate of your choice, but reassure them that their registration is in no way conditioned by their voting preference or party affiliation. Smile.

9. Mail the completed registration forms to your state's voter registration office.

10. Repeat steps 1-9.

= = = = = = = = = = = =

Addditional steps and hints

* To assist people with the form, you may want to fill out a sample form in advance. Do this with a sharpie in friendly, legible handwriting. Get the nice people at Kinkos to laminate this sample copy for you. While you're there, you can also get them to enlarge and laminate pages 2-3 and the instructions for your state.

* A folding table and a large, red-white-and-blue sign reading "Register to Vote" can help to persuade the otherwise reluctant that you are, indeed, "for real." Be prepared to respond to the question, "Is this for real?"

* Contact the local office for your party or the office of a local official and request literature that you can distribute to prospective voters. Depending on how well they have their act together, your local party office may also have some insight on a good choice of location for your guerrilla voter registration drive.

* Admittedly, this process favors Democrats. The kinds of places where predominantly Republican crowds gather also tend to be the kind of places where they frown on people with clipboards talking about democracy and empowering the electorate, and where they tend to discourage this sort of thing by employing humorless security guards to chase you off the sidewalk. When this happens, be polite and remember that your goal is to register voters, not to engage in a First Amendment debate with an underpaid security guard. Before agreeing to leave, first try to register the security guards themselves.