Forty POWER clergy leaders, and members of their interfaith congregations, plan daily phone banks and a neighborhood canvass pushing communities of color to the polls on November 4th. The grassroots campaign focuses on diversifying the voter turnout.
Oct. 29, 2014 – PHILADELPHIA — Hundreds of volunteers from POWER are engaged in an ambitious get-out-to-vote campaign less than one week before Election Day. Their outreach efforts are aimed at people of color living in underserved communities who do not typically vote in off-year elections. POWER is also using sophisticated voter-targeting technology to connect with and build relationships with voters who are people of faith from all ethnic and religious backgrounds. POWER leaders are using the same technology to target neighborhoods, and will be going door-to-door in these communities this weekend engaging voters, in person, about the importance of going to the polls on Tuesday. While POWER does not endorse a particular candidate, they are educating voters about the importance of holding elected officials accountable to the needs of minority communities in Philadelphia particularly as it pertains to school funding and living wages.
“We started these phone calls and house visits in September,” say Bishop Dwayne Royster, POWER’s Executive Director. “So far we have commitments from 4,000 people that they will vote on Tuesday. We are well on track to meet our goal of 7,000 voters. We may even exceed that goal.” POWER’s voter engagement efforts build off its success in the spring of 2014 when organization volunteers got commitments to vote from 5,000 Philadelphians around a ballot measure to raise wages for workers at Philadelphia International Airport. During that season, voters who pledged to POWER that they would vote ended up voting at a rate three times as high as the average Philadelphia voter and the living wage referendum passed by a higher rate than any other measure on the ballot.
Here are some of POWER’s voter engagement activities this week. The media is invited to these phone banks and neighborhood canvass:
Wednesday October 29, 2014
Phone bank 6:30-9PM
Mishkan Shalom Synagogue
4101 Freeland Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19128
Thursday October 30, 2014
Phone bank 6PM-9PM
Kol Tzedek Synagogue
801 South 48th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Saturday November 1, 2014
Neighborhood Canvass Germantown 9:30am-1pm
Starting from St. Vincent de Paul Church
109 E. Price Street
Philadelphia, PA 19144
Sunday November 2, 2014
Phone bank 1PM-4PM
Living Water United Church of Christ
6250 Loretto Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19111
Monday November 3, 2014
Phone bank 6PM-9PM
Mother Bethel AME Church
419 South 6th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
Tuesday November 4, 2014
Phone bank 10AM-12PM, 1:30PM-3:30PM, 4PM-6PM
POWER Philadelphia Office
St. Malachy’s School (2nd Floor)
1429 North 11th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
POWER’s campaign is a part of a nationwide outreach effort called Let My People Vote led by POWER’s parent organization PICO National Network (http://www.piconetwork.org). This is a massive 15-state, multi-racial and multi-faith-based effort led by 1000 religious congregations. Let My People Vote will turn out 350,000 new or “low-propensity” voters in the 2014 election and beyond, predominantly people of color whose voices have been ignored and who have been systematically locked out of the voting process.
For more information about POWER’s push to get 7,000 unlikely voters in Philadelphia to the polls on Tuesday November 4th, please contact Leslie Patterson-Tyler via email at Leslie@TylerMadePR.com or call (609) 247-2632.
About POWER: POWER represents congregations from across the Philadelphia region, bringing people together across the lines of race, faith, income level and neighborhood — lines which have historically kept our city and state divided. POWER is committed to the work of bringing about justice here and now and seeks to exercise power in the public arena by strengthening and mobilizing our networks, so that the needs and priorities of all Philadelphians are reflected in the systems and policies that shape our city. POWER is nonpartisan and is not aligned explicitly or implicitly with any candidate or party. We do not endorse or support candidates for office. Learn more at http://www.powerphiladelphia.org.
Media Contact
Leslie Patterson-Tyler
(609) 247-2632
leslie@tylermadepr.com
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/12388674/1
