As we reported last week, Everytown will be using Students Demand Action to begin to register young voters. Kids are bored during the lockdowns and Everytown will be using that time to reach out and recruit people for their movement and to register young voters.
With the launch of Iowa’s virtual field office, Students Demand Action volunteers will register thousands of voters, work to get out the vote, and engage young people in gun violence prevention campaigns, all from home while practicing social distancing. Volunteers will collaborate on various online platforms, such as Zoom, Slack, and more, and will be trained in relational organizing — an innovative way to engage existing social networks to have meaningful conversations in order to talk about the importance of voting, how to register, and why their vote matters.
“We cannot let one public health crisis keep us from addressing another one. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, gun violence prevention is still a top priority,” saidGrace Johnson, a volunteer with the Iowa State University chapter of Students Demand Action.“Our generation has grown up seeing the devastation of gun violence in our schools, homes, and communities. But not anymore. In 2020, we’re ready to reclaim our safety by registering young voters, increasing voter turnout, and electing gun sense candidates up and down the ballot.”
Students Demand Action’s voter registration initiative will include:
Investing $1.5 million, including hiring at least a dozen paid organizers focused on registering voters in key battleground states;
Establishing virtual field offices, where students will gather to strategize how to meet voter registration goals. Virtual field offices will have access to cutting edge organizing tools and technology, including Zoom, Slack, Icebreaker, Hustle, and more, giving volunteers the tools they need to be successful in virtual voter registration efforts;
Extensive training in relational organizing, which involves leveraging relationships to encourage others to vote. This organizing method has been proven to be more effective than traditional canvassing, allowing volunteers to register their friends, family, classmates, and acquaintances. Students Demand Action volunteers will deploy this tactic digitally, while continuing to practice physical distancing;
Targeted online voter registration ads geared toward young people.
Now, there is nothing wrong with them attempting to register voters, but this is more of a recruitment drive than anything. See the link in the first paragraph and also consider signing up for SDA alerts and emails. Bait these turds into screwing up and violating rules/ethics laws. Watch/attend the zoom meetings and record them if possible to share online and get their ideas/tactics more public to the pro-2A community.. They’re gearing up to elect gun control politicians (Democrats) and the time to sit back, do nothing and only complain is over. We’re all in this together.
Disrupting the SDA's registration attempts and gathering information is a good first step, but I think it's time the 2a community start a political action committee and counter these AstroTurfed candidates. Recruiting pro 2a candidates to run at all levels of government, a permanent and expanding GOTV organization, opposition research and financial support would counter Michael Bloomberg's influence. If we truly have 30 million gun owners, half of which could be induced to contribute a $100.00 each year to this PAC, then the 2a community would have over a billion dollars for election cycle.
Just a thought.
Also, I'd be willing to work on this but I don't have the nuts and bolts political experience to make this happen.