ABSTRACT

Turnout! offers strategies for "emergency elections," like the 2020 races, and addresses the nuts-and-bolts for civic groups and individuals to effectively turn out the vote. Indeed, few elections in recent history represent the kind of apocalyptic turning point for our planet and democracy as the present one. Turnout! is both a creative work of political vision combined with a detailed manual for turning out millions of new voters.

Participation at local, state, and federal levels will have an outsized impact on the future of democracy and life itself. The elections also provide an opportunity to power-up social movements that can re-frame and re-define civic participation in an age of extreme inequality, climate change, and pandemics.

Contributors include powerful movement leaders Maria Teresa Kumar (Voto Latino), Aimee Allison (She the People), Winona LaDuke (Honor the Earth), and Matt Nelson (Presente.org); leading public officials advocating greater voter engagement like Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, and councilors Helen Gym and Nikki Fortunato Bas. Turnout! reveals strategies and real-world tactics to mobilize millions of discouraged, apathetic, or suppressed voters, including women, low-income, Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian, LGBTQIA+, student and youth, and working-class voters.

part I|19 pages

The Emergency Election

chapter 1|7 pages

Introducing the Emergency Election

ByCharles Derber, Suren Moodliar, Matt Nelson

chapter 2|5 pages

Our Nation Is Worth Fighting For 1

ByMaria Teresa Kumar

chapter 3|2 pages

To Save Organized Human Society 1

ByNoam Chomsky

chapter 4|3 pages

Making People Count

The Census and the Vote Matter 1
ByMandela Barnes

part II|56 pages

Movements and the Emergency

chapter 5|6 pages

Building the Next Progressive Generation

ByAimee Allison

chapter 6|6 pages

Latinx Social Movements Versus #DeepFakes

ByMatt Nelson, Nancy Treviño

chapter 7|4 pages

How We Politicize Our Movements to Build the Country of Our Dreams

ByJennifer Epps-Addison

chapter 8|5 pages

Rocking the Native Vote

ByWinona LaDuke

chapter 9|3 pages

The Resistance Is Fueled by Women

ByDana R. Fisher

chapter 10|3 pages

It’s About the Next Ten Thousand Years

ByBill McKibben

chapter 11|8 pages

The Coronavirus and Economic Crisis

Motivating Voters With Public Goods and Economic Justice
ByCharles Derber

chapter 12|4 pages

Get Out the Vote for a World Beyond Fossil Fuels

ByAnnie Leonard

chapter 14|4 pages

Rebuilding After COVID-19

Equality, Equity, and a Strong Social Safety Net
ByWilnelia Rivera, Katherine Adam

chapter 15|4 pages

Excite the Vote

It Takes a Community and a United Front
ByCharles Derber

part III|53 pages

How We Win

chapter 16|5 pages

Vote Is a Verb

Applying Lessons From Social Science to GOTV
ByAnat Shenker-Osorio

chapter 17|6 pages

Latino Voter Outreach That Energizes White Voters, Too 1

ByIan Haney López

chapter 18|7 pages

Want More Black Voters? Meet Them Where They Live 1

ByKarthik Balasubramanian

chapter 19|5 pages

Winning Alabama, 2017

A Roadmap to Success?
ByDebra Cleaver

chapter 20|2 pages

The Base Versus the Middle

A False Choice
BySteve Israel

chapter 21|3 pages

Unleashing Our Secret Weapon

ByJeff Merkley

chapter 22|6 pages

Voting Ourselves a Raise

BySaru Jayaraman

chapter 23|4 pages

Moms for Housing

Inspiring the Movement for Housing as a Human Right
ByNikki Fortunato Bas

chapter 24|7 pages

Public Schools and the Path to a Political Majority

ByHelen Gym

part IV|32 pages

Turnout!

chapter 26|4 pages

How to Turn a Person Into a Voter 1

ByLaTosha Brown, Cliff Albright

chapter 27|4 pages

Eyes South! The Ins and Outs of Voting From Abroad

ByDeborah Klebansky, Kira Moodliar

chapter 28|11 pages

Voter Assemblies to Protect the Vote

ByBen Manski, Suren Moodliar

chapter 29|11 pages

A Letter to U.S. College Students

ByConor L. Hicks, Conner Coles, Julianna Carbone, Morgan Jemtrud, Sophia Carter, Audrey Vas, Hannah LeBeau, Kara Johansen, John Gehman