A record breaking 4.4+ million votes were cast in the Georgia runoff election and NEAT was proud to play an important part in reaching that milestone. Through NEAT’s Virtual Phone Bank program, volunteers made almost 200,000 dials to reach just under 100,000 voters in a little over one month. To accomplish this we partnered with Pro Georgia, a coalition of local Georgia progressive groups, to target these calls and manage hundreds of their volunteers. We also built a national coalition of 30+ groups that included URGE, SAVE, PFLAG, LULAC and others to bring in more volunteers and host remote phone bank parties.
Hersheda Patel, Director of Data from ProGeorgia said “NEAT has been an amazing partner [to ProGeorgia] during the Georgia Federal Runoff Election! They lent their amazing community outreach infrastructure and shared their network of active volunteers with Georgia. We hope to make this a lasting partnership as we continue to build progressive power coalitions for our shared communities in 2021 and beyond.”
Volunteers contributed an amazing 1500+ hours to this campaign. NEAT ran daily phone banks for over a month where volunteers accessed OnDemand video training and made calls whenever it was most convenient for them. In addition, partners organized virtual house parties so volunteers could dial together and provide support. The campaign initially focused on registering new voters, especially those who turned 18 after the November election. That turned into “get out the vote (GOTV)” calls where we provided information about how to request absentee ballots, vote early in person, and navigate Georgia’s strict voter ID laws to ensure that every vote would be counted on election day.
“It was so inspiring to see people across the country come together to make calls for Georgia day after day; during lunch breaks, after classes and any free time in between,” explained Christine Thornton, NEAT’s Field Organizer. "I couldn’t be more proud of everyone who helped make this happen.”
At a time when the COVID 19 pandemic continues to rage nationwide, NEAT volunteers made an important contribution to safer voting by increasing absentee and early in person turnout amongst the 4.4+ million people who cast their ballots on January 5 -- a record that exceeds the 2.1 million ballots cast in a 2008 Georgia Senate runoff. This was NEAT’s last field campaign of 2020 and its 44th campaign since the organization began. Onward to more Justice in 2021!
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