Putting Conversations about Voting with Every Adult within Reach

The new app, Reach, keeps relationships at the center of organizing

In the next 70 days, we need an all-out communication effort. Each of us will be in contact with all our friends, family, and neighbors to generate enthusiasm for voting for down ballot candidates, as well as the presidential race. We need to make new friends and keep in contact with the ones we haven’t even met yet. But how to juggle all those names, addresses, and contacts, not to mention info on candidates and ballot initiatives?  Now a new app, endorsed by the Democratic Party and grassroots groups alike, is making connection easier than ever.  

Reach is the smart phone app of choice for sharing voting info. Reach is the perfect match for the technique “relational organizing.” 

Endorsing Reach, the Democratic Party website notes: “In today’s digital age, we are bombarded with messages and news from all directions. Amidst the noise, it’s our personal connections & relationships that truly stand out and make a difference. That’s how we break through the noise, that’s how we organize, that’s how we win.”

To install Reach on your mobile device, go to https://democrats.org/reach/.  The site offers a guide explaining Reach’s features and capabilities. While you’re at it, consider attending one of the short and almost daily Reach trainings – click here to register.

Once you’re registered, you’ll be asked to join any of the campaigns now using Reach. Click the one you’re working on and you’re in!  Several volunteer options, connections, and possibilities are within “Reach” — just with a click. 

The Power of Search

The feature that most excites canvassers is “Search.”  A name search “enables you to identify and organize potential supporters anywhere and at any time.” Use Reach to identify friends and family who aren’t registered to vote or who vote infrequently. Reach makes it easy to send voting reminders, campaign videos, and accounts to follow on social media.

As soon as you meet someone, you can search their name. Reach is handy when you:

• Knock on doors, finding someone home who is not on the list you’ve been given;

• Are offering to register eligible voters;

• Want to talk to someone you encounter, a dog walker or a commuter at a bus stop, and the person is open to receiving information digitally; and when you

• Want to add new people into the voter file.

The End of Information Islands

Many state parties have also purchased Reach. Using the state party’s version of Reach (contact your state party for the code) makes it even easier for you to find people in your state and provides you with locally relevant content to share.

“With Reach,” a Florida canvasser said, “I don’t have to wait for an organized canvassing event. I can put boots on the ground anytime and let the party know when I’ve effectively communicated with my neighbors to get out the vote!”

So often canvassers make connections, enter data, and at the end of the day, names and contact information evaporate from our phones. With Reach, the voters’ names and contact information remain accessible.

Canvassers can then share links to articles, candidate information, and reminders related to early voting.

Though Reach is being promoted as a relational organizing app, it is also an app that allows volunteers to register voters any time anywhere and keep track of that information, to share with a campaign or to use as an organizer. Volunteers this election season will have a chance to experiment, using Reach to identify neighborhoods for canvassing, keeping in touch with campaign organizers, and so much more.

Please comment if you have used Reach and have an example of how it has helped in your organizing. In your experience training old-school canvassers, has Reach proven easy to learn and use?

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