This year's elections are incredibly important for a number of reasons, and not surprising for #2020, they will also be a bit different than many we've seen in the past. Typically, most of the energy prior to an election is spent on persuasion - e.g. how can you convince voters to support your candidate (some of you are probably trying to do that with family and friends right now!) - but the interesting thing about this year's election is that it's less about persuasion and much more about mobilization.
It has become increasingly clear that Voter turnout will decide the election.
Like many of you, Rinse has been thinking about how we can help mobilize voters over the next 35 days. Below are a few things we are doing:
- Rinse is closing service on Election Day (11/3) and giving our employees a paid holiday. We typically only close around July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. This year, we will be closed on Election Day so we can give our team time to vote, to volunteer as a poll worker, or to just enjoy the day off.
- Rinse has joined the Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan coalition that provides valuable tools, resources, events, and partnership opportunities to companies to help them engage employees and consumers as active participants in civic life.
- Rinse has partnered with Power The Polls to help address the impending poll worker shortage this year.
- Rinse will facilitate participation in the “Big Send” led by Vote Forward. Vote Forward is an organization that focuses on sending letters to drive voter turnout (a surprisingly effective approach). They have set October 17th as the "Big Send" date to maximize voter turnout.
- I am personally supporting the Voter Participation Center and exploring ways that Rinse might be able to as well. Their only goal is to turn non-voters into voters.
Note that all of the organizations above are nonpartisan and primarily focused on voter turnout. Involvement in any of the above efforts is 100% optional for our employees (except for taking the day off ... they've earned it!) - our goal is simply to #MakeMomProud and facilitate ways our team and customers can help.
To stay up-to-date on our election initiatives, visit our blog page here.
