About Trick or Vote
Trick or Vote is the nation’s largest get out the vote effort … in costume!
According to a 2001 Yale study, face-to-face interaction is the single best way to get someone to vote. Knocking on doors increases voter turnout by a whopping 8-12%, more than any other method.
If knocking on doors is the best way to get out the vote, what is the one day each year people expect a knock on their door? Halloween.
And when does Halloween happen to fall on the calendar? Always a few days before the election.
So, while you may be too old to Trick or Treat, you’re never too old to Trick or Vote.
Volunteering at Trick or Vote
So what’s it like to volunteer at Trick or Vote? In most places, Trick or Vote volunteers will dress up in costume on Halloween and knock on doors in their neighborhoods reminding people to vote. In other places, they’ll make phone calls to deliver the message or swarm public events to collect vote pledges. Once they’re done scaring out the vote, they’re treated to a killer Halloween party.
To learn more about your local event, click here.
Trick or Vote in 2010
This year, on and around Halloween, Trick or Vote events will take place in 50 locations all across the country and volunteer monsters will talk to over 200,000 voters with one simple, nonpartisan message: vote.
To reach the most people possible, Trick or Vote uses an open and flexible organizing model, offering anyone who wants to participate the tools to recruit volunteers and walk their neighborhood. Through trickorvote.org, groups of all sizes can get their fright on under the Trick or Vote banner (so long as it all stays nonpartisan, of course). And new to this year, Trick or Vote has launched the Adopt a Monster online fundraising tool in order to make the program more sustainable and beneficial for everyone involved.
Our Haunted History
Trick or Vote began in 2004 in Portland, Oregon and in 2008, it had its breakout year. That Halloween, with involvement from 30 organizations operating in 35 cities, costumed volunteers knocked on 100,000 doors on that single night, reminding people to vote, distributing nonpartisan voter guides, and generating both grassroots and media awareness just before the election. Campaign & Elections Politics Magazine’s Reed Awards recognized this historic effort as the “Best GOTV Plan & Execution” in North America. Trick or Vote 2008 was a raging success, and that’s why in 2010 we’re going to go even bigger.
