Getting Out the Vote

We believe that an essential step both in restoring and improving our democracy is to make the best possible use of the democratic processes that are currently available to us. This, in turn, means maximizing the number of citizens who: (1) register to vote, (2) inform themselves about the issues and choices, (3) engage in relevant discussion, both with us and with others around them, (4) coalesce around a platform that they feel personally invested in, and (5) cast their ballot in every election.

First and foremost, we want to help potential voters get off of the sidelines and become empowered participants in our democratic decision-making processes. Rather than telling people how to vote, we want to engage them in meaningful dialogue about their own best interests. By doing this, we believe we can help to build a broad-based coalition of voters who are strongly invested in our pro-democracy agenda.

To accomplish this, we are pursuing a range of strategies and partnerships:

  • Voter registration

  • Canvassing

  • Post-carding

  • Media and events

  • Fundraising

Recent and Current Activities

In 2025, the Restore Democracy team focused our attention on passage of Proposition 50, the response by California to the mid-decade gerrymandering in Texas ordered by Donald Trump in an effort to rig the 2026 congressional elections in favor of Republicans. Our actions included a variety of efforts to encourage Californians to vote in favor of Prop. 50. We sent out postcards to voters, wrote letters to the editor, and carried out tabling initiatives in a variety of settings. In addition, in response to a request from the Santa Cruz for Bernie group, we sent a representative to their endorsement meeting to argue in favor of Prop 50. After the presentation and responses by the presenter to a series of questions, the group voted to endorse Proposition 50. In the November election, Prop. 50 passed by a large margin.

In 2026, we are focusing primarily on the mid-term elections, with particular emphasis on four distinct races:

  • Candidates for U.S. Congress in CA-19. Our team developed a list of questions for candidates in the primary election in CA-19. We presented these questions to the ISCC leadership group, and they proposed expanding the initiative by asking each of the Issue groups to submit two questions to the candidates. We readily agreed to participate in this collaborative effort. The questions were sent out to the candidates in early May. Five of the seven candidates, including Democratic incumbent Jimmy Panetta and Democratic challenger Sean Dougherty, returned completed questionnaires, which were thoughtful and often quite detailed. The completed questionnaires were emailed to the ISCC membership, along with a request to indicate whether any of the candidates should be endorsed by ISCC.

  • Candidates for Governor of California. We would ideally like the two top vote-getters in the primary to be Democrats so that the November election will allow us to highlight our underlying concerns about pro-democracy processes. However, our first priority is for at least one of the two top vote-getters to be a Democrat.

  • Candidates for U.S. Congress in CA-13 and CA-22. These are two highly competitive districts in the Central Valley. The incumbent Democrat in CA-13 is facing a strong challenge, and the incumbent Republican in CA-22 is facing two Democratic challengers. We are collaborating with other Santa Cruz County Indivisible groups to support the Democratic candidates in CA-13 and CA-22 via fundraising, sending postcards, and phone banking.