2008 SECULAR VALUES VOTER INDIVIDUAL & ORGANIZER GUIDES

Once again it’s election season and a great opportunity for the secular community to promote our visibility to the political establishment and the community at-large.

Below is a seven-step blueprint for how individuals in every district can bring the secular voter’s concerns to local, state, and national candidates.

• Step 1: Register to vote and make sure you friends and family are registered, too.
• Step 2: Explore this website and see where the Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates stand on issues that are important to the secular community. We will be updating it regularly, so check back every week. 
• Step 3: Investigate local, state and Congressional candidates and where they stand on issues that are important to you and other Secular Values Voters.  If it’s not clear where they stand on a particular issue, seek them out at events, or contact their campaigns for answers. (See our list of questions that every candidate should be asked ).
• Step 4: Get candidates to recognize that you are part of a large constituency that identifies as Secular Values Voters. Attend political events where the candidates and their campaigns will be present and wear a button or tee-shirt that identifies you as part of the secular constituency. Present yourself as often as possible as a Secular Values Voter so that campaigns take notice of you and your values.  
• Step 5:  Publicize why you like specific candidates by talking about them with your friends and family, increase their visibility by using their campaign buttons, t-shirts and bumper stickers, and writing op-eds to your local paper. 
• Step 6:  Increase your visibility with the campaign by contributing your time and money.  Volunteers and financial contributors have much greater access to the candidates and will be courted for support in subsequent campaigns. 
• Step 7:  Vote! and make sure other like-minded voters get the polls too (see below).  
   

Below is a 7-step blueprint for how organizers in every district can bring the secular voter’s concerns to local, state, and national candidates.

• Step 1: Form a Get-Out-The-Secular Vote (GOTSV) Volunteer Committee to oversee the 2008 campaign season. Committee members will be charged with overseeing the campaign and leading or recruiting other volunteers for GOTSV events.
• Step 2: Prepare a survey of First Amendment questions you would like the candidates to address during election season. Send the survey to all candidates with a postage-paid return envelope and ask them to be returned by a specific date.
• Step 3: Focus on a set of issues that matter most to the Committee and generate position statements about your stance on these campaign issues. Also create a logo that can be printed on a banner, yard-sign, tee-shirt, sticker, or on any written materials you create.  Display this logo as much as possible throughout the campaign season.
• Step 4: Organize volunteers to table events where campaign issues will be discussed or the candidates themselves will be present. Create a sign-up sheet for people who identify as “secular values voters” or who are interested in more information about your group, to leave their information.
• Make sure that at every event you have your logo displayed prominently and have materials about who your group is and what you value.
• Step 5: Invite people who have signed onto your secular values voter statement to attend larger events that you hold throughout the campaign season. Invite candidates and campaign staffers to attend these events as well.
• Step 6: Follow-up with everyone who has identified as a “secular values voter” before the election to make sure they are registered and able to get to the polls.
• Step 7: On Election Day, hand out literature outside of polling places to people in the community. Invite them to join you at an event that evening celebrating the end of the campaign season.

Note: This guide was created by member group, Atheist Alliance International.