Frequently Asked Questions
What is Reclaim Our Vote?
Reclaim Our Vote (ROV) is a volunteer-driven, nonpartisan voter-outreach campaign led by the 501(c)3 Center for Common Ground of Virginia, working in states with a history of voter suppression to empower under-represented voters.
Where do your voter lists come from?
Sources for our data vary, but usually our lists come from the state voter file, which is a publicly available database of registered voters that each state provides.
Who leads the Center for Common Ground?
Andrea Miller is our founding board member and executive director. You can find more information about her, and our other board members here.
Do you have a track record of success? Please share some statistics about your impact.
85% of our called voters (live contacts and voicemails) voted in Alabama's December 2017 special election.
65% of our 185,000 calls (live contacts and voicemails), with partner group Black Voters Matter, resulted in votes in Georgia for the 2018 Midterms.
In 2019, ROV sent 347,000 postcards and made 90,000 phone bank calls to voters of color in North Carolina and Virginia. 20 to 25% of the de-registered voters we postcarded in North Carolina's 3rd Congressional District registered to vote before the September 2019 special election in that district.
I've tried political phonebanking and have found it to be an unpleasant experience; could I just write postcards?
Postcarding opportunities are limited in 2021, so we seriously need phonebankers. Phonebanking for CCG has proven very effective! Most of our volunteers consider CCG phonebanking relatively low-stress. We are not persuading anyone to vote a certain way; we're simply offering people tools and information to facilitate political engagement. When we call, we leave LOTS of pre-written voicemails (and sometimes texts), which have proven effective at turning out our voters, or motivating them to call their elected officials on proposed legislation.
Why do you use CallHub, when you have previously used other phonebanking platforms?
CallHub is a platform that suits our current mission best, because it allows us to connect voters to their state representatives within the same call. We can also send followup texts easily, and this combined added convenience for voters makes all the difference. We evaluate the calling platform that is best for us to use campaign by campaign and state by state. We take into account numerous factors including but limited to: cost, the calling database, ease of the tool for the goals of that particular campaign, ease of training and flexibility in making script changes and campaign updates.
Where can I find the phone banks? Or How do I get involved in phonebanking?
Please read our Center for Common Ground Phonebank Guidelines for directions on accessing our phone banks. To join a guided phone bank zoom, please visit Phone Bank Central, and scroll down to the calendar section where you will see a list of upcoming events. We provide the opportunity to join one of our weekly Nationally Guided Phonebanks sponsored by CFCC that are open to anyone nationally or abroad and are guided, meaning they have training included. We also offer a rolling calendar of local organizations opening their weekly phone-bank training up to those who would like to join their calling volunteers.
When can I make calls? Must I join a scheduled phone bank?
We highly encourage you to come to at least one of our many weekly phone-banks initially to understand our approach, techniques, tools and daily updates..Once you have been trained, you are welcome to call on your own. You do not need to join a phone banking event to make calls with us, you can make calls on your own time, 9am-8pm within the target state’s time zone (no Sunday mornings as that is the time when many of our voters go to church). The guided phone bank events hosted by us and other organizations are simply there if you prefer phone banking with others.
Where is the script?
It’s important to read our Phonebank Guidelines before beginning, there you will find all the answers, such as how to access the script (hint: you must make a CallHub account first). We recommend you follow as close as is comfortable the script provided as the request to the voter needs to be clear and concise. Feel free to add a sentence or 2 to relax and engage the voter so they are open to hearing your full message and request.
Why are these state bills important to phonebank for, shouldn’t we be focusing on the broader federal bills of HR1 and S1?
HR1/S1 will fix many things about federal elections, but does not have jurisdiction over state-run elections. There will still be many ways for states to suppress voters, even if S1 passes. The overwhelming majority of voting rights organizations are focusing on S1 at the expense of defending rights at the state level, making it all the more vital for our opposition at the state level to supplement these national efforts. Activating communities at the local level also has more long term impact, and can be more effective especially for voters from the south who are often bombarded with asks for national legislation or candidates and then feel their local needs abandoned.
What states are you moving to next, what is the order and how are you determining which ones to focus on first?
We take our direction from the Board of Directors, which includes national partners such as the NAACP and Mi Familia Vota, and prioritize states that most align with our mission statement, which is to empower under-represented voters to fully participate in elections. Because of this, our upcoming campaigns are always subject to change.
Where can I find updates in bills or focus? Will the updates be reflected in the phone bank scripts I’m using?
We update our phone bank scripts multiple times a day to ensure that you will never be making outdated calls. If a bill has passed, we will immediately delete the relevant phone bank, so rest assured that the phone banks we have up do accurately reflect our current priorities. That being said, you can join our Slack Channel here to receive more detailed updates, including rationale for our current focus.
Where do I go when I am making calls on my own and have questions, need updates or want to find relevant articles or supporting documents?
There are two ways you can get responsive support. Join our Slack Channel here. You can also email any questions to gabriel@centerforcommonground.org
What’s the deal with “teams” on callhub? Do I sign up for one in the sign up form? Can I change my team after the fact?
Teams is an optional way of affiliating your calls with a particular organization, and can be both fun and effective for that organization to mobilize more volunteers. It is by no means mandatory, and if you are a “solo” volunteer, feel free to ignore this field. However, if you’d like to be added to a team after the fact, or change teams, you cannot do so yourself, but if you email gabriel@centerforcommonground.org we will be very happy to change the team for you.