Mainstream's The Voter Network wins JoCo's Primary Election Contests with its Voter-to-Voter Project
Mainstream's The Voter Network wins JoCo's Primary Election Contests with its Voter-to-Voter Project
Progressives in Johnson County have a formidable voter turnout machine
Less than 10.5% of Johnson County voters showed up to vote in the primary election on Tuesday.
Progressives took first place in all contests with help from Mainstream Coalition’s “Candidate Ratings” and its get-out-the-vote project, Voter-to-Voter.
Democrat candidates with 100% Mainstream Coalition ratings took first in six of the seven contests. The winner in the remaining contest was a Republican with a 95% Mainstream rating.
Johnson County Democrats endorsed in all seven contests. All seven Democrats will proceed to the November general election.
Three of the four KFL endorsed candidates will appear on the November ballot after taking only second in primary contests.
Mainstream’s Voting Machine
Like many political organizations, Mainstream Coalition has 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations as well as a political action committee.
During the middle of COVID in 2020 Mainstream’s 501(c)(3), the Mainstream Education Foundation, changed its named to The Voter Network.
Michael Poppa, Mainstream’s Executive Director, in an April 2023 email provided this explanation about the organizations:
In 2020, Mainstream Education Foundation (EIN 48-1143190) rebranded as The Voter Network Foundation. At the end of 2022, the decision was made to spin-off The Voter Network into a new, non-affiliated organization. At that time, the name of our Foundation (EIN 48-1143190) was restored to a Mainstream brand: Mainstream Civic Engagement Foundation. At that time the (new) Voter Network obtained a separate EIN and applied for its own 501c3 status with the IRS.
At the time The Voter Network came into existence it was already developing a project called Voter-to-Voter, which encourages friends to contact friends with voting recommendations.
Voter to Voter launched in 2018 with the belief that democracy works better when we ALL participate. Rooted in the power of relationships, Voter to Voter asks volunteers to talk to their people about voting – then gives them the tools to do so effectively!
What does an a Voter-to-Voter ambassador do?
Choose 10 friends to help vote & add themto your Voter to Voter list.
Help each friend create a voting plan and reach out to them with election reminders (we’ll help!)
If members of a progressive organization mostly have progressive friends, and encourage those friends to start voting, the result will be a higher progressive turnout. Conservatives need similar non-profit infrastructure to do the same thing.
On Friday Mainstream’s voting machine kicked into high gear in the four days before the election.
Republicans in Johnson County must create effective counter measures to the years of progressive organizing and planning focused on voter turnout — or future victories may be quite difficult.
Republicans playing “defense” with election integrity measures should take note of the “offense” in progressive voter registration and turnout. Winning requires both “defense” and “offense.”
I'm going to buy another set of voter rolls from Johnson county this month and see if I can find anything funny.
Others saw in Georgia that very sophisticated games are being played by having "voters" cast votes for an election, but have the last vote designation rolled back later so the traces are gone. The only thing is that people have to be getting voter rolls VERY frequently to catch some of these kind of tricks.