Many Ways To Vote Kindly

• Make voting an adventure—you’re helping to decide the future
• Take adventure gear to prep for possible long lines: water, food, camp chair, layers
• Prepare your mindset for possible long lines—focus on WHY you’re voting
• Practice with friends to be calm in the face of passionate differences
• Bring lyrics and sing inspiring, non-partisan songs to lift everyone’s spirits at the polls
• Ask Red and Blue friends for song suggestions
• Ask friends to see if they need help getting to the polls
• Go early to vote—allow plenty of extra time so you don’t have to leave before voting.
• Exercise absentee voting options
• Host Voter Education cafes (with no partisan electioneering allowed)
• Call ahead for conditions at your polling place so you can adjust your plans and/or schedule
• Create a voting team to keep each other posted on conditions—text and Twitter from line!
• Call 866ourvote or visit www.866ourvote.org for voter education
• Tell your friends and family about www.866ourvote.org election protection resources
• Check out Election Protection’s poll worker training material
• Find out if stresses your polling place suffered during primaries have been fixed
• Brainstorm with friends and family how to ease those stresses
• Check in with local election official to find out how you can help on Nov. 4
• Get local merchants to donate food & water to poll workers and voters stuck in lines
• Get local food vendors to set up and sell food to folks in long lines
• Get a great night’s rest on Nov. 3
• Take Tension Tamer tea with you in a thermos
• Try natural nerve calming remedies now to help ease electoral stresses
• Brush up on your anger-management skills
• Poll workers: take an anger management class
• Practice mindfulness meditation with biofeedback
• Take your journal with you and record your thoughts on this historic occasion
• Choir directors: have your choirs sing spirited songs that move us beyond partisanism
• Choir members: organize small ensembles to serenade voters
• Choir lovers: ask your favorite choir to perform at the polls on Nov. 4
• Choirs: let local media know what you’re doing
• Load up your iPod with uplifting tunes to listen to while waiting to vote
• Tag team the wait in the voting line—walk while someone holds your place, then switch
• This is a historic moment. Have someone take pictures of you in line.
• Offer to take pictures of other folks waiting in line.
• Ask your polling place for sample ballots that you and others can practice filling out
• Ask for a verifiable paper ballot and mail in with return receipt
• Consider voting early—it helps ease the burdens on poll workers, too
• Follow-up to make sure your early vote IS counted
• Do some strategic questioning: ask folks for stories about kindness in past elections
• Reading or listening to election news: note your angry responses as well as your kind ones
• If you live nearby, host a drop-in polling party for friends near your polling place
• Let an older person or harried mom/dad vote before you do
• Offer to help now with anything your local Election Official says could make a difference
• Experiment with loving kindness: practice and wish all voters well
• Write out how you want to be treated at the polls
• Do unto others at the polls as you want other voters to do unto you
• Ask ahead of time if your polling place is prepared with enough ballots
• Get friends to organize requests for extra ballots to be on hand
• Scout Leaders: could you do some fundraising to PAY the cost of getting ballots printed?
• Pay neighborhood children to put on a show to help raise funds for extra ballots
• Don’t believe fliers! Always VERIFY info about changes in voting venue, dates, etc
• Watching kindness videos/DVDs as an antidote caustic tone of campaign
• Make your own Top Ten List of steps you’re willing to take to Vote Kindly
• Experiment with the Law of Attraction: Be the kind of voter you want to see
• Call 866ourvote to check out how to makes sure your vote counts
• Contact local voter activists and offer to help others get their votes in
• Report deceptive voting and intimidation tactics and stop them if possible
• Set up a hotline for breaking news re: voting in your area
• Read about the history of the vote, value its integrity deeply
• Lead a Vote Kindly learning experiment with the young people in your community
• Ask yourself, “Am I being Kind?” when you feel your temperature rising
• Remember to be kind unto thyself as you prepare to go and vote
• Host a Vote Kindly party to clarify voting rules now
• Get into the mood by choosing kindness in every action that serves your community
• Set up shelters so folks can stay out harsh weather
• Make big “no electioneering” signs to post along waiting route
• Organize chamber of commerce members for day of celebratory care
• Send your suggestions to VoteKindly.org where you can leave a comment on the blog or reply to our video challenge on YouTube.

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