Personalized postcard initiative hopes to increase women’s voter turnout

In 2022, after the Supreme Court decision that changed abortion access in the US, more Indiana women than men registered to vote or updated their registration.  A state organization wants to keep that momentum going by getting these registered women voters to the polls on or before November 5.  And as IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports, it’s sending hand-written personalized postcards as motivation.

Every postcard sent by Women4Change to a Hoosier woman includes a unique handwritten message.  The organization has sent more than 20,000 of them.

Vice president Aimee Robertson-West believes that individual effort will reach recipients on a personal level.

“Anything that’s handwritten, I know that there is a deliberate effort to understand me,” she said. “Me as a person, even if I’ve never met this other person, there is effort and caring that is demonstrated in the time it took and the thought that is was put into this message.”

Women4Change said the lists come from national organizing software used by Democratic and progressive campaigns. But Robertson-West said both Democrat and Republican women
received the cards.  Only women who are registered to vote will appear on the list.

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Contributions to the initiative have been made in large part through “postcard parties.” All materials are supplied at the gatherings, and attendees have the opportunity to meet and and engage with other members of the community.

Robertson-West said the postcards are written by women of all ages, so young girls who can’t vote yet can still make their voices heard.

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“What better thing can you do then reach individual Hoosier voters, Hoosier women, and then ask them to show up for the rest of us?” she said.

Women4Change believes it will send 30,000 postcards by the end of the initiative, which is scheduled to be October 28.

Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer.  Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu