This week, I also wanted to recap one of the biggest highlights of NJDSC’s 2022 efforts, which was made possible by the remarkable efforts of our dedicated volunteers and staff.
After the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, we began an aggressive and innovative campaign to reach out to infrequent Democratic women voters motivated to vote by this attack on their rights. We then expanded our outreach efforts to include Vote By Mail chases throughout the state supporting Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. With a small group of dedicated and committed volunteers (THANK YOU!), we were able to make 435,862 calls and 1,799,432 texts across 228 volunteer shifts. (A shift here is an event with multiple volunteers participating at each event.)
This was an incredible amount of work for our small team, and we are very proud that our efforts resulted in 2,438 new Vote By Mail (VBM) applications from infrequent voters and 162,727 total VBM or infrequent voters ID’d. Most importantly, these efforts resulted in 37,143 Vote By Mail ballots returned and 60,574 Election Day votes across the state.
On behalf of the NJDSC, I also want to express gratitude to Sarah Rappaport, our Volunteer Coordinator, who worked hard over many months to ensure that our volunteer shifts were staffed, trained, and ready to work each and every day. We also want to thank our Coalitions Team, led by Kinn Badger (NJDSC Coalitions Director) who put in an incredible amount of effort If you are interested in getting involved with our Coalitions program for the upcoming here, you can do so here: https://www.mobilize.us/njdsccoalitions/
These results are proof of the power we have in making real changes happen in New Jersey for all the hardworking people that make up our communities. As we boldly head into 2023, I hope you all feel encouraged and motivated to continue this work and expand the impact we can have in creating a more just, accessible, affordable, safe, and equitable New Jersey.
— Chairman LeRoy J. Jones, Jr.
P.S. Governor Murphy’s annual State of the State address will be on Tuesday, January 10th at 2:00 pm. I hope everyone who can will tune in and hear about what has been accomplished in the last year and where we are headed as a State.
