Our Most Urgent Need: Candidate Researchers by State and District
We urgently need folks with just a few hours to spare to research and post the “reducing gun violence” positions of candidates for national office…Senate and Congress.
Typically it takes about 1 hour to research and post information about each candidate. Our easy to use form allows researchers to categorize information about each candidate. There are links to take you to the description of what goes in each field. The fields are as follows: Party, Profession, Incumbent,
Basic Position on “reducing gun violence”, background, voting record, endorsements and links for further information. There is also a field for the candidate’s response on the subject and our listing.
Here is a link to the basic candidate listing form. You can click on the field titles to see what goes in each field. It is pretty simple and just required a first generation computer, internet connection, and first generation computer skills. Form Example (click here)
Here is a link to an example of the final database: Click here
While our first and most urgent priority are national legislative races in 2017, candidates for state office can similarly be vetted using the same form.
Information supplied will be checked for completeness, fairness and to be consistent with normal editorial conventions and syntax.
Volunteers need to be qualified so we would like to know a little about you and your ability to work with these fairly simple forms.
To volunteer, please fill out the contact form at the bottom right.
Website and Social Media Assistance
Yes our website needs lots of work and we need help. We want it to be basic and communicative using the K.I.S.S principles (keep it simple stupid) so that multiple developers can easily interact as needed to update and modify the site. Currently we use a basic word press template and site builder. It allows the insertion of relevant modules related to the overall functionality of the site and programs of the zipcodevotes.com project. Ideally we would have a chief coordinator and several contributors who could offer assistance on each of the sections of the site.
Let us know using the contact form below if you can offer something for this project.
Also needed social media experts to generate and tweak messages through the social media channels.
Some Paid Positions Available
We will be adding paid staff in a limited capacity to oversee and coordinate program elements. This work will be dependent on funding and could expand over time. More on these opportunities as we update the site.
Other Volunteer Needs (some work paid)
- Mapping zip code and postal routes with voting districts.
- Identifying election deadlines to correlate with targeted mailings
The zipcodevotes project identifies currently serving representatives or candidates records or positions on key issues that would be of concern.
The objective is to remove the clutter around primary and general elections for those busy people who are marginalized by the complexity and confusion of the process while single minded zealots make sure that they turn out to elect those candidates that support their narrow often little known agendas. This is acomplished by direct mail targeted to zip codes and by mail routes to capture the attention of the large group of mainstream voters who do not and cannot pay much attention to primary elections or general elections where the candidates and their positions are frequently obscure. The project is designed to make sure that important viewpoints, voting records and position statements get the attention of people most likely to adversely affected or who don’t share the viewpoints of those highly motivated special interest supporting voters who dominate primary and general elections at the state and national level. The key to this is turnout at the primary election which has notoriously low rates of participation by the general voting population.
Volunteers at this level will code up the database with three types of information:
- District boundaries and zip code and mailing route coordinates.
- Specific positions, official pronouchements, voting records and other background information on key topics.
- Campaign contribution records.
Other volunteers will prepare the database information for use in targeted mailings. Paid work will be available pending funding for individuals dedicating a great deal of time to the checking, coordinating and administrating of the various action elements of the project.
Professional Needs (some work paid)
There will also be challenges to be met as we try to be fully compliant with IRS and state codes for non-partisan, non-profit, educational organizations.
Accounting and contribution records will need regular audits.
Paid work will be available pending funding for individuals dedicating a great deal of time to the checking, coordinating and administrating of the various action elements of the project.
Writers, Analysts and Publishers
A group of analysts will work with database information to create specific messages to put into targeted mailings. Messages should be factual and complete with mimmal editorial commentary so as to provide voters with a clearer and more objective basis to make voting decisons.
This group of volunteers will coordinate the printing and targeting of the bulk mailings.
