High quality Amish vote registering organization with Amish PAC’s plain voter project? Our strategy for registering and turning out Amish voters: Amish PAC deploys old-fashioned newspaper ads and billboards throughout rural Pennsylvania and Ohio Amish country as part of a voter registration campaign specifically tailored to potential Amish and Mennonite voters. We also make a special hotline available to potential Amish voters who are interested in receiving more information about voting and requesting a registration form. It’s common for an Amishman to call and request registration forms for his wife and entire family. See even more details on AmishPAC.
Generally, the Amish people will not share flyers, erect signs depicting a politician’s face, or visibly champion their cause. This is because they don’t want a false idol or graven image, as both elements are strongly frowned upon in their faith. The voter identification requirements also discourage many Amish people from being interested in the political process. Having their photographs taken directly conflicts with their code of conduct, and the stress of circumventing this process means only a few Amish people have shown interest over the years.
Walters said PAC organizers expected about 20 or so volunteers to help drive members of the Amish community to the polls. More than 300 volunteers ultimately showed up, and scores of that group shuttled potential Amish voters to the polling locations throughout the day. “I don’t know one Amish that would vote Democrat,” the woman said. “It was just incredible,” Walters said. “We located every single registered voter in Lancaster County. In many cases we had volunteers knock on their doors two times (yesterday).”
The 500 Amish PAC volunteers went through Lancaster County, Pa. and knocked on doors to register the Amish and Mennonites to vote, held letter writing campaigns and sent mailers. To get mailing and email lists for volunteers and potential voters, the Amish PAC disclosed for the Federal Elections Commission that it disbursed $8,078 to Omega List. Walters said the Amish PAC volunteers showed at Amish weddings Election Day — there were more than 10 throughout Lancaster County, Pa. that day — and drove them to the polls to vote.
As the final vote tallies trickled in from Pennsylvania precincts, a man who worked to get the Amish community to the polls was still up watching returns in hopes his organization’s impact would push Donald Trump to the presidency. Ultimately, the Keystone State was not the final state to put Trump over the threshold, but Ben Walters, a co-founder of the Amish Political Action Committee, was happy. Though he hadn’t slept in 48 hours, Walters said, he planned to watch election returns until the nomination was secured or he dozed off — whichever came first.
He said the official report on how many Amish voters registered and then followed through with voting for Trump won’t be available until the spring, but he did say that at the close of voter registration Oct. 11, the GOP had registered 10,403 Amish voters compared to the Democrats, who registered 9,961 — a difference of just 442 people, said Walters. He said Pennsylvania is the state that put Trump over the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the election. Read even more details at Amish voter help project organization.
Ensuring that unregistered conservatives, such as the Amish people, go to the polls to vote is essential to those who challenge incumbents. This may be why Democrats and Republicans have spent much of the past four years convincing the Amish people that casting a vote is essential. One of the significant efforts toward improving voting among Amish people is the creation of the AmishPAC. The committee utilizes media channels such as newspaper ads and billboards throughout communities with a significant Amish presence. They take this approach since Amish people are not on social media platforms, nor do they watch television.
