The PerSisters: How to influence elections one postcard at a time

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When our little group connected at the Women’s March in downtown Santa Cruz in January 2017, just after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, we had no official plan or purpose. We were strangers united by one thing: common anger over Trump’s election. 

Now, seven years later, we are still angry. But, we are also more powerful. 

Now, we’re part of a national network helping to change the election landscape. We call ourselves the PerSisters, and we’ve channeled our energy to move the election needle. Instead of shaking our fists at the sky, we act. We write postcards, to be exact. 

Meeting once a week – 9:15 a.m. to noon on Fridays at Cruise Coffee Cafe in Scotts Valley – we write postcards to legislators and cabinet members expressing our strong opinions about important issues. When we began, there were 10 of us. It often felt like we were spitting into the wind. Very likely, we reasoned, our postcards ended up in the circular file.

But we have persisted. Now we have dozens of members – usually about a dozen show up each week, about eight are core. We expect to grow more as the election season heats up. 

When we started, we would study news articles and send our opinions to federal and state offices. Then, a few months in, we learned about “Postcards to Voters,” a fledgling organization based in Georgia led by a guy who called himself “Tony the Democrat.” They were collecting voter addresses and sending messages directly to voters. We joined up and began campaigning for Democratic candidates across the country and urging inconsistent voters to get to the polls.

Then it snowballed. People in other states organized their own groups, such as Postcards4VA in Virginia, Activate America working nationwide, WisDems in Wisconsin and many others. Together, all these organizations morphed into a national movement incorporating many hundreds of local postcard writers who turn out thousands of direct-to-the-voter messages each month.

These organizers send us voter addresses for the campaigns we select. They provide the primary speaking points, and we add personal thoughts. Our PerSisters’ choices are based on what we decide are, for us, the most important issues and campaigns. These have included particular candidates, proposed bills and messages urging people to vote.

For instance, we supported Ruben Gallego for senator in Arizona and Sherrod Brown in Ohio. We supported Justice Janet Protasiewicz in Wisconsin and the creation of a national police accountability database. We believe in keeping guns out of the hands of perpetrators of domestic violence. We’ve written to voters in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Wisconsin and more urging them to register and to vote –  especially voting by mail, because it increases participation.

None of these campaign messages malign other candidates, nor do we list negative speaking points. Rather, we offer positive reasons to support what we believe in. We do not support divisiveness because we believe our nation has enough of that already.

Since we organized, our PerSisters alone have hand-written and mailed 43,000 postcards. We pay for the ever-increasing postage ourselves. A generous supporter in Southern California provides voter-themed postcards at no cost to us. We go through about 150 each week in our Friday meetings. We anticipate that this election year – with Trump on the ballot again – will push that number even higher.

In non-election periods, we search for key issues and write to our representatives or to corporate officers and express our opinions. For these issues, we subscribe to Rogan’s List (activist Susan, not podcaster Joe), which sends out daily summaries of headline topics and legislative bills that require attention. We always have something to write about, whether it’s to voters or to people who influence policy.

Why not canvassing, texting or phoning? Campaign leaders have tried to push our groups into using the old methods. But we don’t want to annoy people by knocking on doors. Nor do we want to interrupt them with phone calls or to clog their mailboxes with a flurry of texts. (There’s already enough of that!) Postcards are a less intrusive approach. Recipients actually read them. Some even take them along to the polls.

Coffeehouse customers who see us working around a big table have asked what we are doing. When we explain, they often donate money to help with postage. Occasionally, we’ve attracted new participants.

Our oldest member just celebrated her 95th birthday. She attends every week with a couple of her neighbors. Our youngest member is 18; she joins us when school is not in session. A former member was accepted into five prestigious graduate schools. She’s now studying international relations in Washington, D.C. We are retired educators, businesswomen, nonprofit directors, even a former medic.

The PerSisters has blossomed from a group of strangers to developing lasting friendships. Together, we went to see Michelle Obama, Stacey Abrams, Madeleine Albright and the movie “RBG.” We like to say we make “good trouble.”

So, what’s the bottom line? Do personally written postcards actually increase voter turnout? Or is this just a ladies’ social club to keep us off the streets?

Several university studies have shown that these cards do work. And they work better than official campaign materials. They’re more personal. They’re more direct. They aren’t mass-produced. They come from other voters rather than from a faceless campaign headquarters.

Postcards like these are especially effective at motivating younger voters. One study shows they boost votership by 2% when tested against control groups who received nothing. This is especially important in close elections, when a few thousand votes can make the difference in an outcome.

We have celebrated when our chosen candidates or issues win elections. But we don’t get discouraged when the odds are against them. In many cases, we’ve seen the gaps narrow, which motivates us to keep writing.

For each of us, this is a membership with a greater purpose. We are like individual drops of water that unite to create big waves. After seven years, that knowledge continues to be our primary motivation.

Donna Maurillo arrived in Santa Cruz in 1973 as a UCSC student and graduated in 1978. She built a career in corporate communications before retiring from a research institute at San Jose State University. She devotes her time as a substitute teacher, symphony volunteer and fine arts photographer.