As we look ahead to some important elections in 2022, many of us have been asking ourselves about strategies to elect more progressive candidates, and re-elect those we have. COIN has a plan!

In Oregon, nearly one-third of all voters are Non-Affiliated Voters (NAVs), meaning they are not registered with any party. These voters are often the great unknowns in elections, and how they vote may determine the election’s outcome. We also know that they tend to vote much less frequently than voters registered with a party.

Our NAV Outreach Project is a “deep canvassing” project with the following goals:

• Identify and better understand the issues that are important to NAVs because they are not represented by a party, or party-affiliated elected officials.

• Train volunteers in “deep canvassing” techniques so that we have a team of folks who could work together in important districts or critical local races.

• Follow up with these NAVS during our Get Out The Vote efforts.

We need volunteers regardless of their level of experience to help launch this project and begin building an important foundation. We expect this to be a multi-year project to engage more Non-Affiliated Voters in the electoral process by listening to them, providing them with voter information, and reminding them how important it is to be a voter.