The power of the postcard
Sebastopol is home to an army of dedicated “postcarders,” writing postcards to support Democratic candidates and get-out-the-vote efforts throughout the United States
Can writing a simple postcard to a fellow citizen in another state change the outcome of an election—and perhaps the direction of the country? A small army of postcarders in Sebastopol is betting that it can.
Postcarding became popular during the Trump presidency as a defense against the pervasive despair and hopelessness that seized many Democrats during those years.
Sebastopol resident Denise Meier began postcarding in 2018, then started assembling postcard packages for other people in 2020, inspired by the work of Sonoma County postcard maven Gloria Bealer, who died last spring.
“Gloria was doing postcard parties, and then, when the pandemic hit, people started writing postcards at home. I was getting postcards from her and distributing them to other people. And then I said, ‘Well, how hard could this be?’ And so she set me up with how to order postcards and how to download all the information.”
Meier estimates that she sent out about 8,000 postcards in 2020 alone. She said that Bealer was responsible for sending out around 110,000 postcards that same year.
How does postcarding work?
Postcarding campaigns are spearheaded by national organizations, like Indivisible, Sister District, Reclaim Our Vote, Activate America and many others, which provide the scripts people copy onto the postcards, as well as names and addresses of voters in districts in hot races around the country. Most postcard campaigns target close elections in states where a few percentage points this way or that can make all the difference.
Essential to these national postcarding efforts are local volunteers, like Meier, who assemble postcard packages to distribute to individual postcarders. (Some of the busiest postcard organizers and assemblers I reached out to for this story declined to be interviewed out of privacy concerns.)
Meier, who is one of several people who assemble postcard packets for distribution in west county, thinks a hand-written postcard is an effective form of political outreach.
“I received one hand-written postcard so far in all these years, and I actually read it,” she said. “I don’t remember whether I voted the way that they were saying to vote—it was about some initiative on our California ballot. But I read it, and pretty much any other mail that comes to me that’s political goes directly into my recycling … There’s a lot of misinformation, so I don’t really trust much of what I get in the mail. But like I said, I did read that postcard, and I feel like, because of that personal touch, people at least take the time to read it because obviously somebody spent the time to write it, and it wasn’t just printed and delivered by bulk mail. So that’s a big reason that I do think that they are an effective form of outreach.”
Meier said that research puts postcarding third in line in effectiveness behind knocking on doors and phone banking, which Meier said not everyone wants to do.
“Doing something is better than doing nothing,” Meier said, “and if this is what you can do—great.”
Meier downloads the names and scripts from a few different organizations. “I get my addresses and scripts from Reclaim Our Vote and from Activate America and Field Team Six,” she said.
She creates packages with 10 or 20 postcards, a matching number voter names and addresses, and postage stamps. Also in the package is a script, a finished sample postcard, and directions. Sometime there are stickers with QR codes or the contact info for the local Registrar of Voters for that district.
Most postcard campaigns require that people simply copy the short script verbatim onto the postcards, but postcarders are free to get creative with colored markers, decorating the text with underlines, squiggles, hearts and flowers.
The packets cost between $12 and $14, which covers the cost of materials.
Many postcarding groups are partisan, supporting specific Democratic candidates in close local races across the country. Others are non-partisan, like Reclaim Our Vote, a black-led organization which is aimed primarily at voters of color in the South. Instead of endorsing candidates, Reclaim Our Vote relies on carefully crafted, non-partisan “Get out the vote” messages.
As the presidential election looms in November, Meier said that even traditionally partisan postcard campaigns have switched to the “Get out the vote” message.
Postcarding parties
There are regular postcarding groups or parties going on every week at local cafes, churches and living rooms throughout Sonoma County. (For legal reasons, the churches use the non-partisan “Get-out-the-vote” scripts.)
Meier supplies postcard packets to a Sebastopol woman named Lani (last name withheld at her request), who holds postcard parties every week at a local restaurant.
I asked Lani what inspired her to do this.
“My motivation is I am terrified of Trump, not only Trump, but basically the oligarchs, you know the people behind the Project 2025 that have been the oligarchs who are behind Trump, who, as far as I can see, are a bunch of really, really, really rich people who don’t want to have to pay more taxes and don’t want regulations on any of their business. As a result, they plan to destroy our country, and in fact, they’ve been doing it, and it terrifies me,” she said. “The big, big, big fear is what if we get Trump back in—and it’s not just Trump, it’s that whole team of people that I feel are really very scary.”
I dropped by Lani’s postcard-writing party this week. There were 11 people there that day—a usual number for these gatherings, Lani said.
Two postcard writers, Eileen Mathias and Becky Christiansen, were postcarding for the first time.
Christiansen explained why they were there. “We’re neighbors, and we did a Zoom call with Indivisible Sonoma County and watched a seminar on what’s going on in the election right now. What’s happening in red states and blue states? Which ones are in trouble? Which ones need more help? Things that you can do—phone banking is one thing. We both said ‘Er, no.’ Knocking on doors is another, and we both said ‘Er, no.’ And then they said postcards, and we were like, ‘Yes! That’s something we can do!’ So here we are.”
Postcarding veteran Laura Duggan explained what motivated her to come to Lani’s postcard parties. “Because it’s around the corner from my house, for starters,” she said with a smile, “and it’s on a regular basis, and you get to meet really interesting people, and it’s fun, and then you get to support a local restaurant at happy hour. I mean, you can’t lose.”
“I also write letters at home,” Duggan said, “but it’s much more fun to do this with a group, so I prefer to come out here and do this.”
Asked if there was also a political motivation, she laughed out loud. “That’s a no brainer, of course!”
If you would like to attend a postcard gathering, reach Lani at foxrosie@gmail.com.
The mailto link for Lani doesn't work correctly in the emailed article, at least with gmail. Works fine from this page (the email link is a redirect URL that goes nowhere).