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Voter outreach has always been challenging—even before a global pandemic! Luckily, election administrators are a creative bunch, quick to forge partnerships with food banks, grocery stores, newspapers, restaurants, and any group that still regularly interacts with the public during these strange times.

In Hillsborough County, Florida, many takeout and delivery orders include a flyer promoting vote by mail. “It’s a simple message — we deliver! We’ll deliver the election to you,” says Craig Latimer, the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. “It just makes sense to remind people of the convenience of vote by mail when they’re ordering delivery or picking up a to-go order.”

So far, the 11 participating partners include traditional restaurants like a burger joint and a Greek taverna, a coffee shop, and even a gourmet wine-and-cheese bar. Additionally, the public school system is distributing more than 16,000 flyers with their “Grab and Go” meal program that started when schools closed for the pandemic.

Partnering with restaurants

With nearly 900,000 registered voters in Hillsborough County, voter outreach is essential. Normally this looks like regular involvement in the community by the outreach team, but the pandemic limits normal interactions. “We had to find ways to do our outreach virtually,” Craig explains. “People in our community were ordering things online, having meals delivered to them and staying safe at home – and we wanted to remind them that we could deliver the election to them, too.”

In order to secure the 11 partners, the team reached out to about 50 local restaurants, food banks, and community leaders. “The greatest challenge was reaching beyond our established community connections to add a new sector of the community – restaurants,” Craig explains. He recommends focusing on local restaurants, not large chains, since chains often have restrictions on participation. The partnership can be mutually beneficial, especially if you thank your partners on social media.

Most restaurants were started with several hundred flyers, and the school’s “Grab and Go” meal program has 16,000 flyers to distribute. Hillsborough County intends to provide more flyers if partners run out, continuing the campaign through the end of July.

Besides the cost of printing, the main cost for Hillsborough County has been time. “Be ready to send a lot of emails and make a lot of calls to generate support,” Craig advises. “Outreach like this is always time consuming, but gets easier the more you do it, and the more partners you bring on board.”

Beyond the restaurant partnerships, people in the community often contact Hillsborough County asking how they can help. Hillsborough created a Get Out the Vote toolkit for their elections website in order to streamline and leverage these opportunities. “It’s great to see so many people coming together to encourage people to get ready to vote,” Craig says. “I’ve always said elections are a community project.”

Impacting voter behavior

During the March election, some Hillsborough County voters were unable to vote—they couldn’t get to a polling place, and it was too late to request a mail ballot. That’s the problem Craig wants to avoid for the upcoming August and November elections. The goal of the outreach campaign is to encourage voters to request vote-by-mail ballots early, so there’s plenty of time to receive and return them.

Reaching voters is only the first step—the message needs to be effective. Hillsborough County’s flyer design is eye-catching and uncluttered. The message is simple: request vote by mail and we’ll deliver the election to you. It’s also an explicit call-to-action, and includes the voter’s next steps on how to request a mail ballot. On the reverse side of the flyer, the message is repeated in Spanish.

As a bonus, Hillsborough County’s press release generated media coverage from the Tampa Bay Times, further amplifying the call-to-action. Creative partnerships tend to be newsworthy, letting you get your message to even more people.

Is the campaign working? “Yes, absolutely,” Craig says. “The flyers encourage voters to go online or call our office to make their request, and our call volume and web requests are both up.”

Additional resources

If you have any questions for Hillsborough County, you can contact Gerri Kramer, the Director of Communications, at [email protected].

We’ve given Hillsborough County two shout-outs recently: in our webinars on Educating Voters About Their Options and on Managing Mail Ballot Request Forms. These webinars are part of our free 12-webinar series on COVID-19 and Election Administration, and if you missed the live versions, you can still watch the recordings.

Hillsborough County is one of many jurisdictions across the country that are implementing smart, creative approaches to elections during the pandemic. We’ve curated a round-up of 39 Ways Election Offices are Responding to COVID-19 (and counting!).

If Hillsborough County makes you wish you had a dedicated communications and outreach team, check out our free courses on Communicating Trusted Election Information. No matter what size your office is, you can take easy steps to improve your election website, your digital accessibility, and your social media presence.

How are you conducting voter outreach during the pandemic? We would love to hear from you! Tell us about your experience by emailing [email protected].