“No Kings: Vote Early is a different tactic,” said Kristi Fischer, with Indivisible Long Beach.
“This No Kings is about turning out the vote,” said Peter Warren with Indivisible San Pedro.
And success won’t be gauged by crowd size in Bixby Park, Fischer said, but by boosting voter turnout.
But that involves a multipronged approach. In Lakewood, for example, “This No Kings event will be centered on voter resources, and we will have tables to help people with voter registration, getting involved in poll-watching, voting early, and how to make sure everyone’s vote is counted!” said Heather Rodriguez, with Lakewood Indivisible. “We are also trying to get the word out to local businesses and pillars in our community to help defend the elections.”
It’s a different tactic, but a logical progression for a movement that’s always understood it was opposing autocracy, and the best historical model for success was mass mobilization leading to electoral defeat of the autocratic party at the first election after taking power. If you miss the first chance, it can take decades — as happened in Hungary.
“The other No Kings were about building a force, showing resistance in the beginning, standing up when no one else was standing up,” Warren said.
“There was like no opposition. The law firms were caving, the universities were caving, the corporations were caving, so we had to get out en masse and say ‘NO! We’re pushing back. We’re not accepting this,’” said Fischer. “And of course we had the largest protests in our history with No Kings 1, 2 and 3.”
They built in scope as well as size, reaching deep into red America, even in small rural towns.
“What’s different now is that the message has been sent, and it’s received, and now our emphasis is on the midterm elections and getting people to vote early, because that’s where our power is really going to be,” Fischer said. “Most election disruptions occur on the day of the election. So the goal here is nationwide wherever early voting is available to get people to get their votes in early.”
“If you vote early, you can find out [if there] is a problem, you can fix the problem,” Warren said. Another reason “is because you get out of the way and people who do get out the vote don’t have to chase you. You’re already in. They can chase the people [who] need to be chased.” And finally, if successful, “We intimidate them, and we build the idea that there is a blue wave,” he said.
But the early vote focus doesn’t limit what people can do. “It’s all about a thousand flowers can bloom,” Warren said. “Some people are doing rallies. Some people are doing weekly events. Some people are doing signage on highways. People can do parties, they can do festivals, they can do anything they can to create a buzz about No Kings. They can do it on the date [Oct. 17], that’s great. It can also surround the date and follow the date. But we want to get everybody aboard and voting early,” he explained.
In a sense, this is already happening. “Long Beach Indivisible has also been doing a registration drive, and focusing at Cal State Long Beach, which has really been fun to go and get students registered, and share all the information with them,” Fischer said.
And looking forward, “Not only should everybody vote early, but text their friends to vote early,” she said. “Studies have shown the most effective messaging is peer-to-peer, what they call relational organizing. And so if you text or call and talk to your friends and neighbors and tell ’em it’s really important to vote early, here’s how to do it, it can boost voting by 10% all by itself.”
Even so, it’s not just about voting — that’s a tactic in a longer struggle.
“This upcoming election is critical for defending our rights and working toward achieving a better, more progressive future,” said Rodriguez. “We need to vote as progressive as we can and then make it clear to these politicians that we are demanding their action. We demand that they defend us, fight for us, and hold the Trump’s administration accountable for every violation that they have committed.”
For information about how to connect with/join No Kings organizing, see community alerts or go to NoKings.org.