Excellent Amish voter help project guides from Amish PAC’s plain voter project? Our strategy for registering and turning out Amish voters: Amish PAC deploys old-fashioned newspaper ads and billboards throughout rural Pennsylvania and Ohio Amish country as part of a voter registration campaign specifically tailored to potential Amish and Mennonite voters. We also make a special hotline available to potential Amish voters who are interested in receiving more information about voting and requesting a registration form. It’s common for an Amishman to call and request registration forms for his wife and entire family. See a lot more info at Amish PAC’s Plain Voter Project.
The Amish have a fascinating culture that many non-Amish people respect. While Amish people live in the United States, they are distinct from most Americans in several ways. Their lives, including their appearance, work, and families, are interesting and unique. One question that many people ask about the Amish is whether or not they vote in local and federal elections. Some Amish people vote though the percentage that does is small. The Amish generally avoid involvement in politics, but their traditions don’t forbid them from being part of a political party or voting. Amish people tend to have a conservative worldview.
Walters said PAC organizers expected about 20 or so volunteers to help drive members of the Amish community to the polls. More than 300 volunteers ultimately showed up, and scores of that group shuttled potential Amish voters to the polling locations throughout the day. “I don’t know one Amish that would vote Democrat,” the woman said. “It was just incredible,” Walters said. “We located every single registered voter in Lancaster County. In many cases we had volunteers knock on their doors two times (yesterday).”
The newspaper advertisements featured a photo of Trump and bullet points that read, “Trump has never been a politician or held elected office” and “never had a glass of alcohol.” According to its financial disclosure forms filed with the Federal Elections Commission in Oct., Amish PAC paid $9,392.14 to Lamar Outdoor Advertising for four billboards in July and August that went up in Ohio and Pennsylvania encouraging the Amish to vote for Donald Trump on Election Day.
“We knew it would be close from the beginning,” Walters said. “We knew the Amish were a sizeable enough amount of the population to provide the margin, should the election come down to the wire in Pennsylvania.” In Lancaster County, Trump defeated Clinton by a little more than 47,000 votes, a margin about 5,000 votes greater than Mitt Romney’ margin of victory in 2012 over President Barack Obama. The 137,000-plus votes Trump won in Lancaster County are among more than 2.9 million votes the president-elect secured in Pennsylvania. Election returns currently have Trump winning Pennsylvania by about 68,000 votes.
He said the official report on how many Amish voters registered and then followed through with voting for Trump won’t be available until the spring, but he did say that at the close of voter registration Oct. 11, the GOP had registered 10,403 Amish voters compared to the Democrats, who registered 9,961 — a difference of just 442 people, said Walters. He said Pennsylvania is the state that put Trump over the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the election. See a lot more information at Amish vote registering guides.
Ensuring that unregistered conservatives, such as the Amish people, go to the polls to vote is essential to those who challenge incumbents. This may be why Democrats and Republicans have spent much of the past four years convincing the Amish people that casting a vote is essential. One of the significant efforts toward improving voting among Amish people is the creation of the AmishPAC. The committee utilizes media channels such as newspaper ads and billboards throughout communities with a significant Amish presence. They take this approach since Amish people are not on social media platforms, nor do they watch television.
