Voter Engagement
COVID-19 disrupted primary elections across the United States last Spring, and voters in our home state of Georgia were particularly affected. Long lines, technical problems, and volunteer uncertainty dissuaded many from voting and put many others at undue risk during the pandemic. We wanted to help Mailchimp employees and customers feel confident as they exercise their civic muscle.
Voting on My Mind
To start, Election Day is now a holiday at Mailchimp. About a third of nonvoters say scheduling conflicts with work and school keep them from getting to the polls so we eliminated that barrier for all of our employees.
We also partnered with vote.org to amplify their #VoteReady campaign. For 2 weeks in July and August, we dedicated our landing page to help educate our readers on the policies that make it easier for their employees to vote.
We encouraged Mailchimp employees to vote early, use their paid volunteer hours for poll worker training, and take advantage of their Election Day holiday to volunteer with local organizations. We recruited more than 50 Mailchimp employee volunteers to serve as poll workers in the areas with the greatest need.
In Georgia, early polling places are often different from Election Day polling places, and finding the right place to vote at the right time can be confusing. So a handful of dedicated designers and developers at Mailchimp created Voting on My Mind, a website that directed Georgia voters to their closest open early voting location. Especially in a pandemic where every part of the civic process seemed a little bit harder, we wanted to build and share a customer experience that made voting just a little bit easier. Voters in 71 of Georgia’s 159 counties used Voting on My Mind to find their early voting location.
Voting on My Mind app
Voting on My Mind app
We’re also educating our employees about civic engagement. Opportunities like Mailchimp Community College have long been an important part of our culture. But with COVID-19 affecting the 2020 election, we were inspired to create an experience for interns to learn about their civic power, the importance of civic engagement, and how they can make a difference. Through a three part series, interns heard from leaders of organizations like Fair Fight, Women Engaged, and Wake Up Atlanta. Then, together they created action plans and helped their friends register to vote.
