New: Testing “community care” with Virginia Redistricting Referendum
We're encouraging eligible voters to participate in the April 21 special election while also providing a Vote Forward-run community helpline.
Vote Forward is launching an innovative new outreach campaign in Virginia to help turn out low-propensity voters in a pivotal April 21 referendum that could influence the balance of power in Congress—while also connecting these voters with meaningful community care resources at the same time.
Here’s how it works: These new letters encourage eligible voters to participate in the upcoming special election while also providing access to a Vote Forward volunteer-run community helpline that connects voters with charitable and government resources, such as affordable health care options, low-cost groceries, resources for veterans, and more.
Voters can call or text us to reach trained Vote Forward volunteers who will:
Listen to voters’ concerns with empathy
Provide referrals to relevant support resources
Encourage civic participation and answer questions about voting
This campaign tests an emerging hypothesis: Material hardship and social isolation may reduce civic participation, so offering real-world support—alongside voting information—may increase turnout more effectively than encouragement alone.
Why Virginia?
On April 21, Virginia will hold a statewide special referendum in which voters can approve or reject a ballot measure on redistricting. If passed, the measure would amend the state constitution to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming midterm elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard mapmaking process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census.
The measure is intended to counter gains Republicans are making in other states via their own mid-cycle partisan redistricting effort. Crucially, control of the U.S. House in 2026 depends on the outcome of this ballot measure as it directly impacts how many seats will be competitive for Democrats overall.
How does it work?
Starting on March 10, you can adopt Virginia voters, write letters, and put them in the mail through April 14, 2026. These letters are going to likely Democratic voters who vote infrequently, so your outreach could really make a difference in whether they participate in this referendum.
The program will be evaluated through a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to help Vote Forward learn whether integrating community resources in our outreach meaningfully increases voter participation.
What do I write?
You may have noticed that the prompt for your message in these letters is different from the usual “I vote in every election because…” Instead, these letters say: “I wanted to share these with you because…” which requires some tweaks in our standard message guidelines.
Your handwritten message is still an excellent opportunity to tie in a personal story that highlights the tenets of our personal story training. Try using specific examples of local support making a difference in your life (or for a friend or family member), or talk about how voting can help strengthen our communities. We want to focus on mutually beneficial outcomes and the commonalities we all have as citizens.
Remember that with infrequent voters, messages that emphasize a positive association with voting and that frame voting as a way to speak up for a future we want to see are more effective than messages that focus on fear, or the negative impact of not voting. Of course, there are real and heavy problems in the world right now, but we want voters to feel empowered to help build the community that they want to see. Imagining a positive vision of the future is a powerful way to push back against the temptation to be overwhelmed.
Example: I wanted to share these with you because…“When I was a classroom teacher, I kept a drawer full of snacks in my desk, not for me, but for my students. A hungry kid is a distracted kid, but the state where I worked had limited options for free breakfast and lunch for students. It was important to me to be part of a community effort to ensure that my students had the best chance to succeed. When I vote, I want to support candidates and policies that are part of the solution, rather than adding to the problem. Your vote can help make a difference in your community too.”
Instead of this, say this:
I am afraid that my children have fewer rights than I did → I am working toward a future when my children have more rights than I did.
I don’t want kids to go hungry at school → I know that a child with a full belly is a stronger student.
I feel bad for my unhoused neighbors → I believe in a future where everyone has a safe place to sleep at night.
I’m tired of politicians who only care about making money → I want to support officials that have earned my trust.
Frequently asked questions
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Yes! If you already have a Vote Forward account and want some feedback on your message for this campaign, please send the message to help@votefwd.org letting us know that you’re updating your message for the Virginia campaign, and we can let you know what we think. Real people will respond to your question, so it may take a day or two to get back to you, depending on the volume of requests.
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Yes! The return address for Virginia will be:
(Your name and last initial)
6841 Forest Hill Ave #153
Richmond, VA 23225
You will see the return address printed on the cover sheet of your letter bundles.
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Yes, this is a political campaign, meaning all of these letters are sent to likely Democratic voters. However, in our standard guidance for political campaigns, we ask Vote Forward volunteers not to mention specific candidates, stances, or political parties when they add their handwritten messages to the letter templates; this guidance extends to terms like "red" and "blue."
The rationale here is twofold. Get-out-the-vote (GOTV) research has shown that nonpartisan messaging is more effective than partisan messaging for boosting voter turnout, regardless of whether the voter agrees with the message or not. Additionally, Vote Forward uses list targeting rather than partisan messaging in our Political Campaigns to encourage Democratic-leaning voters, who only vote about half of the time, to vote. So the goal is to encourage someone who may not be planning to vote at all to take action and vote, not to encourage voting a particular way.
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We understand the curiosity! Our Voter Support Team members are trained to answer the phone and have meaningful conversations with Virginia voters to get them necessary information about resources in their communities and details about voting in this election. While it can be tempting to call into the number, we want to make sure to keep the call line as open as possible for our contacted voters to reach out to us.
If you’re having difficulty or have any Vote Forward-related questions, please email help@votefwd.org instead. The Helpdesk crew is equipped to answer volunteer questions.
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We were delighted by how many people applied to join the Voter Support Team for Virginia and the team is currently full. Like we did with this campaign, we plan to open additional volunteer opportunities to volunteers who have recently written letters with us, so be sure to check Vote Forward emails for other ways to get involved.