The Environmental Voter Project uses data and predictive models to identify likely environmentalist voters who do not consistently vote. It focuses its voter mobilization efforts like canvassing, calls, texts and mailers on getting these environmentalist voters to turn out to vote, rather than trying to persuade new voters. By increasing turnout of environmentalist voters, it aims to make environmental issues a higher priority for politicians, as campaigns and policymakers primarily listen to likely voters. Currently, environmental issues rank low among priorities of likely voters. Getting more environmentalist voters to turnout could change that.

1. The Environmental Voter Project

2. The Importance of Environmentalists Voting
1
“ARResearch poll of likely voters in the 2016
Presidential Election, July 29 – Aug. 3, 2016
Top Issues in Determining Presidential Vote1
Voters do not prioritize environmental issues.
NATIONAL SECURITY & TERRORISM
THE ECONOMY & JOBS
IMMIGRATION
HEALTH CARE
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
SOCIAL SECURITY
INCOME INEQUALITIES BETWEEN THE RICH & POOR
GUN RIGHTS & GUN CONTROL
GOVERNMENT SPENDING & BUDGET DEFICIT
RACE RELATIONS
SUPREME COURT NOMINATIONS
PUBLIC EDUCATION
TAXES AND TAX REFORM
FOREIGN POLICY
CLIMATE CHANGE & THE ENVIRONMENT
REDUCING STUDENT LOAN DEBT
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
ABORTION
IMPROVING THE NATION’S INFRASTRUCTURE
1%
2%
4%
4%
5%
6%
6%
7%
8%
11%
12%
12%
13%
18%
20%
33%
36%
1%
1%
4%
5%
6%
6%
6%
7%
11%
11%
12%
14%
4%
4%
4%
Most important issue
in determining vote
Second most important

3. The Importance of Environmentalists Voting
The High Cost of Low Voter Demand
Campaigns Only Target Likely Voters
Campaigns have limited time and money, so campaigns, PACs, and other groups usually
only communicate with the people who are most likely to vote in a particular election.
Politicians Only Poll Likely Voters
Because campaigns and outside groups only target “likely voters,” they also only poll likely
voters to see which issues they care about. As a result, likely voters’ opinions end up being
far more important to politicians than the opinions of other citizens.
This is Bad News for the Environment
Right now, every politician knows that likely voters rank environmental issues among their
lowest concerns in each and every election. If voters aren’t demanding environmental
leadership, why would politicians supply it?

4. This is also a Big Opportunity
15.78 million environmentalists did not vote in 2014;
we must focus on turnout instead of persuasion .

5. Voter Identification
Predictive models of voters using consumer and behavioral data
The Big Data and Predictive Analytics Revolution
How It Works:
Survey large samples (20,000+ ppl) with
one or two questions to ascertain which
respondents strongly prioritize
environmental issues when voting
Combine the survey results
with the thousands of data
points appended to each
voter in the voter file
Identify hidden patterns and correlations
to develop statistical models that can be
applied to all voters
Out of these “environmental
voters,” only target those who
are not perfect voters (i.e., we
cannot already depend on
them to vote in each election)
Build a predictive model that
assigns each voter a score from
0-100 based on how likely they are
to prioritize environmental issues
when voting

6. Voter Mobilization
CANVASSING, CALLS, TEXTS, DIGITAL & MAIL
We run sophisticated GOTV campaigns with canvassers, phone-banks, text-banks,
digital ads, and direct mail, all tailored with messages specifically designed to get our
identified environmentalists to vote.
PLEDGE FOLLOW-UPS
Before each election, we follow up with people who
have filled out our Environmental Voter Pledge and
we remind them to vote. Multiple studies have
shown that reminding someone of their pledge to
vote can dramatically increase that person’s
likelihood of voting.
NO ENDORSEMENTS
We don’t try to elect particular candidates; plenty
of other groups already do that very well. We
simply focus on the best ways to get
environmentalists to become consistent voters –
we’re like a big data version of Rock the Vote, but
for environmentalists.

7. Questions?