When rural communities stop voting, those who get elected won’t reflect their voice. The Co-ops Vote program through the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) aims to reverse the decline of rural voters by encouraging co-op member-owners to get to the polls.
At the CONNECT 2016 conference, Rachel Johnson, member relations manager at Cherryland gave a presentation on how to get cooperatives more involved in the Co-ops Vote campaign. From that presentation, she and two others, Laura Vogel from NRECA and Kim Christiansen from the Kansas statewide, have produced a webinar for those who want to learn more and get involved.
Johnson, Christiansen and Vogel shared case studies from cooperatives participating in the Co-ops Vote engagement initiative. Johnson provided insight into building an online voting campaign, Christiansen discussed arranging candidate meet-and-greets, and Vogel went over quick and easy NRECA resources that co-ops can utilize in their own campaigns.
“Voting is a reflection of a community,” states Johnson. “Employees and members of a cooperative both need to vote to make a difference.”