Voting Power Unleashed: The Poor People’s Campaign Does M.O.R.E.

October 2020

By Dorothy Van Soest
WILPF US Liaison to the Poor People’s Campaign

A month before the election, our nation mourns 200,000 plus COVID-19 deaths, disproportionately concentrated among low-wage essential workers and people of color. Conflagration on our streets burns down centuries of willful ignorance and silence about the racism pandemic, far deadlier and longer lasting than COVID-19. We reel from multiple tribulations: attacks on voting rights and democracy, failure to pass a fair and just relief package, refusal to charge anyone for murdering Breonna Taylor, stacking the Supreme Court. 

But this is not the time for despair. This is the time for greater than ever voter turnout and it is a moment ripe for socioeconomic transformation. This is the time to unleash the power that 140 million poor and low-income people in our country have to change the political landscape. And that is exactly what the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is doing. Its mass, multicolored initiative called We Must Do M.O.R.E. has been mobilizing, organizing, registering, and educating people who will vote for a moral agenda that will transform our nation.  

“In the midst of exacerbated pain,” says Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, “poor and low-income people are preparing to vote in massive numbers.” 

And they are a force to be reckoned with. A study released by the M.O.R.E. project in conjunction with Columbia University provides evidence that a small uptick in the number of poor and low-income voters in fifteen states could have changed the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, if just 1% more had voted in Michigan or up to 19% more in North Carolina. (See "Unleashing the Power of Poor and Low-Income Americans".) 

The M.O.R.E. project is pushing on several fronts: Challenging voter suppression nationwide. Increasing voter participation, particularly in strategically important communities. Conducting trainings of M.O.R.E. organizers. Recruiting poll watchers. Recruiting 1,000 organizations to get 1,000 people to vote. Holding online Senate Town Halls and Moral Monday events. Over one million people participated in the “Voting is Power Unleashed” special mass assembly on September 14. More than 150,000 people participated in a recent Moral Monday March on all six offices and the D.C. residence of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in circling caravans, flooding his phone lines to fill up his voicemail, and tuning in online for live reports. 

“This is how we must cry power, this is how we unleash our power,” says Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. 

M.O.R.E work is not just about getting out the vote in November. It’s about building power for the long haul among all of us who see the urgent need for health and economic well-being, the protection of participatory democracy, and an informed electorate. A perfect fit for WILPFers!

WILPF, an organizing partner of the Poor People’s Campaign, enthusiastically endorses and encourages participation in the M.O.R.E. initiative. For information and to sign up, go to www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ then click on M.O.R.E. at the top. On the M.O.R.E. page you can choose among various options:

1. Become a Poll Monitor
2. Take the M.O.R.E. Prophetic Pledge
3. Sign Up for Election Reminders & Register to Vote
4. Fill Out the 2020 Census

If you belong to a WILPF Branch or other community organization, encourage your group to “Take the M.O.R.E. Prophetic Pledge.” By doing so, your group is “signing on to help build a movement that votes with the power we need to hold our elected officials accountable to the policy agenda that we are demanding.”