Voter Engagement

The Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative (MVOC) in collaboration with the Ohio State Baptist Convention (OBSC), The AMOS Project, and the Northeast Ohio Alliance for Hope (NOAH) has run extensive Get Out the Vote programs in the last three election cycles. In the summer and fall of 2008, the MVOC and its partners developed one of the largest nonpartisan GOTV efforts in the State of Ohio focusing their work in six cities Cincinnati, Canton, Youngstown, Warren, Cleveland, and Toledo. In total, more than seventy paid staff and one hundred and fifty volunteers made more than 37,078 voter contacts including knocking on 5,908 doors, signing up 8,531 voters at local churches, and making 59,419 phone calls in the 72 hours before the election. In addition to having a significant impact on voter turnout in two congressional districts (1st and 16th), MVOC also helped to support the Western Reserve Transit Authority (WRTA) transportation levy campaign in Mahoning County making more than 17,000 calls to persuade voters to vote yes. The levy, which failed by more than 10 points in the previous election, would shift the financing of the regional transportation system from Youngstown city residents’ property taxes to a county wide sales tax. The levy passed in the fall of 2008 by more than 10 points – a 20 point swing.

MVOC sees electoral politics as a key piece of a long term strategy for social change. We subscribe to Wellstone Action’s basic model as Jeff Blodgett describes, "We subscribe to a model of successful social change that has three fronts—community organizing, electoral politics, and progressive public policy. All three components are necessary for lasting political change to happen. The process of campaigning, of running for elected office, is but one side of that triangle, but it is crucial."

MVOC is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. We are also connected to the Ohio Faith and Democracy Collaborative organization.