'Voting is personal': Advocates encourage voter participation in Massachusetts

There is little doubt President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will win their respective primaries in Massachusetts and the other 14 states holding elections on Super Tuesday.

Nevertheless, local voter participation advocates are still urging residents to cast ballots in the presidential primaries.

MassVote, a non-partisan organization that works to increase voter participation, is using the primaries and the November election to encourage people from marginalized communities and in gateway cities to cast their votes.

"People [are] upset and frustrated, and want to make sure that their messages are sent and exercised through the ballot," said Marisol Santiago, MassVote's the policy and organizing director.

MassVote volunteers knock on doors and make phone calls in the hopes of building long-term relationships with voters. MassVote tries to provide them with impartial information and to show them how regular participation in elections can directly affect their lives.

Santiago encourages skeptical voters by reminding them not to take their right to vote for granted.

"In marginalized communities... unfortunately, people have felt that their right to vote has been taken away," she said.

Santiago said her group tries to understand to how those voters feel and remind them that each vote works to create change.

"Our goal is to really to educate about the ballot and the power of your individual voice," Santiago said. "When you go to put your ballot in inside that ballot box at your polling location, you are exercising your right to express your vote, which is your voice."

Another organization founded in Massachusetts is using their platform to encourage voters to head to the polls across the country.

Dan McCool was living in Massachusetts in 2017 when he started the Facebook group Blue Revolution, shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration. The group provided a place where friends could vent about the Trump administration and its policies. McCool said for the 2018 midterm election season, the group started campaigning to get Democrats across the country elected to Congress.

Today, the Blue Rev connects volunteers with national organizations to write letters and make phone calls to swing-state voters, urging them to cast ballots in the upcoming election.

"It's a simple message. It's not controversial. It's not even partisan," McCool said. "It's just an attempt to communicate to voters why it's important to vote."

He said his group is also trying to soften the harsh political rhetoric.

"We want to sort of shift the conversation away from this kind of 'doomerism,' I guess you could call it, and more towards a virtuous cycle of saying 'politics can be a force for good in the world.'" said McCool.