100 Million Americans don’t vote. To solve this national problem, conversations about voting need to make people feel empowered, says The Dialogue Guy, Dr. David Campt—a nationally renowned speaker, facilitator, and author who has taught strategies for changing attitudes and behaviors to audiences including The White House, Ford Motor Company and Princeton University.
“Too many people are voting based on what team they’re on,” says Dr. Campt. “We need more people voting based on their values, and also more people talking about their values to others. To do that, we need good dialogue skills.”
1. Find out the issues they care about. One way is to ask about their concerns for their lives and for the country.
2. Ask questions about their perspective about voting instead of conveying judgment about their point of view.
3. Get them to talk about experiences – either long ago or recently – that illustrate why they don’t want to vote.
4. Once they tell you a story that helps explain why they are opting out of voting, tell them a storytime when you felt disconnected from a community or institution that you were involved in. The story does not necessarily have to be about voting. Your goal is to let them know you have felt similar feelings to the ones they have about voting.
5. Think of and convey a story about a time when you moved from being disempowered to being empowered.
6. Ask them to vote on behalf of beings they care about who can’t (e.g. children, animals, ex-felons). If you know them well, consider asking them to vote as a favor to you. More than 60% of non-voters have never been asked to vote.
7.If they express some interest in voting, have a conversation about their exact plans for doing so. If necessary, offer to help them directly.
Watch Dr. Campt Discuss Mobilizing Non-Voters in this course by The Dialogue Company for people who want to use compassion-based methods of persuading people to vote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
