Amish voter help project guides from Amish PAC right now? Amish PAC has no use for internet and television advertising because the voters we’re targeting don’t use the internet or watch television. Therefore, Amish PAC’s ad blitz is two-pronged: Newspapers and Billboards. In addition, Amish PAC is building a large network of volunteers across Amish Country to assist in voter registration and flyer distribution. Amish PAC has been featured by international and national media outlets spanning Al-Jazeera, Toronto Star, London Times, NBC News, The Economist, BBC News, CBC News, POLITICO, Talking Points Memo, RT, Al-Jazeera, VICE, TIME, CNN, Breitbart, NPR, Fox News, USA Today, Drudge Report, Fox Business, Yahoo News, Esquire, New York Daily News, The Week Magazine and countless local media outlets throughout Amish Country. Read additional info on AmishPAC.
In Pennsylvania, during the 2016 elections, out of the 15,055 Amish people eligible to vote in the state, only 2,052 registered. And of those, only 1,016 participated in the voting process. The highest turnout of Amish voters by percentage was in 2004, when about 13% of registered Amish voters participated in the elections and voted for George W. Bush, as they are typically Republican by registration and conviction. The seeming apathy of the Amish people stems from personal preference, though the church leaders discourage their followers from getting too involved in politics.
Walters said PAC organizers expected about 20 or so volunteers to help drive members of the Amish community to the polls. More than 300 volunteers ultimately showed up, and scores of that group shuttled potential Amish voters to the polling locations throughout the day. “I don’t know one Amish that would vote Democrat,” the woman said. “It was just incredible,” Walters said. “We located every single registered voter in Lancaster County. In many cases we had volunteers knock on their doors two times (yesterday).”
The newspaper advertisements featured a photo of Trump and bullet points that read, “Trump has never been a politician or held elected office” and “never had a glass of alcohol.” According to its financial disclosure forms filed with the Federal Elections Commission in Oct., Amish PAC paid $9,392.14 to Lamar Outdoor Advertising for four billboards in July and August that went up in Ohio and Pennsylvania encouraging the Amish to vote for Donald Trump on Election Day.
Of the Amish voters who spoke to PennLive on Tuesday, nearly all said they voted for Trump, with a handful declining to address which candidate they supported. The overwhelming tenor of the Amish remarks on the election were that Trump was a flawed candidate but a better representative of the issues that matter to them. Because the Amish rarely grant interviews, PennLive is respecting the voters’ wishes not to be identified. One Amish voter, a man in his 30s, said it was the first time he had voted since 2008. He said he was unhappy with the political process but will continue to vote and voice his opinions.
The Amish and Mennonites are believed to be Republican voters because their beliefs align most closely with the policies of the Republican party, according to one Mennonite farmer in Rainsboro, Ohio, who said he does not vote. “I would probably vote Republican if I did vote because of the values of the times,” said the Rainsboro farmer in an interview this summer, who preferred not to be named in the newspaper. The Republican’s Amish PAC Plain Voters Project’s purpose was “to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by turning out a deeply conservative and often forgotten block of voters” and was “specifically tailored to potential Amish and Mennonite voters,” according to the Amish PAC website. See even more details at Amish vote registering recommendations.
Ensuring that unregistered conservatives, such as the Amish people, go to the polls to vote is essential to those who challenge incumbents. This may be why Democrats and Republicans have spent much of the past four years convincing the Amish people that casting a vote is essential. One of the significant efforts toward improving voting among Amish people is the creation of the AmishPAC. The committee utilizes media channels such as newspaper ads and billboards throughout communities with a significant Amish presence. They take this approach since Amish people are not on social media platforms, nor do they watch television.