Amish voter project guides with Amish PAC in 2022? Our strategy for registering and turning out Amish voters: Amish PAC deploys old-fashioned newspaper ads and billboards throughout rural Pennsylvania and Ohio Amish country as part of a voter registration campaign specifically tailored to potential Amish and Mennonite voters. We also make a special hotline available to potential Amish voters who are interested in receiving more information about voting and requesting a registration form. It’s common for an Amishman to call and request registration forms for his wife and entire family. Discover even more information on help the Amish register to vote.
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.
Paula Page Eicher of Claysburg said she travelled from Bedford County to help get out the Amish vote and help inform the community of the issues that were at stake. She shuttled several people from weddings and their homes to polling locations Tuesday because she felt so strongly about the election’s impact on the direction of this country. “I had a desire in my heart to do something more than just cast a ballot,” Eicher said. Eicher said she spoke to Amish teenage girls about the need to vote and having their voices heard as women in coming elections. She also said she explained the role of the electoral college and why Pennsylvania was so important to securing the election for Trump.
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.
Walters noted that it was too early to tell how many Amish voters in the county, went to the polls, saying he will have to review logs and canvassing sheets to measure the impact of the PAC’s efforts. Officials at several Lancaster County polling locations said that by lunchtime, they saw more voters from the Amish community turn out than ever. Even more cast votes in the afternoon and evening — between morning and evening wedding celebrations across Amish Country. Around 20 weddings were performed in the community Tuesday.
The co-founder of the country’s first ever Republican Amish super Political Action Committee said there was a strong turn-out of Amish and Mennonite voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania for the presidential election and the organization is already looking ahead to the Ohio Senate race in 2018. Ben Walters, Amish PAC co-founder, said they knew Donald Trump, the president-elect, was going to win Ohio so the organization shifted its focus to Pennsylvania, where more than 500 volunteers helped register Amish and Mennonite voters and drive them to the polls on Election Day. See many more details on Amish voting help advices.
U.S politicians such as George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and William Griest are said to have courted the Amish people for their votes in elections. The efforts made by these politicians to appeal to the few hundred thousand Amish people sprinkled throughout the country is a testament to the importance of Amish votes to politicians. Though the Amish community doesn’t seem large enough to strongly sway the election result, they are primarily situated in states that constitute the “swing states.” For example, in recent years in Pennsylvania, presidential elections have been decided by less than 100,000 votes in the state.