Amish voter project organization with Amish PAC’s plain voter project today
Amish voter project guides by AmishPAC.com 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. See even more details at AmishPAC.
Generally, the Amish people will not share flyers, erect signs depicting a politician’s face, or visibly champion their cause. This is because they don’t want a false idol or graven image, as both elements are strongly frowned upon in their faith. The voter identification requirements also discourage many Amish people from being interested in the political process. Having their photographs taken directly conflicts with their code of conduct, and the stress of circumventing this process means only a few Amish people have shown interest over the years.
This man pointed to a shift in the community from agriculture as a means for a livelihood as a reason for more politically aware people in the community. With more people in skilled trades and outside the somewhat insular community, the reality of politics has become more clear. “I think it’s our duty to vote, and the newer generation is feeling that more,” he said, adding that his father would have voted for the first time were it not for his sisters’ wedding and missing the absentee deadline. His mother is more “old-fashioned” and does not vote.
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.
He said the official report on how many Amish voters registered and then followed through with voting for Trump won’t be available until the spring, but he did say that at the close of voter registration Oct. 11, the GOP had registered 10,403 Amish voters compared to the Democrats, who registered 9,961 — a difference of just 442 people, said Walters. He said Pennsylvania is the state that put Trump over the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the election. Read extra information at https://www.amishpac.com/.
The Amish believe in a simple lifestyle and try to be as self-sufficient as possible through subsistence farming and producing sellable products. To the Amish people, staying separate from the world includes not accepting aid from the government or using public grids. They hold traditional ideals that are family and community-centered and tend to avoid things that can cause division, strife, or classism among them. They prefer to hold on to their traditional institutions and practices, hence their preference for mostly conservative positions.
