Best Amish voter help project recommendations with Amish PAC? Getting out the Amish vote takes time. They have not historically been civically engaged to the same extent as most non-Amish. But their views are slowly beginning to change. And it is our hope that 2022 will be a record-setting year for Amish voter registration and turnout! Amish PAC is the first PAC dedicated to registering and turning out Amish voters. The purpose of Amish PAC’s Plain Voter Project is to register Amish voters in the key swing states of Ohio & Pennsylvania. We reach and register new Amish voters by using advertising. Find a lot more info at AmishPAC.
Only about 7% of Amish people vote. Traditionally, men and women in the tradition avoid politics, including voting in elections. However, for those that do vote, their Christian convictions tend to drive their participation in the democratic process. As of 2020, 31 U.S. states have significant Amish populations, with an estimated number of 344,670 Amish residents. Pennsylvania has the largest population of Amish people in the U.S., at approximately 81,500. Ohio is a close second at 78,200. Indiana is third at 59,305.
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 Amish PAC focused on advertising in areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania with large Amish and Mennonite populations. “I think we really got the word out and we really stirred up some buzz in Amish communities in Holmes County, Ohio, as well. We really had a great presence,” said Walters in a phone interview Friday. According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, the Amish PAC spent $1,351 on advertising in the Holmes County Shopper and an additional $1,298 for The Budget. Both newspapers are geared toward the Amish and Mennonite communities in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
As the final vote tallies trickled in from Pennsylvania precincts, a man who worked to get the Amish community to the polls was still up watching returns in hopes his organization’s impact would push Donald Trump to the presidency. Ultimately, the Keystone State was not the final state to put Trump over the threshold, but Ben Walters, a co-founder of the Amish Political Action Committee, was happy. Though he hadn’t slept in 48 hours, Walters said, he planned to watch election returns until the nomination was secured or he dozed off — whichever came first.
“Trump won by just a razor thin margin across Pennsylvania,” said Walters, who said the Amish votes helped and that he doesn’t think Trump would have won Pennsylvania “if it hadn’t been for the Amish vote.” “Trump’s margin of victory in Pennsylvania was identical to the Amish population of Pennsylvania. Again, I’m not claiming every single Amish person voted, but without the votes of those who went to the polls that day…a recount would have been likely,” Walters said. See many more 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.