Top Amish vote registering guides with Amish PAC’s plain voter project? 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. Find many more information 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.
Pointing to farm issues, business taxes and regulation, religious liberty, Second Amendment rights and health care, Walters said the Amish were affected by the issues as much as other Americans. He added that he didn’t understand why the community didn’t vote in large numbers until studying the subject, which helped the PAC develop its strategy over a six-month span. The Amish PAC used “unconventional ways, old-fashioned ways, ways that (the Amish) are comfortable with,” including billboards, newspaper ads, sending information by mail and phone calls.
“We had one guy who said that he showed up at one house and he ended up taking five people to the polls that day. It was like hitting the jackpot,” said Walters. Walters said the Amish and Mennonites are fed up with farming and small business regulations that are affecting them and that this presidential election is just the beginning — he said the organization is looking ahead to the Ohio Senate race in 2018. “Sherrod Brown is up for re-election. We’ll have the Amish coming for him next.”
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.
“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. Read additional information at Amish vote registering guides.
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.