“The Sierra Club has been working to protect the planet for 128 years. We are ready for this moment.” That’s how executive director Michael Brune kicked off Plan to Win, a livestream event last May in which he and other leaders laid out the Club’s strategy for defeating Donald Trump in November. More than 23,000 viewers tuned in to watch, and by July roughly 11,000 members and supporters had signed up to take part.

Ariel Hayes, the national political director, anticipates that by Election Day, volunteers will have sent more than 8 million texts, made at least 1.5 million calls, and sent 1 million handwritten letters to help reach environmentally minded, low-frequency voters primarily in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, and Arizona. “It’s the largest grassroots voter mobilization effort in the environmental community,” she says. 

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the push to get out the vote has shifted almost entirely online, which suits Catherine Barash, a volunteer who lives in a remote area in Northern California, just fine. She spends up to 20 hours a week texting, making phone calls, and writing letters as well as answering questions from other volunteers as part of a support team. “It’s become a calling,” she says. “I think this is the most important election of my life. If not now, when?”

This article appeared in the September/October 2020 edition with the headline "Log In to Win."