Top rated Amish vote registering guides by AmishPAC.com? 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. Read a lot more information on Amish PAC’s Plain Voter Project.
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 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.
“We knew it would be close from the beginning,” Walters said. “We knew the Amish were a sizeable enough amount of the population to provide the margin, should the election come down to the wire in Pennsylvania.” In Lancaster County, Trump defeated Clinton by a little more than 47,000 votes, a margin about 5,000 votes greater than Mitt Romney’ margin of victory in 2012 over President Barack Obama. The 137,000-plus votes Trump won in Lancaster County are among more than 2.9 million votes the president-elect secured in Pennsylvania. Election returns currently have Trump winning Pennsylvania by about 68,000 votes.
“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 more information on Amish voter help project recommendations.
The votes of Amish people are important to politicians despite their small number compared to the rest of the country. Many politicians have tried to court the secluded sect to gain their votes during elections, meaning they know the Amish votes can help them win elections. Pennsylvania and Ohio, the states with the highest populations of Amish people, are fiercely contested swing states that usually determine the winning contender between Republicans and Democrats in presidential elections.