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2011 San Francisco Election: Wins & Losses

Our favorite volunteer.

Our favorite volunteer.

The League in San Francisco is 100% volunteer-based, and this is is the 13th straight election that we've made a Pissed Off Voter Guide for. Our endorsement has become one of the most coveted progressive endorsements in San Francisco, and everywhere we go we hear people saying things like, "I use this every time!" or "I've been waiting for this--thank you!" One fan even said she feels like it's Christmas when she gets our voter guide every year! It feels really good to know that we're helping folks figure out our crazy ranked choice voting system and SO many confusing propositions.

Check out some of the deets from the 2011 election:

  • We printed and distributed 60,000 voter guides! We spent an entire month doing distribution through pub crawls, cafe crawls, campuses, bike rides, morning and evening commute stops, dance parties in parks, and of course--Goats!
  • We really stepped up our game online. We doubled the number of "likes" on our Facebook page, and used Facebook ads for the first time to drive young people to our voter guide. We also had hundreds of people view our "John Avalos vs. Ed Lee: On the issues" album.
  • We're feeling really proud of the work we did, but we lost the mayor's race. Our super-corrupt appointed mayor Ed Lee won handily, but our guy, John Avalos came in 2nd with only 20 percent of the money and most of the work coming from volunteers. Whether San Francisco has truly become a more conservative place, or our voters were confused by the ranked choice system with 16 candidates, or the allegations of voter fraud were true... The main thing we're pissed off about now is the shockingly low turnout: just under 40 percent in a high-profile mayoral election! We feel more fired up than ever about convincing young people that local politics matter, and that's what we'll continue working on between now and our next election. Live here, love here, vote here.

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