We’re in the final days of the 2026 election, and we know one thing: there are going to be some very, very close races.
We don’t know exactly which ones they’ll be. But we have some pretty good guesses. And if you spend some time volunteering between now and when the polls close, you won’t spend the morning after the election wishing you’d done more.
Here’s how you can help, wherever you live.
First, sign up to volunteer with a well-run coordinated campaign in a place with likely-close high-stakes elections. My suggestion: Wisconsin.
You can sign up for door-knocking shifts here.
If you live far away or would have trouble walking from door to door, sign up for phone-banking shifts here.
Or if you’ve previously door-knocked—or if you might know people who are still on the fence—sign up for a friendbanking event here. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has an app that lets you text or call the people you previously met when you were out knocking on doors. A great way to multiply the effect of your earlier volunteering!
Want to see David Crowley and the Democratic ticket in person? Their 40-city bus tour is zooming around the state! RSVP for a stop here.
If you have a dog and live near Madison, bring that good doggo along to Library Mall on the UW-Madison campus this Friday at noon to join me and Pumpkin to Pet Out The Vote. We let students pet the dogs and use the opportunity to remind them that they can register and cast an early ballot across the street, right away. Tons of them actually do it. Students love dogs, and dogs love democracy. Everyone wins.
And there are lots more ways to help.
Believe it or not, campaigns and party organizations still have ways to productively spend money. So if your political anxiety is propelling you to donate, chip in to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin right here, to the Wisconsin Assembly Democrats and State Senate Democrats, and to our statewide (Crowley/Godlewski, Kaul, Zamarripa, and Xiong) and Congressional candidates. (Wisconsin’s first and third Congressional districts are two of the most hotly-contested in the nation.)
Oh, and if you haven’t cast an early ballot yet—now’s the time. Bring some friends. Once you’ve voted, you can help generate some extra votes using a very powerful volunteer technique I wrote about in my book, This Is the Plan:
It’s got a very non-catchy name: Polling Place Vote Tripling, or PPVT.
Try to pronounce “PPVT,” and it will sound like you’re trying to practice your embouchure before playing some polka on a tuba. It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t have a more memorable name, such as a perky acronym, because it’s wildly powerful.
The idea is this: once early voting starts (two weeks before Election Day, in Wisconsin), go outside a polling place in a neighborhood where any given voter is likely to be voting on your side. Choose a place to stand where you’ll be able to greet people as they leave, after voting. Make sure you’re following local laws about the appropriate distances from the polling site (in Wisconsin, 100 feet). When you see someone, flash them your winningest smile, and ask them if they can text three of their friends, right then, and remind them to vote early.
Why is this so effective? First, you’re talking to people who’ve just voted— so they’re proudly brandishing their “I Voted” sticker and feeling pumped up about doing their civic duty. Second, even though they’re strangers to you, you’re motivating them to do on-the-spot relational organizing, meaning the people they’re texting are actually going to read their messages. And third, you’ll be able to talk to a lot of people— way more than you would if you were knocking on the doors of people who might not be home.
PPVTing is an enormously satisfying way to volunteer.
We’ve got a lot to do. We haven’t got a lot of time to do it. But in Wisconsin, and in several other battleground states, we’re on the cusp of a Democratic trifecta—which would open the door to dramatic change for the better.
And nationwide, there are opportunities for victories that would have been unimaginable mere months ago.
So use every precious second. (Other than during the World Series tonight. Which, please let the Brewers ensure that it ends tonight.) Channel your energy into the races that matter most, using the tactics that make the biggest difference.
Get out there and rack up some wins—for democracy, and for a country that works for everyone.
In solidarity,
Ben
Just mentioning here, as the press seems to have missed it, and it seems very election relevant.
The administration is covering up the loss of coverage from the non-extension of the ACA expanded subsidies that it and the Republicans made lapse effective 1/1/26. Four months of data have been held back by the administration and Dr. Oz's CMS!
So, for example, Paul Krugman wrote, a few days ago (within: https://substack.com/home/post/p-221455927 )
"In any case, we’re now in the midst of an enormous healthcare disaster — a disaster that is receiving surprisingly little media coverage with, as far as I can tell, no recent articles on massive coverage losses in any of the major newspapers. I know that there’s a lot going on, but this seems odd."
I know about this! It's the data suppression by the administration!
What's going on here is four months of coverage-number updates for the ACA have been suppressed by the administration. These, if released, would allow us to see maybe 1.2 more million or 1.5 million more have lost ACA coverage compared to the February 2026 enrollment number, which already showed a 2.6 million drop from the 22 million of February 2025.
The February 2026 number is the last ACA enrollment number the Trump administration allowed to be released before it held back the March, April, May, and June 2026 data, which are now all well overdue. (March, April, and May data are late by three, two, and one month, respectively.)
Let me fill in details on the data suppression by the administration and Dr. Oz of CMS, so people can trace:
The monthly updates of the ACA effectuated enrollment data are supposed to be here:
https://data.cms.gov/summary-statistics-on-beneficiary-enrollment/health-insurance-marketplace/health-insurance-exchanges-monthly-effectuated-enrollment
(10/28/26 6:46 P.M. The CMS site says on clicking above: "Service Disruption". That's a new one on me. I wonder if it's real, or a further cover-up attempt!)
The data page remains (as I check 10/28/26 at 6:46 PM EDT) as it was 6/26/26, with the last data released for February, 2026. There are four months of overdue data: March, April, May, and June missing.
Estimates from Charles Gaba and others by various methods suggest maybe an additional 1.2 million, beyond the 2.6 million of February, will have lost coverage just by, say, the June data that we should have by now. (If interested in these estimates, see: https://normspier828307.substack.com/p/dr-ozs-cms-delaying-data-on-aca-coverage
and also
https://substack.com/@normspier828307/note/c-356679191 for Charles estimates and how to understand them.)
(ALTERNATIvE WAY TO SEE THAT CMS HAS HELD BACK FOUR MONTHS OF DATA--COMPARISON TO MEDICARE:
If you look at the CMS monthly Medicare monthly enrollment page, here, https://data.cms.gov/summary-statistics-on-beneficiary-enrollment/medicare-and-medicaid-reports/medicare-monthly-enrollment
you see the monthly Medicare data (a program not cut so far) has been updated Oct 22, 2026, with data for July 2026 for Medicare enrollment, while the ACA Exchanges have strangely stopped being updated after 6/26/26 with data only going to February 2026.)
--
EXPLAINING PROF. KRUGMAN'S "NO RECENT ARTICLES"--PRESS FAILURE, I AM AFRAID:
Now, adding on, to connect to P Krugman's "as far as I can tell, no recent articles on massive coverage losses in any of the major newspapers."
Yes, because:
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS OUTSMARTED THE PRESS ! (The WSJ, the NY Times, Wa Po!)
Thus, the administration, though generally not considered by many to be that competent itself, has managed to trick the three major newspapers. (NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal.)
So, say for the Wall Street Journal. The last data the administration released, on 6/26/26, showing only the start of the drops (through Feb. 2026) , was picked up by the WSJ on the same day it was released, right here: https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/millions-of-americans-drop-obamacare-plans-after-withdrawal-of-subsidies-3419166e
Had the administration released additional months of data, say on 7/26, 8/26, and 9/26, and 10/26 when they were due, the WSJ would have picked it up in a story each time. But, with the WSJ staff very small, and not focused on additional data being due, they missed it.
And the public doesn't know either of the coverage losses (that would be known if the data were out) or the cover-up of holding back data!
I think they have about 6 health system reporters total between the three major newspapers, maybe some only part time on the health care system.
Democracy dying in darkness! Some of the news that’s fit to print not being printed!
(The Trump administration has outsmarted the three major U.S. newspapers!)