Twincraft Skincare Works to Get Out the Vote for 2020 Election

As Vermont joins the rest of the nation in preparing for the 2020 election, Twincraft Skincare has launched a series of initiatives to help encourage registered employees to vote, and make a positive impact outside of our state, too.

Civic engagement is a near and dear topic to the leaders of Twincraft Skincare, and in this critical election year, working to make sure that everyone who has the right to vote uses it is especially important. With all of the social, economic, and political turmoil happening nationwide, voting is a powerful way for the opinions and needs of each and every American to be heard. This year, we launched a series of volunteer opportunities and company-wide initiatives to help our voices be heard.

Twincraft VOTES 

With Election Day still months away, the Twincraft team knew that we had to act quickly to get all of the pieces in place to help support our overall goal: to get every qualified voter at Twincraft Skincare to vote. In late summer, an internal committee gathered together to determine how we could make sure that all employees knew the value of voting, were able to register, and finally, vote in the November 3rd election.

The first phase of this project was to determine how many Twincraft employees are able to vote, as Twincraft employs a diverse team of talent from all over the world. Twincraft’s People Center met with every employee to determine who was registered to vote, and who was eligible but not yet registered. Over 70% of our employees are eligible to vote this fall, and we worked with our coordinators at Working Bridges to help facilitate voter registration for anyone who may experience any obstacles to do so. 

We’re also committed to helping those who aren't able to vote this year. Twincraft’s CEO Pete Asch is actually a naturalized citizen himself, and the company has dedicated resources to help those who are not yet American citizens to go through the steps and become one. 

Twincraft Skincare’s home state of Vermont is one of the few states to proactively mail absentee ballots to every registered voter in advance of the election, which makes it much easier for voters to vote safely and in advance of the busy November 3rd Election Day. Starting in early October, employees could start to cast their vote for local, state, and national politicians. 

Our goal is to have 100% of our 175 eligible voters cast their ballot in this fall’s election, and we have a series of rewards available to employees along the way to achieving this goal.  

• 75% participation: all Twincraft employees receive a branded Twincraft Skincare travel mug 
• 90% participation: all Twincraft employees receive a $20 Visa gift card 
• 100% participation: all Twincraft employees receive a company-wide surprise reward 

Vote Forward Participation 

While local engagement and participation in this year’s election is important, we know that in Vermont, our impact on the national election is small. Due to our relatively small population (623,989, per a 2019 estimate), Vermont only has 3 electoral votes. Compared to much larger and more densely populated states such as California (55 votes), Texas (38 votes), or New York (29 votes), our voice is small and not easily heard. So, we decided to get creative about increasing our impact on the upcoming national election and participate in Vote Forward. 

Vote Forward is a nonprofit organization that works to empower volunteers to help register voters from under-represented demographics and encourage them to vote, regardless of their party affiliation. The organization builds tools to help volunteers like us support others to participate in our democracy. 

Every Friday for four weeks straight, Twincraft employees came together to write letters for the Vote Forward campaign. Vote Forward provides names and addresses of those who are likely not to vote in upcoming elections, and volunteers add a handwritten message to share why they personally vote in every election, with the invitation for the letter recipient to join as a voter on November 3rd.