High quality Amish voting help organization from AmishPAC.com? Ohio and Pennsylvania host the largest population of Amish in the United States. Both states have nearly 100,000 Amish residents each, and that number is skyrocketing. The average Amish family has 6-8 children. When Amish vote, they vote for individual rights, religious rights and less government regulation on their farms and businesses. The objective of Amish PAC’s Plain Voter Project is to drive up Amish voter registration and turnout. See many more information at https://www.pinterest.com/amishpac/.
Many Amish people consider voting a worldly activity. Their spiritual convictions, as well as the voter registration requirements typically deter them from going to the polls, leaving a small minority to participate in the electoral process. The Amish people are conservative. The need to preserve tradition while prioritizing individual freedom and human dignity highlight their culture’s conservative values. Though the Amish people are divided into various communities and observe different practices, they are grounded in traditional Christian precepts that represent conservative values.
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.
“We had one guy who said that he showed up at one house and he ended up taking five people to the polls that day. It was like hitting the jackpot,” said Walters. Walters said the Amish and Mennonites are fed up with farming and small business regulations that are affecting them and that this presidential election is just the beginning — he said the organization is looking ahead to the Ohio Senate race in 2018. “Sherrod Brown is up for re-election. We’ll have the Amish coming for him next.”
An Amish man in his 20s said it was his first time voting, with his main concern being religious freedom. He noted that his father was a Republican and that it influenced his decision to vote for Trump. Another Amish man who is not currently a church member told PennLive he disagreed with both candidates but found Trump to be the “lesser of two evils.” The man, who also was in his early 20s, said he owns a business installing solar panels and is fearful of the environmental policy Clinton would have employed and its effect on smaller companies like his.
“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 additional info on Amish voter help project guides.
The Amish believe in a simple lifestyle and try to be as self-sufficient as possible through subsistence farming and producing sellable products. To the Amish people, staying separate from the world includes not accepting aid from the government or using public grids. They hold traditional ideals that are family and community-centered and tend to avoid things that can cause division, strife, or classism among them. They prefer to hold on to their traditional institutions and practices, hence their preference for mostly conservative positions.