Title: General Communications Guidelines for Elections
Original CoS Document (slug): general-communications-guidelines-for-elections
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Attached File: General_Communications_Guidelines_for_Elections_(1).pdf
Created: 2024-08-21 19:05:51
Updated: 2024-08-21 19:05:51
Published: 2024-08-21 03:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T20:22:25.537799634
v20240813
GENERAL COMMUNICATION GUIDELINES FOR ELECTIONS
We strongly encourage all staff and volunteers to be active in election campaigns as private individual
citizens using their own resources. As a nonprofit corporation, however, Convention of States (COS) is
subject to federal and state laws that uniquely regulate its communications related to candidates and
their campaigns. When using COS resources (including your COS email account, your COS volunteer title,
the COS mailing list, COS Slack teams, COS social media pages, etc.), please follow the guidelines below.
Any exception to these guidelines must be approved in writing by the Legal Department.
DO
DO NOT
Do encourage volunteers to get out and vote
E.g. do say “make sure to get out and vote.”
Do not tell volunteers who to vote for
E.g. do not say “Re-elect our sponsor Sen. Patriot” or
“Vote for the pro-COS candidate”
Do encourage general political activity in a
nonpartisan manner
E.g. do say “make sure you get involved with
candidates who support your values.”
Do not encourage political activity in support
of a particular candidate or party
E.g. do not say “make sure you vote Republican.”
Do use your personal resources to support
candidates of your choosing
E.g. do post in support of candidates you like on your
personal Facebook page.
Do not use COS resources to support
candidates or political parties
E.g. do not post on the COS Facebook pages or send
out an email to the COS list for a particular candidate.
Do lobby candidates to support our
application
E.g. do ask candidates to pledge to support our
application if elected.
Do not mention candidates by name in COS
communications about the election.
E.g. do not say “get out vote this November. Sen.
Patriot is a big supporter and he’s up for reelection.”
Do provide neutral, nonpartisan information
about the election and voting
E.g. do say “Here’s a link to a government website with
more information about the election and voting”
Do not give special treatment to particular
candidates or parties
E.g. do not say “Here’s a link to Sen. Patriot’s re-
election page, check it out and get involved.”
Do reach out to nonpartisan lists of like-
minded citizens to encourage voting
E.g. do reach out to the COS list, or a pro-life list telling
folks to go vote (but don’t tell them how to vote).
Do not encourage a partisan list to vote or
ask for support of a particular political party.
E.g. do not reach out to a list of registered Republicans
and tell them to go vote.
Questions? Please contact the Legal Department a<t legal@cosaction.com.>