The race is on! Here’s how you can help shift the outcome at the polls.

One candidate calls for deporting 11 million people. Republicans control Congress, and obstruct all as they refuse to do their job. Primaries are now and the general election is November 8th. So much is at stake. How can you impact election 2016?

It takes a little bit to figure it all out, but fortunately there are some easy ways for you to get involved. When you add a little bit of support to what is already in motion, millions of people join you in moving the ball forward. It isn’t about some giant action you need to take to be part of this Democracy. It’s about every person taking their own bite of the elephant. When the results of all of our efforts combine, the world becomes a different place. Your efforts are part of something much bigger.

So here’s 5 actions you can do right now! Continue to help out all the way through the election and we’ll avoid a devastating repeat of the 2014 election. Follow the links to get involved.

1. Speak up about Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland
2. Get involved in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee 
3. Join efforts to help Unrig the Map
4. Lend support to your local and state elections
5. Make sure your friends are registered, know where to vote, and bring them with you! Master how to get people involved with the issues and add to the conversation.

Here’s how these actions all play together.

First, the Republicans are obstructing Merrick Garland because he could help reverse Citizen’s United: when the Koch brothers have $900 million ready to spend on this election. He could strike down laws that abuse women’s rights. Conservatives would lose their ability to rig the voting systems, which is how they keep the House. In other words, one Supreme Court justice change and the Republican house of cards collapses.

Right now, Republicans are refusing to do their job of providing advise and consent. They promised not to hold a hearing before a nominee was even announced. This is completely unprecidented. The reason they aren’t holding a hearing is because the more people know about Judge Garland the more they like. They are hiding him. If people know him and love him, then a down vote is completely inexcuseable.

To counteract that, keep the conversation going. Click like on facebook posts, share them, read up on wikipedia. Spread what you learn. Simply showing his picture and mentioning his name will wreck the Republicans plans to keep him out of the spotlight. One click, one share, one mention at a time, we show their obstruction for what it is.

If we fill that seat, then all the abuses of our system are counteracted. We’ll shift the Supreme Court to a moderate liberal position for a generation or two. Yes, it’s that important. Many things we care deeply about ride on that one seat.

Second, it’s a little complicated to follow all the Congressional races and figure out how to donate to one that is really close. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee coordinates funding for those close races. If you want to see the Senate swing back to a Democratic Party majority, and you want to gain more seats in the House this is where you start. You can volunteer time from home, locally, or throw $10 in and help move things forward.

Third, the election map is rigged. Republicans keep the House because they won the state and local elections that allowed them to setup the voting districts. Remember those midterm elections where people stayed home? Yeah, that’s what it cost us. It allowed Republicans to rig the entire game so that when they lose the popular vote they can still win more seats that Democrats.

Unrig the Map is a program to support Governors in close races in specific states. In some states, a Governor can veto a ridiculously rigged election map. Where that power exists, and a strong Democratic candidate is running, Unrig the Map will help focus resources to win. The 2016 election is our final shot to elect the people who can repairing the voting maps before we are gerrymandered out again in 2020. If we fail here, we can lose Congress for an entire decade. With the laws changed during that time it could become even harder the next decade.

Fourth, state and local elections are where new talent grows. When someone gains local experience they’ve got a shot at heading national over time. Decisions that will really impact your life directly are made at this level. This is also where those election maps are drawn. If we fail to get involved we can get locked out. If we do get involved, our small efforts on a small campaign can have a massive impact.

Fifth, make sure your friends are registered. Bring your friends with you to vote. Find out what issues interest your friends the most and divvy up the ones to focus on. If you are able to talk about the military, or budget, master that issue deeply. Learn how to talk about one issue with authority. Then, have your friends master their issues and you can all learn from each other. Bring your knowledge to deepen the conversations on social media in facebook groups, on pages, and on twitter. As you master your issue, write up your ideas on blogger.com, link to your sources, and spread your blog post as the way to master the conversation. It is all about getting involved and staying involved straight through the election and beyond.

There you have it. Five ways you can make a major impact on the elections. Our democracy requires the help of everyone to work. America is something much bigger than ourselves that we can all contribute to making a better place.

Either we press forwards from where we are, on our own front lines and succeed.

Or, we stay home… allow others to do the work… and face the crushing defeat that we did in 2014.

If you care about climate change, voting rights, money in politics, women’s rights, prison reform, equal pay, or anything else the Democratic Party is working to improve, please join in the effort.

Work together… it all gets better.

Stay at home… the losses will be ours to own.

– Ben King