Postcarding

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, Indivisible Bainbridge Island is back to writing postcards. We meet Wednesdays from 2 pm to 3:30 pm on the upstairs level of the Town & Country grocery store on Winslow Ave. We call it “Postcards on Wednesdays.”

If you can’t make it to Postcards on Wednesday, you can pick up cards from homes on Bainbridge Island and in Suquamish and write them at home. Email Kathy for specifics.

In 2023, we are focusing on small elections, such as the Wisconsin Supreme Court and special elections for Congress and state legislatures as they pop up.

About stamps
We use 44 cent postcard stamps (they are less expensive than stamps for envelopes). They come in rolls of 100 for $44 or sheets of 20 for $8.80. Note, however that the price of postcard stamps is rising to 48 cents per stamp on Jan. 22. We encourage postcard writers to provide their own stamps. Arrangements can be made for writers who are on a limited budget.

The Bainbridge Island, Suquamish and Poulsbo post offices usually have them in stock; rolls of 100 can also be ordered from the USPS.

Postcard writing tips

Don’t write with red ink. At least 8% of men and .5% of women have red-green color-blindness. If you use red ink for highlighting, it doesn’t look like a highlight to these people. Plus, red is the color of that party. Blue or black ink with yellow highlighting is preferable.
Write legibly. Printing often works best. If the recipient can’t read the message, what’s the point of sending the card?
Decorate your postcards. Some writers use stickers or draw stars or flowers, or use color to make the card more attractive to read.
Do not use the “flag” stamp or flag images. Research shows that people who see flags before voting tend to vote for Republicans. Do not use images or stickers of dogs no matter how cute, especially when writing to southern states, as dogs were and are used to intimidate.

How to get started with our postcarding program: Email Kathy.

What we’ve learned about postcard writing