This viral NYC Instagram account wants you to get off the internet
The team behind Soft Power Vote really just wants you to talk to people IRL
If you live in New York City and have any friends who follow politics, you’ve almost certainly encountered (or already follow) Soft Power Vote. The oft-reposted Instagram page features aesthetically-pleasing graphics with crucial political information such as primary registration deadlines, progressive voting recommendations for obscure ballot measures and how to call Chuck Schumer and yell at him for being a sellout, to name just a few recent topics.
Back in October, for instance, their guide to ballot proposals garnered over 4,000 likes and a huge number of shares among left-leaning voters looking for last-minute guidance. (It certainly went triple platinum on Instagram story reshares in my own personal feed.)
The organization was first launched as an Instagram page in the heady days of May 2020 and has grown along with the shifting socio-political and social media landscape since then, while many of the biggest Posters from that era have gone dormant. (In addition to their 12,000 Instagram followers, there’s now a substack, a podcast, and physical voter guides they print out and place around the city, among other things.) A big part of their secret to longevity? Keeping the focus local, and primarily centered around elections.
“One of the features of us being a voter resource is that elections happen every year,” said Molly Salas, who runs the page along with co-founders Melissa Saenz Gordon and Glenn Robinson. “It’s provided stability as far as cadence.”
It’s also provided a guiding ethos during the current barrage of nightmarish updates coming from the federal level.
“We can’t just message about every random thing the president does,” Saenz Gordon said. “We’ve really kept it focused on how things affect New York City, and that’s been helpful.”
The project was born out of frustration with a lack of information for voters across New York City and state, as well as a desire to make politics feel more accessible to a broader audience.
“I was working in the arts nonprofit world and I noticed a lot of artists that talked about politics would use the term ‘soft power,’” Saenz Gordon said. “It’s a way of mixing art, design, visuals, thought persuasion to get people on board with something.”
While pitching a friend on the idea of a voter guide at an event, Saenz Gordon got to talking with Robinson, a friend and graphic designer, and the two kicked off the project together. Salas, who had “recently quit a corporate monster job” and had always been involved in city politics, later reached out to Soft Power Vote offering to help, and dove right into researching the nitty gritty political info that goes into their recommendations.
“It’s a way of mixing art, design, visuals, thought persuasion to get people on board with something.”
“One of the things I complain a lot about is that [some] incumbents don’t make a campaign website, and NYC Votes [an informational organization run by the New York City Campaign FInance Board] doesn’t force candidates to submit specific information,” Salas said. “We’re just three people who run an Instagram and a spreadsheet, but what if we didn’t — would people just have nowhere to go?”
About that spreadsheet: one of the lesser-known and more information-intensive services offered by Soft Power Vote, a new spreadsheet is made publicly available for every election cycle and goes beyond the shareable voter recommendations posted on Instagram, culling candidate information to have in one place for voters looking to do their due diligence.
“Even if it’s candidates we’re not stoked on, it’s helpful to know,” Saenz Gordon said. “We try to aggregate all this information if you want to keep going and find background beyond just what we’re recommending. It’s really about providing multiple points of entry.” (The full spreadsheet of candidate information for this next election cycle will be available before early voting kicks off in June, and Soft Power Vote’s criteria for candidate endorsements can be found here.)
“A lot of people are scared to talk about politics because they feel like they don’t know enough,” Saenz Gordon added. “And Instagram as a platform can be a little toxic, a little call-out culture vibes, but we feel good about the space we’ve created. The project is meant to be here as a resource for people to continue their research.”
Soft Power Vote's IRL voter guides, out in the wild. (Photos courtesy of Molly Salas)
While the organization’s progressive politics are transparent, giving the page its own Instagram-friendly and apolitical aesthetic was a specific and strategic choice from the outset.
“Part of the design is that we wanted it to seem very cohesive with other cool things going on people know about and be familiar with,” Saenz said. “It could be a poster for a cool pop-up or some merch drop; a visual identity that our peers are familiar with and might get excited by.”
Specifically, they were looking to avoid the “stale political” red, white and blue gradient, said Robinson, who handles much of the site’s graphic design.
A lot has changed since 2020 — we’re sorry to be the ones to break it to you — and like a lot of us, Soft Power Vote is looking for ways to take things into the real world and off of billionaire-owned social platforms.
“Now we’re in a phase where people don’t even like Instagram and actively want to get off of it,” Saenz Gordon said. “If you don’t want to be on Instagram anymore, ok, here’s our newsletter. And we’re looking to start translating some of these online experiences to in-person community-building moments, and that’s some of what we’re dreaming up [next].” (The organization is also currently part of a New Museum cultural incubator developing experimental projects and businesses that will involve a public event in June.)
“This year in particular with the new administration, people are really freaked out and scared, and they’re also reignited,” Saenz Gordon said. “I think there’s an interest and an eagerness to get involved again. It feels just as urgent now as COVID.”
And to be clear, “getting involved” can look like just getting out into the city, chatting up your neighbors (even if it’s not about politics), and throwing more parties.
“If you plan a game night with your friends just to get together IRL, even if it’s not politically-related, of course you’ll probably talk about what’s going on,” Robinson said. “This is a small community-building effort. Talk to your neighbors, to not be so overwhelmed, do that small interaction first.”
A heated mayoral race full of both villains and honest-to-god exciting progressives is a big opportunity for people to feel both excited and useful in local politics this year as well.
Dave Colon
“We have [in Eric Adams] the worst insane mayor in New York City that can be kicked to the curb, and [in Andrew Cuomo] a monster that’s trying to position himself to take his place,” Robinson added. “There are also some of the best mayoral candidates New York has ever had, there’s a real opportunity and that’s a tangible thing that can make a huge difference.”
Especially as we continue to shake off the shackles of winter, “I would really encourage folks to get out there and find a political or mutual aid group you’re curious about, or go to an artist’s talk, be out there and see what people are talking about,” Saenz Gordon said. “It helps us all know, like Brian Lehrer says, ‘The New York Conversation.’”
She added, “Another guiding principle we’ve had this year is: what would New York be if we all showed up, if all of us and our neighbors participated a little bit more? There are lots of ways to get involved that aren’t a political party.”
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