The multi-campaign

1. 1

   74.38%. That was Poland's turnout on October 15, 2023. PiS came first but lost its majority.

2. 2

   46.4% → about 69–71%. Turnout among 18- to 29-year-olds jumped from 2019 to 2023; women voted more than men.

3. 3

   At least 27 nonpartisan NGO campaigns, open kits for city halls, campus buses to change polling places, and celebrities speaking for themselves.

4. 4

   At least 407 million views, added up with no single command, including local networks inherited from the 2020 protests.

5. 5

   The lesson: turn protest anger into “something to vote for”, remove registration friction before the deadline, and let dozens of messengers repeat the same norm.

Copy summary

If you're new to this, start with the fundamentals, from the vote goal to what the research says. Read the fundamentals

This was a mobilization without a general. Below are the people and organizations who planned, ran and later measured the campaigns, with the places where they described what they did.

• Marta Lempart (Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet)

  Leader of the All-Poland Women's Strike

  Coordinated the 2020 protests in more than 600 towns and, in 2023, the “Vote for abortion!” campaign aimed at the people who had taken to the streets.

  Sources

• Bogumił Kolmasiak and Anna Tomaszewska (Akcja Demokracja)

  Organizers of the “sztaby społeczne” (civic campaign committees)

  From April 2023 they trained a network of nonpartisan local committees with a shared kit, WhatsApp groups and Zoom meetings, under the brand “Idę na #WYBO23” (I'm going to the #ELECTION23).

  Sources

• Zofia Sanejko (Inicjatywa Głos Kobiet)

  Spokesperson for a coalition of more than a dozen women's rights organizations

  Launched, with the Batory Foundation, the “To Twój Wybór” (It's Your Choice) campaign for women aged 18 to 34, with a pink pen as its symbol.

  Sources

• Ewa Kulik-Bielińska (Stefan Batory Foundation)

  Head of the foundation that backed and funded campaigns and measured their effect

  Backed the women's campaign; at the launch, she pointed out that there are areas where those in power take away or restrict women's right to choose.

  Sources

• Aleksandra Jaworska-Surma, Edwin Bendyk and Szymon Gutkowski

  Authors of the report “Fenomen wyborczej mobilizacji” (The phenomenon of electoral mobilization; Batory Foundation)

  Catalogued the 27 campaigns, added up their reach and ran a survey and focus groups with new voters right after the election.

  Sources

• Anna Pięta (Inicjatywa Wschód)

  Activist with the organization behind the video “Cicho już byłyśmy” (We've been quiet long enough)

  Publicly defended the most viral campaign of the final days, aimed at young women who weren't planning to vote.

  Sources

• Gdańsk City Hall and the Union of Polish Metropolises

  Authors of the municipal campaign “Nie śpij, bo cię przegłosują” (Don't sleep, or they'll outvote you)

  Published free graphics for any city hall to use with the same hashtag; Wrocław and Katowice took the campaign onto the street.

  Sources

• Przemysław Sadura (University of Warsaw / Krytyka Polityczna)

  Sociologist who ran focus groups with young voters after the election

  Identified two groups of new voters: young women activated by the 2020 protests, and people brought in by the turnout campaigns.

  Sources

Paraphrases of what organizers and researchers said or wrote, with short translated quotes where the wording matters.

• The ruling party had state companies, public TV and enormous resources; with a “microscopic” budget, the only option was to act smart: nonpartisan committees that champion issues, not candidates, under a shared brand but with local freedom.

  Bogumił Kolmasiak and Anna Tomaszewska, Akcja Demokracja, Training presentation “Społeczne sztaby wyborcze”, Apr 21, 2023

• The movement's motto rejected resigned voting: “We want the Poland of our dreams, not of the lesser evil.”

  Akcja Demokracja, Civic committee training presentation, Apr 2023 (translated)

• She summed up the result in two sentences: “Women voted. Young people voted.” The campaign had offered women voters a deal: you deliver the vote, we deliver the pressure for the law.

  Marta Lempart, Strajk Kobiet, Polish Women's Strike post-election statement, Oct 17, 2023

• The campaign didn't decide for women or tell them who to vote for; it only showed that they had something to vote for.

  Organizers of “To Twój Wybór” (Inicjatywa Głos Kobiet and Batory Foundation), RMF24, launch of “To Twój Wybór”, Sep 15, 2023

In 2020, the near-ban on abortion brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of more than 600 towns. The law didn't change, but a generation saw how many of them there were. In 2023, organizations born or strengthened in those protests, foundations, agencies and city halls turned that energy into a turnout operation aimed squarely at the people who never voted: the young, and young women.

74.38%

turnout on Oct 15, 2023, against 61.74% in 2019official

46% → 69–71%

turnout among 18- to 29-year-olds, from 2019 to 2023estimate

27

nonpartisan civic campaigns, with at least 407 million viewsstudy

1.4M

requests to vote away from home, against about 400,000 in 2019official

From 2020 to the ballot box

1. Oct 22–28, 2020The Constitutional Tribunal restricts abortion. On October 28 there are 410 demonstrations with more than 400,000 people; the protests last about 100 days.
2. Apr 21, 2023Akcja Demokracja trains the first local civic committees: nonpartisan, with a shared brand, WhatsApp and Zoom.
3. Aug 2023Between August 11 and 14, the PiS government announces the questions of a referendum on election day. NGOs and the opposition respond with campaigns to refuse the ballot.
4. Sep 7, 2023Gdańsk launches #NieŚpijBoCięPrzegłosują with free graphics for any city hall to use.
5. Sep 14–15, 2023KO launches its “Kobiety na wybory” (Women to the polls) bus. Inicjatywa Głos Kobiet and the Batory Foundation launch “To Twój Wybór” with the pink pen.
6. Oct 1, 2023KO holds the March of a Million Hearts in Warsaw. Volunteers from the civic committees hand out leaflets at the march.
7. Oct 9–12, 2023An Ikarus bus tours Wrocław's campuses to change polling places. “Cicho już byłyśmy” goes viral. Final deadline: 1.4 million requests nationwide and 608,000 registered abroad.
8. Oct 15–16, 2023Turnout of 74.38%. In Jagodno (Wrocław), the last person votes at 2:45am. Lines in The Hague, London and Palermo.
9. Oct 20–Nov 3, 2023Batory surveys the effect: 55% of Poles saw the campaigns, 65% among young people.

Three layers, no command

The mobilization had no center. Three layers spoke to the same audiences at the same time, without formal coordination, and it was the sum that created the feeling that “everyone's going to vote”.

• Civic networkAt least 27 campaigns by NGOs and feminist, LGBT+, environmental and human rights groups, almost all digital, some with TV, radio and cinema. Celebrities and creators spoke for themselves.
• Local institutionsBig-city halls and the Union of Polish Metropolises, universities and neighborhood councils handled reminders and logistics: deadlines, certificates, buses on campus.
• Opposition partiesTheir own campaigns for women and young people, the big October 1 march, paid ads and the advice not to take the referendum ballot.

The mobilization took place in a country where public TV was aligned with the government, the ruling party had far more money for ads, and young people barely voted. These were the tools and conditions that mattered.

Platforms

Facebook and Instagram

The main channel for the civic campaigns, with organic and paid reach. Most of the reach data the Batory report managed to add up came from here.

YouTube and donated TV/radio

The “To Twój Wybór” videos got 13 million views on YouTube, according to the agency. Among the 27 campaigns Batory lists is one made with RMF radio, “Budzę się, idę na wybory” (I wake up, I go and vote).

TikTok

The platform of the youngest voters. Some NGOs created their own profiles, such as “Orientuj się” (Get informed; Stowarzyszenie 61 and Pacyfika), and the hashtag “Idź na wybory” (Go vote) racked up billions of views.

WhatsApp, Zoom and local Facebook groups

The backbone of the Akcja Demokracja committees: a WhatsApp group for coordination, regular Zoom meetings and an “Akcja Wybory [town]” group for each locality.

gov.pl, the Central Voter Register and mObywatel

In 2023 you could change your polling place online until October 12, using a Trusted Profile, an e-ID, online banking or the mObywatel app. That's what let students and people working away from home vote where they were.

The Foreign Ministry's online registration

Poles abroad registered online to vote at a consulate; the system flagged when a polling station was full. 608,000 people signed up.

Paper and street

“Idę na WYBO23” stickers, spray stencils, 50 poster templates, stalls at local fairs, a large alarm clock in Katowice and a vintage Ikarus bus on Wrocław's campuses.

Local conditions

• Captured public TV: TVP worked as the government's mouthpiece, so reaching beyond the bubble depended on social media, private media and people.
• Unequal money: PiS spent around 7.7 million złoty on online ads against 5.6–5.7 million for KO, on top of campaigns paid for by state companies and government-friendly foundations.
• An open wound: the Constitutional Tribunal ruling of October 22, 2020 almost banned abortion and brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in 2020; three years later, the law was unchanged.
• A low starting point: in 2019 only 46.4% of 18- to 29-year-olds voted, and months before 2023 fewer than half of women under 34 said they would vote.
• A government referendum on the same day (migration, privatization, retirement age): the opposition and NGOs urged people to refuse the ballot, and the referendum fell short of the 50% required (around 40%).
• Tight logistics rules: an October 12 deadline to change polling place, overloaded polling stations in the new neighborhoods of big cities and, abroad, 24 hours to deliver the count or have it voided.
• Voluntary voting: the opponent to beat was abstention, not a choice of candidate.
• Many social media ads weren't labeled as electoral, which made the campaign harder to measure and oversee.

Nobody wrote the manual in advance. It emerges when you put together Akcja Demokracja's training documents, Batory's research and what the organizers said. There are three fronts and a cycle that repeated across dozens of organizations.

Three fronts

Turn anger into agency

Take the energy of a protest that didn't change the law and say: now the decision is yours. The protests' black umbrella became a pink pen: “let's trade our umbrellas for pens”.

Remove the friction

For people studying or working away from home, the problem wasn't willingness, it was registration. Deadlines, online forms, certificates and buses on campus cleared the obstacle before election day.

Create a social norm

Dozens of different messengers, from city halls to pop singers, repeating the same idea without a party logo, until voting seemed like what everyone your age was going to do.

The cycle of a turnout campaign

Every successful campaign went through these steps, at very different scales.

1. Listen Qualitative research with people who don't plan to vote. In 2023 two barriers came up (paraphrased): the feeling that there is nobody worth voting for, and that one vote changes nothing.
2. Choose the audience Women aged 18 to 39, young people aged 18 to 29, students away from home, the diaspora. One audience per campaign.
3. Frame it Show that there's something to vote for, even without someone to vote for. Say what's at stake in real life, not who to vote for.
4. Open the kit Publish graphics, stickers, stencils and copy for any person, NGO or city hall to use, with an unbranded version.
5. Multiply messengers Celebrities, creators, city halls, universities and neighbors speak for themselves, on their own profiles, in their own words.
6. Solve the logistics Before the registration deadline: how to change polling place, where to get the certificate, how to register abroad. Take the service to where people are.
7. Last mile A reminder on the day, vote early, stay in line even after polls close, because anyone in line at 9pm gets to vote. Ask for a plan: what time, leaving from where, going with whom. In a US experiment, calls that asked for a voting plan raised turnout by 4.1 points among those reached, and by 9.1 points in single-voter households (Nickerson and Rogers, 2010).
8. Measure and share A post-election survey of first-time voters, published so the whole sector can learn.

And again.

What it takes to organize a Polish-style turnout campaign, whether you're an NGO, a collective, a city hall or a coalition. It works best when many organizations do it at the same time.

Some of what worked in Poland works anywhere; some depended on Polish rules and networks. Here's what to swap out.

Choose your country

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit. Each one works on its own or combined with moves from other playbooks.

1. Something to vote for, not someone

   A turnout message that doesn't say who to vote for: it shows what is at stake in the audience's everyday life, names their anger and lets the group count itself. In Poland, “To Twój Wybór” (It's your choice) swapped the black umbrella of the protests for a pink pen, and turnout among 18–29-year-olds rose from 46% to around 69–71%, with no proof that the campaigns caused the jump.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when the audience already has a cause that took them to the streets but feels there is no one to vote for or that voting changes nothing.

   Don't use when

   It fails if a campaign calls itself non-partisan and then asks for a vote for a party, or when it mixes audiences: women aged 18–34 are not men aged 18–29.

   1. Week −24 Run focus groups with people who don't plan to vote to find the real barrier
   2. Week −20 Pick one audience per campaign and the issue that already took them to the streets
   3. Week −16 Test three or more concepts with the audience and choose the symbol and hashtag
   4. Week −6 Recruit messengers who record their own video, with no logo, in their own words
   5. Week −5 Launch with the number that counts the group and the registration deadline
   6. Week −1 Set up stalls and debates where the audience is and collect pledges to vote
   7. 2 week(s) after Survey new voters after the election and publish what worked

   Team

   • Research: focus groups beforehand and measuring the effect afterwards
   • Creative: turns the barrier into a concept and a symbol, often pro bono
   • Messengers: record their own video, with no logo, saying why they will vote

   What to measure: Pledges to vote signed by the target audience at stalls and on the form, and then the share of them who say they voted in the post-election survey. Views don't count.

   Risks to watch: The non-partisan line is fragile: say who is speaking and who is paying on every piece, label your ads and publish where the money comes from before the other side asks.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

2. An open kit, no logo, for anyone

   Graphics, posters, stickers, stencils and copy published for any person, NGO or city hall to use, with a no-logo version and a shared hashtag. In Poland, Gdańsk published the #NieŚpijBoCięPrzegłosują (Don't sleep or they'll outvote you) graphics for any city to use, and Wrocław and Katowice took the campaign onto the streets.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when many organizations want to reach the same audience and your brand doesn't need to show for the norm to stick.

   Don't use when

   It fails if the kit carries wrong or outdated election information, or if each adopter changes the message so much that the shared norm is lost.

   1. Week −10 Write the shared norm in one sentence and choose the hashtag
   2. Week −9 Produce posters, stickers, stencils and copy, with a no-logo version
   3. Week −8 Publish the kit on a download page with instructions for use
   4. Week −8 Invite city halls, universities, NGOs and residents' associations to join
   5. Week −6 Ask every adopter to log where they used the material
   6. Week −2 Update the kit with the official deadlines and links for the final stretch

   Team

   • Creative: produces the kit and the no-logo version
   • Institutional partnerships: take the kit to city halls, universities and associations
   • Compliance: checks the election information and the rules on posters

   What to measure: Organizations and committees that used the kit on the street (posters up, stalls set up, banners) and logged it on the form, by town.

   Risks to watch: A brand nobody owns can be copied by impostors spreading false information: publish the kit on an official page, date every version and say where to check the deadlines.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

3. Local civic committees, one shared brand

   A network of non-partisan local committees that stand for issues, not candidates, under a shared brand but with local freedom, coordinated by WhatsApp and video calls. In Poland, Akcja Demokracja trained them from April 2023 on a budget the organizers themselves called “microscopic”.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when your opponent has more money and media and you have people spread out: retirees, students, neighbours with no experience.

   Don't use when

   It fails with a head office that wants to approve every action, or with committees that become a party's arm without saying so.

   1. Week −26 Train the first committees and agree shared rules over video
   2. Week −25 Open the sign-up form with consent and a messaging group per region
   3. Week −24 Create a local group per town to recruit and schedule actions
   4. Week −20 Hold video calls every few weeks: cameras on, anyone can lead
   5. Week −8 Take the kit to small towns: stalls at local fairs, debates, poster runs
   6. Week −2 Hand out material at the big collective moments of the final stretch
   7. 4 week(s) after Keep the committees alive for the next election

   Team

   • Coordination: trains the committees and keeps the shared rules
   • Local committee: runs stalls, puts up stickers and organizes debates
   • Compliance: checks electoral law and ad rules before each action

   What to measure: Street shifts completed per committee per week (stalls, debates, poster runs); if a committee goes quiet, call them before sending more material.

   Risks to watch: Committees co-funded by foundations become targets of suspicion: publish who funds you, declare it if you take a side and respect the electoral silence.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

4. Registration deadline week

   Before talking about election day, fix registration: how to change your polling place, get the certificate or register abroad, taking the service to where people are. In Poland, a bus toured the Wrocław campuses, and requests to vote away from home reached 1.4 million, against around 400,000 in 2019.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works where there is advance registration or a deadline to change polling place, and many voters (students, workers, emigrants) are away from home.

   Don't use when

   It fails with wrong election information or after the deadline: in Brazil, for example, the voter roll closes months before the election.

   1. Week −12 Note every official deadline for registration, change of polling place and voting abroad
   2. Week −6 Create direct links and QR codes to the official services, with the deadline up front
   3. Week −4 Set up a mobile help point with universities and cities on campuses and in new areas
   4. Week −2 Run a campaign about the deadline only, on every channel
   5. Week −2 Take the mobile point to campuses and help each person file the request on the spot
   6. Week −1 Share every day how many people have already registered

   Team

   • Logistics: runs the mobile point and the campus shifts
   • Institutional partnerships: universities, city halls and residents' associations
   • Compliance: checks every deadline and document before publishing

   What to measure: Requests to change polling place or register abroad filed at the mobile point or with a volunteer's help, counted on the day, by location.

   Risks to watch: A wrong deadline costs votes from the very people you want to help: check everything against the official source, never collect anyone's passwords or documents, and let people file the request on their own phone.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

5. Go early, bring someone, stay in line

   The last mile: a reminder before the electoral silence, vote early, bring someone along and don't leave the queue, because whoever is in line at closing time gets to vote. In Poland, in Jagodno (Wrocław), the last person voted at 2:45 a.m., and there were queues in The Hague, London and Palermo.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works in the final days, when the audience has decided to vote and the obstacle becomes logistics and fatigue.

   Don't use when

   It fails if it breaks the electoral silence, and it doesn't replace pressure on the state for enough polling stations and ballot boxes.

   1. Week −2 Collect “I'll vote and bring someone” pledges, with consent for one reminder
   2. Week −1 Check with the official source whether neutral reminders are allowed on the day
   3. Week −1 Send the last reminder before the electoral silence
   4. D-day week Tell people that whoever is in line at closing time gets to vote
   5. D-day week Track queues and overcrowded polling stations, with volunteers sharing updates
   6. 1 week(s) after Ask those who pledged whether they voted, and thank them without campaigning

   Team

   • List: holds the pledges with consent and sends the reminder
   • Queue monitors: report overcrowded stations, within the law
   • Compliance: checks what the electoral silence allows

   What to measure: “I'll vote and bring someone” pledges kept, confirmed by a reply the next day, as a share of pledges made.

   Risks to watch: When voting becomes everyone's business, impostors appear; fake text messages posing as PiS circulated. Message only people who asked, sign every message and respect the electoral silence.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

The Polish sequence adapted as a checklist. Your progress is saved in this browser.

Turnout campaigns live on trust. If they're nonpartisan, they have to really be nonpartisan; if they take a side, they have to say so.

Say who's speaking and who's paying

Every piece identifies the organization responsible. Every paid ad carries the platform's political or electoral label. In Poland, many didn't, and that hampered oversight.

Nonpartisan means nonpartisan

If you present yourself as civic, don't say who to vote for and don't use the campaign for a party. If you have a side, declare it.

Money in the open

Publish where your funding comes from. In 2025, the press revealed that a turnout foundation had received almost 1 million złoty from state-company foundations in 2023 and 2024, and the right used it to challenge the independence of its campaign.

Respect the election silence

Where the law bans campaigning the day before and on election day, stop. Neutral reminders only if they're allowed.

Consent

Only message people who asked to hear from you. The GDPR and Brazil's LGPD apply to NGOs too.

Real people only

No fake profiles, bots, undisclosed paid influencers or messages impersonating another person or party.

Accurate election information

Deadlines, documents and locations have to be right. A mistake here costs votes from the very people you want to help.

EU and national rules

In the European Union, since October 2025 Meta has not accepted political, electoral or social-issue ads, and Google has stopped serving political ads as the regulation defines them. Regulation (EU) 2024/900, which also covers NGO campaigns that name no party, requires labels and transparency notices on paid political ads and allows targeting only with explicit consent and without sensitive data. In the Commission's October 2025 guidelines, a paid campaign to raise turnout counts as political advertising even if it doesn't say whom to vote for; only messages from official sources on how and when to vote are exempt. Check national rules with a lawyer before you start. See the “Law and platforms in the European Union” section in Fundamentals.

It doesn't prove causation

Surveys show a correlation between seeing the campaigns and voting, not a causal effect. Anger at the government, inflation and polarization also brought people to the polls.

It doesn't choose the direction

Youth mobilization also helped the far right: among men aged 18 to 29, 26.3% voted for Konfederacja, against 6.3% of women.

It doesn't last on its own

A vote against isn't loyalty. Sadura noted that only 33% of young people said they were sure to vote in the 2024 European elections. Broken promises, like the one on abortion, later drove away some young women.

It doesn't fix infrastructure

Six- to eight-hour lines, undersized polling stations and the 24-hour deadline for counting votes abroad can wipe out the effort. You have to push the state too.

The nonpartisan line is fragile

Campaigns aimed at audiences that lean one way are read as partisan by the other side. Transparency about money and authorship is the only defense.

It opens space for impostors

When voting becomes everyone's business, fake messages appear. The texts from hackers posing as PiS show the risk.

Five questions to lock in the essentials. Every answer comes with an explanation.

Free materials from organizations that train organizers, linked to this case.

• The network effect: How WhatsApp messaging boosted turnout in Italy

  Case study · European Center for Digital Action · 2026-03 · EN

  How WhatsApp messages between acquaintances helped drive turnout in Italy's 2026 referendum. A reference for relational campaigning on messaging apps.

• Over 500,000 signatures in 50 days: How an Italian petition became a mass mobilization

  Case study · European Center for Digital Action · 2026-10 · EN

  How an Italian petition grew into a nationwide movement for a referendum, with targets, daily rhythm and a volunteer network. Also available in Italian on the same site.

• How 80% turnout ended 16 years of autocratic rule

  Webinar · European Center for Digital Action · 2026-04 · EN · Registration required

  Webinar on Hungary's 2026 election: how record turnout ended the Orbán era. Free account required.

Library

This playbook is built from the organizations' own documents, the Batory Foundation's post-election report, academic analysis and Polish and international press, accessed up to October 26, 2026.

Updated 26 October 2026