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Managing Election Campaigns
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- Concluding the class Tue, 2010-11-23 00:49
- Week Six: Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Sun, 2010-10-31 03:49
- Week Four-Five: Candidate Statements, Direct Mail, Campaign Organization Fri, 2010-10-22 06:46
- Week One: Understanding the problem Fri, 2010-10-22 06:15
- Miscellaneous Thu, 2010-10-21 16:20
Week Six: Get Out the Vote (GOTV)
You've now spent months sending volunteers out door-to-door on Saturday and Sunday. Every Tuesday and Thursday, the candidate and volunteers have been telephoning voters. Now you have identified some 30% of likely voters and it's a week before the election. What do you need to do?
Ask the volunteers to work on Election Day. Make sure every one of your voters gets to the poll. Again, the election is all about tipping marginal votes your way. Some percentage of voters don't vote. Getting some portion of these to the polls adds a few percentage points to your vote total, enough to tip a close election.
In California, precincts publicly list outside the polling place a list of voters eligible to vote. Those who have voted have a line through their name. Your volunteers (two per precinct), compare that list to their own list that you provided. They find voters who are pledged to support you, but who have not made it to the polls. Beginning around 3pm, you start calling them to see if they help getting to the polls (a ride, for example). At the least, you remind them of their promise to support your candidate.
At 8pm, the day is over and your volunteers assemble someplace to (hopefully) celebrate their victory.
//Ask the volunteers to work on Election Day.
really? let them rest!
21st century;
set up a "social" webpage and send them all links to it as you go around, probably add it to the brochure created earlier when going around to meet them 1st.
This social page should do the following;
-allow them to send direct messages to the person who they want to elect.
-should have a public voting on how well the candidate is doing in their opinion.
-have a forum with list of contributed ideas that electorate is interested in solving in their community. with votes to support or reject the idea.
a side panel with recent announcements that is always active, possibly linked to a live output stream from aspiring candidate.
link to a live chat account that can give a weekly address to keep the voters updated on what is happening.
a lot of these above tasks can be split up amongst the electorate so they feel (hmm oauth? who keeps the passwords) they are a part of the campaign.
//Make sure every one of your voters gets to the poll.
organise a fund raiser to collect voters in groups to bring to poll stations and make sure they are listed before they go.
is there still no way to verify these things on line yet? (thinking of the paper waste! (probably vary by state)
maybe ask the voters if it'd be okay to send them emails and class when you fist meet them, about calling them on the day to make sure they don't feel pressured to take part in the voting process. some people may talk a lot and sound interested but if they haven't voted before its probably because they really don't care that much about making the effort on the day or they got tired waiting. that's where with some work communicating better with the electorate a candidate will not just use their vision to tell them where they want to archive but develop an on going relationship with the community that can be active even while working in office or if the campaign fails. (yes that can happen!)
maybe instead of working on election day they could have conference calls to discuss each day for a week with the volunteers. probably set up with a listen only line for the rest of the community, to discuss problems that are cropping up with people not being listed so they can get settled quickly.
(the listen line is to let them make sure their grievances are being taken up, or do an email newsletter each week detaining developments for the campaign)
there should be multiple shifts at polling stations so they don't close till every one has voted or been given reasonable time to come in to vote. same with overseas voters, better system (not that on line experiment that flopped!)
each section of the voting demographic has difference goals and needs these need to be clearly addressed in the campaign literature. the reality is many problems rarely over lap and it just takes a majority of dissenting and non-interested folk to not participate and THAT is why bids fail [imho]
(the true objectives of candidates are not being factored into this)
in times when were're trying to reduce wasted materials, campaigns with their fliers and booklets really have to think again about what works and what gets wasted the most and think around how they are functioning. is it sustainable?
not just for the pocket but their long term goals.
This is a very good contribution, but I'm still stuck at the first part:
//Ask the volunteers to work on Election Day.
really? let them rest
Let me say that volunteers are like the rest of us. They have priorities around families, vacations, their day-jobs, etc... So using a volunteer for precisely what needs to be done is essential. However, in this case, the time to rest is at the election night party. GOTV is practiced by all political parties at every level, because it yields another 2-3%. In some cases, when an entire precinct is known to be supportive of your issue/candidate, you can almost use GOTV blindly, calling up everyone to remind them to vote and checking the voter lists to get out the remaining votes. The best volunteer organizers occasionally upset an individual volunteer by pushing too hard. It's a really fine line to walk - constant exhortation about the importance of the candidate/issue, squeezing another eight hours time out of a volunteer, without losing them completely.
Some of your other comments are important and I think I'll try to identify some common issues that have emerged from the class.
However, in this case, the time to rest is at the election night party. GOTV is practiced by all political parties at every level, because it yields another 2-3%. In some cases, when an entire precinct is known to be supportive of your issue/candidate, you can almost use GOTV blindly, calling up everyone to remind them to vote and checking the voter lists to get out the remaining votes.
//votes are never concrete a voter can decide to change their mind while waiting in line, talking to other ppl or while reading stuff that has happened on-line.
the entire concept of campaigning better with less costs should be finding new way to get the highest utility from their volunteers through publicity and interaction with the community.
Those volunteers are most useful in human networking or building relations with the electorate of the area.
sometime even the potential voters if they see a lot of young volunteers taking part even though they can't vote that can build an interest in the voting process they oft know little about. by the time its getting to election time i wouldn't want to see or hear any more as there should be nothing new to say.
i should already know;
1.What is the message of the candidate.
2.What is their plan for the area.
3.When/how they expect to achieve their goals.
4.why throw a party when one hasn't won anything. pride is dangerous, with the older electorate that are more conservative in the opinions.
"They have priorities around families, vacations, their day-jobs, etc... So using a volunteer for precisely what needs to be done is essential."
//what is essential?
reaching the public to inform them what options they have in candidates? vrs hounding voters with "do you still like us now a few days\hrs b4 the election?
there has to be a limit to how much direct contact the candidates have in influencing the voters.
Excess contact can/does put voters off participating. saw this happen to some students in college during the 2004 election. they simply didn't feel like going after all the hard work of informing people about the campaigns (volunteers)from fatigue.
My friends would turn off their phones or pull them out of the jack to get some rest then end up sleeping through the day and completely forget!
encourage voters to set their own reminders to go vote on election day.
When you/volunteers meet them, ask if you can help them set up a reminder
on their cell phone to go vote on election day a number of hours before.
the technology to communicate you urgency is there, however put it to better
use instead of becoming a caller ID name to dodge or avoid.
on voting day if i got a blocked ID on my phone i'd never answer it.
robot calls are just as frustrating.
//its okay to get stuck, not all campaigns follow the same routine.
some are successful and others are not.
innovation is critical to development.
can't do the same old things and expect different results.
A quick link to show that campaigns are now more data-driven than ever, (unfortunately) including pestering tactics during GOTV. See the story here about the Nevada race and how the Republican candidate uses software that sends maps, voter lists, etc... directly to smartphones.
Here's the link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/30/AR201010....