My friend Amy is a magician. Not the pull a rabbit out of a hat kind, but the turn a Republican into a thinking person kind. As a canvasser for 13 Minnesota candidates this cycle, she's the hitwoman campaigns call when they need to bring back voters from the dark side. I'm sure that there are a ton of experienced canvassers here, but a lot of us aren't. As we're all gearing up for some serious canvassing in the finals 8 days, I thought some of her methods would be really useful for this community:
When I go to the Bush houses my gut is telling me that I don't have much in common, but the key is building a rapor in the first 15 seconds (maybe less). Someone with an I always vote pro-life sticker doesn't want to hear what I have to say right off the bat, so start with something unrelated- from commenting about their dog, their jack-o-lantern, they have to see me as a person, not just an "other" that can't be spoken to. Then the key is making the call on whether or not this is a rational person. If this doesn't seem to be someone who can have a reasonable conversation with you, complement them on their jack-o-lantern and keep going.
If they seem rational, begin to engange them. Ask them what their main issues are.
The best and toughest issue is abortion. If they insist that life begins at conception, Amy agrees to take that point, and says, "Ok, if life begins at conception, how do we do everything that we can to lower the demand for abortions in America?", and then starts brainstorming. Lists include things like better access to child care, WIC, head start, even better access to birth control, health care, etc. Of course then she asks which candidate they think will support all of those programs, and they can't deny that it's the Democrat. Amy goes on to explain that she can understand being a single issue voter, and pro-life being that issue, but the question is when does being pro-life end. She tells me this method has been especially effective at convincing Catholic households to split their vote.
Another tactic when you're canvassing for someone other than Kerry as well, and this might make some people cringe, when people hit you with the, "I can't vote for this Kerry guy, he's too liberal line", tell them, "That's funny, that's like how I felt about Local Candidate X being too conservative for me, but I've been so impressed by how he's been working for the issues that matter to us", positioning Candidate X as a more moderate, reasonable person. Who cares if they think you're a left-wing loon?
Another suggestion was to go after Beauty salons. Beauty salons often employ young gay Men and 18-24 year old women. These people have power, and often progressive values- help them the best you can. Give them lit, precinct locations, anything they need.
One of the mistakes a lot of canvassers make is that they get to the door and the person who answers the door isn't on the list, the canvasser hands them the information and asks them to give the info to the person on the list. These are people who might be hospice workers, babysitters, etc, and are often "not on the list", this is a golden opportunity to reach a real voter lost. Even if they don't vote in the district you're working in, the fact that you've taken an extra minute to talk to them as a real person will leave a mark. Far too many people have ignored these people, we need to "Be the change we want."
Talk to the people who are outside- walking their dog, going to their car, etc. Start a chatty conversation and slip in your candidates name 4 or 5 times.
Don't take the base for granted. Stop at the houses with signs for you candidate in them and thank them for the signs, and the boost they gave to your morale. They might help you with some local intel or be an ally to go back to an undecided neighbor you just talked to. You'll be glad you did.
Amy's final advice: Have fun!! Too many people go canvassing worried someone is actually going to open the door. Out of thousands of doors, she's only encountered 3 bad experiences, and even those are now good stories. Even some of the Bush people who disagreed with all of her views thanked her for taking the time to get involved.
Good luck and happy knocking!