Welcome back, Saturday Campaign D.I.Y.ers! For those who tune in, welcome to the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. Each week we discuss issues that help drive successful campaigns. If you’ve missed prior diaries, please visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
In the end, every campaign has one goal: to secure enough votes to win. While we’d like to think that voting in America was so easy that everyone took it for granted, voting for many in American can be difficult or time-consuming. Getting voters to turn out and vote for your campaign, though is a necessity, so this week we’re going to talk about some of the strategies that can be put in place to help voter outreach in your down-ballot race.
For states with early voting and advanced voting
The voting guidelines differ state by state. In states that provide early voting in person, or advance voting via US Mail, campaigns have to work on an early voting turnout strategy. By getting voters to vote early, especially voters that you are confident are voters for your candidate, you continue to reduce the number of votes you chase every day.
Voter chase, or following up with voters you believe will vote for your candidate, is a big task. At this point in the election—two weeks out from election day—not a lot of effort is being put toward persuasion, far more work is being put into making sure that the voters you know are with you actually show up to vote. Campaigns only have so many volunteers or staff, especially small campaigns.
Campaigns receive frequent updates as we get into voting season, and they are quickly made aware of who has voted, and who still has yet to vote. This allows them to direct their resources accordingly.
Pro-Tip: if you’ve already voted but are in the district of a contested race, or have more than one voter in your house and you’ve all voted, go ahead and let potential canvassers know by putting an “I Voted” sign in your window or door, so that they can move on and hit voters who have not yet voted.
States with no early or advance voting
Unfortunately, we still have states with no early or advance voting. These states are election day only, or provide absentee ballots only with an acceptable excuse as to why the voter cannot vote in person on election day.
The second exception, true in many cases, is one that more Democratic campaigns need to work to provide. Many voters miss out on election day due to a physical disability or illness. These voters can normally get easy access to an absentee ballot with an acceptable reason. Individuals who are otherwise mobile but who use physical supports—like a wheelchair or other accessibility device—can often point to the use of that device as a limiting factor in their potential availability on election day. This provides for absentee voting.
Campaigns that work hard early and identify individuals who should vote absentee can get the benefit of voters who normally do not vote—but should absolutely have their vote counted. National groups have sometimes referred to this as “CripTheVote”.
While this answers turnout for one group, what do you do for the voters who must vote in person? Have a quick plan.
- Have volunteers and others aware of polling locations
- Make sure voters are aware that often services like the Bus, Lyft, Uber, and others will provide poll transportation
- Work with county and state organizations on local transport and support of potential voters
- Respect the legal polling place limits—do not get too close to a polling place on election day with any content that campaigns for or against a candidate
Early planning pays off
As your votes come in, keep track of methods that worked and didn’t work, and keep track of turnout in your precincts. Part of a great turnout plan is looking at past turnout efforts and seeing what did and did not work for your candidates. The best way to find yourself in trouble is to not pay attention to the past. History tells us a lot about district voter patterns, turnout, and difficulties in reaching voters.
The better campaigns log this information, the more they pass on to the next campaign that runs, even if it is their own re-elect. Keep track of these items whether a campaign wins or loses, because while the voter rolls can tell you who voted, they don’t tell you what effort was put in to get them to vote or what difficulties non-voters may have faced.
Building up institutional knowledge is critical to building up successful strategies.
Next week: Repeat! I’ll be working in on voter turnout efforts in Kansas, so next week will be a “best of” Nuts and Bolts!