Last Saturday, Hope Springs from Field PAC led canvasses in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Half of the planned canvassing in Texas, as well as that in Florida, was cancelled because of the approach of another hurricane (the spaghetti models spooked Houston and the sunshine state), and canvassing in Pennsylvania was never scheduled because of the interest by volunteers there to go to Washington, D.C. for the voting rights march. It was the last canvass for the summer, with things on pause for Labor Day weekend (we expect to take a two weekend pause before continuing where we can — weather permitting, obviously).
281 volunteers came out to knock on doors last Saturday. They knocked on 21,027 doors, and talked to 2,525 voters. For the record, this is slightly less than 9 voters contacted per volunteer. I always shoot for 10 but it is what it is (10 is a target, 8 seems to be the norm over the years).
We knocked on doors in masks and those who brought their vaccination card wore the button (in Wisconsin, everyone who walked had to be vaxxed). Some people also wore disposable gloves. People asked us about the button, and we definitely feel like that they are reassured. That is just where we are right now.
We have been walking with an Issues Canvass, where we ask voters what they think and whether they had a message for their elected officials. 1,663 completed the questionnaire, in whole or in part. Almost everyone who responded answered at least two of the questions (‘do you have a message for your Congress critter’ and ‘what is their opinion of the job Biden is doing’). 965 voters said they have a favorable opinion of Biden, which is definitely lower (significantly lower) than we have been hearing in the past. 545 voters said they didn’t have an opinion of Biden at this time. 153 said they had a negative impression and this week, instead of those who expressed an unfavorable opinion self-identifying overwhelmingly as either progressive or very liberal, the majority of those who said they had a negative opinion of Biden self-identified as “independent.”
For the fifth week in a row, Covid or the Delta variant was the number 1 issue people mentioned last Saturday. Schools and children was number 2. Events in Afghanistan was number 3. Inflation or the increase in costs was number 4. So much for the care-free summer many of us hoped for!
6,810 robocalls were made into North Carolina in search of people whose voting rights were restored last week. This “emergency” effort drew volunteers away from our Georgia canvass, and it was mainly what you’d call “super volunteers” who went. It definitely made a difference in our Georgia canvass, and instead of being (consistently) second on the number of volunteers who came out each week, Georgia ended up last. This was also the result of not scheduling a canvass in Pennsylvania, which never had 56 volunteers show up on a Saturday this summer.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights. We are thinking about how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," both informing and helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopefield
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate and our cause. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured.
229 people filled out new voter registration forms for their states during the canvassing and another 88 people registered to vote at the (black) churches our volunteers went to and (I think in every case) spoke to on Sunday in North Carolina. 138 voters updated their address (as required by HAVA). These increased numbers was because of our push in North Carolina. We get mentors for 30 new voters (and are going to need a lot more).
We continue to walk with Incident Reports and collected 41 new Incident Reports. We pass along Incident Reports to the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and NALEO (those that correspond to Hispanic precincts), and send copies to state Democratic Party committees. But our purpose is to combine this information with the two independent databases of voting incidents to look for patterns before the election and use that information for warning district, state and U.S. attorneys’ offices that we could see those patterns resurface on election day.
We collected 16 Constituent Service Request Forms this week. In general, we send these to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican, we still send it along. For Democrats, though, we encourage them to reach out immediately to the voter who filled out the CSR and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.
These canvasses are organized and led by (mostly) Obama field alums who have volunteered their time in their states to get this effort off the ground. Their work, knowledge and skill sets are invaluable.
Our main expenses (right now) are typical canvassing materials (water, snacks, walk packets, lit, buttons and access to VAN) as well as the mobile printers we are purchasing to comply with the voter ID requirements in several states. The 6,810 robocalls cost less than one cent a call. At this time, all the money we raise is devoted to this. This is about to change. But this summer, we relied upon the Obama alumni network for organizers and cutting turf. We need to bring in other field organizers as we are able, especially since many of the people who were cutting turf now will want to devote more of their volunteer time to the candidates and causes they support.
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopefield
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!