For the last few weeks, we have been combining our canvass target list with partner Black Church’s list of congregants who appear to be unregistered (but eligible to register to vote). Some of these churches believe that they have potential members who could be registered but don’t want to identify themselves publicly (or (which seems to me more likely) have not attended when they have Voter Education Sundays). Regardless, we are already knocking on doors in these areas, and it doesn’t change anything to add a note that there may be someone who can be registered at an address. Volunteers actually like it — meaning, we have volunteers who ask for turf where these people exist.
164 volunteers came out to knock on doors on Saturday with Hope Springs from Field PAC. We are still knocking on doors in the silver “Toss Up” Congressional District (NC-13; an Open (R+3) where Democrat state Senator Wiley Nickel will compete against Bo Hines (R) in November) south of Raleigh, as well as in Robeson, Rowan and Chatham Counties. We continue to use our Issues Questionnaire as a conversational tool, offer Constituent Service Request forms (and incident reports for those who have witnessed election malfeasance) and left our lit at every door on our lists. On Saturday, 523 voters answered questions from the Issues Survey, and their responses are entered into VAN (the Democratic database) available to Democrats who use VAN after Labor Day
The Economy topped our list of concerns with the voters we talked to on Saturday. Gun Violence was the second most frequent response and Inflation was third. We heard a lot additional comments about Reproductive Rights and Gun Violence in the “Anything to add” or message to Congress query.
Voter views of President Biden have rising (which is notable or strange given the media right now). 58% of the voters we talked to expressed approval of President Biden in North Carolina on Saturday. 12% expressed disapproval in the job the president was doing. Governor Cooper (who is term-limited and can’t run for re-election) had 58% job approval from the voters who answered their doors and responded to the questionnaire. Democratic Senate nominee Cheri Beasley had 73% approval.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First Round of a traditional Five Round Canvass. 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, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2022senateswing
Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that 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 — and we didn’t register new voters (while Republicans dud). 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.
We knock on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters. At every door, we leave a piece of “show the flag” lit, something that tells them we were there and hopefully reinforces the Democratic brand. The lit focuses on the things voters told us were important to them last fall, aiming to appeal to every voter. Far and away the number one issue that the voters we talked to in the Senate Swing States last year was inflation or price increases, and I imagine that concern has only increased.
We ask people who open their doors about local concerns, and specifically whether they need services delivered to their neighborhood. 71 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms last Saturday. 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 Constituent Service Request forms and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.
We also ask voters in the Issues Survey if they have any concerns about the upcoming elections. Voters who tell us they have experience voter intimidation or other problems with voting are asked to fill out Incident Reports. We found 4 voters who wanted to fill out an Incident Report in North Carolina on Saturday. We collate these Incident Reports, to be shared with local, state and federal officials in charge of voting, as well as use them to plan out our Election Protection strategy in the fall. They could also be used in court cases.
But asking — and collecting — Incident Reports has a second purpose at this time. We are reminding voters that we care about Election Protection, that if they witness something, they can say something and it will matter. It also assures them that we are ready to do something if they see something.
We registered (or corrected Voter Addresses, aka re-registered) 77 voters last Saturday. Of the new voter registrations, 15 of them came as suggestions from our partner Church’s Elections Committees. And while we probably would have knocked on their doors anyway, the very fact that we alerted volunteers to the potential of having an unregistered person at the address has meant volunteers were aware and more determined to register voters there. While one volunteer asked her organizer why they didn’t always have this information (in prior canvasses) the amount of organization, partnerships and trust here takes time to develop. We are merely expanding upon the AME model we found in Georgia last year.
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/2022senateswing
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!