Tonight kicks off GOTV Week here in Ohio. One of our organizers had been calling it, “Speed Week” because everything has to be done fast. Our GOTV universe is now 38,876 households. This includes everything: voters who have told us over the last month they opposed Issue 1, voters who have told us over the last two years they were Abortion single voters, etc. Any voter that Hope Springs from Field PAC had indications they would vote to defeat this onerous changing in the voting laws. Yes, this is a smaller universe than reported yesterday or even this afternoon. People who have voted have been removed. Shrinking the universe is definitely the goal here.
578,961 Ohioans have voted early. We have no idea, yet, what to expect on Election Day. What we know is that we have to complete our GOTV plan, as it gives us the best chance for victory. We’ve been calling volunteers to remind them of the shifts they signed up for this weekend, and i did have a couple of people ask if they were still needed. Hell, yes! Run scared, like victory requires you to give everything you’ve got. I know i do.
385 volunteers reported tonight to drop off reminder lit to 38,876 households. The difference between a "lit drop" and knocking on doors is that you don't knock. It’s an extra reminder about Early Voting having weekend hours although we did not anticipate this much media coverage. One extra thing we could do to get those voters who have told us they care about it to the polls.
County boards of election are open today until 7:30 p.m. for Early Voting but Saturday hours were shortened (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.), and Sunday, they will be open from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. We do have one driver at each GOTV staging location who will drive anyone to the Early Voting centers if needed.
Our campaign GOTV plan in Ohio is incredibly traditional, comprising of 3 phases — the last two actually running concurrently with the first.
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Phase 1 is our hybrid GOTV/Issues Canvass, which is ongoing through August 6th. We are knocking on doors in the suburbs of the major metro regions, prioritizing Democratic households. Even though this is a hybrid approach, we are weeding out voter households where everyone has already voted.
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Phase 2 is pure GOTV. This has already begun. Voters who we have identified as opposing Issue 1 will receive follow-up until the voter file (VAN) tells us they have voted. This is really a kitchen sink effort, and voters do ask, “How can I get off this list?” Pretty simple, you go vote and *we* won’t contact you again after your vote is acknowledged by the elections board. Early voting in Ohio began a couple of weeks ago.
- Phase 3 is Ballot (or signature) Curing. Often, we will reach voters before they even receive their official notice their ballot is missing the required signature for their vote to count. Voters have until August 15th to remedy the issue.
Tomorrow, we expect more than a thousand volunteers (including volunteers who have come in to Ohio from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Georgia) for our normal GOTV/Issues Canvass. The big difference between what we did in the last 4 weekends is that voters who want to vote early will be transported to the polls, if needed. We call this "dragging voters" to the polls! Perhaps half of that will come out to canvass on Sunday (the only Sunday where Early Voting occurs (Saturday as well)).
Monday Night will see our final lit drop. Monday's lit drop occurs not only to remind voters to go vote Tuesday, but also to mark houses where no one has picked up the lit. During the day on Monday, organizers will cut drivable turf for Monday night and Tuesday's 3 rounds of Running Down the Vote.
We will be doing Ballot Curing until the vote is called. We have been doing test runs of this for 2 weeks and we feel really prepared for the next week!
An incredibly large number of people have been casting early in-person ballots, in quantities more reminiscent of an off-year general election rather than a special election. 578,961 Ohioans have voted early, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. There is just a lot of interest in Issue 1 and the August election. By directing these GOTV efforts, Hope Springs from Field should facilitate greater turnout on the Vote No side.
We expect ~50 volunteers from other states to help with GOTV this weekend. Several have already arrived (like me). 28 other organizers helped cut turf for the weekend’s efforts in their home states, in addition to turf they cut for canvassing in their own states. Monday is going to be insane in this regard!
And we continue our special outreach to New Voters (and not just new voters Hope Springs volunteers registered). We are reminding those who recently registered using a paper form or updated their registration must provide additional identification for the first time this year: either an Ohio driver’s license, ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
And we continue our special outreach to New Voters (and not just new voters Hope Springs volunteers registered). We are reminding those who recently registered using a paper form or updated their registration must provide additional identification for the first time this year: either an Ohio driver’s license, ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
We are asking for your help here. Our primary expenses for this grassroots-driving effort is VAN (the voter file Democrats use) and literature. Expanding our efforts — hitting more doors — means we have to pay more for VAN. We also need to provide clipboards for our volunteers, since we use the Issues Survey as a guide and we like volunteers to show voters the survey, as well as have something for voters to support Constituent Service Request forms when they fill out one.
If you are able to donate to our efforts to fight against Issue 1, identify abortion rights supporters, protect our voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, please help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hope4ohio
If you would rather send a check, you can follow that link for our mailing address at the bottom of the page. Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!