There’s a steady routine to how Hope Springs from Field PAC [dated website] functions. We canvass on Saturdays in 14 Swing States but that is really the end of the week. After volunteers “return” (return being relative, most volunteers use Mini-VAN, which automatically collects and uploads their data. Those volunteers just “return” to the rest of their day), their data gets collected and, for those who don’t use Mini-VAN, gets entered into the system by another volunteer. So i’ll see preliminary — and, for the most part, most -- results that evening, or Sunday, depending on my travel schedule.
Most weekends, i join volunteers to canvass in one of these states and endeavor to talk to at least 10 voters in that state. I ask organizers (although sometimes i cut my own turf) to give me a walk list of at least 125 houses, which i’ve found over the decades is about 3 hours of knocking on doors for me. Now that’s not the size of the walk lists we give to volunteers during the Spring. I’ve been doing this kind of canvassing since 2006 (i won’t even try to tell you how long i’ve been knocking on doors, though) and i’ve developed a 6th sense about whether or not someone is home. Sometimes i guess wrong, but i am quick to turn around and engage a voter who unexpectedly (to me) opens their door.
It’s weird, but every week, even after decades of doing this, i get butterflies before i talk to the first voter. In my head, i’m thinking, why am i doing this? No one wants to talk to me. It’s time for younger people to take over! I’ve even been known to stumble through the first pitch at the door (Hi, i’m alan cottrell, a neighbor down the way and we’re...) — something i’ve said thousands of times. But the moment a voter starts to engage with me, it all rushes back to familiarity. Oh, yeah, that’s why i do this. And while voters talk, i’m trying to record as much of what they tell me, including how they tell it, as possible. As i’ve noted hundreds or more time since 2007, hope and change are words that voters used over and over in Iowa and that’s why the Obama campaign adopted it as their campaign theme. The Obama campaign listened to voters, and that’s why we beat the “inevitable” candidate that year.
This is not a story that my California friends (who were all in with Hillary back then) like to hear.
The point here, though, is i take my own experiences into looking at the data and comments each week. Sometimes the data reinforces what i found and the doors, and sometimes it doesn’t. Like i said, most of the data we collect is available to me right away, but not all. We have 64 canvasses going on right now (even though i am writing this on Friday, you are probably reading it on Saturday) and not a single one of them will have all volunteers using their phones to canvass with. Hell, not all our volunteers own smart phones, or would use their data plan for this purpose. That’s understood. This is not true everywhere, but we have at least one data volunteer who actually works with our canvassing volunteers to pick up their completed walk sheets every Saturday. But she also knows that Thursday is our deadline, so she’ll enter what she gets a little at a time, at her convenience i imagine, often not finishing up until Wednesday night. And Karen knows that she’s likely the last person entering data each week so she’s kind enough to send me an email telling me she’s done.
Is it weird that i look forward to that email every week???
On Thursdays, organizers send out emails to their volunteer lists. I mentioned previously that we were sending out 37,415 emails each week. That was two weeks ago, before we added Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Wisconsin to the list. Probably 85% of these email addresses come from the Obama era, through organizers who worked on those campaigns (and 3-5% come from Hillary presidential campaign organizers) and continue to help our voter contact canvasses.
I also make my 10/10/10 calls on Thursdays. Many of you will remember (because i talk about them) but i speak with 10 voters, 10 volunteers and 10 organizers (that latter of whom i initiate through text, and not all of which actually lead to phone calls) each week. This practice really started as a way to track odd data entries (amazingly, we’ve actually had volunteers try to fake their data in presidential campaigns) and after i got used to doing it (the telephone is not my natural means of communication), i added organizers to the list to (i tell myself) try to keep up morale. Obviously, i’ve not talked to every voter or volunteer that Hope Springs engages, but i definitely rotate through our organizer list every month or so.
Which brings us to the end of our week. On Fridays, we cut turf for the next day’s canvasses. This is always an adventure. On a good week (like this one), we’ll have more than a hundred volunteers cutting turf. I generally spend about 10 hours each week cutting turf (not always in the state i’ll be canvassing in). The only thing we insist on is that organizers or volunteers who cut turf for us have walked turf they have cut a couple of times before we use their work product for upcoming Saturdays. Rinse and repeat. Like i said, there’s a routine. My “work” week is full.
Last Saturday, we had 2,835 volunteers come out to canvass. We knocked on 206,889 doors in ten states last Saturday. At every door, we left a piece of literature promoting Democrats, which remains our biggest expense (by far).
Volunteers talked to 16,760 voters last Saturday. Of those, 10,687 voters answered questions on our Issues Survey, at least in part. Hitting 10 thousand is always on our metric list each year. When we start talking to 10,000 voters each week, it’s like we are really doing something. It’s good to have goals.
We have targeted 14 Swing States to knock on doors and will have volunteers canvassing in all of them this month. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Here’s the thing. We aren’t knocking in urban areas, for the most part (where state and local Democratic party orgs are stronger), but the swingy areas that tend to be suburban (or even ex-urban) — and where weather is more of a factor. But these are the areas that are deciding elections in the 21st century. And, in addition to our Issues Survey, through our Constituent Service Request forms and Incident Reports, we are directly connecting them with their state and local government. Not through our volunteers, but through their own words and actions.
