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.
For the month of July we’ve spent some time talking about county parties and basic organization, but our fictional candidate, Jessica Jones, has still been hard at work on her run for state Senate. If you missed earlier installments, you know that she drew a last minute challenger and now Jessica Jones is having to work to make sure she prevails in her primary.
This week, we’re going to talk about the importance of Get Out The Vote operations, poll watchers, and keeping track of your win number.
The Beginnings of GOTV
If you ask almost anyone who has been a part of a campaign, nothing matters nearly as much as making sure that your voters get out to the polls. Jessica Jones is certainly focusing on that fact. Over the last year, she’s worked to identify voters who are friendly to her, especially in a Democratic primary, and she’s now making sure they turn out to vote.
Her get out the vote operation can include many things: phone banking, notifications, auto-text alerts, and some extra door knocking to help turn out voters.
Because Jessica lives in a state with a period of early voting, part of her process is also lowering her turnout number day by day by making sure her voters get to the poll early. The more votes Jessica can bank before election day, they less she has to worry about turnout problems with last minute pressure attached.
Jessica can also get updates during early voting on how many voters have participated, and in many counties in the US, she can find out how many of her voters have been to the polls. This can help save time in her efforts to turn out her voters.
Poll Watchers and Services
You wouldn’t think of watching polls as a GOTV effort, after all, it’s aimed at protecting the vote and making sure that people have the ability to vote. But that basic service is, in fact, a critical element of GOTV. If your voter gets to the poll and is confused, or if the polling place is difficult to manage, then you can lose a vote.
Having poll watchers can make sure that your voters who get to the polls are able to participate in full. They can also help provide campaigns with running information as to who is NOT voting, or needs to get to the poll. This kind of information again can help target your work.
The larger the race you are in, the more unwieldy this kind of data is, the smaller the race you face, the more value this data has to your campaign. Jessica Jones Senate race will feature about 35,000 registered voters, with an expected turnout of around 17,000. If Jessica Jones’ campaign has done their pre-work, they can make sure her voters get to the polls.
Remember, poll watchers are not campaigning … by law, they cannot campaign or promote a candidate. Silent support of election judges and making sure people understand the process is something that serves a purpose, no matter who they are helping. Talk to your local county or city election officers and they can give you the guidelines in your municipality for participation.
Fight to the End
Remember, the primary campaign only changes at the close of voting on primary day. While you get to sit back and watch the vote totals, you also have to keep track of how successful your turnout efforts were for the candidate.
For Jessica Jones, keeping track of her successes, what works and doesn’t, will be key in evaluating strategies for the general election. Primaries are normally lower turnout then general elections, but they give you a chance to identify how to make your race for the state office successful later.
While Jessica watches her numbers come in, her campaign can take time looking at the voter model they used to determine if they are making good or bad assessments of their own race.
Final Thoughts
Jessica Jones, our fictional senate candidate, will go through several stages on election night. Election nights are emotional roller coasters for candidates, because unless they are unopposed, they can be harrowing. Candidates never win 100 percent of the vote, but most candidates spend at least a few minutes thinking “why did 40 percent vote against me?” even in a 20 point win. We all have a bit of that, the desire to feel universally liked.
Good campaigns, even campaigns that know they will not succeed, should walk into an election night feeling at least somewhat invested in the outcome, and that rollercoaster can be hard, but it can also teach you about why you run.
Today at 5PM CST: AARGH! Campaign Funds.. NOT Your Personal Checkbook.
Next Week: General Election. Let’s Talk to Some Republicans
Nuts & Bolts: Building Democratic Campaigns
Contact the Daily Kos group Nuts and Bolts by kosmail (members of Daily Kos only).
Every Saturday this group will chronicle the ins and outs of campaigns, small and large. Issues to be covered: Campaign Staffing, Fundraising, Canvass, Field Work, Data Services, Earned Media, Spending and Budget Practices, How to Keep Your Mental Health, and on the last Saturday of the month: “Don’t Do This!” a diary on how you can learn from the mistakes of campaigns in the past.
You can follow prior installments in this series HERE.