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.
Everyone who thinks about helping a campaign run has questions, and every few months, I try to make sure some of the best questions sent get answers. This week, we’re going to cover questions built around your field campaign.
There is nothing more important in a campaign than your field work. Making sure you actually get voters out to vote? That’s the ballgame. I’ve collected some of the best questions about field campaigns, and we’re going to cover some of them this week.
How early should we start a field campaign?
The top question I receive on field campaigns is how early is too early to start a field campaign? There is always pushback on starting field work early in a campaign. Some of the reasons given are that people move, registration changes or model development. There are those who believe that fieldwork begins post-primary.
Successful campaigns will tell you that successful field work is an ongoing effort from the beginning of the campaign through election day. State and county party organizations can treat fieldwork as an ongoing effort, regardless of candidates, in on and off-election years.
Time and resources are limited; campaigns can raise more money, they can cut more ads, but the one thing they can’t do is generate more time. Maintaining an active field campaign throughout your election efforts helps make sure you make maximum contact with the voters you need to win. Effective canvass also improves through sustained effort.
Last minute canvass can get some things done, but effectiveness is generated by sustained effort, every time.
Should we use paid canvass?
When many people talk about paid canvass, they are thinking about individuals being paid hourly to walk door to door for the campaign. Paid canvass can be a subject of a lot of heated debate. Many state and county organizations, as well as small campaign staff, are not fans of paid canvass. In most cases, this is because those organizations view the administration and payroll work required to maintain a paid canvass as an overhead expense a campaign can’t sacrifice. Some are also opposed to the idea of paying individuals to walk, period.
In many cases, these issues are resolved by having outside entities contracted to handle payroll expenses, removing that burden.
All campaigns have some level of volunteer work, especially in field campaigns. But volunteer only field work creates its own management issue. Volunteers, though, rarely work on a set schedule that gives a campaign a guaranteed number of hours in the field and a provable metric of how many doors they are knocking.
Most importantly, though, volunteer canvass can’t be fired. I know, this sounds harsh. However, in almost every campaign, you’ll hear at least one story of a campaign dealing with volunteers who occupy far too much time of the campaign staff. With paid canvass, they can be let go. With volunteers, that's far more difficult.
I also remind people we are the Democratic Party. We believe people deserve to be paid fairly for their work. Volunteers can work some time, but if you are counting on someone working 20-40 hours a week consistently walking? They should be compensated.
Should we use tablets?
For decades, good fieldwork has been done by individuals with clipboards, walk sheets, and a pen. You’d walk, fill out the data, and turn the data in at the end of the day. The use of paper and clipboards isn’t going to end anytime soon, however, more campaigns are turning to tablets and the reasons to do so are pretty overwhelming.
- Cheap tablets with GPS service are available almost everywhere. These tablets provide your canvassers with a map that can guide them from location to location, making their canvassing more effective.
- Tablets can automatically sync over cellular service, or transmit data when WiFi is detected. Instead of manual data entry, this provides a pretty clean way to keep track of your data and lowers your in office needs.
- Tablets can show those managing the canvass a proof-of-field; in other words, the field manager can verify that a canvasser actually did visit those doors. In better cases, you can see how long your canvass is taking at the door, and how much time is being used in between. This allows you to find out who is an effective canvasser and those who might need to do something else.
- Younger volunteers and paid field are much more interested in working with tablets than pen and paper.
Even if tablets aren’t dispensed to every canvasser, you should work to have them in the hands of several. Cycle after cycle, organizations can build up how many they have available to those who need them at a limited turnover expense.
Have another question?
There are always more questions about mounting field campaigns. Feel free to ask in the comments or send me a private message or email.
Next Week: Campaign Messaging 101.