(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Things Voters Say, Signs They Leave. Early Canvassing preps the Electoral Battlefield for 2024. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2023-05-02
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been canvassing Democrats and unaffiliated voters in Senate (and now Electoral College) Swing or Battleground States since the first Georgia Senate Runoffs with a systematic approach design to heighten voter engagement with our Democratic candidates in general elections. We knock on doors with an Issues Survey and Observation forms and periodically i like to convey some of the more interesting things voters have told our volunteers in states like Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, etc. Instead of persuasion (which is more appropriate for the third and fourth rounds of the traditional five-round canvass), our volunteers are more conversational, allowing voters to lead them through the Issues Survey. This gives them the opportunity to tell us what they are thinking about, which can be pretty funny and even insightful at times. We record these insights on Observation Forms, which, if appropriate, will also be noted in VAN (the Democratic database) available to Democrats who use VAN in the general election. I posted this one of FB yesterday, but it bears repeating. We have been canvassing for the last three summers in Central Florida (i know, it’s not exactly summer yet everywhere, but Florida only has two seasons (Summer and mild Winters, otherwise known as hurricane and snowbird seasons)), where there has been a noticeable change in attitudes about Gov. Ron DeSantis. One voter told a volunteer who knocked on her door that, "you can really tell how they feel about Florida by watching your TV carefully. For Disney, Florida is all sunshine and happiness. For Ron DeSantis, it's all fear, gloom and doom. That tells you everything you need to know." In the hot, hot, hot! Phoenix area, volunteers this weekend got multiple comments (complaints) about the number of texts and emails from the Biden campaign. Volunteers passed this along to organizers and they made sure i was aware. Hopefully no one imagined there was something we could do about it, but i hear ya! We get them, too. But it says something about targeting. We also had a voter fill out a Q(uestion)-slip, asking why Kevin McCarthy is travelling when he’s demanding a meeting with President Biden. “Can’t he go on vacation in the summer, when everyone else does?” Not sure who we would give that one to. But after i wrote that, i see that this is now a White House talking point, so it seems that voter was not alone in his question. We continue to hear questions, complaints and comments about Kyrsten Sinema’s party change. The first set were after something in the Phoenix media, and now they are more periodic. Early comments were along the lines of Sinema’s defection would give the far-right nuts a chance to win but she isn’t polling as strong as she was as a Democrat and Democrats (and Republicans, for that matter) are united behind their party’s nominee. Now we will hear comments like, “Can she even win?” Rubin Gallego’s name recognition is increasing, as well. That has to help.
Because volunteers use a conversational tone when canvassing, we train them to be transparent when writing things down (like Q-slips or Observation Forms). Instead of writing face to face, we encourage them to record data side by side, and, when writing, encouraging the voter to watch carefully to “make sure we got it right.” We are emboldening voter confidence in elections and the process itself. And we do this because we know that voter confidence in elections makes them more likely to vote.
In fact, everything we do at the door is designed to give voters a reason to vote. In our case, it’s not the message (that’s for candidates and their campaigns), it’s the process. Voter registration (and followup!); asking voters about what is important to them in our Issues Survey; writing out Q-slips so that candidate’s campaigns can respond to them; Incident Reports, if voters have experience with voter suppression or intimidation; even our 10 follow-up calls to voters that week, to thank them for sharing their insight and answer any questions they might have. Voter engagement should be continuous, especially in minority communities, where the everyday fight for survival (especially in terms of the American Dream) can mean voting is less a matter of trust than choices about how to best spend the voter’s time when ballots are being cast.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors again since March in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of Democrats and unaffiliated voters in a systematic approach that reminds them not only that Democrats care, but Democrats are determined to deliver the best government possible to all Americans.
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/fistfulofsteel
Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that volunteer to voter personal interactions are critical. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are, helping voters to understand the importance of super-compliance with these new voting restrictions that Republicans keep enacting. 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 (and can be) cured (in states that allow it).
We like to think we are following the science, trying to turn infrequent voters into more reliable voters. But our work is not charitable. The primary purpose of first round canvassing is to identify the electorate more in terms of finding people who have moved, both because HAVA requires that voters live at the address where they currently reside and to save campaigns money by not sending direct mail to addresses where the voter no longer lives.
Realtors tell us all the time that Republicans are more likely to own a home and are less transient than Democrats. It takes a long, sustained voter contact program to identify voters who have moved and is not something that a late summer/fall canvass that most campaigns run is going to find.
So while we are not hearing from voters that they “don’t want Biden or Trump not to run again” (not sure who would respond that way given the questions we are asking), we are (re) registering lots of voters at their new (and current) addresses in the Senate and Electoral College Swing States — more than 750 so far. 120 of those have been brand new voters, people who had never registered in their Swing State before.
In the Summer, of course, we will renew our efforts to locate voters who have been purged from their state’s voter rolls (most often through the flawed NCOA process) and get photo IDs for those don’t have them in states that now require photo identification in order to vote.
We do find that this sustained, systematic approach makes voters more willing to talk to our volunteers and share things with us about their neighborhood and neighbors.
Sometimes we don’t even have to talk to a voter to find out how they feel. Whether they put it in their window, or fly a flag, or put on a bumper sticker, they are telling us something about themselves. Of course, the best clues are always chalk that children mark up driveways or sidewalks, gold (or blue) stars they put up. We always record these notes in VAN, so that the campaigns that follow have access to these observations.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or the Electoral College in 2024, as well as Congressional Districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year (specifically those where a Republican won a Congressional District that voted for Biden in 2022). There is a lot of work to be done! Especially since we have had to expand the map this year.
By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with these really, really onerous provisions, Hope Springs from Field PAC seeks to undermine that strategy, while informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them.
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 help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/fistfulofsteel
Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/2/2166855/-Things-Voters-Say
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
