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Summer Wrap-up: What Hope Springs Volunteers Did in AZ, FL, GA, MI, MT, NC, NV, OH, PA, WI & VA [1]

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Date: 2023-09-07

The need is even greater in states where this is not the case. For numerous reasons, we have key states where the Democratic party has just fallen apart. Florida . Pennsylvania . Nevada . Hopefully, things are looking up in Florida and Nevada, but we have to wait for 2024 to really get a good handle on that.

What a Summer! Hope Springs from Field PAC has three core missions: first, Early Organizing with direct, personal voter contact (knocking on doors); second, Special Elections, in the attempt to replicate the kind of extra personnel that Republicans and conservative orgs mobilize in contested elections; and, third, GOTV and Voter/Election Protection. This is in recognition that, now, almost every ballot contest is nationalized and that even in states where the Democratic Party remains well-organized, well-funded and well-led, there is still a need for outside allies to contribute in highly-visible competitive elections. We can’t compete if we tie one hand behind our backs.

There are other states where the Democratic party hasn’t been a factor for years, and needs work to revive. Arizona. Montana. West Virginia. You could add Florida to this mix.

Then you can look at the upper Midwest, in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, to see Democratic parties that are really key to the elections in their states. Like they are supposed to be. These are states where candidates don’t have to second guess a coordinated committee or wonder if there are other things motivating general election decisions by their state party. This doesn’t mean they don’t need help, especially in the face of all the conservative orgs out there who are trying to pull voters away from Democrats. It just means that help is a plus, not a substitution for things the party ought to be doing.

Since March 4, Hope Springs from Field volunteers have been knocking on doors (as weather permitted) in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia. These all are critical states that will determine who is President and which party controls the Senate in 2025. So, not much at stake.

Between June 3rd and August 26th, Hope Springs volunteers completed 40,211 volunteer shifts. This is about 8 thousand more volunteer shifts than we completed last summer (but we are in 3 more states, so).

Last year, we knocked on 2,217,285 doors over the Summer. This Summer, Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 2,964,410 doors; again in 3 more states than we knocked in last year. This was fairly close to the 2,984,214 doors we knocked on for all of last year. But our (the Obama campaign called them “Super”) volunteers made it a mission to double the volunteer-driven 3 Million Doors knocked from last year. The 6 Million Doors goal seems far off, though; we have (so far) only knocked on 3,496,307 doors this year and we have stopped canvassing in Florida and Virginia and we expect to be weathered out in Montana and Wisconsin (probably Michigan, as well) this month.

Opens = Voters Contacted Ea Wk

Hope Springs from Field volunteers had conversations with 207,304 voters this Spring. This was an open rate of almost 7% (6.99%), quite a bit lower than Spring’s open rate of 8.9%. Yep, weather matters, and our weekly open rate fell as August burned through.

We continue to run into Republican and conservative org canvassers (and canvassing teams). This Summer, we saw GOP-linked canvassing teams in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia. I expected to see them in Pennsylvania, as well, and we have had volunteers in the Atlanta area tell us they expect it there. For the most part, we have seen them on the streets, and we haven’t had any volunteer reports that they have seen literature left behind at our target doors by the other side. For the most part, we aren’t knocking on the doors of GOP voters, but we will knock on doors of “mixed” households (where, for example, the wife was a Democrat and the husband was Republican). Some of our volunteers tell us they aren’t comfortable knocking on doors where there is Trump-related signage, and you really can’t blame them.

We walked with an Issues Survey, where we ask voters what they think and whether they had a message for their elected officials. This Summer, 138,013 voters answered questions from the survey, in whole or in part. Because we make showing the survey to the voter as we are saying hello, we get a pretty good response and using the questions as jumping off points, voters really self-direct through the process.

We did not correlate responses to the “what single issue will you vote on” responses, but they are all entered into VAN (the Democratic database — which happens to be our biggest expense every month). And it is (probably) the most valuable piece of information for Democratic candidates who access VAN in the Fall from all the work we have done.

Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors since March in a grassroots effort to prepare the 2024 Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are canvassing Democrats and unaffiliated voters with 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/hopemobilization

Hope Springs from Field understands that volunteer to voter personal interactions are critical. Knocking on doors has repeatedly been found to be the most successful tactic to get voters to cast a ballot and that is the goal of what we do.

Voter Registrations

We found 990 people at the door who wanted to complete brand new voter registration forms this Summer. Another 4,742 voters updated their address, as required by HAVA. We differentiate between the two because brand new voters are often ignored by campaigns and we hope to compensate for that somewhat by having volunteers send them post cards before the election and they are also getting robocalls thanking them for registering. Voters registered at the door at only a part of our effort. We have also been involved in helping partnering (Black) churches in registering their members. Those are not included here.

We collected 9,102 Constituent Service Request forms this Summer. In general, we send these to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican, we still send it along. For Democrats, though, we encourage them to reach out immediately to the voter who filled out the CSR and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.

What we never expected was that elected Democrats would turn up to canvass with us (or send staff to do so) “to understand how we are collecting this data.” I always tell people who ask that CSRs come (to my attention, anyway) from the machine pols in Chicago who used them as a way to connect with voters and have something for canvassers to talk about in their multiple rounds of canvassing. Because Democrats believe in the good that government can do, asking voters if they need government services not only makes voters and elected officials happy, but volunteers love them. Even in Montana, where we have collected relatively fewer CSRs than elsewhere!

We continue to walk with Incident Reports, and (so far) we collected 154 from people who say they are concerned about the upcoming general election and say have witnessed something. Last year, during the election year, 869 voters filled them out. These reports are the basis for Phase 2 of our GOTV efforts that began after Labor Day. We have dedicated volunteers who take these Incident Reports and complete the information so that they are as useful as possible, before, on and after Election Day.

We pass along Incident Reports to the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and NALEO (those that correspond to Hispanic precincts), and send copies to state Democratic Party committees. But our purpose is to combine this information with the two independent databases of voting incidents to look for patterns before the election and use that information for warning district, state and U.S. attorneys’ offices that we could see those patterns resurface on election day. We will also use it to target Election Day Protection activity. We have also been asking voters in Georgia and North Carolina whether they have the required photo ID they will have to present to poll workers in order to vote. We don’t just ask voters this at their door, we are also working with Black Churches in these states to help spread the message and to organize Voter ID days in their local Registrar’s/BOE office. These stats (below) reflect the numbers Hope Springs volunteers have found at the doors.

In Georgia, Hope Springs from Field conducted conducted 56 Voter ID days in the last election cycle and helped 18,478 voters get the photo ID cards they needed to vote. We have held 4 Voter ID days (in Georgia) this Summer, helping 174 voters get their freed Photo IDs from their county’s Registrar’s Office. We have scheduled another 4 Voter ID days for the Fall in the Atlanta metro area and 3 more in southern Georgia. So far, canvassers have found 418 voters who told us they need a photo ID to comply with current law. This does not include any voters from the Black Churches we have partnered with in this regard.

In North Carolina, where the law was recently altered by the state courts, we have found 984 voters at the doors who told us they needed the necessary photo IDs. This is a product of the recent court ruling overturning a prior state Supreme Court ruling outlawing the requirement. The state is struggling to equip the county Board of Elections with the supplies needed. We have held 5 Voter ID days and each time, the BoE was unable to provide IDs for all the voters who showed up. 91% of those voters are African-American.

224 North Carolina voters have received their Photo Voters IDs so far through our efforts but, clearly, more has to be done.

By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with these really, really onerous provisions in some states, Hope Springs from Field PAC seeks to undermine that strategy, while informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them. There’s a lot of work to be done, but fortunately, the three states that are making it most difficult are also states in which you can knock on doors at least 10 months out of the year. And, with your help, we will be there, getting our people to super-comply with these restrictive provisions.

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/hopemobilization

If you would prefer to send a check, you can follow that link for our mailing address, as well. Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!

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