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Friday Night (GOTV) Lights in Ohio and the Pittsburgh Region [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-11-03
385,768 Ohioans have voted early , but this is the same number reported last time. The Ohio Secretary of State has not updated its website since it dropped the October 26th numbers. So we really have no idea, yet, what to expect on Election Day. What we know is that we have to complete our GOTV plan, as it gives us the best chance for victory. We’ve been calling volunteers to remind them of the shifts they signed up for this weekend, and i did have a couple of people ask if they were still needed. Hell, yes! Run scared, like victory requires you to give everything you’ve got. I know i do.
Today i am at the Obama Alumni Reunion in Chicago but we drove out and i stopped to see organizers and lead volunteers in Akron, the Cleveland suburbs and several counties just east of Toledo. On Sunday, we return on the “southern route,” where i’ll do the same with volunteers and organizers in the Dayton-Columbus areas. Our plans aren’t different than the Summer, but the numbers we are dealing with have increased dramatically. People come out when there is something they care about!
Tonight kicks off GOTV Week here in Ohio , as well as the Alleghany suburbs in Pennsylvania . One of our organizers calls it, “Speed Week” because everything has to be done fast, but i think they are just a racing buff. Our GOTV universe is currently 109,316 households . This includes everything: voters who have told us over the last month they opposed Issue 1, voters who have told us over the last two years they were Abortion single voters, etc. Any voter that Hope Springs from Field PAC had indications they would vote to defeat this onerous changing in the voting laws. This number is almost three times higher than we had in August.
739 volunteers are signed up tonight in Ohio to drop off reminder lit to our incredibly expanding GOTV universe. The difference between a "lit drop" and knocking on doors is that you don't knock. It’s an extra reminder about Early Voting having weekend hours although we did not anticipate this much media coverage. One extra thing we can do to get those voters who have told us they care about it to the polls.
County boards of election are open today until 7:30 p.m. for Early Voting but Saturday hours were shortened (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.), and Sunday, they will be open from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. We do have one driver at each GOTV staging location who will drive anyone to the Early Voting centers if needed.
Our campaign GOTV plan in Ohio is incredibly traditional, comprising of 3 phases — the last two actually running concurrently with the first.
Phase 1 is our hybrid GOTV/Issues Canvass , which is ongoing through August 6th. We are knocking on doors in the suburbs of the major metro regions, prioritizing Democratic households. Even though this is a hybrid approach, we are weeding out voter households where everyone has already voted.
Phase 2 is pure GOTV . This has already begun. Voters who we have identified as opposing Issue 1 will receive follow-up until the voter file (VAN) tells us they have voted. This is really a kitchen sink effort, and voters do ask, “How can I get off this list?” Pretty simple, you go vote and *we* won’t contact you again after your vote is acknowledged by the elections board. Early voting in Ohio began a couple of weeks ago.
Phase 3 is Ballot (or signature) Curing. Often, we will reach voters before they even receive their official notice their ballot is missing the required signature or photo ID for their vote to count.
Tomorrow, we expect more than a thousand volunteers (including volunteers who have come in to Ohio from Michigan, Illinois, New York and New Jersey) for our normal GOTV/Issues Canvass. The big difference between what we did in the last 4 weekends is that voters who want to vote early will be transported to the polls, if needed. We call this "dragging voters" to the polls! Perhaps half of that will come out to canvass on Sunday (the only Sunday where Early Voting occurs (Saturday as well)).
Monday Night will see our final lit drop. Monday's lit drop occurs not only to remind voters to go vote Tuesday, but also to mark houses where no one has picked up the lit. During the day on Monday, organizers will cut drivable turf for Monday night and Tuesday's 3 rounds of Running Down the Vote.
We will be doing Ballot Curing until the vote is called. We have been doing test runs of this for 2 weeks and we feel really prepared for the next week!
We go into this final period with positive news:
Democratic and nonpartisan voters in Ohio are winning the vote-by-mail fight in the November election on abortion and marijuana, an OCJ/WEWS analysis found. Despite being an off-year, elections workers say early voting numbers are exceeding expectations.
Democratic strongholds are surpassing early voting expectations. Polls are also positive. By directing these GOTV efforts, Hope Springs from Field should facilitate greater turnout on the Yes Vote side.
We expect ~50 volunteers from other states to help with GOTV this weekend. 41 other organizers helped cut turf for the weekend’s efforts in their home states, in addition to turf they cut for canvassing in their own states. Monday is going to be insane in this regard!
And we continue our special outreach to New Voters (and not just new voters Hope Springs volunteers registered). We are reminding those who recently registered using a paper form or updated their registration must provide additional identification for the first time this year: either an Ohio driver’s license, ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. And we continue our special outreach to New Voters (and not just new voters Hope Springs volunteers registered). We are reminding those who recently registered using a paper form or updated their registration must provide additional identification for the first time this year: either an Ohio driver’s license, ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. We are duplicating this approach in Alleghany county suburbs, as well. Dozens of Pittsburgh area volunteers went to Ohio both in the Summer and the last couple of weeks, and they are leading efforts to turn out Democrats for the important judicial and county executive elections. While the tactics are well-worn they need to be resurrected because new volunteers (and leaders) come to the fore given the way that Democrats are organized. We aren’t good about institutional memory and this is a key reason that Hope Springs from Field is determined to help volunteers understand the reasoning and purpose behind the things we do.
We are asking for your help here. Our primary expenses for this grassroots-driving effort is VAN (the voter file Democrats use) and literature, Having to have printed a hundred thousand pieces of GOTV lit has really busted our budget! Expanding our efforts — hitting more doors — means we have to pay more for VAN. We also need to provide clipboards for our volunteers, since we use the Issues Survey as a guide and we like volunteers to show voters the survey, as well as have something for voters to support Constituent Service Request forms when they fill out one.
If you are able to donate to our efforts to fight against Issue 1, identify abortion rights supporters, protect our voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, please help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hope4ohio
If you would rather send a check, you can follow that link for our mailing address at the bottom of the page. Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!
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