Getting out the Vote

My friend raised a good question about what we're going to do to get people out to the polls come election day. It is true that canvassing is a good way to initiate direct contact with someone. We go to their homes and talk with them, we find out a bit about who they are, we let them know about us. It is also true that getting people to the polls is another question. I mean, we're working to get people to the polls, but who's to say that we are the reason people are voting. In the past, the NY Vote program we run has increased participation by roughly 15-20%. They have measured this by tracking the voter turnout in one election district where we work and one where we don't. They try and have the two districts be as similar as possible, so the only new variable is our presence.

So getting back to how we're going to turn people out--or at least my understanding of the thinking behind these activities. The actual activities involve targeting and then trying to ensure that those voters you've targeted get out to the polls. So our canvass, for example, will go in waves. We'll cover the most people in the first wave, less in the second, and so on. Canvassers will have to identify who we need to go back to and who we don't. And the strategy to get those identified voters to the polls will be repeated contact, reminders, and then a flurry of intense action right before the election. There is some general number of times you are supposed to contact someone before they are likely to vote, and there is another generally accepted ratio of people who will come out out of people you contact. I'm sure I'll learn all of this soon.