Political Organizers Top Campaign Tips for Data Entry:
For political organizers, data entry and turf cutting are the two most likely tasks that will be keeping you up late into the night. Unlike cutting turf, which can be strangely comforting, data entry is only really enjoyable when it is complete. So to help out political organizers still in the field we have compiled a short list of tips to make data entry a bit easier.
1. There are a number of campaign tools now available that can help reduce the amount of data that you have to enter at the end of the day. The technology exists for canvassers to enter data on their smartphones or tablets while they are canvassing and for phone bankers to input data in a virtual phone bank as they make each call. Check out or list of 100 campaign tools for political organizers here. For a paper list, you may also be able to use the barcoding feature, provided that you can get your hands on a barcode scanner. It is possible that your campaign will not have these pieces of technology on-hand. If your campaign’s field program is set up to utilize these technologies, then be sure to ask your volunteers to bring in their personal technology to use when you call to remind them about their shifts.
2. Throughout the course of the campaign, you will likely encounter an individual who wants to help, but refuses to do any voter contact. These individuals are prime targets for data entry. While your data volunteer is working, make sure that the individual knows their contribution is highly valued. Ask them if they can come in once or twice a week to help with data entry.
3. If you are working with other organizers or other campaigns, coordinate data entry time so you can have conversations to keep you awake and alert. But at a certain point, you do have to just crank up the tunes and knock it out.
Have other tips for political organizers? Drop us a note. Check out our handy list of 100 campaign tools: