GOTV

Social pressure, Does it work? We care deeply about social norms. Our desire to be liked and accepted by our peers shapes our behavior more than we’d like to admit. We lie about our bad behaviors and exaggerate our better tendencies to fit in. What’s more, we do things when we think other people are watching that we’d otherwise never bother with. That’s why social pressure is such an effective tactic for campaigns and organizations when it comes to getting folks to turn out and vote. Check out our tips for incorporating social pressure into your GOTV mail program this fall.
 

In the world of politics, there is an array of confusing and random terms that folks use to describe trends. Voter roll-off is one of them. It is a term that is very important for down-ballot races to understand and fight against. More importantly, voter roll-off can make a difference for your GOTV campaign strategy. Find out how!  

A good digital GOTV plan, is not your father’s get out the vote effort. It used to be that GOTV was driven by walk lists, yard signs, door hangers, coffee and doughnuts. But as folks start to focus more on digital GOTV, having an actual plan to push turnout digitally is a must in our interconnected world. You still need the doughnuts and door hangers, but digital will add a layer of outreach that you did not have before.

Friend and mentor to The Campaign Workshop, Hal Malchow, wrote for Campaigns and Elections about applying social pressure GOTV tactics in smaller campaigns.  Malchow reviews the history and science behind using social pressure as a tactic in GOTV, as well as current best practices. 

ID-ing your supporters is an important part of any field campaign especially for GOTV. There are a variety of ways for Voter ID to help Get Out The Vote. One common method of voter ID using a 1-6 scale to measure each individual’s support score, with 1 being a solid supporter, 3 undecided, 5 firmly opposed, and a 6 not home.

Get Out The Vote and a good Get Out The Vote plan (GOTV Plan) is something we as a firm, spend hours talking about. There is lots of  lore, superstition, mythology, and bad ideas around get out the vote

The lion’s share of your political or advocacy campaign will be spent on message development and saturation. But as Election Day looms, you’ll have to start focusing your efforts on get out the vote/ GOTV. While you should make sure to include the rest of your online platforms in your GOTV efforts, a good place to start is social media. Not surprisingly, it’s a great digital platform for social pressure. You can use social media in a few ways to encourage your target audience to vote.

As Election Day approaches, I thought it would be a good idea to share some best practices for your GOTV Plan- Get Out The Vote Plan. These are tried and true GOTV tactics —we know they work.

As we get deep into Get Out The Vote season, you may be up late at night looking for phone scripts or a 1-800 number on voter protection. Have no fear we are here to help. Here are all of our favorite get out the vote/ GOTV resources all in one place.

For the majority of campaigns, having a strong voter ID program will be vastly important. That’s because in many small and local elections, the election will really be won or lost by less than 1,000 votes. So making sure you are talking to exactly the right people is absolutely essential.

We talk a lot on our blog about the importance of GOTV. But what are some concrete, tried and true Get Out The Vote tactics that work? One is making GOTV calls to identified supporters.