10 Innovations To Make Canvassing Easier
Canvassing
"We don't have the money, so we’ve got to think"
How do you make it easier for volunteers to be good canvassers? Train them quickly? Launch canvassing campaigns quickly? Do this quickly on a slim budget? Here are ten innovations from the Center For Common Ground applied to a canvassing campaign for Team Unity North Carolina.
1. Use the contact list best suited for your campaign. This could be the voter file, other contact lists or just have canvassers can enter new records for the people they talk with.
2. Use phones that volunteers already have and can use without installing new software. Web apps run in browsers and run on both Apple and Android phones. They can be used immediately without having to install an app and can be updated whenever needed. Users get the most up-to-date version when they open the web app.
3. Show which houses have already been contacted
Houses are color coded to indicate in real-time which have already been contacted.
4. Minimize data entry
Let canvassers choose from a list of multiple choice answers to save time with data entry. Use software that lets campaign organizer change/add possible answers that can be chosen.
5. Make it easy to train volunteers to on how to canvass better
Canvassers can listen to the questions that they should ask and how to engage voters. This script was generated by AI and could also be used to create canvassing scripts in other language. Listen to the 3 minute audio instructions here.
6. Design for canvassing at scale to handle any number of volunteers. Web apps can be shared with any number of volunteers, depending on the number of houses to be cnvassed.
7. Choose proven, affordable software. Software that won't be bought by a Saudi sovereign wealth fund. The Center For Common Ground used esri software for this canvassing application. Esri is a privately held, debt free, and committed to sustainable growth. It has over 650,000 customer organizations, including 90% of Fortune 100 companies, most national governments, 30,000 cities and local governments, all 50 US states, and 12,000 universities.
8. Make sure information collected by canvassers can be exported or kept private for the campaign. Organizers may not want to share the results of their canvassing efforts into a data bank that could be shared with other groups.
9. Support canvassing in different languages. The Center For Common Ground allows canvassers to enter data in different languages.
10. Provide walk lists to minimize the distances volunteers have to walk
Provide canvassers with optimized walking routes for the houses they should contact.
TakeAway: Innovate to increase voter turnout.
Deepak
DemLabs
Image Credit: Homer Simpson
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