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Neighborhood Voter Contact Program

NEIGHBORHOOD VOTER CONTACT PROGRAMNEIGHBORHOOD VOTER CONTACT PROGRAM

A neighborhood voter contact program is just that - a plan implemented by a campaign, organization, or grassroots group to register voters, identify supporters, recruit volunteers and get out the vote. However, a good precinct voter contact program utilizes local talent from specific communities at the precinct level to surface new leadership, develop a long-term infrastructure, and build the base. Well organized, a precinct voter contact program also saves your campaign precious resources - time, money, and people - by spreading the responsibilities for contacting voters over many volunteer leaders responsible for small universes and centralizing that information at the campaign level. In this way, your campaign is able to have the necessary conversations with voters while also being better connected to local issues and intelligence through your precinct leaders.

ACTION STEPSACTION STEPS

Step1

Volunteer Recruitment

Grassroots electoral and issue organizing are about engaging, organizing, and mobilizing ordinary people - not just political or legislative professionals - to shape public policy or a community issue.  Volunteers are the heart and soul of all grassroots organizing.
Step2

Voter Registration

A comprehensive voter registration campaign is a campaign's first step in executing a successful voter contact program. Voter registration is an important organizing tool for increasing voter turnout in your targeted areas, accessing untapped resources in under-represented communities, and building the base of your campaign.
Step3

Identify Voters

To actually have a targeted conversation with both base voters and persuadable voters, your campaign needs to specifically identify them. Identifying voters as supporting, opposing, or not decided on your issue or candidate helps to focus your resources and find areas of support (where you focus on developing leaders and turning out the vote) and areas that need work (where you focus on persuasion utilizing your local precinct leaders). This is known as voter ID, and it is done in various ways.
Step4

Persuade Voters

There are generally three tools that a field operation uses for voter persuasion: canvassing, phoning, and direct mail.
Step5

Get Out The Vote

Get Out the Vote, or GOTV, starts the first day of the campaign. This is a line that is often heard on electoral campaigns, but many campaigns fail to really think about GOTV until the final weeks. But GOTV should be seen as the culmination of the process of base building and expansion. It is not enough to deliver a compelling message and have a well-run campaign. The true test of a campaign comes when it translates support into votes on Election Day.

RESOURCESRESOURCES

Alumna in Action - Lorraine Bieber

"We believe that with a compelling enough message, and peer-to-peer, neighbor-to-neighbor trust, we can engage voters in the electoral process and turn them out to vote."

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