GOTV for Democrats

Get Out the Vote (GOTV) matters. Campaigns demand long hours, uncomfortable conversations about fundraising, and massive dedication from the candidate, the campaign team, staffers, and volunteers. After all the resources (including your sanity) are poured into your campaign, a robust GOTV strategy and efforts are vital to end on a high note. 

Digital GOTV over the past couple of cycles has really moved into a must have for every campaign. In the past, GOTV tactics were limited to door-knocking, phone calls, and depending on the level of the campaign, maybe some TV spots. However, in the digital age, there is a whole new set of effective options that you can use to mobilize your supporters on Election Day. Whether you use mobile devices to track canvas crews, Facebook to mobilize volunteers, SMS to move core supporters to action, or IP targeting, geo-fencing and cookie targeting to reach voters; there are a ton of options for digital GOTV tactics. Below are a few ways you can utilize digital GOTV.

BallotReady is an online voter guide for local, state and national races. This week, we interviewed Alex Niemczewski to discuss how BallotReady can be used to amp up your GOTV campaign strategy.

For the longest time you could not call cell phones in an efficient way but now Stones Phones has some exciting new technology to make it easier to call cell phones using volunteers or paid phone banks. We asked Marty Stone 7 questions on calling cell phones for GOTV. 

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. 

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

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.