(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Leveraging 2022 GOTV & 21-22 Canvassing in Special Elections this Winter/Spring. GOTV Matters. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-28 Special Elections have always been a part of our mission at Hope Springs from Field PAC from the beginning in competitive races because special elections are essentially tests of GOTV techniques and modeling. While the basics of GOTV are generally the same, the tactics can be different (for example, we haven’t been sending out volunteers to knock on doors in the winter, but have been leveraging our prior canvassing work to get our voters to cast their ballots for Democrats). We believe in combining new ideas or opportunities for voter engagement with tested and effective techniques in GOTV. So far, there have already been 6 special elections where we used a variety of techniques, largely anchored to our system of Deep Organizing, Early Voter Engagement: the Georgia Senate Runoff, the special election to fill the Virginia Senate vacancy (7th District), the 3 special elections in Pennsylvania (PA House District 32; PA House District 34; and PA House District 35) and the primary for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race (which isn't technically a special election but essentially is (plus the stakes are so high). Outside of Virginia, Hope Springs from Field volunteers have been leveraging their prior voter contacts with Democratic and unaffiliated voters to encourage their participation in these crucial elections. Remember, Hope Springs has been knocking on doors in Senate Swing States registering (or re-registering) voters, conducting Issues Surveys and offering up Constituent Service Request forms for voters who needed public services in their neighborhoods. But in all these cases, we tracked not only the voter but also coding the voter contact with the volunteer who have engaged with those voters. Remember that we used those prior connections for individualized GOTV efforts last fall. Even if a voter and volunteer don’t meet face to face, the volunteer can authentically claim to have knocked on their door and those of their neighbors. We have found this kind of connected voter contact to be effective. And this is exactly what we have continued in the last 4 races. Willing volunteers have been paired with the voters whose doors they have knocked on to attempt at least two GOTV contacts with those voters, reminding them that they had visited them in the last 20 odd months, details they had recorded from their visit (ie, presence of children, gold or blue star families, etc) that were personal and demonstrated the connection. In Wisconsin, because it was a jungle primary, we only encouraged voters to cast a ballot for a Democrat (although volunteers with strong preferences were not prohibited from expressing their support) so that at least one Democrat would advance to the April general election. We continue to find these kind of individualized contacts to be meaningful to the voters we talk to. Voters who were registered by a Hope Springs volunteer or filled out a Constituent Service Request have been especially mindful of our GOTV message that Democrats Deliver. In Wisconsin, Hope Springs volunteers had knocked on almost half a million doors over the last two summers. We were able to pair those volunteers with 371,939 voters who received at least two GOTV contacts, whether through phone calls or text messages right before that primary. And we will continue this individualized GOTV effort at the end of March, as well. The volunteers who have expressed an opinion seem to enjoy texting (although not all volunteers can text or all voters for whom we have numbers can receive texts) because some voters will actually reply and even comment about how nice it is to not receive automated replies. And you can’t blame them. But this is the impact of Deep Organizing, Relational Organizing, connecting voters and volunteers in a more personalized system. Hope Springs from Field PAC begins knocking on doors again next month in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of Democrats and unaffiliated voters with a systematic approach that reminds them not only that Democrats care, but Democrats are determined to deliver the best government possible to all Americans. Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/fistfulofsteel Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors — and we didn’t register new voters (while Republicans dud). We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be (and can be) cured. But i do want to add that if you want to donate to a pure play for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, even though we are engaged in turning out Democrats and like-minded voters for Janet Protasiewicz, it is best to contribute to her campaign directly. Hope Springs from Field is organizing volunteers in a lot of races this cycle and i don’t want anyone to feel misled. Our costs for this Wisconsin effort are minimal (although we still welcome and invite your support). Republicans have a rather significant, perhaps even critical, advantage over Democrats — their voters have a significantly higher propensity to turn out to vote in elections. Every single time. Even those voters recently added to the voter rolls seem to have adopted this habit. Habitual voting. Compare that to the Democratic coalition voters who are more infrequent voters. They are younger, more diverse and less likely to have developed the habit of voting. Infrequent voters. In general, we have to do more work to turn out our voters — but, fortunately, we have other advantages (like willing and knowledgeable volunteers) to compensate for it. Equally significant is that fact that Republicans can be easily influenced on how (and when) they vote. Ten years ago, a significant portion of the GOP electorate used absentees, vote by mail and other forms of early voting. Republican campaigns pushed voting early to bank these votes and narrow the electorate needed to be mobilized on election day. Then Trump (aka PAB) came along and changed all that, just because the pandemic had forced Democrats to do the same. Republicans fell in line, conformed gently to the needs and demands of their leaders. Even as Republicans added populists and conspiratorial minded people, which they have collectively identified as MAGA voters, to their existing trilogy of small government, national security and social conservative voting base, despite the inherent conflicts with the first two elements, these two features of the Republican electorate persist. Republicans vote and they can be easily swayed on how they are “supposed” to vote. We need to realize that the current devotion to same day voting probably will not outlast Trump’s influence on his party (as long as he remains a Republican), but that is not the point. Because even after Trump’s influence on Republican voting preference wanes, they will continue to be habitual voters. That is not the case with Democrats. Democrats rely on the votes of fewer (percentage wise) habitual voters and their voting preferences (how and when they choose to vote) remains sticky, harder to “train” as it were. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The elongation of the voting period, the diversity in voting method has helped Democrats to turn out our less habitual voters and we now have sufficient voter histories to understand which parts of our electorate will vote at what part of the election cycle. GOTV can be spread out and focused on specific parts of our electorate to meet the preferences of specific elements of our electorate. It allows, nay invites, microtargeting and, for campaigns that experience more scarce resources, can save us money and allow us to better allocate the most precious resource of all during GOTV: volunteer hours. We continue to learn and improve our GOTV tactics, a development made easier by collecting and analyzing more data on both sides of the equation. But we feel confident that this systemic approach to Deep Organizing and Individualized GOTV (including the timing of GOTV to prior voter history) is one of the reasons why Democrats did so much better in the February primary than Republicans did. Please join us in this effort to organize early and extend voter contact to an almost year-round degree. Our biggest expenses before getting started at paying for access to VAN and literature. We can’t do this without help. Hope Springs from Field PAC is trying to reinstitute best field practices, such as canvassing with people who look like the voters we are talking to and targeting former voters thrown off the rolls. A lot of these got forgotten because of the Covid restrictions in the last cycle, and we have an entire cycle of campaign staffers who were trained without the benefit of actually getting to do field. That’s why it is so important to start knocking on doors now, and not wait until a month or so before the primaries. We have a lot of make-up work to do. Can you help? If you are able to support our efforts to mobilize Democratic voters, especially in minority communities and swing districts, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/fistfulofsteel Thank you for your support. This work depends on you! 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