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A Systemic Approach to Turning Out Democrats and allied voters in 2024 (& 2023) [1]

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Date: 2023-04-11  

We have been working on a website for Hope Springs from Field PAC (which, when it is ready, will have the url hopespringsfromfield.org), something new to our group of intrepid grassroots organizers. But this work has made us ask questions about how best to represent ourselves, how to explain what we have been trying to (as well as have) accomplish(ed).

From the beginning, we concluded that we share a belief structure. The grassroots are powerful, a necessary component to Democrats winning elections (anywhere), and have various reasons for being involved in campaigns and politics. We aren’t trying to replace any existing group (or even purpose), we feel like we are filling an existing void that has gotten lost, especially since the pandemic. We have seen from our knocking on doors in swing states that there are GOP or conservative groups who are involved in early organizing and the people we have talked to will tell us when one of those groups’ canvassers have knocked on their doors. I will admit that this has been a motivator for volunteers to return, knowing that the other side is knocking on doors, for whatever reason.

And i have to admit that what we are doing, the systematic and complete approach Hope Springs is taking in Deep Organizing, Early Organizing amplifies the power of the grassroots, that our volunteers come out again and again because they *feel the power* of person to person voter contact in these swing states. I can’t even tell you how often volunteers have told me that talking to voters really opened their eyes, recognizing their neighbors didn’t think exactly as they did, prioritize issues the same way or even understand the issues their communities face. “It’s hard not to try to express my views,” one volunteer (probably more than one) told me when i asked for their input.

But their silence when directing voters through the Issues Questionnaire is critical to retrieving accurate, useful data from voters. More importantly, the very act of asking voters their opinions reinforces the indirect messages we are trying to leave with voters, that Democrats care, Democrats listen, Democrats think voters are important. Unlike Republicans, we aren’t surveying K Street, instead we are talking to somewhere between 5,000 and 12,000 voters a week in these critical swing states. Just how important is this data to Democratic candidates (who use VAN)? Well, before Kyrsten Sinema left the Democratic Party, someone connected to the senator asked one of our Arizona organizers if he could send them the data we had collected in Arizona. The request made a lot more since after VAN dropped Sinema’s access to the database.

The number of responses collected each week is the one datapoint volunteers request most. Which is interesting because it is also aspect of our canvassing that new people wonder about. Why are we asking this? Who gets access to the data? How does this help? Granted, we’ve had voters ask, as well, so this natural curiosity actually arms volunteers, prepares them if they are asked by a voter! It is even more interesting that hardened volunteers get more responses from voters than newbie volunteers, in part, no doubt, to the fact that experienced volunteers tend to zip through the survey and are used to letting the voter see (or even hold) the survey so they feel comfortable answering the questions.

Every volunteer who has gone through the pre-canvass training will know that it was exactly these kinds of questions where the Obama presidential campaign found the campaign theme of “Hope and Change.” Iowan voters kept mentioning it, and Obama volunteers kept recording the data. The focus group was the Democratic electorate and they knew what they wanted their candidate to run on. And that’s why we talk to voters early and often.

Of course, a more recent issue also emerged from our knocking on doors: Reproductive Rights. Even when we had voters telling us that Inflation was the most important issue facing the nation, we were hearing mixed messages from voters who mentioned a different Top Issue that abortion was the issue that would determine how they voted. Our volunteers noted this bifurcation and we actually added the what “single issue will determine how you vote” question due to canvasser demand. When polls weren’t seeing how important Reproductive Rights were to our voters, we knew otherwise. The election results reinforced what voters had told our volunteers, and this made them feel even more powerful!

The centrality of the Issues Survey to what Hope Springs from Field is doing is forcing us to think about how best to integrate it into a website (and transfer the data collected online to VAN). This is even more important considering how important more rural states, like Montana and West Virginia will be to Democrats holding on to the Senate in 2024. And if you have ideas about that, feel free to let us know via the comments section or DM.

The other aspect of our early canvassing that excites the volunteers i’ve talked to is our inclusion of Constituent Service Request forms that we offer to every voter we talk to. That excitement seems to stem mostly from the fact that voters have asked us for them upfront or given us credit for public services that we may have had nothing to do with (simply because we ask people if they want to make a request for public services). Asking voters if they need public services not only raises the expectations that government should serve the public, but it also reinforces the message that Democrats Deliver. My favorite voter question with regard to the CSR was when one voter we talked to in Arizona asked if he could take some to an upcoming Chamber of Commerce meeting and pass them out. “Where do i drop them (completed CSR forms) off?” This still makes me chuckle. But it displays a stark contrast to how Republicans and Democrats feel about making government work for people.

But we have talked to voters who say that politics doesn’t make a difference in their life, so what’s the point (of voting)? — then change their mind about voting in the last midterm because of this system of voter contact (and mobilization). Hope Spring from Field answers that question. We are connecting voters with their government in a direct and meaningful fashion.

In some (but not all) swing states, walking with Incident Reports is equally important to volunteers. Now we have collected more Incident Reports from our partnership with Black Churches than we have from voters at their doors, but there have been equally important discoveries from voters at their doors, as well. The are mutually reinforcing, and the Justice Department (Civil Right Division) doesn’t care where they were collected, only if the complaints are true.

At the door, we mainly get to talking about filing an Incident Report through the “Do you have any concerns about the upcoming election” question in the Issues Survey. And we have had all kinds of reports, many of which have required follow-up

Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors since last 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 volunteer to voter personal interactions are critical. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are, helping voters to understand the importance of super-compliance with these new voting restrictions that Republicans keep enacting. 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 (in states that allow it).

From the start, our door-to-door efforts aimed at getting our voters to cast ballots that are counted is key. We don’t ask people who open their doors if they are registered to vote, we ask if they are registered to vote at their current address (as required by law). It’s been more than 15 years since Barack Obama ran for president (most of our volunteer organizers have some connection to the Obama presidential campaigns and the genesis of Hope Springs was Obama alum working out how we could get field organizers into Georgia during the covid lockdown right after the 2020 election), and we have learned a lot about circumventing GOP efforts to keep our voters from voting successfully. When Wisconsin and Georgia (et al) purged voters from the rolls because of inherent errors in the NCOA files, we included those doors in our target lists, knocking on those doors as well as their neighbors’ to determine the accuracy of that data. Even when we didn’t find anyone who had been purged in error, we let our voters know that we were looking out for them, making sure that Republican efforts to delete likely Democratic voters were held to account. And, in this particular effort that Hope Springs now employs, we have re-registered more than 30,000 voters who appeared on these purged lists. Voters who know that Republicans threw them off the rolls and fully intended them to go to the polls and discover they couldn’t vote. It’s a shitty thing to do.

When we talk about Election Protection, we believe it starts with Voter Protection. And Hope Springs from Field has started knocking on doors in the 2024 election cycle with Voter Protection in mind. Next time, i will discuss more about how Voter Protection and super-compliance is central to everything we do, and how it leads up to our unique approach to GOTV.

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 is paying for access to VAN and buying walk 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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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/11/2163297/-Preparing-the-Electoral-Battlefield

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