\n<\/p>\n
Three weeks to election day. Let\u2019s talk about volunteering.<\/p>\n
Giving money is good and important, but the closer we get to election day, the less useful donating is, for a whole bunch of reasons. What campaigns need most in these final days is your time.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s lots of stuff you can do remotely if you\u2019re not near a swing district\u2014writing postcards, phonebanking, texting\u2014and that stuff all helps. But if you can get out and knock on doors, that\u2019s even better.<\/p>\n
(Campaigns have different needs at different times, by the way. The best-best thing you can do is let them know you\u2019re available for whatever they need. But even if you have restrictions on what you can do, they\u2019ll likely find work for you. Hit \u2019em up.)<\/p>\n
What I really want to talk about today, though, is door-knocking\u2014what it\u2019s for, how it works, what you can expect.<\/p>\n
The first thing you may be worrying about is confrontation, but that\u2019s actually really rare\u2014by design. Campaigns don\u2019t send you out to random houses. They\u2019re going to be targeting specific people who they have reason to believe will be supportive.<\/p>\n
When I went out this weekend, the list of voters we were trying to contact was all registered Democrats with a history of voting in midterm elections about half the time. We weren\u2019t trying to convince them, we were trying to get them to turn out.<\/p>\n
Most of the doors I knocked on, nobody was home. Most of the people I talked to were actively happy to see me. Nobody was hostile or angry or obnoxious. Not one person.<\/p>\n
The best way to door-knock is with a partner, both for comfort and for safety. If you have someone to go with, that\u2019s ideal, and if you don\u2019t they can pair you up with someone as they\u2019re sending you out. But really, the experience is overwhelmingly positive.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve done door-knocking for nearly a dozen campaigns over the years at this point. I\u2019ve talked to hundreds of people. A few were uninterested, a few were a little snotty. But I don\u2019t remember a single really negative encounter.<\/p>\n
(I did get chased by chickens on Saturday, and that was a little weird. But they just thought I had food. Sadly, I didn\u2019t.)<\/p>\n
Different campaigns use different screens when deciding which houses to send you to, but the voter data they\u2019re using will be on the form they give you (along with name, gender, and age). If you\u2019re worried about a specific scenario, ask.<\/p>\n
So if you\u2019re not trying to persuade people, what are you knocking on doors for? A few things.<\/p>\n
First, you want to make sure people know about the election\u2014when it is, where there polling place is, who\u2019s running. This is a particularly big deal for down-ballot races, which are a huge deal that a lot of people don\u2019t pay attention to.<\/p>\n
When I was out this weekend, I\u2019d volunteered for a congressional campaign, but the canvass turned out to be a joint one with a state senate candidate. I was giving out lit for both candidates, and making sure people knew about both races.<\/p>\n
Another crucial thing you\u2019ll be doing if you go out in the next couple of weeks is cleaning up the canvass lists. People move, or die, or whatever. Some houses are inaccessible. Some people don\u2019t want to be contacted. You\u2019ll note all that down.<\/p>\n
And when you do that weeding, the campaign will update their data, which means that when they send people out to do Get Out The Vote work in the immediate run-up to election day, they\u2019ll be able to work much more efficiently.<\/p>\n
Every door you knock on this weekend and find out that someone moved is a door that someone else won\u2019t be wasting time on later\u2014and a different door that they will be able to knock on when the crunch happens. It\u2019s hugely helpful.<\/p>\n
Another thing you\u2019ll be doing is helping out folks who may have issues. Someone may not have transportation to the polls, for instance, and if you let the campaign know that, they may be able to send someone out to drive them.<\/p>\n
And yes, you may wind up talking about the specifics of the races, too. I had one contactee this weekend who was really pissed off about a local environmental issue. I took notes on that and added it to their entry on the list, to let the candidate know this was a concern.<\/p>\n
Often, though, even in those cases, you\u2019re just letting them know what\u2019s up. And you won\u2019t be on your own on that\u2014the campaign will give you a script, and answers to likely questions, and you\u2019ll have the lit as well. You\u2019re not flying blind.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re shy, they\u2019ll likely be able to pair you with someone more outgoing. If you\u2019re a newb, they\u2019ll try to put you with someone experienced. And it doesn\u2019t take long to get the hang of it. The typical interaction is very brief and not at all stressful.<\/p>\n
So how does it work, exactly? Well, there\u2019ll be a staging area where they\u2019ll send you out from, and they\u2019ll give you lists and maps and lit. You\u2019ll have let them know in advance whether you have a car\u2014sometimes you need it, sometimes not, sometimes you can ride share.<\/p>\n
Something they had this weekend that I hadn\u2019t seen before was a canvassing app\u2014you plugged in all the data on your phone, and it had the script and the canvass map and everything right there. But usually it\u2019s all done with paper and pen.<\/p>\n
I did two shifts this weekend\u2014one with my kid and my dad, one with just my kid. Each one was about 25 houses, and each one took about 3 hours\u2014more than is typical, because this was a pretty rural route in an area I didn\u2019t know, so there was a fair amount of wandering around.<\/p>\n
Again, you\u2019re asking for specific people, sometimes more than one in a house. This weekend, most were older, but my 15-year-old got to canvass some first-time voters, which was pretty fun for both canvasser and canvassee.<\/p>\n
(And of course the old Dems in their seventies were generally thrilled to bits to see a fifteen-year-old out knocking doors. Kids are AMAZING at this work, and everyone is always so happy to see them out.)<\/p>\n
If you hit a dead end, you note it down. If there\u2019s nobody home, you leave the lit tucked into their door and feel virtuous and useful anyway.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s a lot of people out there right now who are really eager to win this election, so you may even wind up convincing some people to volunteer. What\u2019s the opposite of a pyramid scheme?<\/p>\n
Oh, and there are often snacks. Not always, and more frequently at the GOTV stage than earlier, but yeah. Snacks.<\/p>\n
At the end of the route, you\u2019ll turn in your info and extra lit (if you\u2019re using an app, you may not even need to do that), and that\u2019s it. If you somehow can\u2019t finish, it\u2019s not a big deal, and if you want more names they\u2019ll be happy to give them to you.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see, what else? Volunteering for a campaign gives you an excuse to go to their election-night party, which can be incredibly fun. I\u2019ll never forget watching Obama\u2019s victory speech in 2008 in a bar in Cincinnati with hundreds of cheering people and my kid in my arms.<\/p>\n
So. If you know which campaign you want to work for, contact them directly and tell them you want to help out, and how. They\u2019ll hook you up. If you\u2019re not sure, you can find someone via Indivisible<\/a> or Swing Left<\/a>.<\/p>\n And if you have any questions, or fears, or need help navigating the process or finding a campaign, just tweet at me or DM me and I\u2019ll give you a hand.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n Just a quick postscript: I\u2019m getting a little pushback from some folks on the sunniness of my description of the experience, so let me talk about that a little.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll definitely meet plenty of people who aren\u2019t happy to have their door knocked, and some of them will say so pretty curtly, but they\u2019ll mostly want to get rid of you as quickly as you want to leave, so it\u2019ll often be a sharp \u201cnot interested\u201d and a closing door.<\/p>\n Actively aggressive behavior is, in my experience, much rarer, but it\u2019s going to depend on a lot of factors. Knowing what the pool is is important, and the buddy system is of course a huge help.<\/p>\n And of course I\u2019m a bearded six-three white guy, and my experiences are going to be reflective of that reality, as well as of the fact that the door-knocking I\u2019ve done has all been in swing districts rather than deep-red areas.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve gone out with a lot of people over the years, and our experiences have all been more positive than negative, but yes you\u2019ll meet some cranky people, and yes I do feel more cautious going out now than I did a couple of cycles ago. We\u2019re in a weird time.<\/p>\n Oh, and one thing to keep an eye out for? A house where there\u2019s only one person listed for you to contact, and it\u2019s a woman, and a guy of the same age answers the door. There\u2019s a decent chance she\u2019s a Dem and he\u2019s \u2026 not.<\/p>\n I approach those guys gingerly, and if I get any negativity at all, I skeddadle with a \u201cnot home.\u201d Occasionally I\u2019ve included a note on the form flagging the house for that reason, just as a heads-up for future canvassers.<\/p>\n So yes, you\u2019re knocking on strangers\u2019 doors. You need to keep an eye out. But you know that already. Most of the time, in my experience, it\u2019s going to be really really fun.<\/p>\n Oh, and if this thread convinced you to get out and do it, please please PLEASE let me know how it went. Tell me the race too, if you want, and I\u2019ll keep an eye on it on election night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three weeks to election day. Let\u2019s talk about volunteering. Giving money is good and important, but the closer we get to election day, the less useful donating is, for a whole bunch of reasons. What campaigns need most in these final days is your time. There\u2019s lots of stuff you can do remotely if you\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[13503,20463,20464],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-30240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-campaign","tag-doorknocking","tag-howto"],"yoast_head":"\n