Today’s tip is a two-for-one special involving GOTV (Get Out the Vote) strategy and the popular social networking site Twitter:

1. Every campaign should dispatch volunteer poll watchers to as many voting locations as possible (especially strategic ones). The poll watcher should note how long the lines are, writing down the names of voters and reporting back to campaign headquarters throughout Election Day. Campaign HQ monitors the reports from the poll watchers to see if turnout is high or low in the various precincts, checking off supporters’ names in the campaign database along the way. In this way, the GOTV operations director (whether he or she is the official campaign manager or someone else) has a 30,000 foot view of Election Day turnout and knows when and where to dispatch other volunteers helping with GOTV efforts. The traditional way of doing this is by phone at regular intervals during the day: morning, mid-day, and afternoon reports. This is where Part 2 of the tip comes in…

2. Give every poll watcher a printed list from the supporter database with all of the registered voters in his or her precinct. There should be a column listing a “voter score” for each voter (for example: Known Supporters = A’s; Undecideds and Unknowns = B’s; Known Opponent Supporters = C’s). Have the poll watchers use their BlackBerries, iPhones, or other smart phones –- equipped with Twitter -– to report to campaigns headquarters in real-time (instead of at given checkpoints, as the strategy was executed in the past) with voter rankings and other pertinent information in their “tweets”. For example:

Now, multiply the above report by all of the polling centers…reporting hourly (or however often you deem appropriate). Imagine the wealth of information -– make that actionable intelligence –- at the fingertips of the GOTV operations manager.

Outwork your opponents with an organized, disciplined GOTV effort. Outsmart them with detailed voter print-offs, Twitter, and actionable intelligence.

A couple of notes on this tip:

1. Clarify the rules for using cell phones in polling centers in your district. Local laws may vary on when and where they are allowed in the polling location. The poll watcher may have to go outside to send his/her reports.
   
2. Make sure the Twitter accounts your poll watchers are using are protected so your competition can’t access your tweets. (See Twitter.com for more information.)
3. Verify that the GOTV operations manager is “following” all of the poll watchers on Twitter. (Again, see Twitter.com for more information.)
   

Tags: Get Out the Vote, GOTV, poll watchers, Twitter

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 5:30 am and is filed under Campaign Tips, Get Out the Vote, eCampaigning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.