Online Toolkit For My Campaign

by Chris Bowers, Mon May 15, 2006 at 09:11:45 AM EDT

Last Thursday afternoon, I announced that Kevin Scott and I were running for State Democratic Committee in Pennsylvania as write-in candidates in order to fill two of the five vacancies in our district. Since that time, a lot has happened. With Election Day tomorrow, this post explains everything we have done over the past four days, and what you can do to get involved.

1. What you can do

Learn why we are running. You can read my original announcement post for more on this.
Find out how to vote for us. You can find that information right here.
Check out district maps. To find out if you or anyone you know lives in our district, you can see a map of the district here (PDF). If you are still unsure after looking at the map, use this nifty tool built by the Committee of Seventy.
Print and distribute our literature. On Friday, I made 1,000 copies of our campaign flyer (PDF). The flyer contains precise information on how to cast a write-in vote in Philadelphia. Print, download, and distribute the flyer here. Sned it to anyone you know in the district. I will be making another 500 copies of the flyer this afternoon.
Post online. I will not be around to post on MyDD tomorrow, so if you live in Philadelphia and have a blog or contribute to a message board online, please reprint this article tomorrow morning on my behalf. We only have to reach 100 voters in the district with the appropriate information, so no matter how small your blog, you can make the difference.
Volunteer.You can email me at chris@mydd.com if you want to join our campaign.

2. What we are doing:

Talking with friends, family and colleagues. The core of our campaign remains our friends, our family, and our colleagues living in our district. We believe that if we get in touch with all of our close contacts in the district, and if all of our colleagues on our ward committee do the same, that alone should bring us close to the 100 votes we need. If you have any friends or family living in the district, please contact them about our campaign, and provide them with information on how to cast a write-in ballot for both of us.
Targeting voters. In addition to our friends, family and colleagues strategy, we have also identified 190 voters in our ward who voted in both the primary and the general election each of the last four years. We have distributed this information to the other members of our ward committee, and asked each member of the committee to be responsible for the 8-10 super voters in their division on Election Day.
Canvassing. Kevin and I spent most of Saturday canvassing our neighborhood. I went door to door meeting people and passing out literature to likely voters. Kevin canvassed a festival in Clark Park. On Election Day, we will both be out in front of our precincts from 7 am when the polls open until8pm when the polls close. Our colleagues on our ward committee have been given 500 flyers for our campaign to assist with our canvassing efforts.
Email. On Thursday night, I sent out an email to 150 Democratic activists in the Philadelphia area asking them to support our campaign. They have all been provided with information on how to vote for us, and how they can get their friends to vote for us on Election Day. On Friday, West Philadelphia Neighborhood Networks sent out an email to their activist list with information on how to vote for us.
Phonebanking. Kevin has spent the last two days phone banking committee people and supporters. He says that almost everyone is on board, and that almost everyone has the literature and the information they need to bring their friends and family to the polls to vote for us.
Fundraising. On Friday, I held a quick fundraiser to cover costs for the campaign. In just two hours, we quickly met and surpassed our goal of $375, with money left over for Anne Dicker. No more fundraising is need for our campaign.
Making it easier to vote. Kevin and I have purchased 22 sets of stamps, and 50 gel pens to make writing in our votes as easy as possible tomorrow.

So, that is the complete scope of our improvised, one-week campaign. I believe it will be enough, but I remain nervous. Tomorrow's forecast calls for rain all day, which will both drive down turnout and make it difficult to talk to voters outside the polls. Also, write in campaigns are notoriously difficult, and our full names must be spelled precisely. Further, we won't find out for certain if we have won until Friday, when the official vote count takes place. Completing the silent revolution will never be an easy task, and it will take the combined efforts of thousands. Please, give us whatever help you can. More importantly, take charge of your local party, and run for Democratic party office where you live.

Tags: Activism, Primary Elections, Silent revolution (all tags)

Comments

11 Comments

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Re: Online Toolkit For My Campaign

Rain drives away the lemmings but the partisans turn out.

You will have a better shot at it than you think.
Good luck Chris.

by turnerbroadcasting 2006-05-15 09:20AM | 0 recs

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Re: early count

Chris, at the end of the night, representatives from each party usually are allowed in to get the vote totals right from the judge, off the machine tape - one extra copy of the results tape goes to each party, but you guys are write-ins, so that won't help you as the write-ins are only on the official tape.

Since you're a committeeman, you should be able to go into the poll, or at least before the polls close ask the election board to give you a count of how many votes you and Kevin got. Those votes will be on the tape and the judge should be able to easily count them for you. When you go in to vote, talk to the judge and election board about what you'd like them to do (remember not to wear or take any campaign material into the poll - campaigning inside the poll is a no-no). I can't imagine the judge wouldn't help you out.

Finally, about the gel pens. Have you ever seen the voting machine paper? It's like that semi-shiny paper used in adding machines. I'm not sure how well gel pens work on that. A plain ballpoint pen would be best since that won't smear. There will be pens at the table where you sign the poll book, the election board puts 4 or 5
in every election kit box.

Good luck! I'm confident you'll get enough votes.

by phillydem 2006-05-15 09:38AM | 0 recs

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Re: early count

I was assured by KEvint hat the gel pens would work well, and that he has even had a chance to test them out. Let's hope that is accurate. Either way, there should be pens available at the table outside hte booth.

As for getting the count, we are not going to get all of the votes we need from our two divisions alone. I'd love it if we did, but we really can't hop around to every division and and get all of the vote totals on one night. We might be able to get reports from all the other ocmmittee members, which should give us a good indication, but we still won't know for sure until Firday.

by Chris Bowers 2006-05-15 09:46AM | 0 recs

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Re: early count

I think his point was that you need to make sure the vote count is accurate.

BTW I agree with your 50 state strategy. Here in GA we are actually looking at the very real prospect of Democrats losing another 3 or 4 more seats on the state legislature.

As unthinkable as it sounds, the voters from several districts do not see the national trouble as reflective of the performance of their elected representatives but rather they pin it on Bush and company, whom they keep separated.

I think anyone who gets in there with a 50 state approach should be lauded. The GOP wants to make 2006 all about local politics.

by turnerbroadcasting 2006-05-15 10:28AM | 0 recs

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Re: early count

Chris:

I know that you've had some problem with the ward leader out there, but is there no traditional "after election gathering spot?" In the 53rd ward, it was a union hall on the Boulevard, in the 63rd it was a Knights of Columbus hall, and in the 21st, it's a VFW. I've always gotten the full counts that night at those parties.

In any case, I'll be out there in the rain all day with you, but up in the 21st. Good luck.

by jgarrow 2006-05-15 11:14AM | 0 recs

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Re: early count

If you've tested the gel pens, then I stand corrected.

I realize you won't get the official totals until Friday because the write-ins are only on the tape
that goes to the election board along with the cartridge, but your fellow committeemen and women should be able to get a quick count from all the divisions and have them at the "post-party" if you ask them to do that.

by phillydem 2006-05-15 12:33PM | 0 recs

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Re: Online Toolkit For My Campaign

I posted this at YPP and Philly Future, and sent an email to a couple of people I know in the district, as well.

by DanielUA 2006-05-15 11:23AM | 0 recs

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Sry, OT: What's YOUR position on Net Neutrality?

I checked the last 10 days or so of your postings, and I didn't find a posting on the Net Neutrality issue. This begs some questions:

1. Don't you think this is an important issue?

2. Matt Stoller ran a great article here pro Net Neutrality and against the way Mike McCurry is misleading readers with an ad on 'Advertise Liberally'. Do you endorse Matt's position?

3. Afaik, YOU control the 'Advertise Liberally' Network, you confirmed this on Aug 11, 2005. Don't you think you are factually supporting the telco's side by running their ad without countering it with a link to the Net Neutrality site? The 'Save the Internet' group is very much a grassroots movement, they probably can't afford ads. Shouldn't 'Advertise Liberally' run an ad for their side without charge, so that there's at least an equality of weapons on that issue?

4. Do the latest news on the telco's voluntarily surrendering phone records to the NSA affect your opinion on the trustability of those companies?

by Gray 2006-05-15 11:27AM | 0 recs

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Re: Sry, OT: What's YOUR position on Net Neutralit

This is a joke, right?

Matt is taking point on Net Neutrality. I endorse all of this efforts.

by Chris Bowers 2006-05-15 12:04PM | 0 recs

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Re: Sry, OT: What's YOUR position on Net Neutralit

sry, misplaced my answer. Thx for answering, Chris, I appreciate this. But could you shed some light on the way 'Adevertise Liberally' is working, too?
It really seems strange for a liberal network to run that ad now for more than three days...

by Gray 2006-05-15 12:24PM | 0 recs

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Re: Online Toolkit For My Campaign

Great, Chris!

But why is 'Advertise Liberally' running that ad for the McCurry group, but not an ad for Net Neutrality? Are you still involved in 'A L'? Can't you do something for a more neutral stance?

by Gray 2006-05-15 12:22PM | 0 recs