MyDD :: College Dem GOTV Strategies

College Dem GOTV Strategies

by conantd, Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 09:30:50 PM EST

Bumped from the diaries -- Jonathan... This is a great look at a successful process for turning out college students to vote.

At my college in Pennsylvania this year, I personally designed the GOTV strategy for campus. What we did was:

1) Set up a dorm captain system, modeled on the precinct captain system. We had 1-2 people in charge of each dorm. They were told to register everyone, keep track of their leanings (on a 1-5 scale) and note whether anyone needed absentee applications.

2) Convince people to not only register, but register in the college's town, so that they didn't have to worry about absentees.

3) We tried to build a master email list of all liberal-leaning groups on campus (Dems, Students for Environmental Action, ACLU, etc) as well as a separate list of swing groups or ones to reach out to (the Catholic group, especially with Casey being Catholic, was the big one).

4) Using this list, we sent a few reminder emails (about deadlines and Election Day). More importantly, though, we made handwritten, colorful notes that we sent to everybody reminding them to vote. Don't underestimate this part. For a college student, mail is rare. Colleges aren't recruiting us anymore, so that one yellow piece of paper will really brighten our day. Also, the handwritten part was vital. We were asking not for votes in general, but Sally's personal support and help.

5) We coordinated to have 1 essay per week published, on a different topic, in the campus newspaper.

6) We have a debate every semester between the College Dems and College Repubs. This fall, we had it less than a week before Election Day. It got everybody really excited before the last push.

7) The night before the Election Day, dorm captains slipped reminder fliers under the door of every Dem-leaner in the building.

As a result of our efforts, we actually had a higher turnout in our precinct in 2006 than in 2004. This may be due to the fact that more people were registered in Meadville rather than at home, so perhaps overall turnout for the student body wasn't as high, but the town still noticed. I'm really proud of what the group accomplished. There are a few areas I think we could improve in, though.

1) I didn't keep as close a track on the dorm captains as I should have. So how much work they did, I'm honestly not sure, particularly with the dorm storm the night before Election Day.

2) Our attempts to create a database of students kind of fell flat. Official voting rolls are extremely out of date (as is the case with any college town). What we would have liked to do is come up with a list, sorted by class, of who is registered and who is not, who is conservative and who is liberal. That way, when 2008 rolls around, we know who's still on campus, and who we need to register and we're not rebuilding.

3) We didn't have as many bodies as we needed, despite the large turnout early on. This made it particularly hard to help the county party out with canvassing down there. We thought that assigning tasks at the first meeting would keep people active, and it did, but not as much as we would have liked.

I'd love to hear other College Dems' stories or suggestions/ideas. Hopefully ours has been helpful.

Tags: GOTV, field, college, College Dems, youth turnout (all tags)

Permalink :: 31 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Was there any voter contact after 5pm on election day to get people who hadn't voted yet to vote?

by adamterando on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 11:42:37 AM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Indeed, there was. We coordinated with the county party to have poll-watchers help us with gathering the data. Then from somewhere around 4:30-5 we started strong-arming every Dem we knew on campus to get out. I think we managed to get about 15 extra votes that way after 7 o'clock.

by conantd on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 04:57:01 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Excellent

by adamterando on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 07:57:29 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Yes, reaching out on Election Day is critically important.

Also, I wonder if Facebook can be used as a tool here - you mentioned you lacked bodies, so perhaps you could save time and energy by individually looking up students' "political orientation."

Netroots for Gore

by NYPopulist on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 12:33:12 PM EST

Brilliant Stuff (none / 0)

I'm going to college next year and I am hoping to get involved in the college dems.

John McCain wants to stay in Iraq for a century.

by jkfp2004 on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 01:39:35 PM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Something that has been attempted at some Colleges in NH is using Facebook as a way to target self identifies 'Liberal' students.

You can actually do an advanced search on there based on political ideology. Check it out.

Blue Hampshire, a progressive online community for the Granite State.

by nhcollegedem on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 01:40:24 PM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

We did that in Western PA to a certain degree.

by Quinton on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 02:38:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (3.00 / 1)

We did use Facebook, too. The dorm captains were told to look for either the political orientation or telltale signs like being in an "anti-Bush" group or environmental science major. So with my dorm, I was able to get about 50% of the people's leanings from the site, and had to talk in person to get the rest.

by conantd on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 04:59:58 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Wow, I am really impressed. You sound really on top of things.

My fantasy for a long time has been to really motivate college students by talking about 1) their costs in loans 2) reminding them that Republicans have cut grants 3) reminding them that Republicans have raised interest rates on college loans and 4) noting that the Democrats will be passing a bill to cut college loan rates in half.

If Bush vetoes this, WHAT A MOTIVATOR!!!

If you are a college student, a vote for a Republican politician could cost you THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of dollars.

by dataguy on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 04:25:59 PM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

It's a fine idea, but college students don't seem to be motivated too much by their self-interest. I think it actually speaks highly of them to say they're more concerned with justice and injustice, with improving the future.

Progress is Personal | Connie Brennan | My opinions are mine alone

by msnook on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 12:35:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

A noble idea but.. (none / 0)

The image of the college student as a selfless individual, concerned much more with global issues and the rights of others, is not necessarily a n universal one. As the president of the Democrat club at a school with low levels of political activity, the most effective issues we've found for voter interest and turnout have been ones directly related to the financial interests of students. Student loans and grants, particularly with our Governator's fondness for the raising of student fees, seem to be the biggest motivating factors for many students. For many students, it's hard to expend much energy on social activity and participation when you have to work two jobs to barely pay tuition every quarter.

by zaust on Wed Jan 10, 2007 at 09:23:31 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (3.00 / 1)

We used a few different strategies, but the key was peer contact.

- Voter Registration.

Facebook. - We invited "liberal" and "very liberal" students to join a "Pledge to Vote Democratic" group. Changed all of our profile pictures to "Vote Dems 11/7/06."
Pledge Cards.
On-campus visibility.
A GOTV Rally/Townhall meeting with Jim Esch.

That was our on-campus effort, the rest of our efforts were volunteering for a few local candidates and hundreds of hours for Jim Esch's campaign.

But it's a lot easier to do something like this when you have a large group of people who eat, drink, and sleep this stuff. Hell of a lot of dedication went into our last month's effort.

Further Reading

by Dave Sund on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 06:36:00 PM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

But it's a lot easier to do something like this when you have a large group of people who eat, drink, and sleep this stuff.

Thats my biggest problem.

Does anyone have any suggestion on that front?

Blue Hampshire, a progressive online community for the Granite State.

by nhcollegedem on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 06:38:22 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

How big is your school? Since I'm at a small liberal arts school (~2000), the biggest thing was just asking people face-to-face to come to the meeting. And the hand-written notes were possible. Everybody knows everybody else, so this was fairly easy. As for getting people who actually want to canvass, I have absolutely no idea. Maybe the best help would be to have a big name candidate ask people to go out and go door-to-door for him.

by conantd on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 07:44:11 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Be social. It's difficult to retain people after the elections, so the group can't just be about the elections. Getting people to stick around is all about having fun, being good friends, and driving each other to accomplish something. And going to the bars or going out with your friends does not detract from the politics. You're in college! :)

As far as drawing people in? Be creative. We became infamous on campus for selling some offensive anti-Bush buttons. We use Facebook a whole lot (almost too much, heh). Get input from others on what they want to do. Sometimes it's way too ambitious, but if you work for it, it can be done. I had no idea "Tribute to the Fallen" was even possible until we actually did it.

Further Reading

by Dave Sund on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 09:30:45 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

I'm the VP of College Dems at the University of Kentucky. We didn't have a Senate race and our House Rep. (Ben Chandler) was running unopposed. Our focus was on two state legislative races, both of which were against entrenched Republican incumbents (both Democratic challengers lost).

With this as our backdrop, and with three competitive House races in Kentucky, we focused mainly on registration, and encouraged kids to vote absentee from their home district if they were from KY-2, 3, or 4. We then made sure they had the resources they needed to vote early/ absentee. Our main focus was on field work for congressional candidates outside of Lexington (we worked for Yarmuth in KY-3 and Lucas in KY-4). Although it required a lot of work and travel, it paid off in Louisville, and forced national Republicans to spend a lot of money in KY-4.

I think our situation was strange, with no real inspiring candidate running in the college's jurisdiction, but not uncommon. We probably could have done better, but next year we have a Governor's race and we should be out in force.

by rkahne on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 10:43:19 PM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

How did you guys register folks and encourage them to vote absentee? Was it systematic? What were your methods? And with the fieldwork for Yarmuth and Lucas, did you guys coordinate with the campaign? Did you have a lot of volunteers for this? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm just really interested in how you guys worked this.

by conantd on Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 10:56:12 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

The College Dems at UK worked with our Student Government and College Republicans to hold a week long contest to see which club could register more people. We set up tables every day for a week and staffed it with 3-4 people per hour and asked everybody who passed if they were registered to vote. We registered about 200-250 people that week (College Republicans registered about 50). We also did a lot more tabling (we try to get out on campus at least once a week) doing voter education and registering voters. We did a lot of work with Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, and with them, we registered about 1000 new voters on campus.

As for voting absentee, we directed people who registered outside of Lexington to the Secretary of State's website, as well as gave them the telephone number of their local county clerk. We also gave everybody who wanted more help our own personal numbers and encouraged them to call.

The field work was all coordinated with the actual campaign (the DCCC and the KDP never did have any sort of coordinated campaign with Yarmuth and he STILL won). We had about 5-10 people travel with us twice to Northern Kentucky, and 4 people travel with us to Louisville. It's tough to get kids to work at 8 in the morning on a Saturday. I was actually pretty proud of our turnouts.

by rkahne on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 01:55:10 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Here's a question for all you College Dems. I go to a public school in New York and while I'm not active in the College Dems, I know one problem they have are campus regulations. The state has laws against proselytizing in campus buildings, including the dorms. Essentially, there's no legal way to door knock and even sliding fliers under people's doors becomes problematic. What kind of strategy could College Dems from this type of school use to effectively get the word out while still remaining within the restrictions of the law?

by circlesnshadows on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 01:50:09 AM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Hmm....this certainly makes it tough. I'm not quite sure on the technicalities of the law, but you could try to build a slightly more informal GOTV network by recruiting people and then telling them to be sure to get 5 or 10 friends (possibly in the same dorm) registered and then to follow up with those people on Election Day to drag them to the polls...the key would be to make sure the people actually know each other rather than sending a stranger in...just be sure to have a GOTV coordinator or two within the College Dems to keep tabs on the network so the entire effort doesn't fall apart.

Also, perhaps you guys could do a combination of things mentioned upthread? So use Facebook and group email lists to figure out everybody's leanings and then send them targeted mailings (you could even make them message-specific, i.e. pro-choice letters for members of feminist organizations)

by conantd on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 10:43:46 AM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

We've run into a lot of the same problems. Our tactics took us out of the dorms and into a more public space. The University of Kentucky allows student organizations to use certain spaces to table, and we took advantage of that. We set up shop in the Student Center and also in open areas on campus. I don't know the layout of your campus, but I would suggest standing around outside and accosting people. It's a blunt, but effective method.

by rkahne on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 03:54:23 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Have you ever found phonebanking on campus effective? We have easy access to campus extensions and the group could likely phonebank the students relatively easy; however student receptiveness to these kinds of phonecalls is questionable.

by circlesnshadows on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 07:22:04 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

The main problem we've had with it is that more and more people just don't use landlines, especially with people switching dorms every year. So if you can get their cell phones that would be great, but unfortunately those aren't in the campus phonebook. What we were able to do this year though is use what cellphones we did have from friends to do the final push on election day and get who hadn't vote yet down to the polls.

by conantd on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 08:43:22 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

What do these laws prevent? Can you undertake a non-partisan registration / GOTV drive? If you know that your school votes 2-1 Dem in general or something like that, then any non-partisan GOTV drive will in all likelihood help you even though maybe not to the extent that a targeted drive asking for votes for specific people would.

NJ Hussein Independent

by NJIndependent on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 11:55:24 AM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

I worked in CT-04 to try to beat Chris Shays at Fairfield University. I ran a much more centralized thing - I had dorm captains, but they mostly just tried to register voters, then reported back to me. We registered 430 people through door to door, sweeping through the dorms 2-3 times, including one massive dorm storm. The college paper was behind us to report this.

One thing I am surprised about is that you only followed through in mail and flyers, not face to face. The state party was working with me, telling me that personal contact was the way to get people out. So we went back to rooms, and kept a massive index of every person's room, dorm phone # (couldn't get many cell phones), Screen name, and email address. Everybody got reminders before and on election day. We also had a table in the campus center for a week before election day, stopping most passers to tell them to vote.

On election day, we had a table out again, and even rented a limo and van to take people continuously. That raised a lot of awareness, but we still had trouble getting the people we registered out. Altogether, it was a success, but I'm looking for improvement, and it's great to see other college dems experiences here!

John McCain

by John Nicosia on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 10:39:02 AM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (3.00 / 1)

Nice job! Sounds like you guys were really successful! At Allegheny College, I don't have the exact numbers, but we got something like 600-700 registered. As far as the face-to-face contact instead of just mailings and such, it was definitely part of the plan--dorm captains would see the people out on the street or in class and pester them all day with "Have you voted yet," but unfortunately with the growing pains and newness of the efforts, they may not have lived up to what they could have been. So you're right, we will need to do some more of that. I think our way forward will probably just involve ironing out the organizational kinks by making sure everybody's actually doing what they're supposed to and maybe by bringing in some kind of campaign trainer at the beginning of the year to help us get over the nervousness of door-to-door, so that we expand the number of people who can really help.

The limo's a great idea. We just had the vans operated by Student Government, but a limo would be pretty sweet. You could even stock it with sparkling cider or grape juice...

by conantd on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 10:52:42 AM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

This is a really interesting thread guys - I'm going to forward it along to my college Dems.

by Karatist Preacher on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 10:56:07 AM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

At Harvard University, the Dems decided that rather than focusing on on-campus GOTV efforts (given that our MA races included nail biters such as Ted Kennedy's), we'd galvanize our campus to volunteer for races in other, more competitive states. We worked on races in PA, RI, and even did phonebanks for races in NM. Over 400 students participated in these efforts, and everybody had a great time.

When it comes to galvanizing students on campus to volunteer, I would defintely agree with Dave Sund's comment about making your group as social as possible. People aren't going to spend entire days or weekends volunteering with a group if they don't know anyone or they don't think it'll be fun. In order to accomplish this, groups should make sure to 1) create a social community by hosting events that don't always involve strict campaigning; and 2) choose worthwhile activities (no matter how much students in the Harvard Dems liked each other, they weren't going to waste their time registering people to vote for Ted Kennedy). Even if your group isn't that strong at the beginning of the election season, don't be discouraged--we had an incredible amount of first-time campaigners who had never done anything political in their life. If you make it seem fun and exciting, you should have no problem attracting liberals to work for your cause.

by Brigit Helgen on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 04:01:19 PM EST

Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Do you have any ideas on some non-campaign events? I like the concept of Drinking Liberally, but that's kind of impossible to do (legally) at a college. The College Republicans at our school throw a formal every year. Do you have any others?

by conantd on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 08:47:00 PM EST
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Re: College Dem GOTV Strategies (none / 0)

Social events like finding a common room, reserving it, and watching movies are great social activities. Having a formal dinner is also something we do with the Harvard College Dems. Niceties like showing up with hot cocoa and coffee in the morning when you're about to go out canvassing support campaign work well. Having members of the group grab dinner together in campus dining halls also help close off the day and are great for group building.

by Rob Winikates on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 12:26:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

"Off Year" Strategy (none / 0)

Have you considered community service as a way to keep people active and engaged during the non-election time?

I am working with an organization called Democrats Work, which mobilizes Democrats to perform community service projects . . . as Democrats. We'd be happy to help.

How would it work? You could take all the information you gathered for the election (reliable Democrats, left-leaning organizations, etc.) and start mobilizing folks for service projects in the town. For example, you could partner with all of groups you worked with during the election to come up with service events. (Environmental groups could come up with a clean-up event, and you can build goodwill among groups by getting the Democrats to volunteer.) You could use the resources you used before . . . email, invites under the door, Facebook, etc. . . . to invite people to come out for the event (and to let them know what you did after the event . . . sending them a postcard picture of the playground you built, for example.) You could invite local politicians . . . I imagine they would jump at the chance to become better known among the college students, especially since you have registered all of them there. You can start building the Democrats' reputation as the Party of Service among the generation for whom service is second nature.

Sounds to me like you have already done the hard work - ID'ing the Dems, figuring out how best to reach them. Now all you need to do is work to "keep the band together." If you have a sustained program of service, you can keep better tabs on folks, build out your stable of volunteers for next Election Day, and actually do something positive and tangible in the community.

Happy to help in any way that I can. Democrats Work can be a good resource . . . and for the folks who are over 21, they can cruise by the Drinking Liberally event afterwards!

Thomas Bates . . . tbates@democratswork.org

by Thomas Bates on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 12:33:23 PM EST
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