A PRACTICAL GUIDE

FOR WINNING
ELECTIONS
 
IntroductionChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Conclusion

Introduction
Since the Indivisible Guide was first tweeted out in December of 2016, Indivisible
groups across the country have played a critical role in resisting the Trump agenda,
stopping TrumpCare, and building power nationwide. Now, with 2020 on the horizon,
we’re going on the offensive. Together, we have the power to not just resist, but to
win key electoral victories and reshape government.

Elections—at every level of government—are critical to stopping Trump. The Trump

administration didn’t come out of nowhere. For many years before the 2016 election,
Republicans—and conservative Tea Party activists in particular—had been building
power by winning elections at all levels of government. From local school boards and
state legislatures to Congress and eventually the Oval Office, the Tea Party effectively
stopped progressive legislation and got in the driver’s seat to push their hateful
policies.
Now, it’s our turn to build a blue wave that can take back power across the country—
and then hold our leaders accountable for stopping Trump and passing progressive
policies. Many Indivisible groups have started this next stage of our work already.
Whether by winning key elections in Virginia, electing a Democratic Senator in
Alabama for the first time in 25 years and propelling exciting, progressive candidates
to victories in primaries, the impact of local Indivisible groups diving into campaign
work has already made a clear impact.

We know we’ve got the people power to make the difference in November—this
guide, written by former campaign staffers and organizers, is about how to effectively
put that people power into action. This guide offers step-by-step tips and resources on
how to use that same people power that resisted the Trump Agenda to win elections
through volunteer voter contact all across the country.

We’re excited to share the knowledge we’ve developed from winning—and the key
lessons we’ve learned from our losses—to build the oncoming blue wave. We
certainly have our work cut out for us; but, it’s never been more clear that if we stick
with it, together, we will win.

Please Note

How you engage in elections depends a lot on your group’s organizational status.
This guide is intended for unincorporated local groups and those spending money
under 501(c)(4) tax rules—independently, or through our Indivisible's distributed
fundraising program (reach out to your Organizer or field@indivisible.org for more
information about the program).. We don’t recommend you incorporate as a 501(c)
(3): 501(c)(3) organizations have serious limitations on their ability to participate in
elections.
Chapter 1: Why Volunteer Voter
Contact Wins Elections
Indivisibles have won battles across the country because we are unified in our core
strategy: local and defensive advocacy. Local groups focused efforts only on their
own Members of Congress and got comfortable saying “No” to legislation in
congress. It was often frustrating to not control the agenda and repetitive to call the
same three MoCs every week , but this strategy worked!

This same principle applies to our electoral work. We are most effective when we
concentrate our time and resources on the most impactful tactics. This guide has been
designed to make sure you have the best information and the tools to do just that.

How We Win

The basic formula for winning an election is straightforward—your candidate needs to

get more votes than their opponent(s). The art comes into play by figuring out how to
get to that number.

Developing a strategy to win takes some math, creativity, and an understanding of

your local area. Generally, a candidate will start with some set of base voters or folks
that are definitely going to support them and are definitely going to vote. We don’t
need to take the time talking to these folks about voting, but they’re great volunteer
prospects. There are three key ways we can supplement those base voters to defeat our
opponent:

1. Build the Electorate. The first strategy to get to 50% + 1 is to make sure your
supporters are registered to vote. Voter registration is an important activity to
ensure your candidate has enough supporters that are able to turn out on
 Election Day. Furthermore, broadening the electorate is crucial to a truly
representative democracy. For many Americans, securing their right to vote and
ability to register has been a long fight throughout the history of our country.
The history of laws designed to suppress voting along racial lines continues to
this day. Take a look at our Voter Registration Toolkit for tips on doing
registration in your community and start registering folks to vote
through TurboVote.
2. Persuade Undecideds. Persuasion is an effective strategy, when done right,
because it not only wins you a vote for your candidate, it also takes one away
from your opponent so you essentially net two votes from one voter.
3. Turn Out Supporters. In some cases, the main focus of a campaign will be
identifying supporters and making sure they get out to vote. Generally, this will
be focused on voters who are likely support the progressive candidate, but may
not vote without a few reminders.

Every area is different, so the amount of time you invest in each of these strategies
will depend on the particular area and campaign. Your Indivisible Organizer can help
you make a plan for the elections that you care about. But no matter your strategy,
there’s one thing that is critical to every successful campaign: direct voter contact.

Our Strategic Choices

Direct Voter Contact—or having conversations with voters—is one of the key
ingredients to winning elections at all levels of the ballot (and the most important way
for Indivisible groups to make an impact). However, who you talk to and how you
talk to them is going to be just as important as it was when remembering to only call
you own Member of Congress.
Direct Voter Contact programs should be focused on two-sided conversations,
targeted efforts and relationship building.

1. The best types of voter contact are two-sided.Imagine you want to convince
a family member or friend to do a time-sensitive chore that you didn’t want to
do yourself. How would you convince them? Send a carrier pigeon? Smoke
signal? Put a letter in the mail? No, you’d have a conversation. That’s going to
be quicker and more compelling. Similarly, the most effective voter contact is
direct; that is, having conversations with voters (plus, it’s a lot more fun to
actually engage with voters).

o Face to face conversations are the gold standard. There’s still no

replacement for going door to door and talking to voters in your
community. This is how we’ll win in November and beyond. Making
calls and other direct tactics can be good supplements to knocking doors.
o Keep track of responses and follow up. While many campaigns invest
in ads and direct mail (both of which are important for many reasons
too), a major benefit to direct voter contact is being able to track who
you actually reach and their responses. This way you can ultimately
turnout confirmed supporters, follow up with undecided voters to
persuade them to support your candidate and drop folks supporting the
other side to better target your voter universe. Data collection is also
crucial to telling the story of our movement. It demonstrates our power
clearly through numbers. We can hold the elected officials who we will
elect this year accountable by sharing those numbers. That is why
collecting data on voter contact activities, as well as group membership,
should be central to our work this cycle.
2. Voter contact should always be targeted. Think about planning a birthday for
a good friend. While everyone has different methods of party prep, you
generally start by making a list of folks to invite. In theory, you could stand on
a street corner and ask everyone who walks by if they’ll attend the party, but
that won’t be particularly effective and you’re definitely not going to end up
with the right people at the party (or maybe anybody at all). Talking to voters is
not all that different. If you spend your time walking down a street and talking
to every single person, that’s not the most efficient use of your time and you
may be turning the wrong folks out to vote.

o Focus on people you can impact. Some voters have already made up

their minds—they know who they’re voting for, and they’re 100%
committed to voting. It’s not worth our time to talk to these folks,
because we can’t have an impact on their decisions. Instead, we focus on
people who need an added push to either support our candidate, or to
show up and vote.

o Talk to people at the right time. Your targets are going to change over
the course of the campaign. Over the summer, you’ll talk to a wide
variety of people to ask who they’re supporting, and to persuade people
who are undecided. But closer to Election Day, you’ll switch to talking
to voters who already support your candidate, but need an extra push to
vote.

o It’s okay to talk to people more than once. You’ll usually talk to

someone several times over the course of the campaign—at first to ask if
they’re supporting your candidate, then to persuade them to your side,
then to make sure they turn out to vote. It’s all about finding the balance
 between talking to as many people as we can, but also making sure we
talk to people enough times that they remember us.

3. Everything comes back to relationship building.When picking a restaurant

for a celebratory dinner, whose recommendation are you more likely to trust—a
close friend or a stranger? Most folks would likely follow the advice of a
friend, because you not only have faith in their judgement, but you also know
that they can tailor their recommendations to your preferences. Picking a
candidate to vote for has much wider implications than one dinner, so the same
idea applies. Like with all organizing, electoral organizing also always comes
back to relationships.
o Always focus on building out your volunteer capacity. There are over
5,000 leaders of Indivisible groups, but even with that large number we
can’t reach all the voters we need to talk to. Every canvass or phone
bank should focus not only on contacting voters, but also bringing in
new volunteers and empowering consistent volunteers to take on more
leadership. We need to constantly be growing to successfully Get Out
the Vote and to have a strong showing on Election Day. Furthermore,
we’re going to have a new set of battles in January, so strengthening and
building Indivisible groups through electoral work will be hugely
important to our continued success. It’s also very important to keep track
of who is attending these events so that you can thank them and invite
them to the next event—that way Indivisible will be stronger than ever in
November.
o Conversations with voters should include genuine connection. A
conversation at the doors or over the phone may just last a few minutes,
but there’s enough time to learn about what the voter values and connect
 that with the campaign. The best conversation will connect the voter
with you and the candidate through shared values.
o Localize your efforts. It’s all about neighbors talking to neighbors! Let
voters know that you’re from their community and why this election is
important for the place you live. If you’re going into a community that is
not your own, be sure to connect with local Indivisible groups or other
progressive organizations already doing work there. (Check out our
guide on Building Inclusive Partnerships).

Chapter 2: Voter Contact Tactics

that Win Elections
This chapter reviews different ways to contact voters and what that means for your
campaign strategy. While the way these tactics are implemented will differ based on
campaign and area, the good news is: we know what works. 

Types of Conversations With Voters

As we outlined in the principles in Chapter 1, voter contact should be targeted. We

talk to different categories of voters depending on the distance from Election Day and
will have specific types of conversations with those voters. There are a few distinct
types of conversations that are most typical to have with voters. While the type of
conversation will depend on the timeframe and the specific campaign calendar, it’s
important to note that there will be overlap in these conversations depending on the
individual voter.

One of the great things about two sided conversations with voters is that a volunteer
can tailor their approach based on the particular voter. That means, a conversation that
was intended to fall into the persuasion category may turn into a volunteer recruitment
conversation if voter is a huge supporter of your candidate. Alternatively, if you’re
doing turnout and come across someone that’s planning to vote and is undecided, it
makes sense to have a quick persuasion conversation.

That said, while there is certainly overlap, it’s easiest to think about voter contact
conversations in a few distinct categories:

 Identification: Early in the election cycle, it’s important to spend time figuring

out who your supporters are so that you can turn them out to vote. In
identification conversations, you’ll ask voters if they know who they’ll be
supporting. If they turn out to be a supporter, you can ask them to volunteer! If
they’re not sure, this is a great opportunity to do some light persuasion.

 Persuasion: In some cases, it’s strategic to have persuasion conversations with

voters who haven’t made up their mind. Persuasion is all about convincing the
voter to support your candidate by sharing the candidate’s positions and your
personal reasons for supporting that candidate. The best persuasion connects
the volunteer and voter and subsequently the candidate based on shared values
and personal experiences.

 Turnout: In the final two weeks before Election Day, most conversations with
voters will be focused on turning them out to vote. Turning supporters out to
vote is critical—so critical in fact that the whole next chapter is all about
GOTV.

 Volunteer Recruitment: This isn’t exactly “voter contact” because your

volunteer base can be broader than voters. Either way, this is a really important
 part of winning elections—by recruiting volunteers, you can have more of the
identification, persuasion and turnout conversations explained above.

Targeted voter contact doesn’t just mean talking to the right voters, it also means
talking to them at the best time. While every election timeline will look slightly
different depending on the community, this is a general overview of what you should
focus on and when:

 Phase 1: Identification and Capacity Building. Start talking to voters as soon as

you’ve decided to support a candidate. Early on, most Indivisibles’
conversations with voters will focus on identification. You’ll use this
information to guide the rest of your campaign, so keeping good records of who
you talk to is crucial! Indivisible offers voter contact tools for this—ask your
organizer for more information!

This phase is also a good time to do volunteer recruitment—asking voters to

join you in talking to other voters, and to join your Indivisible group!
Depending on where you live, this is also an important time to do voter
registration. Simply grab a phone, go to indivisible.turbovote.org and start
registering voters (check out our full guide here).

 Phase 2: The Road to Victory. Voter contact varies the most in the period
between a few months before an election day (or “E-day”) and two weeks
before it. (Your “E-day” could be either the primary or general election.) This
period might include additional identification and volunteer recruitment
conversations, or persuasion. It’s all about figuring out the path you need to
take to win on election day.
  Phase 3: GOTV. The last phase of voter contact starts either two weeks before
E-day or on the first day of early voting, for states that have it, and is called
GOTV—or Get Out The Vote. During GOTV, you’ll be talking to people who
we think support our candidate, but who need an extra push to get out to the
polls. You’ll remind them that voting is our civic duty and help them make a
plan to vote.

Tactic 1: Canvassing

No matter how many new and exciting digital tools come about, face to face
conversations will always be the best way to connect with voters. Canvassing, or
going door to door to talk to voters, is the key ingredient to any successful campaign.
Plus, it’s actually a ton of fun to lace up your sneakers, grab a clipboard and have
meaningful conversations with voters—you’re quite literally collecting votes for your
candidate(s) in real time. If your group does one thing to engage with elections,
canvassing should be it!

How to Canvass

Whether you’ve been an avid canvasser for decades or this is the first time you’ll be
trying it out, to be successful in November we need everyone out on the doors. Find a
friend, sign up and start knocking on doors! 

1. Find an event in your area. Check out the Indivisible event map for canvasses

scheduled near you or connect with a local Indivisible group to hear what they
have planned in the upcoming weeks.

2. Gather your materials. Go through this checklist to make sure you have all of
your canvassing essentials!
o Pens
 o Water and snacks
o Weather gear! Do you need sunscreen? A poncho? Sunglasses?
o Comfortable shoes
o Fully charged phone or tablet/iPad with GPS (particularly if you’re
canvassing using an app)
o Phone or tablet charger for back-up
3. Show up to the canvass! Once you’ve committed to an event, make sure you
show up a few minutes early on the given day. Generally, you’ll receive
canvassing scripts and materials when you arrive and then have a 10-20 minute
training before you get started. Take time to familiarize yourself with the
materials and make sure to get the contact information for the person leading
the canvass in case you have questions while you’re out knocking doors.
4. Recognize the difference you’re making. Knock all the doors that are given
to you, but don’t expect to talk to more than 1 out of 5 of the people on your
list. Even if you only get to talk to a few people, those conversations make a
difference.
5. Get to turf and map out your route. Once you’ve arrived in the area you’re
knocking doors, take a few moments to map out your route so that you’re not
going around in circles. Pro tip: start on one side of a street and do that whole
side, and then do the other side.
6. Start knocking! Your first door may feel intimidating, but remember you’re
talking to your neighbors! Take a deep breath, smile, and ring the doorbell or
knock loudly. Count to ten, and knock/ring again. If it’s your first time
canvassing, consider pairing up with someone else for the first few doors.
7. Begin your conversation with an introduction. Start off your conversation by
introducing yourself and explaining why you’re stopping by. Try to use context
 clues to build a quick connection. For example, if you see a sticker for the local
public school, you can bring up how you or your children went there.
8. Don’t spend time with people who don’t agree with you. No need to spend
time with folks who definitely don’t agree with you, when you could be
knocking on more doors. If someone starts to really disagree, it’s OK to end the
conversation quickly with “Thank you for your time,” or “OK, sounds like
we’re on opposite sides of this, and we can both get on with our day!” No need
to draw things out!
9. Follow the script, but put it in your own voice. Make sure you’re hitting all
the points in the script (they’re in there for a reason!), but this is a conversation
so feel free to put it in your own voice. As important as talking points are, what
matters most is your story or perspective as a constituent, and as a neighbor.
10. Share your success. Don’t forget to take pictures, post on social media and
celebrate the great work your group is doing. Tag @indivisibleteam on Twitter
so we can help amplify your work. There’s nothing like a canvassing selfie!
11.Sign up for your next event. Make canvassing a habit! Make sure to bring
your calendar so you can sign up for the next few events that you’ll attend.

Canvass Dos and Don’ts

Read More

How to Organize a Canvass

At this point, Indivisible groups across the country are organizing pros and have
coordinated thousands of events. While preparing for a canvass has several unique
elements, the overall process is similar to getting ready for a district office visit, group
meeting or other action.
1. Set a date. Pick a time (or times) that would work well for your group
members and would be convenient for new folks to get involved. Generally,
weekends and weeknights are the best time to knock on doors—you’ll have the
best rate of folks that are home. Consider planning recurring events that happen
weekly or biweekly!
2. Register your event. Add your event to the Indivisible events map and we’ll
include event information in our Saturday email to recruit Indivisibles in your
area.
3. Publicize the event. Update your group and get commitments. Use this activity
as an opportunity to bring in new folks too. Make calls to your neighbors, put
up flyers in town, post in various Facebook groups, ask every group member to
bring a friend. Don’t forget to register your event with us so we can help
promote the event to people in your area.
4. Confirm your canvassers. The night before the event, give everyone who
signed up a call to let them know you’re counting on them to be there—and to
bring a friend (or three!). Ask if they need a ride, or if they have any questions
about the event. Remind them to bring the following:
o Fully charged smartphone or tablet
o Phone or tablet charger
o Weather gear! Do you need sunscreen? A poncho? Sunglasses?
o Comfortable shoes
5. Prepare your materials. Spend time the day before getting your location set
up, putting together clipboards and making sure all materials are ready.
o Set up your location. Have a sign-in table, an area for training, a table
with the materials ready to hand out, and a debrief location (could just be
a corner of the room).
 o Prepare each clipboard with: a cover sheet with your contact
information, canvassing best practices, the script, and a pen.
o Additional materials: consider bringing extra iPhone and Android
chargers, some portable chargers, water, and snacks.
6. Welcome your canvassers. Take time to greet folks as they arrive, ensure they
sign in, hand them materials and introduce them to one another. Folks will be
more likely to come back for another shift if they make friends while they’re
volunteering!
7. Train your canvassers. A good training is key to a successful canvass. It’s
important to have a training before each canvass! (See the end of this chapter
for a sample 30 minute training agenda for you to use)
8. Share your success. Don’t forget to take pictures, post on social media and
celebrate the great work your group is doing. Tag @indivisibleteam on Twitter
so we can help amplify your work. There’s nothing like a canvassing selfie, so
encourage your canvassers to post about their work too!
9. Debrief with your canvassers. Encourage folks to come back after their shift
or give them a call after they finish. Ask them what went well, what the
challenges were and about their best conversations. You can use these learnings
to add things to your trainings for the future.
10.Make thank you calls. Make sure to follow up with your canvassers to thank
them for coming out—consider sharing how many doors your volunteers
knocked total, how many supporters you identified and why their work was so
impactful. Don’t forget to get them signed up for their next canvass.

Sample 30 Minute Canvassing Training Agenda

Here’s a sample 30 minute training agenda for you to use:

Read More
Sample Canvassing Script

As outlined above, there are several types of conversations we have with voters. The
below is an example of an Identification script you’d use when canvassing—notice
that even though it’s an identification conversation, there’s also a volunteer ask.

Read More

Tactic 2: Phone Banking

For folks who can’t get out knocking doors or in areas where homes are very spread
out, making phone calls is a useful way to connect with voters. When making phone
calls to voters, volunteers will generally have very similar conversations to those at
the doors. While face-to-face conversations are more effective, conversations over the
phone are more efficientbecause you can reach many more voters in a short period of
time. 

The best voter contact programs will be heavily focused on canvassing, but phone
banking is a great supplement to those efforts. Different voters will be most
responsive to different types of outreach, so it’s important to try to reach folks in a
variety of ways. 

How to Phone Bank

While phone banking and canvassing may seem rather different, the nuts and bolts of
the two activities are very similar. Just follow the below steps to get started!

1. Find an event in your area. Check out the Indivisible event map for canvasses

scheduled near you or connect with a local Indivisible group to hear what they
have planned in the upcoming weeks.
2. Gather your materials. Go through this checklist to make sure you have all of
your phone banking essentials!
o Cell phone or landline
o Charger for your devices
o Headphones (if you’d like for making calls)
o Internet-capable device (if you’re making calls online)
3. Recognize the difference you’re making. Even if you only talk to a few
people, the conversations you’re having are making a difference. It’s normal to
only talk to about 10-20% of the folks that you call—just keep dialing.
4. Smile while you dial. It may sound silly, but if you’re smiling while you phone
bank, that enthusiasm really comes through on the other side of the line. Plus,
it’s a lot more fun for you too.
5. Start calling! It’s typical to get nervous before your first call, but remember
you’re talking to your neighbors! Take a deep breath, smile, and press call. If
it’s your first time making calls, consider practicing a few times with another
phone banker.
6. Follow the script, but put it in your own voice. Make sure you’re hitting all
the points in the script (they’re in there for a reason!), but this is a conversation
so feel free to put it in your own voice. As important as our talking points are,
what matters most is your story or perspective as a constituent, and as a
neighbor.
7. Don’t spend time with people who don’t agree with you. No need to spend
time with folks who don’t agree with you, when you could be making more
calls. If someone starts to really disagree, it’s OK to end the conversation
quickly with “Thank you for your time,” or “OK, sounds like we’re on opposite
sides of this, and we can both get on with our day!” No need to draw things
out!
 8. Mark down the result of the conversation. Make sure to indicate the
response in the phone bank. Your group will use this information later to decide
who to talk to—for example if someone is a “maybe” supporter, we’ll go back
and talk to them again! Make sure to collect the contact information of anyone
you talk to who wants to get involved with Indivisible.
9. Share your success. Don’t forget to take pictures, post on social media and
celebrate the great work your group is doing. Tag @indivisibleteam on Twitter
so we can help amplify your work.

Anatomy of a Phone Call

Indivisible across the country have become very accustomed to calling their Member
of Congress (many even do it everyday!). If you’ve taken the initiative to call your
Member of Congress, you’re certainly ready to take the next step and start calling
voters. Making calls to voters has some similarities to calling your MoC, but often
tends to be a more robust conversation. Instead of talking to a congressional staffer or
intern, you’re talking to a fellow constituent—and chances are you’ll have a lot in
common.

Sample Phonebanking Call Dialogue

The specific conversations you’ll have with voters will vary based on how far away
Election Day is. However, this is a sample dialogue that would likely occur over the
summer identifying who a voter is supporting and engaging in some light persuasion:

Read More

Tactic 3: Texting

One of the newer ways we have to connect with voters is texting. While emails and
phone calls have declining open and answer rates, these days folks open over 90% of
the text messages they receive. Organizing is all about meeting people where they’re
at, so if voters are spending a lot of time looking at their texts, that’s a great place to
contact them.

When Indivisibles engage in “text banking,” chances are they’ll be doing peer to peer
texting. Many Indivisible volunteers are already familiar with this tactic because there
were folks all over the country texting to support the work local groups did leading to
Conor Lamb’s victory in Pennsylvania’s 18th district, Virginia’s exciting elections in
2017 and to Doug Jones’ victory in Alabama. Depending on the platform, there is
typically a generic first message uploaded and an easy system to send texts quickly
and consecutively. This also allows for conversations between volunteers and voters.
Volunteers will receive the responses from the voters they reach out to and be able to
engage in a conversation.

Texting is certainly not a substitute for canvassing and phone banking, but is a fun
supplement that has many creative ways to engage.

Texting Conversations

Like phone banking and canvassing, the types of conversations you can have with a
voter over text can vary. That said, the types of conversations that have been shown to
be most successful are Get Out the Vote and recruitment conversations. So far other
uses, like persuasion or identification, haven’t been proven to be effective.

Sample Peer to Peer Texting Conversation

This is a sample of what a texting conversation might look like:

Read More

Tactic 4: Everything Else

There are several other ways to contact voters, but for the purposes of Indivisible
groups, the three tactics mentioned above are the best way to engage! That said, there
are a few other methods of direct and indirect voter contact that are worth talking
about.

Voter Registration: Registering voters is a key piece to most successful campaigns!

We didn’t dive into voter registration much in this guide because we have a full guide
dedicated just to that tactic (check it out here).

Relational Organizing Tools: There are many new digital tools that are popping up
to help volunteers find folks within their existing networks to have conversations with
about elections. These tools help identify who those folks are, but volunteers still need
to do the work of having those conversations. These tools are new and the impact is
still unclear, but it will be interesting to learn more over the next year. This is the last
tactic in this list that is actually direct voter contact—the rest are indirect since there
isn’t a two sided conversation.

Postcards/Letters: Writing postcards or letters to voters can be a fun supplement to

canvassing and phone banking, especially if you have folks in your group that are not
able to make calls or knock doors. Postcards or letter writing are not a replacement for
other types of voter contact (keep in mind: it’s not direct because you’re not having a
conversation with a voter), but have been shown to have to have an impact for Get
Out the Vote efforts. That said, they haven’t been shown to have much of an impact
before that final push.

Paid Ads: Campaigns and consulting firms often will largely focus on paid ads. This
may include television commercials, radio ads, social media promotions, etc. While
paid media can reach a lot of people at once, we encourage Indivisible groups to focus
on volunteer voter contact like canvassing and phone banking.
Direct Mail: Like paid ads, direct mail is something that campaigns and consulting
firms will invest resources in. Direct mail is when campaigns send promotional pieces
through the mail—this could be positive information about their candidate or negative
pieces about the opposition. This is an efficient way of reaching a lot of voters, but
again this is indirect (it doesn’t follow our principles of two sided conversations).

Yard Signs: Sorry to break it to you, but yard signs are not voter contact. They are in
no way a replacement for canvassing or phone banking, but feel free to put them in
your yard to show support.

Chapter 3: Get Out The Vote

(GOTV)
The last phase of voter contact is called GOTV, which stands for Get Out The Vote.
GOTV starts about 2 weeks before Election Day, and really ramps up in the last four
days before election day. During GOTV, you’ll be talking to people who support our
candidate, but who need an extra push to get out to the polls. You’ll remind them that
voting is our civic duty and hold them accountable to voting. Luckily, progressives
have done extensive research on what actually works for GOTV, so we’ll help you
make a perfect GOTV plan.

GOTV Overview

Why is GOTV Important?

Historically when Democrats turn out, they WIN! In many ways, everything that
happens in campaigns leads up to GOTV. We’ve been working for months to build
support, and now it’s time to hold our supporters accountable for actually getting to
the polls to vote!
GOTV Timing

The campaign is nearing an end. You've identified your targeted voters, launched full
scale persuasion efforts, and are just days away from the election. There's only one
thing left to do—GOTV!

GOTV is most effective in the last two weeks of the campaign. Any earlier than that,
and people will forget your reminders to vote by the time Election Day rolls around.
Instead, use the earlier parts of the campaign for those Identification and Persuasion
conversations that we talked about in Chapter 2.

If your state offers it, you should encourage voters to vote early, vote absentee, or vote
by mail. Every state has different laws about early vote and absentee ballots, so make
sure to research your own state while making your GOTV plan. You can check
out www.vote.org for more information and links to laws in your state.

GOTV Targets

By GOTV, we know who our supporters are, because we’ve talked to them already!
During GOTV, you’ll go back and talk to people who support our candidate, but need
an extra reminder to vote. If you’re using Indivisible’s voter contact tools, we’ll help
you find the right people to talk to.

Often, consistent volunteers and strong Democratic supporters will wonder why
they’re not on the list of voters to contact during for GOTV. There’s a reason for this
—those folks are already going to vote, they don’t need a reminder from us! We have
limited time during GOTV, so it’s important to be as strategic and efficient as possible
. That means that consistent volunteers and strong Democratic supporters should not
be a first priority on your targeted list. There are two important groups of voters to
focus your attention on during GOTV:

1. Strong Democrats who only vote occasionally. These are folks who vote for
democrats when they do go to the polls, but only vote occasionally. These are
prime voters who usually sway an election. They should be your top priority
during GOTV.
2. Voters you’ve identified as supporters. The months leading up to GOTV
were spent identifying supporters and persuading people who were undecided.
These folks have told us that they’ll vote for our candidate, now we have to
make sure they actually make it to the polls.

There are some folks that are not worth our time to talk to during GOTV. In
particular:

1. People who support us and are definitely going to vote. Even though these
people support us, we probably won’t talk to them during GOTV, because we
know that they’ll vote without our reminders, and our time is better spent
talking to someone else. Instead, we may ask these folks to volunteer and help
us knock doors!
2. People who don’t support us. We don’t want talk to these folks during
GOTV. It’s too late to change their minds about who they’re voting for, and we
don’t want to accidentally get them to turn out and vote against us.

GOTV Tactics

Now that you know who you’ll be talking to, you need tactics for reaching them
during the final stretch of GOTV! Many of these are the same as the tactics used
throughout the campaign cycle, but there are a few that are unique to GOTV. During
GOTV it’s okay to contact people multiple times, and it’s good to reach out using a
variety of tactics—some people are easier to reach through canvassing, while others
may be more likely to pick up a phone call.

Here are some tactics you can use:

Canvass: Face to face conversations are still the best way to talk to voters. Keep in
mind, you’re talking to a very specific set of people during GOTV, so the doors may
be a bit more spread out. It’s important to spend a lot of time recruiting canvassers in
the weeks leading up to GOTV to make sure you can talk to all the voters you need to.

Phone Calls: Just like with persuasion and identification, phone calls are a good
supplement to canvassing and can be more efficient in more rural areas where homes
are spread out or in cities if there are apartments you can’t get into.

Peer to Peer Texting: Texting has been proven to have an impact during GOTV,
though it’s important to do this in addition to canvassing and phone banking, not as a
replacement.

Rides to the Polls: This a great tool to use to ensure voters are actually going to their
voting site and voting on Election Day. Rides to the Polls or also know as “Souls to
the Polls” has a long history of providing voters with free transportation to the their
local polling site. This tactic dates back to the Civil Rights era in our country, where
so many people had to fight for their right to Vote ( and in many ways still are). It’s
important to use this as a supplement to, and not a replacement for, canvassing and
phone banking—it’s a great way for volunteers to get involved who can’t knock doors
or make calls, but can drive. (Check out this great story about Rides to the Polls in the
Alabama Senate race).
Voter Protection: You can always call the voter protection hotline at (866) OUR-
VOTE to report issues or ask questions. Did you know: if someone needs assistance
voting at the polls, it's their right to bring someone in with them to help. This is often
unknown, but for voters for whom English is not their first or dominant language, it's
good to know they can bring a friend to build confidence when voting.

GOTV Conversations

Luckily for us, there has been a lot of research done to determine what types of
conversations most effectively turnout voters. There is a big difference between
simply asking someone if they’ve already voted and using specific language that is
proven to increase a voter’s likelihood of turning out. While you should always put
scripts in your own voice, it’s critical to include certain specific language.

Remember to only GOTV your supporters.

GOTV scripts start by asking the voter who they’re supporting in the election. If they
support us, we remind them to turnout to vote. If they’re undecided, we’ll give them a
quick reason to support our candidate. If they don’t support us or we can’t convince
them quickly, we move on to the next door—time to talk to someone else!

What Not To Talk About During GOTV

This may be surprising, but once you confirm that the voter supports your candidate,
you should STOP talking about issues and candidates all together, and pivot to only
talking about the act of voting.

Years of research has shown that talking about issues or candidates during GOTV can
actually make your conversations LESS effective. If you meet an undecided voter, tell
them about your candidate, but as soon as they agree to support you, it’s time to STOP
saying things like “we need to vote to stop Trump” or “we need to vote to protect our
healthcare”. You heard that right—talking about candidates at this part of the
conversation can actually make it LESS likely that the person you’re talking to will
turn out to vote.

We know this may be surprising to folks like us who care so much about these issues,
but it’s been shown to be true time and time again. So just like the original Indivisible
Guide told you not to call Paul Ryan unless you live in his district, this guide is telling
you to only talk about voting—not about issues—during your GOTV conversations.

What To Talk About During GOTV

Instead of talking about issues, GOTV conversations should be all about Voter
Accountability—holding your supporters accountable to actually voting. We’ll remind
folks that voting is our civic duty, thank them for voting in past elections, and remind
them that whether or not they vote is public record. Here are a few examples of things
you might say:

 I see from public records that you’ve voted in past elections—thanks for being
a voter!
 You’re on my list today because public records show you’re a consistent and
reliable voter, can we count on you to come out to vote on [election date]?
 Official records show you voted in 2012 and 2014 but missed the 2016
elections—can we count on you to vote this year?
 As members of this community it is our civic duty to go out and vote, can we
count on you to participate this year?

Sample GOTV Script

Earlier in this guide, we included a sample identification script. Below you’ll find a
sample GOTV script:

Read More

Conclusion
Now that you know the principles and the most effective tactics to win elections, it’s
time to put that into action. There are Indivisible groups in every single congressional
district that have held strong resisting the Trump agenda and stopping hateful
legislation. Knocking doors and making phone calls is the crucial next step to not only
resist the Trump agenda, but to elect progressive candidates at all levels of the ballot.

This is how we build power for the long haul. By spending time engaging in
meaningful voter contact, we can protect progressive elected officials and flip seats
that we never even imagined could be in play. Furthermore, getting involved in
elections is a great way to strengthen your group and get more folks engaged—to win
in 2020 and beyond.

Now that you have the knowledge and drive to do effective voter contact, how do you
get started? If you’re not in an Indivisible group, the first best step is to find your local
group on our website or check out local events in your area. We’ll also have
opportunities to get involved from your home (sign up for our  email list to learn more),
but talking to voters is usually more fun with friends!

If you’re a leader or member of an Indivisible group, there are several ways to get
involved:

1. Run your own program. Indivisible will be doing something unprecedented—

supporting local groups all across the country with their own voter contact
 programs tailored for their local communities. We’re really excited to be
developing a program this year to support local Indivisible groups with
canvassing and phone banking through VAN. As a group leader, VAN will
give you the ability to set up phone banks online and canvass through Minivan
(an app) that you’ll be able to use with your group and other local groups in the
area to reach voters.

By setting up your own canvasses and phone banks using Indivisible tools,
local groups will be able to maintain their independence, set up events on their
own terms and keep track of their impact. Local groups will also be able to
access these tools and the data they collect after the election when campaigns
pack up and move on. This is an incredible way for Indivisible to not only win
elections, but also build power for the future.

To get started, get in touch with your Indivisible Organizer or reach out
to field@indivisible.org.

(A note on campaign finance: Indivisible is on the Independent Expenditure

side this cycle. That means, if you’re using VAN, your group can’t be
coordinating with a campaign or the party. Learn more about coordination
versus IEs in our Campaign Finance Law FAQ).

2. Get involved with other progressive partners or campaigns. Some local

Indivisible groups are already plugged in with candidate’s campaigns or are
planning to do so. While there’s a lot of power in running your own events, for
some groups it may be the best option to work with campaigns or other
progressive organizations.
 We’d still love to hear about the ways you’re engaging and amplify the work
your group is doing. You can and should also maintain your Indivisible group
identity even if you’re not running your own program. Consider doing an
Indivisible day or Indivisible specific canvasses. Make sure to keep track of
who attends campaign/partner events by using your own sign in sheets. We’re
working on tools to support you with this as well.

Regardless of how you decide to get involved, make sure to

tweet @IndivisibleTeam and send your best stories to stories@indivisible.org so we can
continue to amplify the incredible work you’re doing. We can’t wait to see twitter
filled with #IndivisiCanvass pictures!

If you have other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out by

emailing field@indivisible.org. We’re looking forward to hearing about your successes,
best practices and creative ideas as you put this guide into action.

Thank you for your incredible work to date. We have a lot more work to do, but
together, we will win! Let’s get to it.