Dear Dr. Bob,
I know that early voting starts about a month before election day. We used to run a get out the vote (GOTV) program just before election day. How do we handle early voting?
Early Headache
Dear Early,
With early voting starting in less than 30 days, you have a very big problem. Let’s get you up to speed:
1. People who signed up to receive their ballot via the mail start receiving their ballot the day early voting starts. Got that? THEY HAVE THEIR BALLOTS. Excuse me for the outburst, but good grief you’ve got to get moving my friend.
The people who are the absolutely highest value voter targets are the PEVL’s – these are people who are on the “permanent early voting list” and they almost always vote. Or, at least, you know who will have a ballot sitting on their kitchen table right when early voting starts.
The next highest value targets are those who are not PEVL, but are receiving an early ballot at their home. Again, you go after them because they can vote most easily.
2. So start there with an expanded version of the old GOTV operations. Get a copy of the PEVL list and call them as soon as you can. Tell them you’d like their vote and be nice on the phone. That’s the minimum you can do. Then there’s direct mail, robocalls, fliers, walking door to door, etc.
Whatever you can do to reach out and get your name ID bumped up as soon as you can…and then keep that going for the next 30 days.
That’s it in a nutshell. If you get nothing else from this just do this: Get moving as fast a you can. The clock is ticking.
