Voter Engagement Research and Strategy Basic Rights Oregon

Goals Further develop our shared understanding of political power and the most effective strategies to build it. Explore techniques on how to run a successful electoral campaign. Learn who to target for voter engagement.

Grassroots Campaigning Grassroots strategies are often the least frequently developed and under resourced. Building infrastructure at the local level is hard work Has long-term value because it lives beyond a specific campaign.

Tactics vs. Strategy Tactics – individual events or activities that are part of a campaign. Strategy – The overall approach to winning a campaign. Your strategy is the road map that guides you to victory. Tactics are stops along the way.

Targeting Politics has a wide range of issues and a diversity of potential voters; therefore, each person responds differently to every particular set of issues. Targeting is determining which voters to communicate with and what message will be the most effective. It is needed because a campaign can never reach every voter equally. It is important to getting the right message to the right voter to conserve resources & maximize impact.

Who should we target? Micro Targeting Ranking 1’s – Active Supporters Party affiliation, Gender, High Progressive Scores etc… Ranking 1’s – Active Supporters 2’s – Likely Supporters 3’s - Undecided 4’s – Likely Opponents 5’s – Active Opponents

Who should we target? 2’s, 3’s, & 4’s – The Moveable Middle 1’s – Mobilize! 5’s – Don’t spend any time here… You won’t change their minds.

Messaging Keep messaging consistent Values over facts Inconsistency will confuse voters Values over facts Golden Rule is a golden ticket Stick to broad themes and values Importance of “I” statements Speak from personal experience

Example Messaging Faith communities around the state of Oregon live out the values of welcoming the stranger, supporting families, and treating others as one would hope to be treated. (Measure 88 – Safe Roads) Marriage is one of the few times where people reveal their hearts, make a public promise of love and responsibility for each other and ask their friends and family to hold them accountable. That’s why gay and lesbian couples want to join in civil marriage to make a lifetime commitment to the person they love. (Marriage Matters 2011)

How many votes do you need? Win Number – 50% + 1 Knowing your win number = focus targeting Focused targeting = maximizing impact Presidential years have higher turnouts Remember every vote is one vote closer.

When starting your campaign Research: Assessing the power you have and determining how much power you need to have to win Finding people who are affected/ care about the issue Set basic campaign goals Recruitment to your coalition

World’s Simplest Power Analysis Who is/are the decision-maker(s)? How many of them do we need to win? For each one of them, what would motivate them to vote with us?

Coalitions Coalition is an organization of organizations working together for a common goal. We build coalitions in order to amass the power necessary to do something you cannot do through one single organization What are advantages and disadvantages to coalitions?

Let’s create a coalition list Who is already a part of your coalition? Who is doing work on this that can be asked to join? Who is directly affected by the measure, levy, or candidate? Who isn’t and why might they be resistant to join?

Outreach to join coalition Have clear specific asks Who are their connections and what are your needs? Do they have a list of folks they can share information with or phone bank? Create a sample email or phone script Do they have capacity to volunteer? Give specific volunteer needs

List Getting a list Target the list – progressive likely voters VAN access from ROP VAN access from county Democrats Accessing a list from local elections office Target the list – progressive likely voters