A campaign veteran and web columnist for Canada's The Globe and Mail recently offered frank advice to those running for public office: Want to win? Knock on doors.
He cites a prominent Yale study that compared the effectiveness of different voter outreach methods in a 1998 New Haven, Connecticut election. Their findings? Mailings and phone calls had little or no impact on voter turnout. Canvassing did. In fact, face-to-face outreach increased turnout substantially, while calls had no impact and mail had a slight impact. Steele writes:
So the formula is simple.
If you want to win an election, first you have to find and energize a cadre of people who will carry your message. They have to be motivated to knock on doors, not just once or twice but several times a week....
The Obama campaign did a lot of things right.
The thing they did best – and even their top people say this – is motivate their supporters to go out and talk to their neighbours.
They spent their money on a door-to-door ground game of volunteer mobilization, not on splashy TV ads or robo-calls.
So if you care about politics, get off this website and go knock on some doors.
The Yale study took it a step further and hypothesized that sinking voter turnout can be tied to less overall personal involvement and a decline in face-to-face political activism. Sage advice from Mr. Steele as the 2012 election comes barreling our way.
