Winning Elections, One Precinct at a Time. That's How It Works!
Elections seem to be very large things, with thousands of voters going to the polls to vote for candidates and issues. Looked at on a statewide or even citywide basis, it can be daunting. How can any of us influence the election when so many people are involved?
Well, it all starts at the precinct level. I live in St. Paul, Minnesota, a city of about 300,000 people. But I live in Ward 6, Precinct 13. There are 7 Wards in the city, divisions used to elect our city council. Each of those wards is divided up into multiple precincts. Ward 6 has 14 precincts. The population of my precinct is only a couple of thousand people, and the size of the precinct, which is a single-family residential neighborhood, makes it easy for me to knock on every door and canvass in a couple of months before an election, just on weekends and the odd evening. Here's a map:
You can see how small the area is that makes up this single precinct. All of the city's precincts are about the same in population. I'm the DFL Chair for my precinct, a title that is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things. All it means is that I chair the caucus meetings every couple of years and am a delegate to the local district conventions. Our precinct is the only one I know of that has its own website, and we have that only because I created it. Here's its URL: http://saintpaulw6p13.blogspot.com/
My point here is that every election is based on the collective vote counts in all of the precincts in whatever district an office represents. For City Council, for example, just 14 precincts vote to elect our Councilmember. One precinct can decide the race, if turnout is high enough. Our mayor is elected by all of the precincts in the 7 Wards. And so on. But in each election, votes are counted precinct by precinct.
It's the same everywhere. Wherever you are, you live in a voting precinct. It's small in population and, if you live in a city, small in size. If you do GOTV efforts within your own precinct, you can affect the outcome of elections. If someone in every precinct did GOTV before elections, those people could affect much larger areas and elections.
Don't be overwhelmed by the numbers needed to win elections. You can't do much to influence entire districts or states as an individual. You can, however, do a great deal to influence the vote in your own little precinct. You live there. The people there are your neighbors. You can talk to them easily. If everyone did that in their own precinct, it would influence much larger areas in every election.
Get out in your precinct. Be active. Influence elections. It works.
GOTV 2014 and Beyond!
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