Need some GOTV help and advice

[AlabamaYankee]

The Democratic party in Alabama is a very top-down, state-centered, and not very effective entity. A number of us in Lee County (home of Auburn University) Democratic Club have started a project to set up a local organization based on the Iowa precinct model, since one of our members was instrumental in starting it up. We're hoping to raise the visibility of the Party, and mobilize effectively to get a large number of Democrats out to the polls in November.

I'm looking for help, advice, encouragement and hot tips from any of you who have been involved in similar grass roots organization efforts. We have 22 polling places in the county, with 68,000 registered voters, so we need to organize at a level much lower than this "box" level. Would census tracts be reasonable? neighborhoods?

Kerry's only behind by 14 points, and closing in the Heart o' Dixie, and if we organize effectively we can unseat our first term republican Rep, so any help y'all can give will be appreciated.

Thanks.

[NMDemDist2]

1. you need to use the neighborhood model

get print outs from your county elections office of registered voters

(the state party can get them for you)

then there are a couple ways to go from there, either go as a group and hit a neighborhood every Saturday (or whatever) or have each member (or pair of members works better) to carve out sections

have hand outs and contact info on sheets you can leave if no-one is home. Take plenty of voter reg cards (what we do here is if they are registering as a Dem, we help them and then bring the filled out form to the county office, if they are Repubs, we just leave the form with them)

One of the ways we have found works is to ask for the voter, then give them a list of "issues" and ask them which are the most important

if the voter isn't there ask if there is anyone who needs to register to vote (if the voter is there ask that anyway-- Kids or new spouse or grandma or whoever)

pm me if you need more suggestions

[trof]

2. Doing same in S. Baldwin Co.

The registrar of voters (I think that's the right title) will give you a list of registered voters. I think it's by precinct within the county. At least the list I have is. I was given the list by a party activist, so I'm not sure if they did the precinct breakouts or if they come that way from the county. Anyway, here's what we plan to do...

Split the list among 4 or 5 or however many we can get.
Call each one and say something like "Hi, I'm with the Kerry campaign and would like to ask who you support in the coming election." Something like that.
If you get a stream of profanity, or if they're more polite and say "Bush*", say thank you and hang up.
If they say Kerry, then you start with the follow-up questions.
You know the phone # is good, but make sure they're still at the same address.
Are you registered to vote?
Are there any others in your household of voting age and are they registered?
If "no" to either, offer to bring (NOT MAIL) registration forms and get them registered.
Do they know where their polling place is or a gentle reminder.
"Let's see...you vote at the Foley city hall, is that right?"
Make SURE they know where to go.
Do you need a ride on election day?
It's been suggested if you know the person you ask if they need a babysitter/caregiver to stay with someone while they vote, but (IMHO) that might leave you open to some liability.
Any other thing you can think of short of offering cash money to get them off their dead butts and VOTE!
Make copius notes. What you want to wind up with is a list of DEMOCRATIC voters.
Good for you, and good luck.

[AlabamaYankee]

3. Kick and continued plea

As long as I've been around I still can't believe how quickly posts can sink.

Thanks for your suggestion, AZDem; expect a PM later this evening.

Trof, we should communicate and compare notes. Tha Alabama forum might be a place to generate wider interest.

[trof]

4. Forgot about state forums

I'll take a look.
Thanks.