Canvassing

Going door-to-door is by far the most physically demanding and time-consuming voter mobilization tactic (particularly since it can also require substantial travel). Typically, 80% of doors will never even open. However, canvassing has been consistently found to increase voter turnout more than any other technique (generally by around 6%).

Effective door-knocking (also often referred to as “deep canvassing”) is about listening, not persuading. This makes the actual conversations both rewarding and non-stressful. However, it also makes them time-consuming.

We would like to direct people to the specific canvassing solution that has empirically proven to be the most pleasant and effective, but we don’t yet have a solid basis for issuing a recommendation. Here are our two best current recommendations:

• Indivisible Santa Cruz County works closely with SwingLeft

• We have also been impressed with the working being done by Seed the Vote

For further information:

• Multiple research studies have found that door-knocking increases voter turnout by 3 to 6%. (It’s Time to Try Door-to-Door Canvassing! – Indivisible Mass). Many elections are decided by this percentage or less (for example, Michigan senatorial election in 2024, decided by less than 1% of the vote).

• “Deep canvassing” is a form of canvassing in which the canvasser asks questions in an effort to understand the point of view of the canvassee, listens in an empathic, caring way, and shares his or her point of view in a spirit of collaboration rather than lecturing. Though time-consuming (15-20 minutes), this has been found to be the most effective form of canvassing. (What if Canvassing Was About Listening, Not Changing Minds? | Research UC Berkeley)

• Following up in-person contact with a phone call, text message, and/or postcard enhances the effectiveness of the contact. (Voter Engagement Strategies to Turn Supporters Into Voters - Solidarity Tech)