Canvassing of Voters in Campaigns

THE PARTY OR campaign canvass is one of the oldest, and, historically, least technologically sophisticated, forms of voter mobilization. Modern campaigns conduct much more complex, more sophisticated canvassing operations, but contemporary canvasses are still true to the same core principles of the party canvasses of old: canvassing is a technique of voter mobilization focused on individual contact between voters and campaign personnel. Today, campaigns may engage in some or all of several major types of canvassing operations, but most have the goals of identifying supporters, persuading so-called “swing” voters, recruiting volunteers, registering new voters, fiindraising, and encouraging voters to turn out on election day. Major types of canvasses used by today's campaigns include the field canvass, the candidate canvass, and the phone canvass or phone bank.

Regardless of the method used to contact voters, canvassing operations use more or less sophisticated methods of targeting to decide which voters to contact. How campaigns choose whom to target depends on the size of the electorate, the extent of the campaign's financial and volunteer resources, and relevant aspects of the local political climate. In campaigns for local offices, with smaller electorates, campaigns may engage in minimal targeting, attempting to contact all potential voters in the district in question. In campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives, Senate, or statewide or national office, campaigns are likely to engage in more sophisticated targeting, because of the intense practical difficulty of contacting all eligible voters.

Most campaigns purchase a voter file from the state or local party organization, and use information contained therein to predict the propensity of individual voters to turn out to vote and to vote for the party's candidate. They then use this information to decide whom to contact, depending on how many votes the campaign has calculated it needs to reliably win the election. In a very “safe” district for one party or the other, the campaign may focus exclusively on canvassing voters with strong party identification, because the candidate does not need to persuade voters away from the other side to win, but does need his or her own supporters to turn out in order to win the election. In a more competitive district, a campaign may focus on canvassing those voters whose probable vote choice and turnout propensity is unknown, either because they don't vote regularly or have uncertain party identification. There are no hard and fast rules about the right way to target voters in a large electorate; these decisions are typically made by members of the field department of a campaign's staff, or, in the case of smaller campaigns, by the campaign manager.

Field canvassing is conducted by volunteers, typically supervised by field organizers who make relevant targeting decisions and analyze the results of the canvass for the campaign. Field canvasses can have several different goals; which goal is emphasized may depend, in part, on the amount of time left before the election. Early on in the campaign cycle, field canvasses may focus on identifying supporters and potential volunteers for the candidate or party. The campaign will send out teams of volunteers on pre-planned routes with a standardized script, typically asking voters whom they would vote for if the election were held that day, and what political party they typically identify with. If targeted voters indicate support for the candidate or the party, they are often asked if they would like a yard sign or a bumper sticker, or to be placed on the campaign's volunteer contact list. Later on in the cycle, canvasses will focus on getting identified supporters out to the polls on Election Day. Phone banking or phone canvassing is similar to field canvassing, but is conducted from a centralized phone bank.

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