Blog Post for Batch Geocoding, Interactive Maps, GIS page 4

Door-to-door Canvassing Guide - Dry Training

A canvassing campaign is a complicated matter and a work of art. Conversely, individuals who believe they know everything about political canvassing without experiencing it in practice are undeniably wrong. Often, individuals underestimate the complexity of canvassing events. Moreover, political canvassing attempts require one to follow a certain sequence of events that must be organized before, during, and after the campaign, which is extremely important for the campaign’s success.

First, a good canvassing campaign must always begin with dry training. Different individuals find different ways to organize training, but normally it incorporates canvassing team meetings together in a spacious enough to walk room where a noise cannot reach from the outside. In case of good weather, the training can be arranged outdoors. As a rule, the meeting is led by a canvassing captain and/or campaign manager. In addition, the training normally takes no more than two hours.

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The Complexity of Mapping Physical to Geolocation Address

Individuals’ physical addresses are complicated structures, which we take for granted over time. The addresses in the US can have multiple elements which in themselves do not seem complicated. We can easily understand the elements of a physical address, such as street name and number, city name, state name, and zip code. While physical addresses are understandable to us, geolocation is something that we should rely on machines to analyze

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Door-to-door Canvassing Guide – Campaign Manager

Campaign Manager

As there are no two identical snowflakes, there are no two identical canvassing campaigns. Some of the campaigns can offer positions for campaign staff/managers. Moreover, these positions can be paid or offered on a volunteer basis. Once you sign up for the position of campaign staff/manager, you should clarify with the campaign owner whether the position is paid or unpaid.

Being a campaign staff/manager means that often you have no alternative but to personally do door-to-door or person-to-person canvassing. If the manager is being rewarded for doing door-to-door canvassing, it does not mean that all his or her efforts should be performed prior to elections at the registered voter's address. Alternatively, a campaign manager can be sent to gather signatures door-to-door to clarify to get on the ballot.

A campaign manager can find this convenient to set the price for the campaign owner six months before he or she settles down the general election procedures. In addition, performing canvassing door-to-door six months prior to the election helps to guarantee the votes of primary supporters as well as gather their names and information to offer them volunteer positions or place signs later in the campaign.

Moreover, as a campaign manager, you can participate in random canvassing on the streets using postal address geocoding tool or public events as long as you acknowledge to obtain double the amount needed.

Another aspect to consider is that campaign managers are either employed or appointed. Consequently, campaign managers take full responsibility for the campaign activities and will be accountable if anything goes wrong over the course of the campaign. There is only a 50 percent chance that a campaign manager will manage to retain his or her position after the election takes place. 

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Door-to-door Canvassing Guide - Campaign Owner

As a rule, political campaigns have a predefined set of goals and expectations. Canvassing campaigns are not an exception. In the previous section, we discussed what kinds of personalities may be found among the members of a canvassing team and what roles they can play within a team per their personalities. Based on the roles assigned to the team members, individuals have different goals and expectations.

In this section, we will be examining several roles of the canvassing campaign members and their respective aims and responsibilities. 

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Door-to-door Canvassing Guide - Forming a Team

Political campaigns put a lot of pressure on people. Therefore, many tend to ignore the efforts of the candidates and avoid political participation at all, which results in the low turnout at the elections and consequently, dissatisfaction of the registered voters in the government they had not taken part in selecting.

Other individuals get involved in campaigns because of their passion for a certain controversy or a candidate. These individuals may express their support of or disagree with the issue by participating in door-to-door canvassing. A successful canvassing team can influence the results of a political referendum significantly.

Unfortunately, gone are the days of the Roman Republic when shaking voters’ hands and calling them by names would seal the deal for the candidate. Today, society is large and diverse, and while you can easily have access to voters’ names, it is quite problematic to arrange to shake hands with every single one.

Thankfully, a canvassing team can do the research on the people’s viewpoints and dispositions related to the campaign and the issues tackled in it. The team can also increase the voters’ support for a candidate or a subject matter.

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