Knocking on doors
THURSDAY 25 AUGUST 2011 14:08
Knocking on doors and having real face-to-face contact is a vital tool in local campaigning. Although it can sometimes be daunting, especially in the current political situation, it is incredibly effective for a host of reasons.
Why knock on doors?
Knocking on doors is helpful not only as a part of campaigning on local issues, but it also gets you votes. Here are some of the many reasons why it’s a vitally important thing to be doing:
Knocking on doors is the best way of finding out the issues that people really care about. Speaking to someone one-to-one and asking them what it is they care about personally will get you a more accurate response than simply waiting for people to get in touch. They will also appreciate you asking them for their opinion on these issues.
Voter Identification or canvassing to find out which party people support has long been a key reason to knock on doors. Out of election time discovering voting intention may not be the opening part of the conversation, but make sure you ask before you leave. At election time, quick and simple canvassing is the one thing you should be doing, apart from recruiting new helpers and poster sites. Since joining the government, more of our past canvass data is inaccurate, and so updating this canvass is vitally important.
Many people see politicians as remote and out of touch and don’t feel they can relate to them. If they actually meet their local Lib Dems this will, hopefully, change their opinion.
You will meet people who are involved in existing ‘non-political’ campaigns and local groups. Not only are these things you should be active in anyway, but the people who run them are opinion formers who are useful to have on your side and who will keep you in touch with what is happening locally.
People who meet the candidate are more likely to vote as they feel more committed to the candidate as they have met them and know them.
It’s a lot easier to explain political decisions and deal with difficult issues face-to-face. In particular, now we are in government there are many issues that people have questions about, are unhappy about or simply don’t know the facts, but these are different for each person. Talking to people one-to-one allows you to address their particular issues.
Asking people directly is the best way of finding new poster sites, signing up postal voters, recruiting new deliverers and members. People are much more likely to say yes when they are asked directly. It is also a very good way of collecting email addresses and phone numbers so you can contact people about any issues they raise at a later date.
Different techniques
Although knocking on doors is straightforward, there are different ways of doing it.
Knock and chat. This is as straightforward as just knocking on the door, introducing yourself and asking if there are any local issues that you can help with or ideas for local improvements.
Voter ID. Instead of trying to find out local issues, this is purely about identifying people’s voting intention at the next elections and is intended to be quick and taking up as little time as possible.
Surveying. Conducting a survey door to door is a good way of asking about local issues quickly, but in a way that gives people time to think about their responses. Knock and drop is the most effective way as it involves leaving a survey and saying you will call back and collect it in an hour, thereby making sure they don’t forget to do it. This also helps ease new people into the job of knocking on doors gently as it feels less confrontational.
Petition. If you are already aware of a local issue then running a petition on it will help involve other people in the issue and give weight to your campaign showing how many other people support it.
When?
The simple answer is of course all year round. But different techniques for knocking on doors are better suited to different times of year.
Knock and chat or surveying are more suited to being done some months out from the election as it helps give you a steer on the key issues in the ward that you may want to campaign on. It also allows you to canvass more softly at a time when people may still be deciding their voting intention. The further from the election the better, as people will be less likely to view what you are doing as electioneering the further you are from polling day and the more time you have to do it. The closer you get to polling day, the more you should make your door-knocking purely about discovering voting intention.
Take some time to think about the best day of the week or time of day for door-knocking as well. Try and do it when more people are likely to be in, such as early evening or a weekend. There will be some areas though, such as areas of older people’s bungalows, which you can do during the day. Sundays are usually a good day for finding people at home but don’t start too early in the morning and bear in mind that in some areas, (mainly very rural), politics on the Sabbath is still frowned upon. Try and avoid knocking on doors during important events, such as the Grand National, royal weddings or during the local football derby, as people would usually prefer not to be disturbed. Don’t knock on doors when it has gone dark.
Tips for better door-knocking
Make sure your canvassing sessions are well organised and efficient, as it is more likely to make people come back and help in the future. The best way is to appoint a ‘canvass organiser’ to do all the arranging. It’s usually good to meet at someone’s house in a regular time slot and quickly brief people on the main local issues they may find. In fact, making sure they also have some recent copies of the local Focus will help with this. Try and start on time, but when people are asked to come along give them the mobile number of the organiser so they can still find you even if they’re late. Make sure you have maps of the area for those who don’t know it.
Always make sure you have a calling leaflet with you. Calling leaflets are useful to ensure that you have something to leave with your contact details whether they were in or out. Also ensure you have postal vote and membership forms.
Taking canvass cards seems obvious but it’s surprising how many people don’t use them outside election time, but it’s much better to have in front of you the names of the people you are visiting so you can record all of their contact details and it’s easier to note who you got casework from.
Wearing a badge, sticker or rosette reminds people who you represent, although outside of election time you might prefer to wear a badge or sticker rather than a rosette so it looks less as though you are simply after their vote.
Go out as a team rather than on your own whenever possible. Not only does this look better when people see you in the street – people can see you aren’t the only Lib Dem in the area – but it helps keep up morale. If you’ve had a few difficult people it will help you keep going if you know other people have had a better response. If you have a particularly large group you will probably find it easier to operate with the ‘controller’ method where one person has the canvass cards, records the data and tells each canvasser where to go next and the names of the people in the house. This doesn’t work so well when it’s only a very small group.
Make sure you have some phone canvassing printed as well in case the weather is so dreadful you can’t knock on doors. It means your day hasn’t been completely wasted.
Do a debrief with your canvassers when you’ve finished to get their gut feeling of how things went. Hearing about the success of other canvassers also helps those people who didn’t have such a positive night. Offering a cup of tea at the house of a member or going for a pint in a local pub is also a good way of concluding.
