Political Campaign Voter and Volunteer

Commitment Ladder

Introduction
Political campaigns are consistently fighting a battle against time. There are only so many weeks, days
and hours till election day, so campaigns are often quick to ask volunteers to do a task that their
unwilling to do, will scare them away from volunteering in the future or don’t feel committed enough to
the campaign to undertake. Voters and political campaign volunteers go through a process of accepting
greater commitments. Progressively asking more and more from a new volunteer will often be more
effective throughout the course of the campaign than immediately asking the supporter to canvass right
away.

This guide is a brief look at the process that voters and volunteers go through in their relationship to a
campaign.

Voter Commitment Ladder

Winning political campaigns craft a message that most voters
support, disseminate that information to targeted voters and
Vote finally ensure that supporters get to the polls. Each voter
Accept or receives information about the election, decides what to do
Receive Reject
with the information and finally acts on it.

Receive

For many voters, receiving the campaign message is a matter of getting through screens and noise. The
factors that impede a voter from receiving the campaign message are material and emotional. The
voter might be on vacation or running an errand when the candidate knocks on their door or the voter
may not feel like reading the mailer they received after a long day at work. The voter could flip the
channel when a political ad is on TV because they have been inundated with campaign ads. There are a
host of reasons why campaigns have difficulty getting their message to a voter clearly.

Campaigns use two strategies to overcome screens and noise: varying voter contact strategies and
repeating the message. This is why campaigns send many direct mail pieces, televisions are full of
political ads and streets are full with yard signs. Frequency is critical in getting a voter to learn why the
candidate is running and what for. Likewise, campaign use a variety of direct and indirect voter contact
strategies such from canvassing and phone banking to television and lawn signs to reach voters where
they are most open to receiving the campaign’s message. Certain voters are more apt to respond to
different outreach strategies.

Accept or Reject

Depending upon how the campaign framed the message and which voters the campaign has targeted,
the voter will accept or reject the message. Getting a voter to make a firm decision for a candidate is
more difficult than you might imagine. Take a look at polls from the most recent presidential elections
and you will find that a large percentage of the electorate remained undecided for most of the campaign
season.

Voter indecision is partly a function of campaigns having to overcome screens and noise to disseminate
their message but voter indecision can arise for a variety of reasons from information overload to
political apathy. Campaign staff, volunteers and candidates will find that when they ask a voter to
support the candidate that they will be told that they will think about it, that they are unsure or say
“yes” but insincerely so the voter doesn’t appear rude or confrontational.

Vote

After some hard work, the campaign will have accumulated a list of supporters who have agreed to vote
for the candidate. If this number isn’t quite a majority of likely voters, the campaign may choose to add
voters that fit the profile of a supporter such as members of the same political party to build a list of a
majority of likely voters.

A campaign then launches a get out the vote (GOTV) effort. GOTV primarily consists of direct voter
contact such as canvasses, phone banks, robo calls and literature drops but also includes visibility or
waving campaign signs at busy interactions and placing election yard signs at the polls.

Volunteer Commitment Ladder

Volunteers mature differently than voters for
campaigns. It’s important to mention which voters and
Big volunteers fall outside this commitment ladder.
Commitments
Small Stepping back to the voters, friends and family, partisans
Commitments and identity voters may not even need to receive their
Supporter
candidate’s message before declaring their support.
Volunteers who have canvassed, phone banked, helped
with a mailing or took a yard sign will likely be willing to
continue to volunteer at that level again.
Other than prior volunteers, possible volunteers that a campaign would like to cultivate should be
brought along progressively asking for small commitments at first and increase the level of responsibility
and commitment to the campaign.

Supporter

Establish a technique to transition a supporter to a volunteer. In the book “Switch: How to Change
Things When Change is Hard” Chip and Dan Heath recount a study where researchers posed as
members of a community organization. With one group of citizens, they explained that they were from
a community organization and asked if they would like to put a yard sign in their yard sign declaring their
support for the group. The trouble was that the yard sign was a monstrosity. It was unattractive and
oversized for the yards in the community. Most residents turned down the offer. With another set of
residents, the researchers first offered the citizens a token from the group. Having been given a gift
from the group, the residents felt more connected to the community group. When the researchers
returned asking the residents who signed the petition and took the gift if they would place the ugly lawn
sign in their yard, most obliged.

What gifts can political campaigns gift to voters that they are trying to transition into volunteers?
Perhaps the campaign will offer buttons, bumper stickers or yard signs. It could be as simple as a thank
you note or a sincere call from the candidate himself.

This is one example of a number of methods to turn supporters into volunteers.

Small Commitments

This idea is pretty simple. Don’t burn out, overload or scare off a volunteer by asking too much. Instead,
invest in a volunteer by initially asking for something simple and progressively ask more of the voter
educating the volunteer along the way. Here are some simple asks:

 Put a campaign yard sign in their lawn

 Attend a rally
 Ask them to keep a few extra pieces of literature with them to disseminate to friends and family
 Put a bumper sticker on their car
 Contribute a small sum of money to the campaign
 Sign up to receive email updates from the campaign
 Like the candidate’s fan page
 Follow the campaign on Twitter
 Make photocopies and perform other support tasks for the campaign office
 Lend office furniture for the office
 Help setup or tear down for an event
 Prepare a mailing or take it to the post office
 Bring in lunch or snacks for volunteers and staff
 Distribute lawn signs
After the volunteer has demonstrated that they are responsible enough to show up or otherwise
perform these volunteer tasks in a timely manner, ask for a bigger commitment. Many times the
volunteer will be willing to take on more, however, other volunteers will continue to donate their time
and expertise in these support roles.

It’s important to note that this is okay. Not every volunteer will be a world class canvasser or be able to
make forty calls and hour from five to nine Monday through Friday. Appreciate the volunteer is willing
to do and also how to leverage what they are interested in doing. If the volunteer is willing to place a
yard sign in their lawn they may be willing to deliver yard signs to other supporters who are interested in
them or take them to polling places the night before the election.

Big Commitments

The difference between smaller and larger commitments is often the difference between taking a
support role and contacting voters directly or making a significant financial investment in the campaign.
Asking a volunteer to make phone calls or knock on doors is much more difficult than asking them to put
a yard sign in their yard. Some of these asks include:

 Participate in a canvass
 Attend a phone bank
 Host a canvass or phone bank
 Host a house party
 Host a fundraiser
 Organize a campaign event
 Make a large financial contribution

This process is often best for both the volunteer and the campaign. The volunteer is more comfortable
starting off with something simple and slowly increasing their level of commitment to the campaign and
the campaign knows that the volunteer is capable of the responsibility and more likely to show.

Good luck

One mistake many campaigns make is to ask too much of possible volunteers. Finding out their interest
in the campaign, their expertise and keeping in the mind the commitment ladder will help cultivate
competent, responsible and repeat volunteers.