2017 is considered by many as a rest year for campaigning but there is still plenty of activity happening, you just have to know where to look! People seeking election have usually thought long and hard about it, considering all the implications of a run. One of the main factors you must look into is the data. What will it take for you to get elected? How much money do you need to get elected? Can you avail of any grants?
In preparation for your election run, you will first want to know the size of your constituency or district. The average size of a district in the US could be anything up from 400,000 people. Are you prepared to represent that many people?
The electoral register lists the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote in public elections. The register is used for electoral purposes, such as making sure only eligible people can vote. These are essentially the people you need to connect with. Many people are now using campaign tech to segment these lists into manageable chunks so you knock on as many doors as possible.
Let's say you have 20,000 people in your district. Of those people, only 16,000 are eligible voters. On the last election, 4,800 of eligible voters actually voted. The election is only a two-person race. In this case, you will need a minimum of 2,401 votes to squeak through a victory. (50% of turnout plus one vote).
It’s best to overestimate the number of votes you need. In this case, we’ll round up and calculate with 52% of the turnout, which gives us a rough target of 2,496 votes that will be needed to win. This number, of course, will be subject to the overall voter turnout and how many supporters you can get into the voting booth.
If it a multiple-seat election, you will be required to reach a quota and this will vary depending on the number of seats available.
In any campaign, there will be an unforeseen expenditure but by looking at everything we went over above, you should be able to give yourself a good head start this campaign season!
Listening to our current users, we are aware that there can be an internal struggle of team management when it comes to organizing quickly. To get people out on doors, the back and forth over Whatsapp, Messenger, and (insert other apps here) can be endless. We aim to streamline this process for you with Ecanvasser. Now organizers can commit via the Walk app (their canvassing app!) and get notified in the run-up to the event so that they don’t forget. By building it into the door knocking process life has gotten a lot easier for campaign managers.