2008 Primaries, Strategic Blueprints • November 4th, 2008

When GOTV backfires

by Chris Lato

Oops. A get-out-the-vote effort that went south on the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

I emailed this around to a couple other former Wisconsin GOP’ers when I saw this piece – folks who used to work for the party, as I did – and one response was, “Same old RPW…when are they going to learn?”

I’ve been in the middle of these ‘volunteer-for-hire’ things before, and they rarely, if ever, turn out well. Particularly when they are last-minute scrambles that are shakily organized at best.

The workers are usually very poorly trained, if at all, and are generally interested in little beyond the paycheck. That’s fine as far as it goes, but the point of going out and volunteering on behalf of a candidate is that you care and are invested in the outcome. That’s why volunteers make the difference - passion and commitment. ACORN offers numerous examples of how this type of GOTV can backfire.

Still, let’s face it – volunteer levels are one area where Democrats tend to have Republicans beat. For example, Dems can draw on college campuses for young volunteers, generally in much larger numbers than Republicans have been able to do.

I’ve been saying all along that so much of the success of a campaign is built on having a strong ground game.

If the passion is lacking, you have to scramble to go out and buy that support, and that makes you vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the stories I’ve been hearing from co-workers are intriguing. Several have already voted. Two reported problems with the machines that accept the ballots. Apparently in 2008, voting in America is akin to voting in a third-world country. Lines are ranging from fairly long (40 minutes in West Allis) to even longer (an hour-plus on Milwaukee’s east side).

And no, I have not voted yet. I am saving that for tonight, when we can take our 6-year-old to the polls and she can get a taste of the excitement that comes with voting. Or die from the boredom of standing in an extremely long line.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 10:30 am and is filed under 2008 Primaries, Strategic Blueprints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.