My Perspective: What Is GOTV?

A recent friend of mine told me that many people yet alone political candidates don’t understand what GOTV is as it relates to politics. In fact my friend went on to say that political candidates think GOTV is just people voting. For those who don’t understand what GOTV, it is “"Get out the vote" (or "getting out the vote"; GOTV). They are terms used to describe two categories of political activity, both aimed at increasing the number of votes cast in one or more elections. In non-partisan contexts, "Get out the vote" is a slogan (and "get out the vote" is a generic grammatical predicate) used by non-partisan organizations, such as the League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote, Long Distance Voter, and GoVoteAbsentee, motivated by the belief that failure of any eligible voter to vote in any election entails a loss to society.

In contexts of the efforts of candidates, party activities and ballot measure campaigns, "get-out-the-vote" or "GOTV" is an adjective indicating having the effect of increasing the number of the campaign's supporters who will vote in the immediately approaching election. As a noun, "get out the vote" or "GOTV" is shorthand for either "get-out-the-vote activities" or "the previously planned get-out-the-vote portion of our campaign". Usually, GOTV is distinguishable from earlier activities necessary to carrying it out. That is, GOTV includes telephoning known supporters on the days leading up to an election (or on Election Day itself) or providing transport to and from polling stations for supporters, whereas canvassing and the process of identifying supporters usually takes place earlier in a campaign.

Other GOTV activities include literature drops early on Election Day or the evening before and an active tracking of eligible voters who have already voted. The importance of get out the vote efforts increases as the total percentage of the population voting decreases. For instance, with only two-thirds of the population voting in a Canadian election it is often far easier and more cost effective to ensure that a hundred supporters show up on polling day than it is to convince a hundred voters to switch support from one party to the other. This has also tended to polarize electoral politics. A 90% turnout from a party's radical base is often better than a 50 percent turnout from both radical and moderate supporters.

GOTV can also be extremely important in high turn-out elections when they are extremely close. That is why it is important to understand there are all types of GOTV efforts across America and the world. Some work and others don’t but those that work have to be studied carefully and modified to fit the candidate who is running for a particular office. The traditional GOTV method used in the UK is the Reading system, developed by the Reading constituency Labour Party and its MP Ian Mikardo for the 1945 general election. Once canvassing was performed to identify likely Labour voters, these were compiled onto 'Reading pads' or 'Mikardo sheets' featuring the names and addresses of supporters and pasted onto a large table or plank of wood. On Election Day these lists, with identical copies underneath, were torn off and given to GOTV campaigners.

At each polling station, tellers for each party will collect the unique poll numbers of voters from their polling cards. These numbers are regularly collected from the polling stations and collated in a campaign headquarters, often referred to in the UK as committee rooms. 'Promised voters' who have already voted are then crossed off the list of voters canvassed as supporting Labour. This enables campaigners to then focus more efficiently on the remainder of their supporters who have not voted. Computerization has heralded further increases in efficiency, but nearly all subsequent methodologies can be traced back in some form to the Reading system.

When it comes to GOTV, it is important to plan for negative campaigning that could be in the form of campaign literature, attack ads or robo calls. Also GOTV involves planning to prevent voter suppression that could take place at polling sites in order to suppress a voter’s right to vote or to just discourage voters from voting by making the votes lines longer than they need to be. The terminology reflects a distinction of GOTV from the complementary strategy of suppressing turnout among likely opposition voters. Political consultants are reputed to privately advise some candidates to "go negative" (attack an opponent), without any intent to sway voters toward them: this plan is to instead increase the number of eligible voters who fail to vote, because their tendency to believe "politics is inherently corrupt" has so recently been reinforced. Such turnout suppression can be advantageous where any combination of three conditions apply:
1. The negative campaigning is targeted (by direct mail, telephone "push polls," or the like) on likely opposing voters, reducing the collateral damage to supporters’ morale.
2. The side going negative has an advantage in its supporters being steadier voters than those of its opponent.
3. The side going negative has an advantage in doing effective GOTV, so that its campaign workers can get a GOTV "antidote" to more supporters "poisoned" by the negative campaign, than the opposing campaign can of their own supporters.

GOTV is critical to any election it involves several components that any political candidate, political party, political group, civic organization or volunteer needs to understand because it is more to GOTV than just getting people to vote. There are things that lead up to people voting such as canvassing. Canvassing is the systematic initiation of direct contact with a target group of individuals commonly used during political campaigns. A campaign team (and during elections a candidate) will knock on doors of private residences within a particular geographic area, engaging in face-to-face personal interaction with voters. Canvassing may also be performed by telephone, where it is referred to as telephone canvassing. The main purpose of canvassing is to perform voter identification - how individuals are planning to vote - rather than to argue with or persuade voters. This preparation is an integral part of a 'get out the vote' operation, in which known supporters are contacted on polling day and reminded to cast their ballot. Similar techniques may be used by non-governmental organizations, labor unions, religious denominations such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, poll takers, and even commercial enterprises such as door-to-door salespeople.

There are various purposes of canvassing and canvassing may be performed to achieve a combination of the following objectives. For example a canvass focused on persuading people to vote for a particular candidate or ballot issue may also solicit funds and sign up new members to an organization:
· Identifying supporters (voter identification or voter ID) in preparation for a Get out the vote (GOTV) operation.
· Performing GOTV during an election, known as 'knocking up'
· Distributing information and printed materials
· Winning individuals by persuasion
· Fundraising
· Signing up new members
· Voter registration

Still canvassing and GOTV go hand and hand. A key concept in canvassing is to target the population that is being contacted. For example if the goal of a canvass is to turn out voters on election day for a Democratic candidate then knocking on Republican doors may not be a great use of time and resources. Targeting can be quite complex and sophisticated and may employ voting history data, census data, and consumer habits. Part of an overall field strategy may be to do a canvass focused on identifying likely supporters who will then be approached at a later date by another canvass for GOTV. Even if sophisticated data is not available, most field operations professionals will spend energy trying to reduce randomness in their contacts in an attempt to optimize their use of time and resources.

The role of canvassing is rooted in tactic of persuasion. While converting voters would ideally be a central goal, it is difficult, requiring knowledgeable and charismatic canvassers, and time-consuming. To reach every voter in a district a canvasser cannot spend more than one or two minutes per person, rarely enough time to have a significant discussion. Persuasion canvassing will often involve the dropping of literature and campaign marketing materials like lawn signs, window signs, and bumper stickers (given to supporters). As canvassers work a population they will often make careful notes and use classification codes to record their interaction with the public.

There are three types of canvassing: field canvasses, candidate canvasses and phone canvasses. Field canvasses are done by going door to door to every home and apartment in a district, a ZIP code or some other unit of geographic measurement. They have the advantage that people are generally more open to talking to someone in person and literature can be delivered and lawn signs put up at the same time as the canvass. A field canvass can also guarantee completeness as each house can be accounted for. A field canvass is usually done by one or two individuals, either both at one door, or one on each side of the street. For Contractors utilizing "Field Canvassing" it works best when working around a current or previous jobsite, otherwise called Jobsite Radiation. On Election Day itself a Party will often visit the homes of known supports asking them to vote, this process is often referred to as 'Knocking up'.

Candidate canvasses are better described as a variation of the field canvass that involves a candidate canvass; these are done with the actual candidate in a district. With only one candidate, however, time is a valuable commodity. The candidate is thus usually accompanied by a half dozen or more volunteers who knock on doors. If they find no one home the candidate does not go to that home. If they find a person the volunteer finds out if they would like to meet the candidate. If they would the volunteer signals the candidate. Now phone canvasses usually are conducted by phone and are done through robo calls (meaning recording messages by the candidate or a high profile supporter telling voters why to support a candidate) or the candidate themselves personally making phone calls to voters. Phone canvasses can also be done with activists or supporters who will work in a office using a script to ask potential voters for support in favor of a candidate or in favor of an issue.
The following is an excerpt from a script used by the UK Labour Party in the build up to a general election:

Hello, can I speak to (voter's name) please? Hello (voter's name) my name is (name). I'm calling on behalf of (MP/parliamentary spokesperson). I'm calling to find out your views on the Labour government's priorities. Which of the following do you think are the three most important priorities for the government? [Lists five policy areas - 'better schools', 'better hospitals', 'more jobs', 'less crime' and 'strong economy'] Let me tell you what Labour is doing in these areas and what the Tories would do if they were re-elected [refers to 'dividing lines' table where Conservative policies are compared unfavorably with Labour]. Now can I ask you which party you think you will vote for at the next general election?

The script then divides into two sections based on whether the voter intends to support Labour or another party. The section for Labour supporters encourages the use of postal votes, asks whether the individual would consider displaying a poster in their window or deliver leaflets on their street and asks whether the individual would consider joining the party. The section for non-Labour voters asks the following questions. This sample script is also representative of elections in the United States, in which a volunteer might ask, "if the election for (congress, governor, president, etc) were held today, would you vote for (Candidate A) or (Candidate B)?
· Which main political party do you identify with?
· There will be elections in (date), which party will you vote for at these elections?
· How did you vote in the last general election?
· Who would be your second choice?
· Do you vote at every election?
· The script concludes by thanking the voter before ending the call.

That’s why GOTV is not simply putting your name on a ballot and knocking doors but it a little more complex that. GOTV involves mass mailings to a district, strategic mailings to undecided voters, mailings to absentee voters and mailings to non-absentee voters. GOTV encompasses so much and so few political candidates seeking office seem to understand this no matter what office they running for. Sometimes the best way to ensure voter turnout is large is by touching as many voters in as many ways as possible until voters simply say, please no more, you have my support. GOTV involves going all out until the point that it leaves nothing to chance but ensures that a candidates supporters have all access to the polls. Still not all GOTV efforts go according to plan because one thing that can’t be planned for is the weather. Nonetheless, weather can make or break voter turnout in many elections but those who are passionate about voting will endure the rain in order to cast their ballot but that is why candidates seeking office should try to encourage voters to vote early if their state offers early voting or vote absentee but if a voter is voting absentee make sure they mail their ballot in at least a week in advance of the election.

GOTV is of the most essential components to an election otherwise everything else that a candidate does is for not if the candidate’s supporters don’t turn out to vote. Voter turnout is critical and it literally will decide the winner of an election. While some people believe a low voter turnout favors incumbents and high turnout favors challengers to a degree, in elections where there are no incumbents it favors no one which is why it is critical that voters tap their supporter base as much as they can to make sure all their supporters get out and vote on Election Day. Thus elections are won and lose based off GOTV efforts. So my friend who told me many political candidates and people don’t know what a GOTV effort encompasses, than I hope this sheds some light on the matter for those who don’t know because getting out the vote is critical to any victory on Election Day.