Principles

Guiding Principles of Ohio IAF Voter Work

The Ohio IAF has taken the best practices of community organizing from our sister organizations and applied them to high-quality non-partisan voter mobilization work -- not simply as an end in itself, but as a primary strategy for building the power we need to act for justice.  The key principles of our voter work include:

Leadership Development

• Activities of the organization should be steered by a leadership team comprised of representatives of the institutions that organize volunteers.
• Participating institutions should contribute dues to support the work of the organization.
• The leadership team should engage volunteers in community organizing campaigns focused on issues of local concern as a way of connecting voting to the issues in peoples' lives.

Volunteer-Based Voter Contact

• All voter contact activities – registration, canvassing, voter identification, phone banking, and Election Day voter protection and flushing – are done by volunteers from our participating congregations and organizations.
• NO PAID CANVASSERS OR REGISTRATION WORKERS!
• Volunteers must be as local as possible to the neighborhoods where GOTV work takes place – they should live, work, and/or worship in the same area.
• Volunteers have no incentive to commit fraud, are better welcomed by their neighbors, and can apply a level of dedication and creativity to their work that money cannot buy.

Emphasis on Face-to-Face Voter Contact

• “Voter contact” means a face-to-face conversation with a voter or potential voter.
• Literature drops, robo-calls, and cold phone calls do not count as voter contacts.
• Phone banking is only done to follow-up with face-to-face contacts.

Commitment to Training

• Volunteers must be trained to maximize the quality of the contact with voters – to create a meaningful interaction that will create an impression that the potential voter will remember.
• Canvasses must be designed with the experience of the volunteer in mind, including:
  • A thorough orientation of 30-45 minutes prior to each activity in which volunteers have an opportunity to role-play their conversations with potential voters.
  • A thorough debrief of 30 minutes after each activity in which volunteers can share the best stories from their shift and can tally the cumulative impact of their work.

Permanence

• The organization must be designed to last for the long haul:
  • Rooted in permanent community institutions like religious congregations, labor unions, and neighborhood associations.
  • Attracting top community leaders.
  • Though local institutions must demonstrate their buy-in by paying annual dues, it is essential that outside funders maintain support during off-cycle years to promote progressive organizing work and to maintain the infrastructure that will be required to mobilize voters in the next major election.

Early Start

• In order to build a successful coalition that can recruit enough volunteers to cover an entire urban area, a professional organizer needs to be on the ground at least 12 months before the target elections.
• Late money is nearly useless – it cannot buy more volunteers. To increase capacity, funds must be frontloaded to hire more organizers early on.