What You’ll Learn
- The mathematical calculations and terminology behind winning elections
- How to estimate the number of votes needed to win
- How to estimate the number of base voters that can be counted on to vote for you/the candidate
- How to estimate the number of voters in a persuasion universe (the people to convince to vote for the campaign)
- The importance of vote goal in driving a campaign’s decision-making and strategy
Why This is Important
The goal of your entire campaign is to earn the votes needed to win. So calculating the number of votes needed should be one of the very first steps. Everything else in the campaign stems from this one number — the vote goal.
Key Resources
- Key Field Numbers Workbook
- Precinct-Level Results Table
- Sample Field Plan
- Template Field Plan
Related Trainings
- VoteBuilder 101 — Introduces the software Democratic campaigns across the country use to develop voter contact plans. Using this software helps organize field efforts to reach vote goals
- Targeting Voters — Helps identify and reach the voters needed in order to win (best for campaigns that are not using VoteBuilder)
- Field Tactics — Learn how to implement the best voter outreach practices. Getting people to vote for a campaign is not easy, but by using these strategies your team will be on its way to reaching their vote goal
- Introduction to Volunteer Recruitment and Management — Learn to recruit, retain, and turn volunteers into volunteer leaders for a successful GOTV operation
- Running a Persuasion Field Program — Before GOTV comes persuasion. In this course, learn to develop a layered approach to direct voter contact in a persuasion program and build a GOTV universe based on the campaign’s work during the persuasion phase
- GOTV — The final phase of a campaign: this course walks through the GOTV phase and suggests best practices to mobilize supporters to get out and vote
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