Individual tactics for collecting ballot initiative signatures

My best tactics from 11 months with Reclaim Idaho’s Quality Education Act signature drive

Published in

Cam Crow

10 min readMay 1, 2022

In 2021 and 2022, I spent scores of hours volunteering for Reclaim Idaho’s Quality Education Act ballot initiative. I fine-tuned my personal signature collecting tactics, and I routinely collected far more signatures than average. This blog post is intended to document and share my learnings, so future signature gathers can use the tactics as well.

Important Note — Individual efforts pale in comparison to what you can do as a team. The most impactful thing anyone can do is to help build a team of volunteers to collect signatures together. I recommend focusing on that first. But, ultimately, it’s going to come down to individuals collecting signatures, and that’s where this post can help.

Door Knocking

The below tactics allow me to collect around 12–18 signatures per hour. That translates to 20–30 in a typical 1.5–2 hour shift.

Before You Start

Get your door knocking turf from the event leader. That’s a collection of doors and voters that you’ll be asking to sign the petition. Ask for a size that takes you 1.5–2 hours of steady effort. For me that’s 50–60 doors.

Plot your turf on the map. Find street crossroads near the middle of your turf, and search them in Google Maps like “Vista and Overland.” Click to get directions, and use the step-by-step driving instructions to get there.

After you park, look at your turf on the map like a maze, and plan your route to all the doors with the least amount of steps. That will save you time and energy.

Situate all your supplies for easy access. I set my phone on my clipboard and put my palm cards in my right pocket. I always have a backpack with a water bottle, snack, extra pens, and any weather-related items I might need like a raincoat, umbrella, hand warmers, gloves, headwear, etc.

Look friendly and welcoming. I don’t wear sunglasses at doors so that I can make eye contact and smile with warm eyes. Be conscious of your body language too. If you look scary, less people will answer the door and they may be more on guard.

At Doors

I disregard any No Soliciting signs, no matter how obnoxious they are. Only about 10% of people with those signs ever acknowledge them, and they sign about as often as any other type of door. In some neighborhoods, almost half the doors have No Soliciting signs, so you’ll have a really hard time getting many signatures if you avoid them.

Walk up to the door without walking on the grass, unless you can see that no one will notice. (Some people get upset about that.) Ring the doorbell and knock at the same time. That’s important because sometimes doorbells don’t work and often people can’t hear your knock, especially if they’re in a far away part of the house or they’re hard of hearing.

If no one answers after 10 seconds, knock one more time. Sometimes the second knock gets the door opened by people that don’t want to answer and are just waiting for you to leave. If you knock again, they might think, “Dang. This one’s persistent. I guess I better answer.”

If the person that answers matches the description of the voter in my turf (age and sex), I’ll ask for confirmation. “Hi, are you Greg?” If they say No, then I ask if Greg’s home. If they seem confused, then I ask if Greg moved. This allows you to put good data into our canvassing app, and it helps the campaign a lot.

If they confirm that they’re Greg, then I’ll launch into my normal pitch.

My name is Cameron, and I’m a volunteer with Reclaim Idaho. I’m collecting signatures for the ballot initiative to increase funding for Idaho public schools. We’re dead last in the country in funding per student, and your signature would help to get a measure on the ballot in November to address it. Can I get your signature?

If it’s clear that they’re not Greg, and they don’t match the description of another voter on my list at this house, then I do this pitch for unidentified people.

Are you an Idaho voter by chance? [Yes.] Great! Will you sign the ballot initiative to increase funding for Idaho public schools? We’re dead last in the country in spending per student, and your signature would help to get a measure on the ballot in November to address it.

If they hesitate, I’ll give them some additional basics.

It would raise about $1,000 per student per year without increasing taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year. And this is just to get it on the ballot, so that voters can have a say.

If they say No, without explaining why, I’ll probe.

You don’t think we should fund our public schools better?

Then they usually explain their concerns. Typically they’re related to issues with curriculum, perceived wasteful spending, or maybe something they didn’t like in their local school district. Based on this, I can often address their specific concern and win their signature. Often, it helps to bring it back to the people that are most impacted by the problem.

I understand your concern, but the fact is that we’re just investing far too little in our schools, at around half of the national average. When neighboring states pay $10,000–15,000 more per year for the same teacher, it’s no wonder that teachers are leaving in droves. This has been getting worse for decades, and we’re robbing whole generations of Idaho kids of a quality education. This deeply harms Idaho families and communities.

Bonus Sigs

When they agree to sign, I try for bonus signatures.

Thank you so much! [I hand them the clipboard.] Signature, printed name, address and date. And do you have any other registered voters at the house that could sign?

As they get close to the end of the row, I say the date out loud — “The date is 4/30/22.” That prevents people from accidentally writing in their zipcode or “ID” in the date column. After we’re all done, I say thank you and walk to the next door on my list.

Often I’ll see people that are outside. They may be walking their dog, enjoying a neighborhood park or playground, doing yard work, working on something in their garage, or coming or going. I’ll smile and wave and ask them to sign too.

Hi, are you an Idaho voter? [Yes.] Will you sign the ballot initiative to increase funding for Idaho public schools?

I often get about a third of my signatures this way, even though these people aren’t on my list of doors to knock. Because these are often time-limited opportunities, I usually skip ahead of a house on my list to talk to someone while they’re outside. I can always come back to the next house on my list.

Crowd Canvassing

The below tactics allow me to collect about 40–60 signatures per hour. That translates to 60–120 during a typical 1.5–2 hour shift.

Crowd canvasses vary wildly, depending on the event and venue. Some places don’t mind having volunteers collect signatures at all, and you can get hundreds of sigs; week in, week out. Others will kick you out every time. For some, it depends who you talk to — sometimes you can do it, and sometimes you can’t.

Be prepared before you begin. Crowd canvassing is often fast and furious, and you might not have time to take a break without missing out on a lot of signatures. Make sure you have at least twice as many petitions as you think you’ll need, remembering that you’ll need to keep county signatures separate — many of your petitions may only have 1 or 2 signatures on them for far-away counties.

When you arrive at the event, consider the venue layout and anticipate likely traffic patterns. Will you need to stay outside, or can you be inside the event? Where will people park? Where will they enter and exit? Where will people be waiting or hanging out?

Distribute volunteer coverage across the main traffic areas. Don’t be too spread out so that it’s easy for people to get around you, but don’t be so close that you’re stepping on each other for the same signatures.

Use as many clipboards as you can wield comfortably. I typically do 4–5. That helps you get a whole group’s signatures quickly, because they can all be signing at once. Sometimes you can have several people signing, and you can flag down another group at the same time and get them signing too. The best case scenario is when you have all of your clipboards getting signatures at once. If you’re really in the flow, you can even pitch passers-by without a clipboard in your hand — finished signers can hand it to the next folks as they move along.

When people are about 20–30 feet away from me, I start my pitch. That gives us time for some verbal exchanges before they’re past me.

Hi, are you an Idaho voter? [Yes.] Great! Will you sign the ballot initiative to increase funding for public schools?

Similar to door knocking, if they’re hesitant, I give them a little bit more detail.

It would raise $1,000 per student per year with no new taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year. This is just to get it on the ballot so people can vote on it.

If they have more questions, I’ll answer them, but I try to avoid extended discussions, especially if they seem skeptical. With crowd canvassing, there’s a steep cost for being tied up with a skeptic — you might have been able to collect 5 more signatures in that time.

When they say Yes, they’ll sign, you must ask which county they’re registered to vote in. Any signatures that are on the wrong county’s sheet will not count.

What county are you registered to vote in?

After they sign, thank them as you move to the next people. It’s a nice touch to acknowledge their activity too.

Thank you! Enjoy the concert!

Depending on the event, you may have several different options for targets. The best people to ask are those that are waiting, in lines or standing in circles. The next best are people enjoying a table on a patio. You can ask them to sign from the street. The most challenging targets are people that are en route to somewhere. They’re often in a hurry and can get annoyed at being stopped. It takes a lot of assertiveness to collect signatures from people on their way to somewhere.

Election Days

The below tactics allow me to collect about 25–50 signatures per hour. That translates to 50–100 during a typical 1.5–2 hour shift.

Election days are some of the most impactful canvassing opportunities, but they’re rare. They are basically the best of both worlds. The validity rate is high like door knocking because everyone that’s going to vote is a registered voter. And the volume is high like a crowd canvass. That’s a recipe for a lot of valid signatures!

Because election days are such big opportunities, I try to take time off work so I can maximize the number of shifts I can do. Make sure to have plenty of self-care items like sunscreen, drinks, snacks, and layers, depending on the weather conditions you might experience. If you’ll be collecting in the evening, and it will be dark, I recommend bringing a headlamp — it can make you look less scary and can illuminate clipboards while people are signing.

Your strategy depends on the polling place you are assigned. They’re managed by poll workers, and the one in charge has a lot of discretion to set limits for what you’ll be able to do. Idaho law allows volunteers to collect signatures as long as they’re 100 feet away. Whether that’s 100 feet away from the door or the nearest part of the building may depend on the ranking poll worker’s opinion.

It’s essential that you be very polite and friendly with the poll workers, but hold your ground that you have a right to collect signatures beyond 100 feet. You want to minimize the risk that they get angry and kick you out. The campaign won’t have the time or resources to work through a dispute with a specific polling place, so it’s best to avoid any dust-ups if you can.

Similar to crowd canvassing, survey the polling place layout and anticipate traffic patterns. If you have other volunteers with you, make sure they’re spread out for optimal coverage. Pro Tip — though you’re only allowed to collect signatures from 100 feet away, that doesn’t mean you can’t park up close. Taking a parking spot that’s too close for you to canvass will force more cars to park further back, where you can get to them.

Make sure to have several clipboards. You may not need as many as a crowd canvass, because people often vote on their own or with one other person. I use 4 clipboards. And make sure you have at least twice the number of petitions you think you’ll need. It’d be a tragedy to run out of petitions when the voter flow is good.

The zones you’ll be working in are usually parking lots. As you see cars drive up, walk up to within about 10–20 feet. Make eye contact, smile and wave, and as they open their door, launch into a short pitch.

Happy election day! Will you sign the ballot initiative to increase funding for Idaho public schools?

Answer their questions, but don’t dwell too long on a low-upside conversation if you see other voters approaching. If they’re hesitant, make sure to let them know their signature is just to get the measure on the ballot so people can vote on it. They’re voters after all; that matters to them.

Anticipate surges in volume. Election days are typically busiest before work, at lunchtime, around happy hour, and right after working hours end. Plan your breaks during slow times so you don’t miss out on the big waves or run yourself ragged.

By the end, you’ll likely be exhausted. Boost your motivation by remembering that these are the golden opportunities of the campaign, and there won’t be many more chances like this. I try to make it until at least a half hour of when polls close.