My first GOTV event
Last Friday, I volunteered for my first GOTV event in Ohio. This was an in-person event that lasted about 3 hours. Here’s a recap of that event and some of my key takeaways from it.
The setup
The organizer, Cynthia, had set up a table inside a Goodwill Outlet store in Akron. Towards the back of the table was a science-fair-style presentation board with various logos, information snippets, and QR codes. On the front of the table were various informational postcards and election-related forms.
Soon after I arrived and greeted Cynthia, I politely reminded her that this was my very first GOTV event. As a starting point, she suggested I read the two forms that we’d be dealing with the most: the Ohio Voter Registration form and the Ohio Absentee Ballot Request form. After all, I couldn’t be expected to help voters fill out these forms and answer their questions if I didn’t understand them thoroughly myself!
Both forms are relatively simple, one page each. To make it even clearer as to what the required fields in the forms were, Cynthia had highlighted them.
After I read the forms, she pointed me to the fields that voters are most likely to either miss or fill out incorrectly. For instance, there are three relatively small lines of print at the top of the form. These are required fields but given how small they are, voters often miss them and leave them empty!
Another example is the birth date field, which some voters will fill out with today’s date. This is understandable if we keep in mind that these voters did not come to Goodwill today to get registered to vote. They came there to shop. They probably have other things on their mind and are in a rush to get the form filling done as quickly as possible.
I read both forms and asked a few follow up questions. Having answered those, Cynthia suggested I open up the ohvotes.org web site on my cell phone. This web site provides a simple mobile-friendly UI that consists of seven very large (read: very clear) buttons for primary functions and three smaller buttons for secondary functions. Cynthia informed me that the functions we’d be using the most would be checking a voter’s registration status — are they registered or not, is their name spelled correctly, and is their registration address correct and current?— and tracking their absentee ballot request, if they’re a registered voter and had submitted their ballot request form.
Cynthia then suggested that I familiarize myself with two ACLU-created voting rights postcards: one for college student voters and one for voters with criminal convictions.
At this point I had all the information I needed to start engaging people as they walked into the store. Talking to people while they’ve just walked in works well because for several reasons: they aren‘t juggling a bunch of shopping items; it’s easier for us to keep track of whom we’ve spoken with already; and if the person ends up filling out forms, it gives us an opportunity to find them later changes are needed. Cynthia offered to let me shadow her for the first couple of interactions. I enthusiastically agreed with this idea.
First interaction
With nervous excitement I waited for a shopper to enter the store. Less than a minute later, a middle-aged lady walked in. Cynthia calmly walked up to her, made eye contact, smiled (through her mask), and addressed her with a friendly “hello there!” Cynthia told the lady we were helping people register to vote and asked if she had registered. The lady wasn’t sure, so we offered to check her registration for her.
I pulled up my phone and fired up the browser, which was already on the ohvotes.org home page. I clicked the “Check my voter registration” button and a short form popped up. Extending my phone hand towards the lady, I asked if she’d like to enter her details herself or would want me to do it for her. She preferred to enter them herself (quite understandably!) so I gladly handed my phone to her.
She filled out her details and submitted the form. No registration was found. On to the next step!
Cynthia handed her the voter registration form first. After the lady filled it out, Cynthia double-checked her information. Watching Cynthia’s pen dart from field to field I could tell she was paying special attention to the “gotcha” fields I mentioned above. Everything looked good. On to the next step.
Cynthia asked the lady if she’d also like to request an absentee ballot. The lady thought about it for a second then responded in the affirmative. Cynthia handed her the other form, the lady filled it out, and Cynthia checked it and cross-checked it with the first form to make sure the information lined up.
We informed the lady that we’d be submitting both forms on her behalf, that she should keep an eye out for her absentee ballot, and that when she receives it, she should fill it out and return it immediately. We added that there were delays in the postal service so it would be ideal if she could drop her absentee ballot off at her county’s Board of Elections but, if that wasn’t possible for her, she should mail it in immediately, again owing to the delays in the postal service.
And that was it! We thanked her, wished her a happy weekend, and she was on her way. The entire interaction took less than 10 minutes.
On my own
The Goodwill Outlet store in Akron is divided into two sections — to the right (as one enters) is the retail section and to the left is the outlet section. Our table was setup in the retail section. However, there seemed to be a lot more people in the outlet section than in the retail section. Since there were two of us, we decided to split up as soon as I felt comfortable engaging people all on my own.
A couple minutes later, another person walked into our section of the store. Cynthia and I looked at each other, the unspoken question being whether I wanted to engage this person all by myself. I nodded and set off.
My first solo interaction was rather short. The person was already a registered voter. So I asked them, with some prompting from Cynthia behind me, if they’d received their absentee ballot application. They said they had. Growing in confidence I implored them to submit it as soon as possible, reminding them about the delays in the mail system. I thanked them for voting, wished them a good weekend, and they were on their way. Having successfully completed my first mostly-solo interaction, I turned around with a wide smile (that no one could see through my mask).
At that point, with the potential interaction opportunities in the outlet section weighing heavily on my mind, I let Cynthia know that we could divide and conquer.
From then until we closed up shop a couple hours later, I was on my own. I had about 30 or so interactions in all. In most cases people had already registered to vote. Cynthia later explained to me that this was expected at this point in the timeline, with just 53 days to go to Election Day.
I did get a couple more registrations — college freshmen who’d moved to Ohio from other states. I made sure that they’d be 18 as of Election Day (and gasped inside when I saw that they were born in the new millennium, a cruel reminder of how old I was) and then guided them through the two forms, one by one, just as Cynthia had shown me not too long ago.
Besides that, it was pretty uneventful save a couple of “interesting” interactions:
- One man told me he’d “already voted online” as he walked away from me. Ooookay. Given that I was having more useful conversations with other people I decided to let this one go.
- Another told me he didn’t “believe in mail-in voting” and was going to vote in person. I gave him a thumbs up and reminded me that early voting started October 6.
- Yet another person waved me away dismissively as he walked by. I honestly had forgotten about this “interaction” until later when he stopped by just to apologize for his rudeness. Awww.
- A few women walked right by me, completely treating me as non-existent, even as I was greeting them. Oh well, such is life.
All in all, it was a fruitful three hours in which I learnt the ropes of how to engage strangers in bite-size conversations, encouraging and helping them to vote. I drove back home looking forward to volunteering at more GOTV events in the coming weeks!
Key takeaways
If you work in the fields of Marketing, particularly Events Marketing, or User Experience I expect these takeaways will feel very familiar to you.
Perception matters.
Remember how I said at the start of my post that there was a science-fair style presentation board on the table? Truth be told, not a single voter walked up to it to read the snippets of information or scan any of the QR codes posted on it.
However, just having this board in the background lent gravitas to our setup. So did the stacks of forms and informational cards from the ACLU sitting on the table. Also, it didn’t hurt to be carrying two clipboards, a pen, and wearing a “Ask me anything about voting” badge.
Be conversational.
We all learn at an early age not to talk to strangers. Most of us ease up on that life lesson a bit as we get older but we still view strangers approaching us with a bit of suspicion.
So putting yourself in the prospective voters’ shoes helps. A smile (even with a mask on) and a polite “hello” or “hi there” goes a long way in disarming them and provides a gentle introduction to a quick conversation. Once you start talking, keep the tone friendly but confident. This helps build a bit of trust and makes people more amenable to continuing the conversation and getting help and important information from you.
Don’t overwhelm.
There’s a fair bit of important information around voting rights and procedures. But not all of it may be applicable to the person you’re speaking with. It’s best to ask questions, typically starting with “are you registered to vote?” and use the person’s answers and body language to gauge the concrete next step or follow up question. As you learn a few things about them and where they are in the voting process, you can tailor your help effectively and crisply (remember, these folks weren’t expecting to spend time with you today — their time is valuable!)
Go to the people, don’t expect them to come to you.
The next day, Tiffany and I volunteered at another GOTV event. This one was on the West Side of Cleveland. It was designed as a block party with free food. Unfortunately, it was tucked away from a major intersection and there was no signage in the neighborhood to direct people to the event location.
Consequently, in the first half hour or so we had ZERO interactions! Then Tiffany decided to walk a couple blocks to a major intersection where there was a bus stop and a gas station. I hung back with other volunteers at the main site for another half hour or so; when things didn’t improve I joined Tiffany. We had a couple dozen interactions at that intersection.
Contrasting this experience with my very first one at the Goodwill Outlet, my takeaway was that it’s best to go to people where they already are rather than asking them to come to you expressly for the purposes of voter registration. This is especially pertinent to the demographic we’re targeting with our efforts — underprivileged voters. These folks are already pressed for time and typically juggling multiple tasks at one time. Asking them to take time and go out of their way just to drive or walk over to a voter registration event is not likely to be a very successful strategy.
Close with a “sticky” call to action.
At this point, I’ve volunteered at three in-person GOTV events. Tiffany has volunteered at two of those with me. On our drive back home from these events we often end up having an informal retrospective.
A common pattern we’ve noticed is that most people are registered to vote at this point. Ergo, most of our interactions now comprise reminding people to do one of these things:
- complete and return their absentee ballot application, preferably in-person at their Board of Elections or mailing it in using two stamps, unless they plan to vote in person;
- vote early starting October 6, if they plan to vote in person; or
- as a last resort, vote in-person on Election Day.
It would be amazing if we could not just tell people to do one of those things as we close our interactions but if we could give people a tangible and “sticky” reminder instead. Something they could take home with them and put up on their fridge perhaps. Something like a small informational card, perhaps.
Just as we were brainstorming what one of these cards could look like, we came across one while working a GOTV event at the Schulz Campus for Jewish Life in Akron today!
This card was designed by the League of Women Voters, specifically their Summit, Hudson, and Akron chapters. Now we’re in touch with them to try and get the image file so we can print more copies for upcoming events!
