Election Management Resources
A quick video post inspired by some current events in Toronto politics.
Keep your campaigns clean and follow the rules. No matter if you win or lose you will have your honour.
I have helped many Municipal Councillors get elected and none of them had to break the rules or compromise their morals. In fact doing the exact opposite has proven successful.
Keep Knocking,
KEITH
Google
This media story is a good example of a successful campaign launch.
Joe Persechini is running for Town Council in East Gwillimbury this fall. As a long time community activist the media attention is well deserved. Persechini even has a street named after him recognizing all his great charity work. Campaign launches like this remind us that a council election does not start when nominations open. A good Councillor candidate is already working hard for their community without the official title.
Unless Google search is failing me, it looks like Joe needs to get moving on an election website. It would be nice to leverage a good news day into some web traffic and online voter ID.
In East Gwillimbury voters elect 4 Councillors at large so it’s a tough race. Best of luck to Joe Persechini and his campaign team.
In the case of a City Councillor election I say you need to knock on every door at least once – the question is where to start. The traditional way of starting on your own street and making your way outwards results in a number of missed opportunities.
When canvassing in the municipal election you need to start at doors where:
The last one always trips people up. They feel they should reach out to those who love them first. Sure, canvassing your existing fans is a great confidence booster; however you are just wasting precious campaign time. I believe the expression is “preaching to the choir”.
Numbers two and three are a bit easier to determine. It’s number one that you really want to be the prime focus of your heat map. These streets are coloured red because they are hot and are ready to be knocked. How you determine who votes can in a number of ways be based on demographics and history. Sorry I can’t give you the exact details on this one, it would be like Pepsi publishing their trade secrets online.
Below is an example of an election door knocking heat map. The streets are grouped by colours. You need to get to red streets ASAP (like yesterday), the orange are next on your hit list, followed by yellow and then blue. These maps in a political party HQ obviously use different colours based on the party flag.
Where to Canvass In Your Ward
Map Notes:
- Sorry I’m a campaign manager not an artist. I usually draw these with a marker on paper.
- This is just a visual the map comes with a MS Excel list of streets ranked one by one. The list also details why a street has been prioritized.
- This is not an actual door knocking heat map. It’s my neighbourhood and I just made up the results.
If you are a member of the City Campaigner team you can log into the portal later this week for instructions on how to create your own election heat map. You also have discounted pricing on the service if you do not have the time or confidence to do it yourself.
For those who are not yet members but want to hit pavement with a plan in hand, we are now offering customized Election Heat Maps for a one-time cost of $250.00 (click Buy Now Button below) We will not create one for your competitor so that trade secret in your ward belongs to you.
Now if I only had a product that would light a fire under a candidate’s ass to get out there and door knock.
Good luck in your election.
Keep Knocking,
KEITH
This video is a quick introduction to creating a simple web strategy for Municipal Councillor Candidates. The most common issue is that candidates spend too much time on the internet and not enough time at the door.
City Campaigner Members watch for my web strategy bonus material in our Members Portal. Beyond the web strategy embedded in your customized week to week campaign plan I have a video that covers:
Hope this information helps. Good luck in your election.
Keep Knocking,
KEITH STRACHAN
If you think that is plenty of time, think again. Each councillor candidate running in a ward election has about 5,000 voter homes. If you do not have to luxury of incumbency and are serious about winning you should get to every house twice, meaning you have 10,000 doors to knock. If you started today that is 56 houses per day, which is manageable. However, throw in a kid’s birthday, a friend’s wedding, a couple of community events and a bunch late nights at work and that 56 door target starts growing. All of sudden you need to hit a few hundred houses a day.
Do not let this discourage you there is still a lot of paths to victory (good determined candidates are hardly discouraged anyway). If are starting on your election now here is what you should do right away:
All that being said, pace yourself by holding back a number of events and ideas for the fall when everyone is watching. Hopefully by the fall all your voters recognize you from their doorway.
Keep an eye on this site for some municipal election strategy and tips. Good luck in your campaign.
Keep Knocking,
KEITH