Elections 101: Why You Should Pay for a Field Program

Elections 101: Why You Should Pay for a Field Program

Being a field organizer for Organizing for America is a much bigger project than the title suggests. When I was first hired, I was responsible for running the entire field operation for Mercer, Lawrence, Venango, Clarion, and Forest counties. A few months into the campaign, Lawrence county was switched into another region, and I was given the east half of Crawford county and Warren counties to compensate. My junior staff consisted entirely of unpaid fellows and volunteers that I personally recruited, and I couldn't have done it without them.

My turf had two congressional districts (PA 3rd and 5th), a strong republican majority, and I don't even know how many PA Assembly seats. It was big. Even for GOTV (campaign lingo for "Get Out the Vote" - the final phase of an electoral campaign), when my turf shrank enormously due to hiring 3 new staffers, I still had 4 counties to manage, no paid junior staff, and no budget.

Let me repeat that again: I had no budget. I wasn't permitted to spend a single dime.

Fortunately, I didn't need to. That's not to say I didn't have resources. I did, but the costs are much lower than you'd expect for a field program. My overall GOTV operation for the final 4 days of the campaign included over 400 volunteer shifts recruited and 5 zero-cost staging locations for the volunteers to meet. The only expenses to the campaign were printing, phones, my (very low) salary, and internet.

If you're a candidate interested in running for office, consider how you can run an identical operation yourself:

Costs for a one-month GOTV field program

The costs for cell phone plans are getting increasingly low. The best method is to use an unlimited, prepaid service from a smaller carrier that uses a larger carrier's network. Such plans fall in the range of $30-$50/month. You can get by with 10 phones, especially since more and more volunteers are willing to put their own to use to help you out.

If you have your own printer, all you need is toner and paper. If you really, really want to distribute palm cards or leaflets, you can do so, but it's going to increase your costs, and the evidence I've read from Get Out the Vote (pgs 51-52 kindle edition), suggests that leaflets in general have a low effect on voter turnout. If you forgo your leaflets, your biggest cost will be printing out walk lists, which can actually get fairly expensive as your campaign scales upward. If you absolutely must have leaflets, I'd suggest printing them in-house over third-party.

Under both the low-cost estimate and the high-cost estimate, the largest cost is your field staff. Spending more on your field staff is a wise move. We have a tendency to work very long hours for fairly low pay. If you put in a $2,000-$5,000/month investment in a staffer, you can get one to work full-time to recruit and train your volunteers to be your entire field program. As the only paid staffer, I recruited over 400 volunteer shifts for a 4-day GOTV program. 

This type of program is entirely worth it. The best alternative to an organized volunteer canvass is to pay canvassers, who go at the rate of $10-$16/hour. When Green and Gerber calculated the cost-effectiveness of canvassing operations at $16/hour, the cost came down to $29 of labor for 1 additional vote (page 43 - kindle edition). While that may seem high, it beat out knockless leafletting $34/ 1 vote (pg 53 - kindle edition) or direct mail pieces $67/ 1 vote (pg 71), and was more cost-effective than hiring telemarketers or direct advertising (just read the book). 

If you can forgo the costs of hiring paid canvassers through recruiting volunteers, that's certainly the way you should go. No matter how you run your canvassing operation, you will have to invest in some overhead costs  in materials necessary for a canvass operation. As a single staff member, however, I recruited a large volunteer army. If you're looking to win an election, hire an organizer to do it for you. There are plenty of ex-OFA staff who did exactly the same thing as I did, and they'll do it for you, too.