Canvassing a Neighborhood for a Political Campaign

Almost every single political campaign both locally and nationally make canvasses around the neighborhood to knock on doors and give out flyers about their candidates and their political campaigns. The flyers often contain information about the date of the primary election and the general election. The flyers should also contain some information concerning the candidate’s political views on local issues if he is running for a local congressional district or nationally if it is a candidate running for governor or senate or president.

For a canvass in a neighborhood or town, you need several different lists with you. First you need a list of names of all of the registered Democratic or Republican voters in that area. You should have their addresses written down. The list of people should all live in the same vicinity so that you can get to as many people as possible within a short amount of time.

During the canvass, as a general safety tip, don’t go by yourself when you are going door to door because you never know what kind of crazy people there are in your town. When you ring a door, make sure that you know the person’s name that you are looking for and be polite unless the other person is extremely rude. If that is the case then just walk away because it isn’t worth getting into an argument with a complete stranger. You cannot force a person to vote for a candidate or for them to even have an interest in voting.

If you are conducting a door to door survey try to memorize most of the questions that you are asking people so that the questions go faster and don’t waste people’s time. Strangers don’t mind being bothered but they do mind if you take up their time and don’t know what you are doing. Be nice to the people you are talking to like greeting them with a smile and saying, “Good afternoon” or asking them “how are you doing”? If you do that, then the person will most likely answer your questions and be nice to you.

If you are giving out pamphlets without talking to people directly, make sure that you neatly drop the pamphlet on their doorstep and don’t scatter the papers on their lawns. Drop the pamphlet on their doorstep or on top of their mailbox. In some counties it is illegal to put a flyer without postage in a mailbox.

Beware of dogs and strange looking people and don’t look to pick fights with the people in the town.

The best way of doing a canvass is to go with friends or people you know and to get out of your car and to walk down a few streets that are close together and hand out flyers or ask questions.

It can make for a fun day while getting a lot of work accomplished.