🚫 Stranger Danger
Why is a stranger knocking on your door? Because it’s a candidate who wants to meet you. For the love of Pete, answer it!
The old adage that “if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain” applies here. If you don’t answer the door when a candidate knocks, you don’t get to say:
They aren’t engaged,
You’ve never met them,
You never hear from them, etc.
They LITERALLY walked to your house and are standing ON YOUR DOORSTEP!!
There’s a long-form post coming about this at some point. Or maybe we’ll just get it all out here… The short version is this - Voters don’t like:
A mailbox full of junk,
An inbox full of newsletters,
Phone calls without a “heads up” text,
Texts from unknown numbers,
Social media feeds full of ads, or
Strangers showing up on their doorstep.
And yet, “I never hear from my elected official” is a common refrain. EACH of these examples are a place where candidates think you will be and they’re trying to meet you where you are, to make it easy for you to interact with them.
Door-to-door is THE #1 proven method of developing voter relationships and earning votes. Make them work for it, but at least ANSWER THE DOOR.
Bonus points for offering a bottle of water or to refill theirs!
Upcoming Legislative Primary Elections:
August 1: Tennessee (A Thursday election? How do you say “We don’t want people to vote” without saying we don’t want people to vote…)
August 6: Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Michigan, Washington
August 10: Hawaii (A Saturday election? Now THAT’s something we can get behind!)
August 13: Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Connecticut
August 20: Wyoming, Alaska, Florida
Happy serving!
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Sorry for the delay - was planning your 50th birthday weekend festivities…
Gated is similar to “No Soliciting” which is common for apartment and townhome complexes. Best practice is to find someone in the community and have them walk with you. Then, it’s a neighbor walking door to door, introducing a candidate.
Even if someone in the neighborhood “gives permission” or lets you in, still not OK to canvass on your own.
I live in a gated community. Are there any laws that allow my state rep to walk my neighborhood?