Your last few days

Sounds ominous, doesn't? Your last few days. Not on this earth, but on the campaign trail. The election is in one week. You know a lot, maybe most, of the electorate has voted. At least those of them that  will vote that is. Turn out is presumed to be low in these off-year, down ballot primary elections. But if the race is hotly contested, if there are many candidates, and if you are not leading in the polls by double digits (and frankly, even if you are -  anything can happen now!), this is no time to slack off.

Keep phone banking and walking those last precincts, or return to the ones you might have missed, or where no one was home. Plan your GOTV activities carefully. Know where all the polling places are located, and which precincts vote where. Make sure you get the list of consolidated precincts from your County Registrar of Voters, or City Clerk. Numbers do change, many precincts vote in the same location, and you want to be in the right place at the right time on election Day.

Line up your "yes" voters for last weekend calls, and to check the polling place on election Day. If they haven't voted, you'll need to call and remind them, gently, to cote. Even if they are absentee voters, they can walk their ballot in to any polling place (at least in California, if you are in another state,check your jurisdiction's rules), and they can mail their ballot right up to election day so long as they arrive in three days. Best to get those ballots in early, just in case.

Watch what the competition is doing. Any last minute attack ads that need to be addressed? Be prepared. If you have a few signs left over, plan to have some eager volunteers to "honk and wave" on election morning and commute time, to remind people "oh yeah, today's the day."

Plan a modest party on Election Night to watch the returns come in (most will be posted on line as they are counted) and thank your volunteers. If you make into the General election in the fall, you want these volunteers to be with you all the way. Make them feel special and appreciated.

Election Night Cookies - Yum!

Win or lose, if you've given it your all, you will feel rewarded for a job well done, new friends made, and groundwork laid for whatever you choose to do next.

One week before Election Day. Do you know where YOUR voters are?

It's one week before the big day, and you don't know who is voting for you and you is voting for the other guy? Why not? Because you neglected to do some basic campaign steps back in September.

Mistakes candidates make that leave them in limbo in November:

1. Don't go door to door. If you don't go door, to miss key opportunities to meet actual voters, and, more important, to have them meet you (or your surrogate) and hear your message from a flesh and blood human being. What's more, you don't get a sense if your message is working or not.

2. Don't target and go to more doors than you need to. You've heard me talk about targeting frequent voters ad nauseum. when you're walking precincts, trudging up hill and down dale, you'll soon know why. Some people never vote and no matter how much persuasion you give them, they never will. You're wasting valuable time going to those households, missing the key voters who do vote, and will be likely to vote for you if they hear your message, and that's time you'll never make up.

3. You don't keep good records of who you waked to and what they said. Whoops, you forgot to note the voters' responses on your walk lists. Your volunteers gave you back a stack of completed lists with nothing but check marks on them. This won't happen if you either download the right app and keep your records electronically, or do it the old-fashioned way (I still do), and check the boxes on your walk sheets, Yes, No, undecided, not home.

4. Say, "Glad that's over with" and drop your walk sheets into the receycle bin after the last door has been knocked. Wait. Now you go back and call all your Yes voters and remind them, in the nicest way possible to go to the polls Tuesday. Then, on Tuesday, you and your volunteers physically get down to the polls and check who's voted on your lists. Call the ones who haven't and remind them, gently, but urgently, that now is the time. Of course this applies only to poll voters, and any abseentte voters who may have neglected to mail their ballots in. They can drop them off at any polling station until closing time.

Once all this is done (and your mail went out on time, your website got updated frequently, your ads were all printed, your TV spots delivered), then, and only then, can you relax at your victory party, secure in the knowledge, win or lose, you have run the very best campaign you could possible have, and all your votes are accounted for.

Good luck!