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Michele Weslander Quaid, Google’s Public Sector CTO, Joins Voter Gravity Board

We’re excited to announce that Michele Weslander Quaid, Chief Technology Officer (Public Sector) and Innovation Evangelist for Google, has joined the Voter Gravity board. Michele was recently named one of the seven most powerful women to watch in 2014 by Entrepreneur magazine. We’re looking forward to how her innovative start-up mentality and strong technology background will help Voter Gravity become a more focused platform for effective activism. A registered Independent who firmly believes in Constitutional Conservative principles, Michele is a significant addition to the Voter Gravity team and is already enriching the board with her great perspective and energy as we launch into 2014.

Welcome, Michele!

View press release here.

Take That, Polar Vortex: 10 Campaigning Mistakes to Avoid in the Cold

Having just finished volunteering in a special election campaign, I can say for certain that while the basics of door knocking stay the same, several things can complicate such activities during the winter. We decided to list some of these below so that you don’t have to struggle with the same issues that my fellow volunteers and I just faced.

  1. Forgetting to bundle up. This may seem obvious, but dress in layers. In my experience, most don’t think of it. You will warm up as you go along during the day, but it will be cold for a while. Don’t forget the necessities: thick socks, warm shoes/boots, coat, hat, and gloves.
  2. Leaving the water bottles at home. It is very easy to forget to drink when it isn’t warm outside; nevertheless, your body is losing moisture. Your energy level will wane if you don’t stay hydrated.
  3. Using an iPhone without a case. When campaigning with a mobile canvasing app like Voter Gravity, you are carrying around a reasonable investment with you as you door knock. Make sure you protect your phone or tablet with a reasonable case. Nothing makes a slick device harder to hold than numb fingers.
  4. Not wearing touchscreen gloves. Along the same vein, many volunteers will hold off on wearing gloves because they are using a mobile device. Do yourself a favor. Invest in a pair of gloves that allows you to wear them and use your device. Just say ‘no’ to cold, stiff fingers.
  5. Dressing unprofessionally. Your appearance still matters to the person opening the door. Silly tassel hats, or other similarly unprofessional articles don’t instill confidence in the voter. Make sure your winter clothes don’t negatively affect the perception of the campaign that voters will receive.
  6. Initiating long-winded conversations. Perhaps even more than in the summer, people don’t want to stand out on their porch talking to you. Not only are they busy; it’s cold. Be brief and to-the-point.
  7. Forgetting to thaw out. Make sure you do warm up occasionally. It doesn’t take long at particularly low temperatures to do significant damage to your body. If you’re getting to cold, spend time in a heated car.
  8. Not taking advantage of the little things in life. Warm drinks and hand warmers to keep your spirits up. It is amazing how much of a morale boost a little portable heat can give you on a cold day.
  9. Using ballpoint pens. If you are unfortunate enough to still be using paper, you will notice that ballpoint pens freeze in cold temperatures. Pencils don’t freeze, but cause problems with scanners, as graphite has reflective properties. Use felt tip markers. Of course, mobile canvassing apps like Voter Gravity eliminate this problem altogether and ensure your data gets recorded perfectly.
  10. Forgetting about the sun. There are less hours during the day in which door-to-door campaigning can be done. Make sure you set your goals accordingly. (And also don’t forget the sunscreen – you can still get sunburnt in the snow!)

As a note: Keep in mind that while door-to-door is the most effective means of voter contact, phone banking with integrated systems like Voter Gravity can be a good use of time and resources during rough weather conditions that hamper successful door-to-door canvassing.

10 Things That Can Make or Break a Phone Bank

We all know that phone banking can be one of the least pleasant ways to contact voters. If someone is going to be nasty to you, it will probably be while you’re speaking to them over the phone.

It is always easier for voters to be more rude to “a faceless entity that called them for the express and sole purpose of ruining their evening,” then it is for them scream at a respectful volunteer at their door. Arm yourself with the basic facts of a good phone bank and you’ll bypass a world of hurt. Here are a few tips for both the volunteer and the one who is trying not to lose his volunteers after one night of phone calls.

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13 Things About Voter Canvassing Your Volunteers Need to Know

I knocked on a door while voter canvassing one day, and a middle-aged woman answered.

It went down hill from there.

I greeted her and said that I was with a non-partisan organization and was wondering if she had a moment to answer a few quick questions. She said that she didn’t take political surveys because she thought they were all biased, and misrepresented information. I tried to explain that this was just a survey trying to determine how people felt about a certain piece of legislation that had recently passed. She demanded that I tell her who I was working for. I told her a non-profit, non-partisan organization that happened to support conservative economic policy.

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In the Trenches: What Republican Operatives Need to Know About Voter Canvassing

When it comes to actually turning out voters, one of the most effective campaign methods is also the oldest: door-to-door canvassing. For decades, political scientists have analyzed and debated the effectiveness of various means of campaigning, and the utility of canvassing remains one of the few undisputed conclusions reached by major scholars of the subject.

Field Staffers: The Best Way to Save Time in 2014

Imagine you are walking away from a door after an unusually productive conversation with a voter. You’re glad to finally get some door-to-door campaigning done after waiting for over a week to get these printed walk books returned to you. Now that you have them, you’re hitting the streets again.

But you glance down to fill in the bubble for the last house on your scan sheet, you suddenly realize the bubble is already marked and you have been entering the wrong data for the wrong houses for quite a while.

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Door-to-Door Campaigning: Top 5 Tips Part II

On January 1, 2014, Tom Basile took office as Councilman for the Town of Stony Point, New York. As a result of a hard-fought campaign, Republicans took back control of the Town Board and now hold a 4-1 majority. Basile states, “One of the highlights was also one of the most difficult parts. I made a commitment to go door-to-door personally, to as many households as I possibly could and take my message directly to the voters. I started in July, walked after work, on weekends, and whenever I could going door-to-door to targeted homes in the district. I probably hit about 75% of the town over the course of the campaign.”

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Integrate Voter Gravity with Hundreds of Apps

As we enter 2014, effectively utilizing campaign tech is more important than ever before. Winning elections first requires efficiently organizing the right resources. What’s worse than spending too many staff and volunteer hours on tasks that don’t result in votes? I believe it is critical to maintain a laser-sharp focus on the things that matter by simplifying tasks and eliminating disorder. Let’s stop cutting walk-lists that don’t make sense and drain the enthusiasm of valued volunteers by sending them to the wrong routes. Instead, start keeping track of tasks in one space, knowing in real-time when voters have been contacted, what their responses were, and who contacted them.

This is why I’m excited to share two of our most recent advances in using Voter Gravity to simplify your campaign:

1. Now They Talk to Each Other: All Web Apps Integrated

Voter Gravity is the first application in politics to integrate with Zapier, a service that makes your web apps talk to each other. Thanks to this ground-breaking integration, you can link Voter Gravity with over 250 other web applications, enabling you to use the website, email, and social tools you want without forcing you into a box. Some of the web apps include Gravity Forms (for WordPress), MailChimp, Emma, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Eventbrite, and more. See the full directory of apps you can use here.

For current users, to begin using Voter Gravity and Zapier, contact our support team and we will get you set up! If you aren’t using Voter Gravity yet and would like to integrate voter data with your other web apps, what’s stopping you? Request a demo today!

2. Time is Money: All New Voter Search

Searching for contacts in Voter Gravity is now a quicker, easier process than ever before! This week we’ve launched an all-new search engine that will speed up voter lookups. The new search quickly pulls up voters by name or address. There’s only so much time in a day and this is part of an overall focus to make Voter Gravity lightening fast, which means making your campaign more efficient and productive.

Special Feature: Integrated Phone System

Voter Gravity is one of the first on the market to link canvassing and phone banking in real-time. With one more easy way to use the data at your disposal, it’s another step towards our goal to completely integrate message, manpower and money all in one platform. Our phone features include:

  • Built-in Phone System: Phone bank the way best for you — at home or at headquarters. Call lists via VoIP, mobile, or landlines.
  • Easy Data Access: Access pre-collected and databased voter contact information quickly;
  • Quick Creation: Create call lists in a matter of minutes;
  • Targeted Surveying: With the phone system tied into our surveys, you can add data real time as calls are being made;
  • Share with Volunteers: Grant access to unique call lists to specific volunteers;
  • Predictive Dialing: Set up predictive dialing through the system to complete more live calls.
Voter Gravity Phone System
Phone banking is another powerful tool to reach out and build a relationship with your voters. Watch this video in which I explain just how you can maximize your impact with Voter Gravity’s Phone System.

 

Voter technology in 21st century: Get smart or get left behind

The founder of a political advocacy group is branching into new territory: voter technology.

Voter Gravity, a campaign technology company, is recognized for its integrated and voter contact solution. The company filed its $2 million in partial funding last week with the Security and Exchange Commission.

Ned Ryun, founder and president of American Majority, an organization that identifies and trains candidates and activists to become involved in the political process, is behind the new venture.

He says Republicans can’t depend on winning elections by chance.

“I think those on the center-right are finally waking up and understanding, We had better do something about our data. We had better do something about our technology, or we will get left behind,” he tells OneNewsNow.

A November story on American Majority, for example, describes how to use social media to reach others or, to be more exact, “nine ways to fail at social media.”

Read the rest of the article at OneNewsNow.com.