Two buses paid for in substantial part by RBC readers delivered 110 Illinois volunteers to Iowa yesterday. They canvassed in pairs. My sister Kelly, who organized the venture, estimates that each pair hit about 60 households in a 4-hour shift. The total cost of the two buses for the day was $4200. (Another 151 volunteers went by car; the buses were for the carless who couldn’t find rides with others.)
What were they doing? Kelly writes:
On their appointed rounds, our volunteers are able to ask supporters to vote early (the incentive? “We’ll stop calling you as soon as you vote.”), and to provide them with the paperwork to do so. It’s easier to run up the score if you start accumulating points even before the game officially begins.
Here’s the arithmetic:
55 pairs x 60 households/pair =
3300 households x 2 voters/household =
6600 voters/$4200 =
64¢ per voter contact.
Seems pretty cost-effective to me.
The next canvass date is Saturday the 27th. That means Kelly needs checks in hand by a week from tomorrow, the 22nd.
Contact information:
Kelly Kleiman
Office Manager
46th Ward campaign office
4084 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL. 60613
(773) 281-2673
KellyNFP@yahoo.com