GOTV: get out the vote

Turn your 4s and 5s into a target list, project how big it will be by the dates you print for, split it across teams, and track who has voted.

For admins and canvassers

Why GOTV matters

Months of canvassing produce a list of people who said they will vote for you. On voting days that list is the whole campaign. Municipal turnout is often 30% or lower, so every supporter who forgets, gets busy, or assumes it is in the bag is a vote you already earned and then lost. Get out the vote (GOTV) is the work of making sure each identified supporter actually casts a ballot — a knock or a call to remind them, tell them where and when, and offer a ride if they need one.

It also solves a practical problem: on election day you will have more volunteer energy than you have ever had, and no doors left to persuade. GOTV gives every volunteer a list, a map, and a job that directly converts into votes.

Who is on the list

Open GOTV in admin. DoorLine builds the target list from your canvass data: for every door (or unit), it takes the most recent answered response, and if the support level is one you chose and the person is an eligible voter, that door is a target. The name and phone from the response come with it.

Choose the levels with the three buttons: 5s only (strong supporters, smallest list), 4s and 5s (the usual GOTV universe, the default), or 3s, 4s and 5s (adds undecided-leaning doors — bigger list, more persuasion needed). Hit Refresh from canvass data after a canvass night to pull in new supporters. Doors that later changed their mind drop off, unless a volunteer has already worked them.

Build voting-day canvasses

In Voting-day canvasses use the List, Map, and Split tabs — same idea as Signs. Give the work a name, pick the date, then either split into N lists or cap each list at N doors (packs of 50 or 100). Preview the polygons, drag an outline if a street sits in the wrong pack, and create. Everyone still to turn out becomes a GOTV canvass.

Doors already on an open GOTV canvass are skipped, so you can build a Saturday list, then a Tuesday list of only what is left. Tick include doors already on a list to deliberately run a second pass. Undo split merges pieces back if you cut too fine.

In the field

GOTV canvasses show up on volunteers' home screens with a green GOTV badge. Every door on them is a supporter, so the door sheet is different: it shows who to ask for (and their phone), then one-tap buttons — Already voted, Reminded — will vote, Not home, Not voting for us, Moved away — plus a note field for “needs a ride at 4pm”.

Voted doors turn green and drop off the campaign's list for everyone, immediately. Not-home doors stay on for the next pass. Everything works offline and syncs when signal returns, like any canvass. Paper crews can use Print sheet: a GOTV walk sheet lists who to ask for and skips doors that have already voted. Photograph the filled sheets in Manual Input — V / R / NH / X update the same turnout list (R is reminded, not a refusal).

Phone banking from the list

Not every supporter needs a knock. Filter the target table to Not contacted, search, and use Contacted / Voted right on the row as your phone bank works through it. Export CSV gives a phone-bank sheet with address, name, phone, and status for volunteers who prefer paper.

Tracking & confirmed votes

The top of the GOTV page shows targets, still to turn out, contacted, and voted, with a percentage. Each voting-day canvass shows its own voted count and a progress bar so you can move teams to where the list is longest.

Confirmed votes also appear on Estimated Votes in a separate “Confirmed votes” box. They are deliberately kept apart from the estimate: the model is a projection of the whole ward, while confirmed votes are real ballots you have watched go in. One is a forecast, the other is a floor.

Planning and projection

At the top of GOTV, add the dates you need a list for — advance polls, election day, a print deadline. DoorLine fills a table with first-time vote IDs at those dates (5s, 4s and 5s, or 3s up), plus first-time sign, donate, and volunteer asks if you keep those columns on.

Weekly ID counts in real campaigns jump around (one Saturday can be three quiet weeks). The projection does not use an exponential. If new IDs have been rising, it keeps a gentle rise, pulled toward the last three complete weeks and capped at 1.5× your busiest week. If they have not been rising, it holds that recent weekly pace. It does not estimate how many volunteers you need — density and how people travel change that more than a formula would.

Changing the levels on the planning table does not change who is on the GOTV target list below. That still uses the buttons in Who is on the list.

Advice from campaigns

Start with advance polls. Every supporter who votes early is one fewer door on election day, and the list you build for Tuesday is shorter for it.
Refresh before each build. Supporters identified last night should be on today's list.
Reminded is not voted. Keep knocking reminded doors on later passes until they confirm.
Tell people where and when. Put the polling location and hours in the canvass name or the note so volunteers have it at the door.
Rides win elections. Use the note field to flag anyone who needs one and have a driver work the exported list.