Unpacking "Door-to-Door" There are many different kinds of "door-to-door." In all cases, records need to be kept. The prerequisite for canvassing and for all door-to-door work, if it is to get results, is a record-making and record-keeping system, based on the Voters' Roll. Until you have that, you can't do canvassing or door-to-door work effectively. Outside of election times or other specific campaigns, door-to-door corresponds to the concept of "Know Your Neighbourhood". The work needs to be harvested in the form of a record so that it can be shared and so become collective knowledge of the ANC in the given area, and particularly at voting-district (VD) level. Elections Usually, there is a national voter registration drive that is synchronised with the IEC's special local registration days, when the voting stations are opened for that purpose. There may be two of these, one early, and one nearer the election. The first registration drive is usually the first door-to-door sweep of any election campaign. If we there are sufficient volunteers, then we can potentially knock on all doors our VD a number of times before the election happens. In that case, it is an advantage to call each time on a different errand. Not all door-to-doors are the same! If you are calling at the same house for the second time, for example, it will be convenient to be able to say: "Last time I was doing a Public Voter Registration Campaign. This time I am here to ask you on behalf of the ANC, if you will please pledge us your vote?" (i.e. "I'm canvassing"). In other words, we can have a perspective on the campaign. We can plan it in parts so that it can be sustained all the way through to the Election Day. The parts need not simply be repeated. They can work towards developing a personal relationship with the voters, and gently educating them, while we are progressively collecting the information we need for our electoral campaign. Records The ANC's fundamental objective of electoral work are: identify our vote, maximise our vote, and then get all of our voters out on the Election Day. For all of these, records are required, The records must be based on the Voter's Roll, as closely as possible. The Voter's Roll is the official IEC (Independent Electoral Commission) list of registered voters in each Voting District. It is published after registrations are closed. Consequently, for most of the campaign, political parties are obliged to use the Voter's Roll from the previous election, updating it themselves as best they can. Each VD will have to assess its resources and plan accordingly. Model Plan of Campaign To assist this planning process, here is a model plan 1. Survey - Getting to know your neighbourhood 2. Voter registration (all) 3. Canvassing (all) 4. Canvassing (repeat for houses not yet covered) 5. Recruitment (selected addresses from canvassing returns) 6. "Celebrity" door-to-door, with candidate, MEC, MP et cetera - avoiding DA-pledged houses 7. Another voter registration drive 8. ANC leaflet blitz (all, but letterboxes) 10. Canvassing (repeat of 3., above) - for houses still not covered 11. Repeat of 5. - another celebrity door-to-door 12. All-dwelling leaflet blitz to advertise a public meeting - which would have been organised before the blitz Feedback from any of these parts could suggest further variations. -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
