Civic Engagement Research

Get Out The Vote Resource Center

Our entire team is hard at work creating and distributing free Get Out The Vote resources to progressive organizers. Here's a menu of the tools, trainings, and knowledge at your disposal:

I. GOTV Organizing Materials
II. Election and Polling Place Tools
III. Online GOTV Classes
IV. Election Research

I. GOTV Organizing Materials

What is GOTV? [Download the entire packet (PDF)]

Organizing and Leading a Voter Contact Event [Download the entire packet (PDF)]

Preparing Volunteers for Election Day [Download the entire packet (PDF)]

Leading a Staging Location [Download the entire packet (PDF)]

Other Useful Materials

II. Election and Polling Place Tools

Organizer's Guide to Election Administration

The Organizer's Guide to Election Administration gives you all the info you've been desperately searching for along with rules you didn't even know you needed to know about. Most importantly to us, every piece of information is sourced and dated, so you know exactly how fresh it is and can trace it back to verify its accuracy. And hopefully, our information will help you easily reach out to voters with special needs, like military voters, people with felony convictions, or people who need assistance in the voting booth.

Voting Information Project Dataset

For the first time in the history of American politics, we are releasing a free, consolidated source of polling location data for the entire country. We've sourced polling place locations and addresses, and tied them to unique precinct IDs from Catalist, NCEC, political party committees, and the Voting Information Project. Get the complete dataset and/or the Google API.

Embeddable Polling Place Locator

Just grab the code and add it to your website. Powered by the Voting Information Project and Google Maps.

Get directions to your polling place via text message

In English or Spanish. Powered by Mobile Commons and the Voting Information Project.

Google Search the word "vote"

Dead simple. Just search Google for the word "vote" and check out the top result:

screenshot of what happens when you search Google for the word "vote"

III. Online GOTV Classes

Session I: Organizer's GOTV Cliff Notes In this session, we tackle GOTV from a Field Organizer's perspective. We discuss some common pitfalls and easy time savers, and show how managing volunteers and staging locations can minimize risk and maximize productivity.

Want the slides from this presentation? You can download them here. Session II: Don't Panic! Voter Protection Tips In this session, NOIEF Election Administration Guru Sam Oliker-Friedland reviews the real threats and challenges, and covers some basic steps you can take to mitigate the risk that your voters will face problems at the polls. Have specific questions about the laws in your state? Check out the Organizer's Guide to Election Administration!

Want the slides from this presentation? You can download them here. Session III: Knock Knock - Early Vote Data Strategy In this class, Data and Tech Director Ethan Roeder tackles Early Voting. Learn to find and utilize Early and Absentee voter data to improve your program and target your efforts.

Want the slides from this presentation? You can download them here. Session IV: Integrated GOTV - Getting Out The Vote Online In this class, Henri Makembe joins the New Campus to discuss ways to use your online presence as a motivating factor in voting. Henri covers topics ranging from website splash pages to social networks and mobile web advertising, all to power your online efforts and Get Out The Vote!

Want the slides from this presentation? You can download them here. Session V: Vote Here - Polling Place Data In this session, Anthea Watson and Chris Cassidy of the Voting Information Project discuss the importance of providing voters with information on where to vote and the challenges in finding and distributing polling place information. They also introduce the Polling Place Locator Gadget, the first free, 50 state polling place lookup tool, a collaboration between Google, Pew Charitable Trusts, and NOIEF.

Want the slides from this presentation? You can download them here. Session VI: Counting Votes - Election Day Reporting All reports are NOT created equal. In this session, reporting guru Josh Wolf looks at the benefits of Election Day reporting, systems for ensuring a smooth reporting structure, and ways to use reports strategically in your GOTV operation's final test.

Want the slides from this presentation? You can download them here.

IV. Election Research

2010 Turnout: Quantifying the Quandary

Will 2010 disprove everything we thought we knew about elections? Will even reliable Democrats stay home while sporadically-voting Republicans surge? Can we even predict anything about voting in 2010 or are the political winds blowing so strongly that even our most firmly held assumptions will fall?

In this original research from the New Organizing Institute, we look at historical election results, exit polls, and voting trends in an effort to calm the storm of conjecture surrounding the 2010 election. While some things about voting in 2010 will be truly unique, other patterns we observe are clearly consistent with past midterms elections.

Download the PDF View Full Screen

Hispanics Civic Engagement Research

Latino voters are a growing force in American politics and their influence will continue to rise for generations to come. This original research from the New Organizing Institute identifies strategic opportunities for investment in Hispanic voters both right now and in the coming decades.

Download PDF View Full Screen

Lost Voters, Lost Votes

In 2008, an estimated 1.9 million voters did not cast a ballot for one simple and solvable reason: they did not know where to go. As organizers, we know how frustrating it can be when people want to engage and want to vote, but don't know how. And when we don't have the resources easily available to give them the information they need, we miss opportunities.

"Where to vote" is among the most basic pieces of the democratic process, yet NOI's research suggests that millions of Americans don't vote because they don't have access to that information. Between ballots cast at the wrong polling place and ballots lost when voters simply don't know where to go on Election Day, Lost Voters, Lost Votes outlines how and where we lost those voters, and gives some suggestions about what we can do about it.

Download PDF View Full Screen

And one last tip: Don't buy email addresses to help you Get Out The Vote.

If you've found these materials useful, please consider making a contribution to help us provide more free resources to organizers:

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Creative Commons photo courtesy of David Lytle