Running a Local Government By-Election. All you need to know to organise a successful campaign

Transcription

1 Running a Local Government By-Election All you need to know to organise a successful campaign 1

2 CONTENTS 1. Getting started (page 3) i) The Legal Stuff ii) Building capacity and setting a budget iii) The Marked Register 2. Developing a local message (pages 4-5) i) Campaign Creator ii) Writing good copy iii) Direct Mails 3. Print Schedule (page 6) 4. Targeting & Voter ID (pages 7-9) i) Analysing recent results ii) Contact Creator ii) Voter ID iv) Crucial Voters v) Running doorknocking sheets vi) Phone Canvassing vii) Creating a Campaign Grid 5. Social Media & Local Press (page 10) i) Facebook ii) Promote iii) Local Press 6. Postal Voters (page 11) i) Signing Labour voters up as postal voters ii) Targeting postal voters 7. Polling Week (page 12) i) GOTV ii) GOTV materials 8. Polling Day (page 13) i) Polling Stations ii) GOTV iii) Car Calls 9. Checklist (page 14) 10. Appendix - Example Print Materials (page 15) 2

3 GETTING STARTED The Legal Stuff In order to officially stand as a Scottish Labour Party candidate, the party must provide you with a certificate of authorisation to use the party name and emblem. You can get this from a member of Scottish Labour Party staff by calling In Local Government By-Elections the maximum that can be spent during the campaign (beginning the day after you officially become a candidate) is p per elector. Depending on the size of the ward, this will usually amount to somewhere between 1250 and 1600 (exceptionally large or small wards may be outside this range). Building Capacity & Setting a Budget The type of campaign you can run will depend on a number of factors, not least the financial and activist capacity of the local party. The more activists you have the more doors you can knock on and the more money you have the more pieces of material, and promoted social media posts, you can deliver. It is important to spend some time in the first week or so of the campaign calling round members and supporters to see if they can help support the campaign in any way - starting with those that live in the ward itself or have helped out in previous campaigns. A personal phone call, from the candidate or a CLP office holder or politician, will be much more effective than a circular . Before thinking about what kind of campaign you can run, it s important to work out exactly how much money is available to spend in total, whether it s from the CLP, Branch or Labour Group - or more likely a combination of all three. If there isn t enough money for the type of campaign you think you ll need to run, think about organising a fundraiser. This will also provide an opportunity to mobilise members and supporters for the campaign. The Marked Register In a low turnout council by-election it s imperative that we speak to voters that have a history of voting. Therefore, one of the first things you should do once a by-election has been called is ensure that the most recent Marked Register (which details who did and didn t vote) has been inputted. Contact one of the organising team on to find out if the Marked Register has been inputted for your ward. Visit Membersnet to access the Marked Register Userguide. 3

4 DEVELOPING A LOCAL MESSAGE By their very nature, council by-elections are unique - with the narrative often set locally and not by national media or events. It s therefore absolutely crucial that you have a clear local message and make the most of any local factors or issues that will work in your favour or distinguish you from the other candidates. It s particularly worth considering: Is our candidate well-known locally? Are they/have they been involved in local groups or projects? Is there a well-known and respected figure locally who would endorse our candidate? Is there a particularly salient local issue ongoing - such as a community centre/ health centre closure or a lack of good public transport? Whatever your key message is it s important to repeat it, clearly and as often as possible. It s easy to forget that most voters won t comb through every word of every leaflet they receive - and very few will make sure it s been read by the rest of their household before binning (or hopefully recycling!) it. This is especially true in a competitive by-election when voters will receive a lot of material in a short space of time. So make sure your key message, or strapline, is clear and is repeated - in each piece of literature distributed and within each leaflet itself. Campaign Creator Although you wish to make use of the design or creative skills of local members or supporters, if this isn t available to you then you can always use Campaign Creator - the Labour Party s online resource for leaflet, direct mail and graphic templates. Campaign Creator is available to all Labour Party members. You simply login using your My Labour account details - which just requires a membership number and to setup. If you haven t already done so, you can create a My Labour account at my.labour.org.uk. For guidance about using Campaign Creator contact a member of Scottish Labour Party staff on

5 Writing good copy Now that you have developed a distinct local message and know which issues you will be campaigning on, you re ready to write your leaflets and direct mails. A key challenge in writing copy for Labour leaflets and direct mail is to keep what you re saying as accessible and interesting as possible. We may be political experts, but most of the people we want to pick up and read our literature won t be. So we have to be sure we re always writing for them, not ourselves. To make your writing really accessible, remember these things: - Get to the point in the first sentence. Your first sentence should encapsulate the story and grab the reader s attention. You can expand on it later, but your first sentence has to really hit home and give the reader a reason to read on. - Make it local. An issue may be important nationally, but it s your job to explain what it means in your local context. - Keep your sentences short. That means re-reading what you ve written and cutting out unnecessary words. - Try to avoid using jargon and don t assume the reader is aware of the issue before reading your leaflet. -Make sure your headlines are short and to the point: so that the message you re trying to get across is obvious at a glance. Direct Mails It s sometimes said that direct mail is 50% targeting, 30% offer and 20% creative. The point of that quote is that an effective direct mail is as much about getting the targeting right as it is about your actual words or policies. Direct mail is more expensive and time consuming to deliver, than a leaflet, so normally you should be targeting your DM at a subset of the wider electorate that it s most important to influence. But although it s more expensive, direct mail is also more powerful than a leaflet, because research shows people are much more likely to read something with their name on it. Direct mail is also more trusted, more likely to be remembered and more likely to be kept than any other kind of communication. This longevity and trust factor is really important it s why direct mail can reach people in a way that things like or social media can t. Direct mail also gives you the opportunity to segment your message. The more data we have on a particular elector, the more sophisticated we can be with our direct mail targetinganother great reason to prioritise doorknocking! Unlike leaflets, direct mails should always be written in the first person- I will fight for.. I was born and bred in. The more personal and localised you can be the better. Use bold to draw the reader s attention to key points, or messages, within your letter. There will be more information about using direct mails to target postal voters and key voters later on. 5

6 PRINT SCHEDULE As mentioned earlier, your print package will be determined by your budget and activist capacity. However it s important that you have a clear idea of what materials you ll need, when each item will have to be ordered and when it is scheduled to be delivered. Make sure to get an overall cost from the printer at the start of the campaign so that you don t run out of money, or budget, on the home stretch. There are 3 model print packages below: Print Package 1 - recommended for all competitive by-elections Direct Mail, with PV signup, to Lab voters Calling Card (for doorknocking) Leaflet 1 - one per household Leaflet 2 - one per household Direct Mail to Postal Voters Direct Mail to Key Voters Week of Poll Leaflet Polling Day Leaflet Print Package 2 Leaflet 1 - one per household Leaflet 2 - one per household Direct Mail to Postal Voters Week of Poll Leaflet Polling Day Leaflet Print Package 3 Calling Card (for doorknocking) Leaflet 1 - one per household Week of Poll Leaflet Polling Day Leaflet Precisely when leaflet 1 and 2 should be delivered will depend on the length of the byelection however it s important that the Direct Mails and GOTV leaflets are delivered at specific times. In particular it s vital that the Postal Vote letter lands on people s doormats before they receive their ballot. The ideal time is immediately before the Postal Vote lands (either earlier that morning or the night before) however you may have to begin delivery a couple of days before to ensure there s time to get them all out. Similarly, the ideal time for the Direct Mails to Key Voters to land is the day before Polling Day however it may take more than a day to get them all out. The Week of Poll Leaflet should be used whilst doorknocking from the Friday/Saturday before Polling Day. 6

7 TARGETING & VOTER ID Having face to face conversations with voters is important for a number of reasons but in a low turnout by-election it s primary purpose is to identify voters that intend to support us so that we can make sure they actually turn out to vote. This is known as GOTV - Get Out The Vote. This is especially important in a low turnout by-election, when even traditionally reliable voters may need an extra nudge to ensure they turn out. Analysing recent results The most important data we have to help us target our campaign resources is the Box level results from the most recent council elections in May Box level results tell us exactly how many votes each candidate received in a particular ballot box. This allows us to clearly see which areas we performed strongest (and weakest) in. Some councils will display the polling station next to the data (as in the picture) whilst others will only tell you the box numbers. If the latter, you will have to ask the council for a list of which polling districts (and streets) correspond to each box. Some campaign teams will have sampling data from the June 2017 General Election. As this data is reliant on volunteers manually sampling the votes as they are counted, there is a margin of error. That being, said, it s useful to look at to get a sense of how our vote changed between May and June. We know that our share of the vote improved in most seats. Sampling helps us understand where this increase was most/least pronounced. If you're unsure if there is sampling for your ward, contact a member of Scottish Labour staff on Contact Creator Contact Creator is the Labour Party s online voter database. Contact Creator allows us to log whenever we speak to a voter so that we have a record of their voting intention over time. Every CLP has a local admin for contact creator. This is automatically the CLP Secretary although can be changed to another office holder, like Chair or Campaign Coordinator, by contacting contactcreator@labour.org.uk or (option 3). The local admin is the gatekeeper of the contact creator data for the CLP area and can therefore set local users up with access. You can access a Beginner s Guide to contact creator on Membersnet or by ing: contactcretor@labour.org.uk. The contact creator userguide will give step by step instructions to help you run doorknocking sheets and input the data you gather. However, if you need support getting started, please contact a member of the organising team on

8 Voter ID Once you have a clear idea of how our vote is distributed across the ward, you should use this to decide where to go doorknocking. It is hoped that there will be sufficient capacity to knock on (almost) every door at least once during the by-election however our strongest areas should be prioritised. If there is a particular village, or area, that is especially strong for us, we should try to canvass it at least twice during the by-election in order to grow the contact rate and increase the number of identified Labour promises. If going back to a street a second or third time, try to go at different times or on different days, so as to increase the chance of speaking to people that weren't home the first time. It can t be overstated just how important it is to build a bank of recently identified Labour voters, as we will go on to spend the home stretch making sure that they turn out to vote (more on this in the polling week and polling day chapters). For a step-by-step guide on how to run voter ID sheets please see the userguide. Crucial Voters In addition to building up a bank of Labour promises, doorknocking is also important for identifying crucial voters that are particularly worth following up on. The Crucial Voters question in contact creator - which can be added to a report at Step 4 - has these options: L = soft Labour N = Labour/SNP Switcher or anti-tory T = anti-snp G = Labour/Green switcher Key to maximising the usefulness of this question is ensuring that your canvassers are aware that this data is important and ask undecided voters additional questions to determine whether they are a crucial voter. Whether someone is undecided because they aren t interested in politics and probably won t vote or because they are a former SNP voter who is thinking about voting Labour, will make a big difference to how we record their voting intention and, importantly, interact with them at a later date. Running doorknocking sheets If you ve never ran doorknocking sheets before consult the Contact Creator userguide on membersnet or contact a member of the Organising Team on It is recommended that the following selection is used for the 1st knock during the byelection: Voted Ever (Household). If returning to a street, it is recommended that you use: LG by-election Scotland 2nd knock MR. This will include all households where at least 1 person has voted with those identified as against or planning to vote for another party since January 2018 excluded. *note that these selections can only be used in wards where a recent Marked Register has been inputted*. In wards where no Marked Register has been inputted All Voters should be used, with recent Against and supporters of other parties excluded in the final few weeks. 8

9 Phone Canvassing Perhaps the quickest (and driest!) way to make voter ID contacts is Phone Canvassing. Phone canvassing also allows you to be much more selective with your targeting than you would when doorknocking, In the early weeks of the campaign phone canvassing should be used to contact: - voters in hard to access properties, such as secure-entry flats or farmhouses - voters in strong Labour areas who we have never spoken to before - uncontatced Postal Voters If the candidate has time to phone canvass, then they should prioritise calling Crucial Voters. Phone canvassing also plays an important role in executing our Postal Vote and GOTV strategies (more on this later). Creating a Campaign Grid Once you know when your candidate is available, you should create a campaign grid which sets out where and when each campaign session will be held. Try to arrange the grid a week or two in advance so that your activists can plan ahead. Additional sessions can always be added as and when more time becomes available however it s important to have at least a few sessions advertised out in advance. Depending on the geography of the ward, you may wish to pick 1 or 2 central meeting points so that people know where to find you. If picking a central meeting point, make sure there is parking and, if possible, that it s accessible by public transport. Once you have a Grid, make sure to both send it out to local members and supporters and add the details onto the Labour Party Events Page so that it can be advertised to key activists and politicians from other CLP s. In addition to ing the Grid out in advance, think about texting regular updates to activists that have helped out before. Depending on the ward, you may wish to supplement the doorknocking sessions with street stalls on the high street or at a local train station. It may seem obvious but make sure to pick a location where most passers-by live in the ward - a street stall in Glasgow City Centre or on the Royal Mile may well allow you to speak to a lot of people but it won t be much use in a council by-election. 9

10 SOCIAL MEDIA & LOCAL PRESS Facebook By far the most important social media platform is Facebook so it s really important that your candidate has a localised Facebook page. If the CLP or branch already has an active page, you may wish to change its name to reference the candidate rather than set up a new page from scratch (this will give you a head start when it comes to page likes). Once your page is set-up, use it to share photos and videos from your campaign sessions as well as posts outlining your key policy pledges and messages. When posting make sure your content is relevant, engaging and timely and use a good photo, graphic or video to grab your audience s attention. As with your leaflets, try to make your posts as localised as possible and make sure your key message, or strapline, is clear. The Promoted Post facility on Facebook is an especially cost-effective way of reaching local voters and is simple to use. Once you have set up a business manager account on Facebook, you can choose the audience (using geography and/or demographics) that you would like to promote your post to. This is a great way of reaching voters that don t like your page and is relatively inexpensive. Promote Promote is the Labour Party s targeted digital marketing platform. It allows you to send Facebook adverts to voters using data from Contact Creator, allowing you to micro-target your message depending on a voter s location, mosaic group or voter ID. This is especially useful for targeting Postal Voters and identified Labour voters during GOTV (more on this later). Look at the promote manual or contact a member of Scottish Labour Party staff on for help setting up a local promote account. Local Press Send a press release announcing your candidacy, as well as your launch, and try to get at least one article or story in each addition of your local paper. If you have specific policy pledges, think about doing a press release for each one - making sure to find a local angle so that it s more likely to get picked up. 10

11 POSTAL VOTERS Postal voters are a key voting group in every election as they are much more likely to vote than electors that go along to a polling station. This is especially true in council by-elections, when turnout amongst postal voters is typically around 3 times higher than amongst box electors. In large parts of the country - particularly those areas we think of as traditional Labour heartlands - the Labour vote share is usually higher amongst postal voters as well. Signing Labour voters up as postal voters With turnout much higher amongst postal voters, it s in our interest to ensure as many reliable Labour voters as possible vote by post. Anyone can apply to vote by post by filling in an application form they can get from their local electoral registration office. What steps can you take to increase the number of Labour voters that receive a postal vote? - Take a batch of postal vote application forms with you when doorknocking and make sure your canvassers ask Labour voters if they would like one. Campaigners are permitted to take completed application forms to the ERO on an elector s behalf however they must do so within two working days of receiving/collecting the form. - If you have the resources, why not send all reliable Labour voters a letter with a postal application form insert? If you have one, provide a freepost return address. As above, make sure to hand all returned forms into the ERO within 2 working days. Targeting postal voters There are a number of ways to target postal voters: - Targeted phone canvassing: why not phone round postal voters to build the contact rate and make sure they know our key message? - Doorknocking: when doorknocking, try to send the candidate, or someone else well known locally, to the postal voters - especially those that are undecided. In the few days immediately after postal ballots land, prioritise doorknocking in areas with a lot of postal voters (especially Labour postal voters).this data is available on contact creator. - Direct mail: send all postal voters - except those that are definitely against - a direct mail which lands around the same time as their ballot paper (or just before). - GOTPV: phone round Labour postal voters within 72 hours of their ballot paper arriving. The more people you can phone on the same day their ballot lands the better. - Remember, if someone forgets to post their ballot in time, they can hand it into any polling station before 10pm on polling day. 11

12 POLLING WEEK GOTV One of the most important aspects of running an effective by-election campaign is Getting Out the Vote (GOTV) in the final week. GOTV will usually begin on the Saturday before polling day although in areas with relatively few contacts it may start on Monday or Tuesday of the week of poll. Depending on the resources available to your campaign, and the number of contacts made in the ward, there are a number of steps you can take to get out the Labour vote. - Send all recently identified Labour voters a letter in the final couple of days. - Narrow your voter pool for doorknocking. Exactly which voters are included will depend on the number of contacts made, and Labour voters identified, however committed supporters of other parties, and habitual non-voters, should be excluded. - Go back to the strongest Labour areas, to firm up the vote. - Target crucial voters with a letter in the final couple of days. When doorknocking or phone canvassing during GOTV you should use WARP sheets (report available on contact creator). WARP sheets list your selected voters as normal however instead of recording data for multiple questions you only record 1) when you spoke to them 2) who they intend to vote for in this election and 3) when they intend to vote (if they know). These sheets will be re-used every time you return to an area until polls close so should be printed on card and kept as dry as possible. The candidate should try to speak to Crucial Voters, or recently identified undecideds, in the last week - either on the phone or whilst doorknocking. GOTV Materials As mentioned above, sending Labour promises and Crucial Voters a targeted letter in the final few days is really important. You should also try to have a new Week of Poll Leaflet for use whilst doorknocking. Don t worry about cramming too much detail into this leaflet - it should simply reinforce your key message and remind voters when polling day is. Make sure to include a contact phone number in all your week of poll materials so that voters can call if they need a lift to the polling station. 12

13 POLLING DAY The first thing you need to do is book a campaign centre - ideally in an accessible central location. Next, speak to your volunteers and supporters to find out their availability on the day. Phone round people that have helped out during the campaign to thank them and ask if they can give one final push on polling day. Polling Stations In the weeks and days leading up to polling day, try to populate a polling station rota to ensure there s a Labour polling agent to greet voters at each station throughout the day. Start with the biggest polling stations first and don t worry about covering small stations other than at key times (5-8pm). Try to use volunteers that are unable/unwilling to knock on doors to cover stations. Make sure they have a rosette and polling day leaflets. Make sure that you have a note of each polling agent s number, and that they have yours, so that they can report back with turnout figures at key points throughout the day. It s important to get turnout updates (especially for strong Labour areas) as this will help you decide which areas to prioritise for GOTV doorknocking. Some councils will post the turnout figures periodically as a matter of course however, if they don t, you should aim to get turnout figures at 10am; 1pm; 5pm and 7pm (more on using this data below). GOTV The single most important thing your campaign team can do on polling day is return to committed Labour voters and remind them to vote. Prior to polling day you should use contact creator to work out the Roadgroups with the most Labour promises. (NB: this should be done before polling week as you will use the same sheets as on polling day). Once you know how many promises are in each Roadgroup, make a judgement call on which Roadgroups are worth knocking-up and which should be phoned instead. Use the turnout figures to determine which parts of the ward to prioritise for doorknocking. This is especially important in the evening as you ll have a clear idea of which boxes have the highest and lowest turnout by then. For a detailed guide to running a polling day operation, including sample resources, see the campaigning section of membersnet. Car Calls In a low turnout election, giving your voters a lift to the polls can make a big difference. So encourage your canvassers to ask Labour voters if they need a lift and explicitly ask them in your week of poll leaflet and direct mail. Make sure everyone who will be giving lifts is added to the party s election insurance. You can do this on membersnet. 13

14 CHECKLIST Hand in the nomination papers (with certificate of authorisation) Work out the legal spending limit and your budget Set up a campaign Facebook Page Post regularly on Facebook (using photos, graphics & videos) Send a press release announcing you candidate and/or launch Try to get a story printed in each edition of your local paper Phone members and supporters to ask for support Develop a clear local message and decide the issues you will campaign on Finalise your Print Schedule Analyse the May 2017 Box Results (and any relevant June sampling) Finalise your Campaign Grid and advertise your sessions on the Labour Events page Target Postal Voters, with phone calls, direct mails & Facebook ads Narrow your voter pool and switch to WARP sheets in the final week Target Labour promises and Crucial Voters with direct mails & Facebook ads Book your campaign centre well in advance Phone /meet your volunteers to thank them and ask about polling day Populate a polling station grid Ensure volunteers that are doing car calls are on the party insurance Spend polling day reminding Labour promises to vote 14

15 Appendix 1 - Example Print Materials If accessing this online, click on the picture to see a full size version Leaflet 1 (pages 1-4) A4 Booklet PV sign-up DM Calling Card DL Polling Week A5 Leaflet 2 - A5 GOTV DM PV Letter Polling Day DL 15

16 Printed & Promoted by Scottish General Secretary, Brian Roy, on behalf of Scottish Labour Party, all at 290 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4RE 16