2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumA few ideas on how we can win elections
1 When I moved back to PA the first thing I did after registering to vote was to go to the county Democratic office to try to get involved. It was closed, nobody home. There was no phone number listed and no contact information on the door.
That should not be. In fact, they only opened for a month before elections. The local offices can't just fire things up for elections and then disappear.
There has to be a year round presence. National leadership needs to devote some resources to improve that. If not, you're playing catch up for every election.
2 Since the party, in most states has the right to examine the poll books after an election, why not examine them to find out who did and didn't vote. Especially in off year or special elections.
Use that information to survey those that did not vote and use that info to GOTV and improve outreach and communications.
I know there are more but let's just start with these.
2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)canoeist52
(2,282 posts)They won't use facebook or twitter groups to get our message out there. But we're pretty good at holding candidate signs in November.
tech3149
(4,452 posts)I moved back to an area that used to be strongly democratic but found that not to be the case anymore.
I think that lack of presence is probably why.
former9thward
(32,023 posts)It is costly to have an office open all the time. Even if everyone is a volunteer. Rent, utilities have to be paid. Where is the money going to come from? Both the DNC and the RNC have access to the polling information about voters. Local organizations should make use of it but someone has to get that done.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,414 posts)or have no job or no life, which is pretty unrealistic. How are things on the other side of the fence for Republicans? Now, we are savvier with technological resources than the other side, so maybe that is how we can best even the odds a little bit- by organizing more through virtual means.
former9thward
(32,023 posts)Both parties are very competitive with their voter identification software. Jolly used that software to do better at the ground game in FL-13. Sink was ahead in early voting by about 2000 votes but Jolly beat Sink on election day votes by about 6,000.
seabeckind
(1,957 posts)How much does a get-together at a local eatery cost? You know, one of those which has very little clientel during the week?
How much does an email cost?
How much does it cost to have volunteers monitor the local newsoutlets and provide comments that cannot be overriden by wingnuts?
Every time I turn around there's another LTE from some guy who gets paid by AEI or Hoover. Where's a dem presence? We're supposed to be the intellectuals, don't we have one who can spell?
Where the hell are our reps and senators when the talking heads are waving microphones? If they want me to work for them, they have to work for me.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)When republicans bring this issue to their platform, it will bring voters to them.
Good thinking. I like it.
SharonAnn
(13,776 posts)we started a Yahoo Group for the email list to have ongoing contact with members.
I got a copy of Voter List with polling data on CD for $35 from our local election office.
These are a few of the things we've done to maintain a presence while keeping cost low.
The main thing is that the website gives info on how to contact the party officials and get on the newsletter list.
We are a very heavily Republican, right-wing religion dominated county but we do what we can to keep the flame alive.