Getting out the vote against your Congressman is the most important step ousting him: if people who oppose your Congressman don’t vote, your Congressman wins.

It’s important to remember that while get-out-the-vote techniques like phones and doors are the best way to gauge and contact voters, doing so without first building a popular grassroots movement with creative direct action and narrative control, as discussed in parts 1 and 2 of this series, will be losing efforts. Ask the Tom Barrett campaign to recall Scott Walker how just focusing on phones and doors without movement building went for them.

I. STRATEGIC MAPPING

First, find city-by-city results for the most recent year your Congressman was elected, and study them to find out where your Congressman won heavily, where his opponent won heavily, and swing areas where the election was decided within a 5 to 7-point margin.

Coordinate efforts in these counties by classifying them as 1 through 5 -- 1 being very favorable to your Congressman’s opponent, and 5 being very favorable to the Congressman you’re trying to oust. The battle for the vote will most likely boil down to your district’s largest population center, so winning there will be especially crucial.

In New Hampshire’s 1st district, Congressman Frank Guinta lost most of the towns we classified as 1 on the notably liberal seacoast region by a good 10 points, even in the Republican-wave election of 2010.

Guinta won handily in smaller, more rural towns that surrounded the major population centers. We classified these towns as 5. And in Manchester, the largest population center, as well as swing towns, we broke cities down ward-by-ward on our map and rated each ward with a 1-5 rating, so our efforts to contact voters and gauge their opinions would be that much more effective.

Two essential tools are VAN, or Voter Activation Network, and Votebuilder. If the opposing campaign is worth their salt, they will have invested the funds to get these tools. Now, you can get lists of registered voters with addresses and phone numbers classified by party affiliation, age and gender. The next step is contacting these voters, first by phone and then face-to-face.

II. PHONEBANKING

If your effort is aligned with an independent expenditure group, get the funds to purchase these tools and start identifying and calling voters. If, however, this is an unfunded effort with no FEC filing, volunteer on the campaign running against your Congressman to make phone calls across the district. Ask for call lists in swing towns. For the best impact, call between 5 PM and 9 PM. Calling before then will most likely get you a voicemail message, which you shouldn’t waste your time with, and calling after is more likely to anger a voter for being called by a stranger so late in the day.

While the opposing campaign will most likely have a script ready, your calls should be brief, since most folks are averse to being surveyed by strangers. When they answer, tell them your name and the effort you’re representing. If it’s the opposing campaign, say so. If it’s your own effort, name it “Voters Against (your Congressman’s name).”

Every time you pause, you allow room for the voter you’re calling to say, “Sorry, not interested” and hang up. So before you give the voter time to respond, just ask, “In the upcoming election, are you more likely to vote for (your Congressman’s name) or (your Congressman’s opponent’s name)?” Preface each name with their party affiliation. Our calls to voters in New Hampshire’s first district went like this:

VOTER. Hello?

VOLUNTEER. Hi, I’m (first name) with Voters Against Frank Guinta. Quick question: if the election were held tomorrow, would you be more likely to vote for Republican Frank Guinta or Democrat Carol Shea-Porter?

No matter if the voter said, “Guinta,” or “Shea-Porter,” we would then ask, “Do you feel strongly about that?” If they said yes, we would thank them for their time, and write a number next to the voter’s name on the call sheet. Just as you’re rating towns 1-5, you want to classify voters as 1-5 as well.

However, if the voter said, “I’m not sure,” we would give facts about the Congressman’s record. This is your chance to give them shortened talking points tailored to the voter’s age, gender or economic status. If you can’t fit your talking point into a tweet, it’s too long.

For people over 65, we would tell them Guinta voted for a budget that would turn Medicare into a cheap coupon for private insurance and hand our Social Security money to Wall Street.

For younger voters who may have children, we would tell them Guinta voted for a budget that would kick 200,000 kids off of school lunch to keep taxes low for millionaires.

For women, we would tell them Guinta voted to deny free breast cancer screenings to impoverished women, or that he voted against the original Violence Against Women Act. We’d always end the call by reminding voters when election day was, and to make sure to register.

After gauging voters by phone, it’s time to knock on doors and talk to the people whose votes will decide your Congressman’s fate face-to-face.

III. CANVASSING

With your handy voter information you’ve obtained from VAN and Votebuilder, along with the data you’ve acquired from all of your phone calls, concentrate your efforts on the doors in swing towns in your district, and swing wards in your district’s largest population center. Accomplishing this task will require a large, dedicated base of volunteers. Recruiting them is the first step, but keeping volunteers engaged is just as important.

No matter if you’re hosting your own phonebank or organizing your own canvass, entice your volunteers to show up and stick around to make calls by offering free food and drinks. If you have the funds available, buy some tickets for a concert or a professional sports event and offer them to the volunteer who makes the most phone calls or knocks on the most doors that week. Make sure the winning volunteers get recognized publicly, both on a “Wall of Fame” displayed in your campaign headquarters and with a picture of them receiving the gift displayed and shared on your social media platforms.

In our effort to defeat Frank Guinta, we once offered free Boston Red Sox tickets to the volunteer who made the most calls. Because the Red Sox are so popular in New Hampshire, we had several volunteers who made hundreds of calls that week. You can also drive your volunteers to succeed by putting up milestones on the board for 1,000 phones or doors, followed by 5,000, followed by 10,000, and so on. Our efforts against Guinta resulted in over 10,000 doors knocked and tens of thousands of phone calls.

Canvassing will become even more important in the last two weeks before the election. You should always remember to arm your volunteers with the data for each voter address, including age, gender, party affiliation, and whether or not they voted in the previous election. Make sure your volunteers also get plenty of literature with information about your Congressman’s deplorable voting record to leave on the doorknobs (NOT mailboxes) of voters who aren’t home. If you see literature left by your Congressman’s campaign on a voter’s door, replace it with your own. Pocket the literature instead of throwing it away.

If the person at that address is a repeat voter, thank them for participating in Democracy after introducing yourself. If that person is a first-time voter, remind them that this election will be very close, and that every single vote cast could be the one that makes the difference.

Follow up with asking them if you can count on their vote against your Congressman. And just like on the phone, if they’re undecided, hand them your literature and give them a talking point that relates to their age, gender or economic status. Before you leave, ask the person answering the door if they know their polling place, and remind them of the time the polls open and close.

If you ask them whether they plan on walking, driving or getting a ride from a friend, it makes them formulate a plan in their head for how they’ll be getting out to vote on Election Day, making them more likely to do so. Thank the voter for their time, and rate them 1-5 just as you’ve done on the phone. Make sure data from your canvass is given to those who manage the data back at your campaign headquarters.

On Election Day, arm volunteers with cameras and have them record the counting of the votes. Livestream the counting if possible, to ensure transparency and accountability. If you’ve followed steps 1 through 3, your Congressman should be on their way to the unemployment office by the first Wednesday in November.