Tory-supporting Blogger A Stratford Conservative has posted up a new article regarding canvassing and voter engagement, arguing that the traditional forms of campaigning need to be replaced by more technological methods and that canvassers are only seen on the doorsteps once every 4 years or so. Here is my response....
In Wales canvassing happens all year round in effect - for example, this year we have GE, next year Welsh Assembly elections, the year after local elections and of course last year we had Euro elections. Scotland will be in the same position.
In many parts of England there are similar patterns of multiple elections, depending on whether you live in a unitary or still in a two-tier local government area.
The effect of all these elections is that most parties have adopted a "seamless campaign" strategy - that uses each election as a building block for progress to the next, using indicators like new members, increased share of vote, new council seats, new candidates/activists, etc as a way of measuring success.
Engagement is key to this process. Traditional methods of surveying, street surgeries, etc are being supplemented by new technologies - as you say, Facebook Groups and Twitter accounts are limited and only reach a small percentage of the people who are actually eligible to vote for you. Online surveys, texting and email newsletters all need to be developed into more readily used campaign tools.
But doorstep campaigning will be with us for many decades to come and in my (getting quite long) experience in these matters, people really DO expect to see candidates and campaigners calling on them at election time - which nowadays can be every flipping year!
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Yes, for all the hype about Obama and new technology his success was built on doorstep canvassing and leafleting.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice idea that candidates might come round knocking on doors to talk to the electorate - but in my experience this doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteOver the last 6 years I have only had one person knock on my door whilst canvassing, and they didn't even bother to stay for a conversation once they asked what party I usually supported (I said Tory and they were Lib Dems). This is a ward that changes between the two on a very regular basis!
My parents don't do much better, at the last general election they had one candidate come round, on his own, and he was an independent campaigning on local issues.
All we seem to get is piles of leaflets through the door once a month with pictures of the various candidates picking up rubbish, or at a local school/hospital. None of which has any relevance to me at all.
If the parties can't be bothered to engage with the electorate face to face, and answer questions that matter to local people instead of spewing the party is it any wonder that people are stopping voting?