Communications

Communication is instrumental in outreach delivery. Strategies may include flyering, robocalls, word of mouth, door-to-door, and various types of media. Effective communication is necessary in reaching out to demographic communities. Different communities often times have different needs and preferences. Thus, tailoring communications strategies can often increase the effectiveness of outreach.

Voter Registration and GOTV

An essential component of your voter education plan should be media outreach. These are opportunities to get media coverage for your campaign or about specific issues affecting the AAPI community. When developing your field plan, be sure to allocate time and resources for media outreach.

Developing an Earned Media Field Plan

Incorporate Media into your Field Plan

Develop a media calendar within your overall field plan allotting space for time and budget. This includes paid media and earned media as described below

Incorporate Your Message

Remember you are conveying a message with everything you do. All your messengers must deliver a clear and consistent explanation of your goals. With every intentional message, there are implicit messages. Take care to ensure that your implicit messages are accountable, reliable and on message. Make sure that campaign staff, volunteers and the press are aware of the message you want to send. Repetition and consistency are the most effective communication tools.

Choose your Media Strategy

Determine the best means to communicate your message to your target audiences.

Paid Media vs. Earned Media

Paid Media

Paid media is media coverage obtained through buying advertising space. While paid media is the most effective way to communicate and reach out to a large audience, you need to buy a significant amount of advertising to communicate your message effectively.

Earned Media

Earned media is coverage of events or campaign obtained through outreach to media. While coverage is free, campaigns have to work hard to earn this coverage and even then, it is unknown what type or amount of coverage your campaign will receive.

Earned Media Paid Media

Press Conferences

Press Releases

Letters to the Editor and

Op-Ed Pieces

Radio/TV Talk Show Appearances

Interviews

TV Advertisements

Radio Announcements

Newspaper Advertisements

Magazine Advertisements

Decide to whom you are targeting and outreaching. Be sure to develop a media strategy so that all members of your community, not just your target groups, know about your voter outreach efforts. Mainstream media outlets have specific audiences and might be more interested in AAPI issues. Mainstream media outlets may reach a wider audience, but may be more difficult to access. In-language ethnic media reaches potential voters with limited English proficiency.

Issue and Candidate Forums

Issue and Candidate forums can be organized to inform prospective voters, particularly people in your database, to become more informed in the upcoming election. It provides your community the personal touch to engage with the issues and ask the specific questions that affect them. Nonprofit organizations may also invite candidates to public meetings or forums but only on the condition that “all serious candidates” are invited. It is important to give equal treatment to all candidates and ensure that the organization does not support specific candidates. Candidate forums are opportunities not only for the public to learn more about the candidates and issues in the election but to educate the general public and candidates about issues affecting the AAPI community.

Press Releases

Press releases are short notices to the media describing an issue or event that has just occurred. Press releases are generally short and concise. Be sure to incorporate sound bites into your press release as reporters often use quotes to convey their message.

Click here to view a sample press release

Op-ed Quick Tips

Most newspapers and magazines publish opinion essays submitted by community leaders, experts, elected officials, and just plain citizens. Known generically as op-eds because they often appear opposite the editorial page, these items offer people an opportunity to speak about issues they care about in their own words. They may not be the most read part of a newspaper, but those that read them tend to be the most influential opinion leaders in the community. An op-ed also carries with it the unspoken support of the paper as being an opinion to which it is important to pay attention. Op-eds are short, 700-800 words maximum, but each paper that runs them determines its own guidelines for length, submission, topics, etc. Observe what type and style of op-ed is running, from whom, and see if they have published their guidelines either in the paper or on the paper’s website.

Messengers

While you may be the best person to write an op-ed because of your knowledge on the issue, you may want to enlist someone prominent or influential in the community to submit it under their name. Ghost writing op-eds for others is very common. Sometimes it helps get the piece published or read because the person is well known. It can also help the power of your message because the person is looked up to, is an expert or academic, or because they have no obvious self-interest in the issue being discussed.

Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) programs seek to increase voter awareness and attendance at the polls. GOTV events are the last push after all your registration efforts you have to make sure they make their voices heard for a high voter turnout rate. Your goal in a GOTV program is to produce high voter turnout. Voter turnout is the number or percentage of registered voters who vote in an election. You should contact each supporter at least once. If possible, contact each supporter several times with the different methods described below.

Prepare and Provide Your Volunteers With:

A script. Write a script that is appropriate to your local community. Tell your volunteers to stay with the script. You do not want to say anything that the person on the other end of the line may find offensive.
A list. So you can track the total number of phone calls made by each volunteer, the number of voters who plan to vote, the number of voters who do not plan to vote, and the number who are undecided. Ask your volunteers to turn in the tally sheet at the end of the evening so you can do an analysis of the data and determine how well you are doing.

Canvass Your Neighborhoods

Door-to-door reminders to vote can be done by walking through the dorms and surrounding neighborhoods. It is a cheap and effective way to distribute voter education materials. Using your voting list, knock on the doors of registered voters. Canvassing is a good activity for the weekend before the election and as a last-minute voter education tool. You should not canvass on Election Day.

Contact Voters by Phone a.k.a. Phone Banking

When you organize a phone bank, you have control over the phone calls and record-keeping. One way to organize a phone bank is to find someone with an office with multiple telephone lines. Ask them if you can use their office after office hours.

Estimate how long it will take to go through your list and how many volunteers will be needed. You should plan to go down the call list at least twice. This means that if you get a message machine on your first try, you will have another day to try again. It is best to talk to a real live person.

Contact Voters by Mail

Do at least one mailing prior to the election. Your mailing can be a simple postcard with a reminder date or a more complex letter with detailed explanation of issues. Make sure you have enough lead time for your mail to arrive before Election Day.

Contact Voters by E-Mail

Send your listserves reminders about where, why, and when to vote before and on Election Day. The more ways you can reach the public will better your efforts in receiving a higher voter turnout.

Contact Voters by Text

Reminding people to vote via text has been proven to be one of the most effective GOTV strategies. Short and succinct messages about when Election Day is, where the

nearest poll is located on community, and reminders about voter registration locations are helpful. Utilize the contact information gained from pledge cards to Get Out The Vote via text.

Utilize Community Media

Ask your community radio and TV stations to broadcast public service announcements in the days before the registration deadline and the election to remind people to vote. Put up table tents in the cafeteria, the library, and the student union urging voter participation. Make sure to list the date of the election, polling locations, and what time the polls open and close.

Offer and Arrange for Personal Services

Personal Service Request comes through the Phone Bank. To respond, group them in types:

To provide tutoring on voting mechanics and procedures, organize a tutoring session to show how voting works. Provide transportation to the tutoring session.
To provide transportation services, recruit volunteers with their own cars and a valid driver’s license. The request for rides should be divided and prepared for distribution on Election Day. Provide drivers with a map and directions to polling places and pick-up points.
To provide translation services, recruit bilingual volunteers who can review the service request, assess the need and respond to it.

Last but not Least--Conduct Election Day Activities

Election Day is the culmination of your entire program and needs renewed and focused efforts. Your tasks on Election Day will be made much easier if you operate from a GOTV headquarters and with a larger coalition. Below are a series of activities, that when combined, should make for a successful Election Day for your campaign.

On Election Day, continue to call voters to remind them to vote. Send out an email and/or text early in the day to give them additional reminders.
Follow through on the personal services that you offered, such as transportation and translation assistance.
Poll Monitoring: Various AAPI organizations are conducting poll monitoring activities on Election Day to ensure that AAPIs have equal access in the poll sites. The Voting Rights Act requires that bilingual voting assistance be provided in voting jurisdictions that meet certain population requirements.

Contact APIAVote if you are interested in volunteering for Election Day poll monitoring activities to protect voting rights for our community.

Research by other nonpartisan programs has found that personal contact is the one single factor that motivates individuals to vote. By repeatedly contacting voters – by phone, by mail, and in-person –you will be able to increase voter turnout.

Communications

Voter Registration and GOTV

Training

Flyers