How to run an election campaign

1
How torun an election campaign

• A guide to running a campaign election.

2
Preparation Phase

• People
• Agent
• An Inner Core
• Speakers
• Election day volunteers
• Behind the scenes help

3
Agent An ideal

• Takes pressure off the candidate
• Needs to be willing to spend a lot of time on the
  campaign
• First to arrive, last to leave
• An organiser
• Makes sure the candidate is in the right place at
  the right time
• Makes sure volunteers are doing their jobs
• Runs election day for the candidate
• Will not be forgotten by an appreciative
  candidate!!!

4
An Inner Core

• Ideally 4 7 of your best people
• Willing to do early morning campaigning
• Able to do evening door knocking
• Not everyone has to do every session!!!

5
Speakers

• Ideally, the candidate plus two others will speak
  in lectures
• Its better to have no speaker than a bad speaker
• Devise a timetable for hitting lectures
• Aim to see each group of students twice

6
Election Day Volunteers

• Situated near polling stations
• THIS IS NOT A NICE JOB!!!
• Most people, 2 hours max
• Try and have two people at all polling stations
• Put your best people at the most important
  stations
• Most enthusiastic and presentable people
• Find out where the polling stations are
• No changeovers 15 mins either side of the hour

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Behind the Scenes

• Not everyone can or wants to door-knock, stand at
  a polling station or join you early in the
  morning
• Equally not everyone who wants to help you will
  project the image you want!!!
• THEY CAN STILL BE USEFUL!!!
• Collecting cardboard
• Pasting posters onto cardboard
• Postering halls
• Counting publicity
• Calling election day volunteers to confirm
  availability

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Preparation Phase Key Points

• Now
• Get on the phone and e-mail assembling a team
• Start collecting cardboard and other materials
• Draw up a lecture hits timetable
• After that
• Allocate posters into allowances for each day
• Paste posters onto cardboard
• Devise polling station matrix

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Execution Phase

• Early Starts
• Assemble around 4 people every morning in
  election week at about 7.45am
• These people to set about writing on blackboards
  and postering
• NO CHALKING!!!!
• Make sure everyone is following the campaigning
  rules.

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Some early start extra tips!!!

• Be time efficient vote NAME, position move on
• Check the back of rolling blackboards
• If you use a whiteboard marker, ensure its not
  permanent!
• If you see a cleaner, smile sweetly, move on and
  comeback later!
• Dont waste time putting posters on doors,
  cleaners will remove them.
• Start the day with a good breakfast ?

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Execution Phase

• Educating the masses
• Lecture hits are a good tool, but can go wrong
• Be short, sharp and to the point 45 seconds max
• Do at least one an hour every day of election
  week
• Aim to see each group of students twice, have two
  speeches
• Reach an agreement with opponents over speaking
  order
• Obtain prior permission of lecturer if present

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Some lecture hits extra tips!!!

• It can be nerve-wracking, do first one in small
  room
• Try and avoid using the microphone
• If you do use it, DONT SHOUT!!!
• Dont stand behind a lectern youre not a
  lecturer!
• Never refer to you, talk about us, we,
  our
• They dont generally care what youve done, but
  what you will do have 3 key policy points
• Use your name at the beginning and end
• Always end with Thank you
• If youve lost the audience finish up and get
  out

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Execution Phase

• Evening Campaigning
• Start about 6.00 to 6.15pm
• Each flat should be visited once by candidate and
  once by a representative keep a note of who has
  been where!
• Some people dont want to do it on their own
  pair them off with someone more confident not 2
  guys together!
• Dont be intrusive, keep it brief, leave a
  leaflet
• If invited in stay no more than 2 minutes
• No answer? Put leaflet under door

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Door knocking some extra tips

• Dont be following right behind another team
• To gain access buzz a top floor flat
• If you can hear EastEnders or smell cooking,
  apologise, say you wont keep them long, give
  them a leaflet
• No two candidates together
• Dont waste time with people who just dont get
  it
• Finish by 9.00pm at the absolute latest

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Election Day

• The role of the agent
• Assemble a small team around 5.30am 6.30 at the
  latest to put up election posters on cardboard
  and do normal morning routine
• Meet the candidate at 8.45am and give them their
  lecture timetable.
• Meet polling station volunteers and make sure
  they know where to go
• Throughout the day, make sure polling stations
  are covered
• Make sure speakers know where to go
• Organise someone to go around polling stations
  with chocolate for the troops!
• Keep volunteers spirits up!

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Election Day

• The role of the candidate
• Sleep in and do not appear until 8.45am you
  need to stay looking fresh!
• Do lecture hits as planned
• Go round speaking to people
• Be sure to stop and say hello and thank you to
  your volunteers!
• Stay smiling, stay looking good
• Keep on going until polls close!

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Some election day extra tips!!!

• Try and have a campaign base where the campaign
  manager can be found, where people know to come
  to check-in
• The candidate should try to avoid standing
  outside a polling station campaigning for
  themselves
• A volunteer at a polling station with a poster on
  cardboard is better than one giving out leaflets
• If your volunteers need breaks thats fine, but
  only between 15 and 45 minutes past the hour
• Once polls have closed and you know that there
  are no outstanding issues, go home, have a shower
  and a sleep, you have a long wait ahead.
• Dont get too drunk before the results are
  announced!

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Voters

• Remember there are 6 types of voters
• The Friendly Apathetic Voter - They do not care
  about the Students Association but if you can
  impress them in any small way they will make the
  effort to vote. They are generally easily
  convinced and can be persuaded quite quickly. It
  is basically a case of who gets to them first
  gets the vote. These are the majority of voters
  and should be your main target.
• The Unfriendly Apathetic Voter - They also do not
  care about the Students Association and will
  take a long time to convince to vote for anyone.
  It is your complete campaign and election
  material that will convince them to vote for you.
• The Educated Voter - Unfortunately these are few
  and far between. They will rely mainly upon your
  manifesto to make up their mind and a chance
  meeting with you.
• The Confirmed Non-Voter - No matter what you do
  you will never convince them to vote. Do not
  waste your time with them, move on quickly but
  politely.
• Friends and Friends of Friends - They should know
  that they are going to vote for you. But a quick
  reminder does no harm at all!
• Confirmed Voters for Other Candidates - If there
  are more than two candidates running in the
  election make sure you ask them to give you their
  number 2 vote.

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HAVE FUN AND

• GOOD LUCK!!!