My Experience With Political Canvassing for the Dini for Hoboken Campaign.

While I spent much of my time conducting research on campaign strategies, making phone call lists, and gathering past election results, I was also able to invest a lot of time into canvassing for Dini. In simple terms, canvassing is defined by NGP Van as “The act of surveying voters in a given political district about their voting plans in an upcoming election. It’s an awareness-building and information gathering strategy launched to inform voters on upcoming elections, convince undecided voters to support a specific candidate, encourage voter registration, and mobilize supportive voters to get out and vote.”

The first thing I recognized in canvassing is that it’s not all about talking to everyone: it’s about going to locations where I could interact solely with Hoboken residents. On my first day of canvassing, we set up a Dini for Hoboken table at the Hoboken Waterfront. However, we quickly realized that most of the individuals we were speaking to were not registered voters in Hoboken, they were coming from Jersey City, or New York City. Therefore, although we had some insightful conversations, we weren’t able to speak to many Hoboken voters and demonstrate why Dini’s ideals would align with their vision for the city. Recognizing this, we mapped out all of the locations that would attract Hoboken residents rather than visitors: Farmer’s Markets, Grocery Stores and Small Parks. Although these locations may have been less high traffic than the waterfront, we encountered around 90% residents and 10% visitors. So, although we were having less conversations, they were far more productive.

Once we figured out the locations that were most beneficial for canvassing, the next step was testing out several strategies to get individuals interested in having a conversation with me. At first I posited the question: Do you live in Hoboken? and if the response was yes, I would explain that Dini was running for mayor, and the basic principles she was running upon: preventing hoboken residents from getting priced out of the city, not offering tax breaks to developers, and creating more parking space. Finally, If the individual had stayed engaged in the conversation long enough I would ask: Are there any specific issues that would impact your voting decisions in the upcoming election? And then I would address their concerns. Although this method worked for a select few individuals who were very involved in the political landscape in Hoboken, for the majority of people, it resulted in them responding “I have to go.” Therefore, I realized the importance of analyzing from the start of the conversation whether an individual seemed inclined to engage in a lengthy discussion or a short one and I tailored the questions I asked to this!