Post your Mail to the Precincts Donations

[Lavitz]

So I thought it would be useful to have a thread separate from the main Super Voter Bomb donation thread since they're independent projects, there's a little confusion between the two, and I thought we could focus a little on discussing strategies for choosing counties.

You can read about the differences between the two projects here: http://supervoterbomb.com/faq.html Although there may have been a change to the super voter bomb project, that's not what this thread is about.

This thread is about the Mail to the Precincts project (mainly for Iowa)

Mail to the Precincts
RonPaulProducts is mailing Super Brochures only, through a convenient system on their website where a donor can actually choose the precincts in various states where they would like the brochures mailed to. When the precincts are covered by a donor they become grayed out.

You can view the super brochure itself here: http://www.ronpaulproducts.com/brochure2.html

Also, RevPac and RonPaulProducts are "collaborating to the best of [their] abilities to not double mail materials from both projects to the same addresses" so any donations toward this effort should theoretically count towards the goal for the super voter bomb.

You can choose a precinct and donate here: http://www.ronpaulproducts.com/precinctiowa.html

And if you want something to help you judge which county you should choose, here are two interactive maps showing how people in those counties caucused back in 2008:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/iowa-caucus/?jump=r

http://dyn.politico.com/iowacaucuses/iowamap-popup.html

Personally, I chose Hancock County because I reasoned that since Huckabee did fairly well, Ron did average and Romney performed poorly, many votes will be up for grabs since so many were voting for non-Romney candidates and we have considerable overlap with the Huckabee supporters. Probably won't matter much since all of the "supervoters" are supposed to be contacted via one project or the other, but I still like knowing where my money's going. Would love to hear different opinions on this. :)


IA-Hancock Precincts:8
Item# 8 $46.20 USD

Edit: You can watch Curt Schultz himself explain in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M71MDPE5mNE#!

[parocks]

* Iowa Super-Voters are counted as those Republican voters who voted in the 2008 & 2010 General Elections

General Elections. And theres 293K Republican "supervoters".

Now, I just looked at that. If ronpaulproducts.com is sending this brochure to all the supervoters, what exactly is the supervoterbomb?

But it seems like whatever problem there was can easily be solved. Just throw that money over to ronpaulproducts.com and let the 2 projects be folded together.

That's a realistic outcome. RevPac used its name recognition to raise money for the ronpaulproducts project, that it liked.

[Lavitz]

* Iowa Super-Voters are counted as those Republican voters who voted in the 2008 & 2010 General Elections

General Elections. And theres 293K Republican "supervoters".

Now, I just looked at that. If ronpaulproducts.com is sending this brochure to all the supervoters, what exactly is the supervoterbomb?

But it seems like whatever problem there was can easily be solved. Just throw that money over to ronpaulproducts.com and let the 2 projects be folded together.

That's a realistic outcome. RevPac used its name recognition to raise money for the ronpaulproducts project, that it liked.

Good questions. I don't have the answers since I'm not affiliated with either company. And even though I was highly critical of the way RevPac handled the change to the project in the other thread, I'd rather not derail this one. All I know is that I trust RonPaulProducts.com. So when I buy a precinct, I trust that the super brochures will be delivered to X number of voters / super-voters / whatever in that precinct, regardless of the problems with the other project.

[parocks]

Good questions. I don't have the answers since I'm not affiliated with either company. And even though I was highly critical of the way RevPac handled the change to the project in the other thread, I'd rather not derail this one. All I know is that I trust RonPaulProducts.com. So when I buy a precinct, I trust that the super brochures will be delivered to X number of voters / super-voters / whatever in that precinct, regardless of the problems with the other project.

Yeah, I agree, I think that ronpaulproducts seems to have a detailed, elaborate system that works. And if there's a switchover by revpac to that system, to just use the money to buy precincts, because products knows what they're doing, I would think that would be a good thing probably.

[KCIndy]

Yeah, I agree, I think that ronpaulproducts seems to have a detailed, elaborate system that works. And if there's a switchover by revpac to that system, to just use the money to buy precincts, because products knows what they're doing, I would think that would be a good thing probably.


I've placed... jeez, probably over a dozen orders with Curt at www.ronpaulproducts.com and I can tell you that he is the real deal. I haven't had a single problem with any order. He has often thrown in upgraded shipping when the need was urgent, as well as tossing in "extras" to orders destined to be passed out, all because he has an unwavering commitment to seeing Ron Paul win this election.

Curt and RonPaulProducts can and should be trusted.

I would encourage anyone reading this to get over to RonPaulProducts and help cover the cost of an Iowa county or two:

http://www.ronpaulproducts.com/precinctiowa.html

We really, really really need to get these brochures into every mailbox in Iowa.

[Lavitz]

bump

[Lavitz]

One more time...bump

[Eric21ND]

I've had a great experience working with them sending out brochures.

[TNforPaul45]

I noticed that the SuperVoterBomb site states that the batch are mailed 30,000 at a time to get the best USPS bulk rate. Is there any way to get word to the RevPAC people to include a "# until next batch! miniticker in the main ticker to drive urgency donations for each mailing bump?

Just a thought. . .

[parocks]

One more time...bump

You made a key point on the other thread about the brochure. Because of that, the error that was not an error, and that the other things are mostly judgement calls, the brochure is "fine" and not "error".

That said, I would prefer that the delivery method be changed to "paid canvassers" where possible. Personally, when the choice is giving thousands of dollars to a wide range of eligible voters in Iowa or giving thousands of dollars to the Federal Government to deliver my mail, I'm going to want to give the money to the Iowans.

[Lavitz]

You made a key point on the other thread about the brochure. Because of that, the error that was not an error, and that the other things are mostly judgement calls, the brochure is "fine" and not "error".

That said, I would prefer that the delivery method be changed to "paid canvassers" where possible. Personally, when the choice is giving thousands of dollars to a wide range of eligible voters in Iowa or giving thousands of dollars to the Federal Government to deliver my mail, I'm going to want to give the money to the Iowans.

Hmm, that sounds a lot like this thread here, have you checked it out yet? http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?330208-Free-Super-Brochures

Free brochures are being sent to volunteers in Iowa, presumably to be used in canvassing, and there's a chip-in to help cover shipping costs

[parocks]

Hmm, that sounds a lot like this thread here, have you checked it out yet? http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?330208-Free-Super-Brochures

Free brochures are being sent to volunteers in Iowa, presumably to be used in canvassing, and there's a chip-in to help cover shipping costs

It does. Sort of.

But what I'm really trying to get across, more than anything, is the giving money to Iowans part.

Just one part of one grassroots project, the revpac part, looks like it's costing $100K so far.

I look at $100K, and I look at 40K (votes that Huckabee got), and I see we are spending $2.50 per vote right there, if we get that 40K.

I'm looking at those people who we're paying to do whatever (go door to door with brochures, or whatever it may be) as our campaign staff.

Let's look at what could happen with $100K.

Right now, using the products financial calculations, 7c for printing, let's say 43c for to the Federal Government US Postal Service. Let's just make it 10/40/50.

200K brochures sent for $100K. The brochures cost $20K, The Federal Government US Postal Service gets $80.

Instead of giving the US Postal Service $80, how about giving High School Iowans $80K?

Give each High School Paid Canvasser $20. That's 4,000 high school Iowans delivering our message to the supervoter. 4,000 high school Iowans is a little over 3% of the vote, right there. Huckabee got 40,000 votes. Just by bypassing the Federal Government, we can be one tenth of the way to 40K.

4,000 kids, 200,000 brochures - 50 brochures per kid. Definitely doable for $20.

[Lavitz]

But what I'm really trying to get across, more than anything, is the giving money to Iowans part.

Just one part of one grassroots project, the revpac part, looks like it's costing $100K so far.

I look at $100K, and I look at 40K (votes that Huckabee got), and I see we are spending $2.50 per vote right there, if we get that 40K.

I'm looking at those people who we're paying to do whatever (go door to door with brochures, or whatever it may be) as our campaign staff.

Let's look at what could happen with $100K.

Right now, using the products financial calculations, 7c for printing, let's say 43c for to the Federal Government US Postal Service. Let's just make it 10/40/50.

200K brochures sent for $100K. The brochures cost $20K, The Federal Government US Postal Service gets $80.

Instead of giving the US Postal Service $80, how about giving High School Iowans $80K?

Give each High School Paid Canvasser $20. That's 4,000 high school Iowans delivering our message to the supervoter. 4,000 high school Iowans is a little over 3% of the vote, right there. Huckabee got 40,000 votes. Just by bypassing the Federal Government, we can be one tenth of the way to 40K.

4,000 kids, 200,000 brochures - 50 brochures per kid. Definitely doable for $20.

Ok, I see what you're saying. The brochures only cost $20K, the other $80 is going to the Post Office when it could be going to Iowan students who would then both increase the effectiveness of the brochure by using it to canvass and engaging voters and by showing up to caucus themselves.

Unfortunately, I think the logistics are way too complicated to pull off within the next month.

First you still have the issue of transporting all the brochures to Iowa, as the company is based in Florida. Maybe if someone just rented a truck and drove them to Iowa, that could work for a somewhat reasonable price. But then you have the issue of finding the 4,000 students. Are they already Ron Paul supporters? Because then you wouldn't be gaining an additional 3% of Huck's 40k, you could expect they'd already be caucusing for Ron anyway.

If they're not already supporters, then you'd have the issue of convincing them to take 50 brochures each and go talk to people about a candidate they just heard about. If they're going door-to-door with the lists of registered Republicans, that could easily take 2 hours, so they'd only be making $10/hour. I don't know anything about Iowans, so I could be wrong, but I doubt you'd find many student non-supporters to sign up for this. Even if you just expect them to deliver the brochure to the houses, I believe it's illegal to put it in the mailbox, so they'd have to stick it somewhere else and I just find that looks tacky. And if you mean just canvass whoever they can find, there's no real guarantee they'll make efficient use of the brochures, or even do what they're supposed to do. Not to mention there's no guarantee at the end that they'd find they liked Dr. Paul enough to caucus for him.

And even if they were Paul supporters, how would the 4,000 of them be contacted? Are they spread out evenly across the state? Would the truck with the brochures have to make a stop in each county to deliver them to each supporter or what? And who would be in charge of all this? RevPac? RonPaulProducts.com?

See? It gets really complicated, unless of course I missed something that would make all of this much easier. But right now, that's why I think either this project or the free brochures to volunteers are the closest things you'll get to what you're asking for.

[parocks]

Ok, I see what you're saying. The brochures only cost $20K, the other $80 is going to the Post Office when it could be going to Iowan students who would then both increase the effectiveness of the brochure by using it to canvass and engaging voters and by showing up to caucus themselves.

Unfortunately, I think the logistics are way too complicated to pull off within the next month.

First you still have the issue of transporting all the brochures to Iowa, as the company is based in Florida. Maybe if someone just rented a truck and drove them to Iowa, that could work for a somewhat reasonable price. But then you have the issue of finding the 4,000 students. Are they already Ron Paul supporters? Because then you wouldn't be gaining an additional 3% of Huck's 40k, you could expect they'd already be caucusing for Ron anyway.

If they're not already supporters, then you'd have the issue of convincing them to take 50 brochures each and go talk to people about a candidate they just heard about. If they're going door-to-door with the lists of registered Republicans, that could easily take 2 hours, so they'd only be making $10/hour. I don't know anything about Iowans, so I could be wrong, but I doubt you'd find many student non-supporters to sign up for this. Even if you just expect them to deliver the brochure to the houses, I believe it's illegal to put it in the mailbox, so they'd have to stick it somewhere else and I just find that looks tacky. And if you mean just canvass whoever they can find, there's no real guarantee they'll make efficient use of the brochures, or even do what they're supposed to do. Not to mention there's no guarantee at the end that they'd find they liked Dr. Paul enough to caucus for him.

And even if they were Paul supporters, how would the 4,000 of them be contacted? Are they spread out evenly across the state? Would the truck with the brochures have to make a stop in each county to deliver them to each supporter or what? And who would be in charge of all this? RevPac? RonPaulProducts.com?

See? It gets really complicated, unless of course I missed something that would make all of this much easier. But right now, that's why I think either this project or the free brochures to volunteers are the closest things you'll get to what you're asking for.

Excellent post. A lot to address.

First, I would think this would work on a precinct by precinct basis.

It wouldn't be a full switchover.

First you identify the precincts where it is doable.

I'm assuming the use of the ronpaulproducts system.

In theory, it would be as simple as reporting to ronpaulproducts which precincts are "paid canvasser ready".

They could make a notation on the website which precincts are "paid canvasser ready". Perhaps a * next to the precinct name.

So that when people are choosing which precincts to send brochures to, they can choose between USPS and paid canvasser.
Most I assume would be USPS, but the number of paid canvasser can expand greatly.

To make this happen, all we really need is for a person in Iowa to stand up and say "I can handle my precinct". And we can count that as paid canvasser.
Or simply, canvasser. If someone kicks in the money for the precinct, Ronpaulproducts then sends what is needed to the person who said they'd handle the precinct.

Getting the brochures to Iowa. Well, USPS for this. $5 mails about 100 (that's a guess), and $10 mails about 500. So you just
pack a few envelopes with 100, pack a few boxes with 500. And send the rest of the money to the precinct leader.

In some instances, the economics wouldn't work out. But let's say you just have a small precinct, and one precinct leader that wants to go door to door. Like this precinct. SH010 40 $ 22.00.

$2.80 for printing. $5.00 for shipping, in a Flat Rate Legal Envelope with as much stuffed in it as possible. Total. $7.80, and the materials
are at his door. He has $14.20, 40 brochures plus extras, and the information about how who should be getting the lit. He then goes out whenever he feels like and drops off the flyers. He'll also have plenty extra for other uses. And $14.20 in his pocket minus the gas cost if he's using a car. This is a good outcome.

Of the $19.20 shipping cost - before, all of that went to USPS. Now, $5 goes to USPS, and $14.20 goes to Our Iowan. Our Iowan might only want to hit 20 houses. He then goes to the post office, buys 20 stamps and mails them. That's another $10 to USPS, and he keeps $5. Still that's $5 extra to Our Iowan. He can send that $5 right back to Ron Paul.

We really want to get the job done and keep the money in the system that way, and use the money to expand the ground operation, strengthen it.

The argument isn't precisely "how do we get high schoolers involved" but "how can get all the money that's being spent in the right hands?"

A meetup group could agree to do a precinct. A really big meetup group could agree to do many precincts. If they want to outreach to high schoolers, they can outreach to high schoolers via paid canvassing. If they want to put together a kick ass event with that money, which could easily reach into the thousands for a large meetup, they could do that.

This system could be immediately activated, I believe, by ronpaulproducts.com. They just have to say "yes, we'll do that." And wait and see what happens. Maybe people, here, will think it's a great idea, a great project, and they might say, let's communicate with Our Iowans and see if that's something they'd be interested in doing. Or it could result in nothing.

At its base, it's just transferring money from the government to us.

*********************
About your specifics.


*****************
"But then you have the issue of finding the 4,000 students. Are they already Ron Paul supporters? Because then you wouldn't be gaining an additional 3% of Huck's 40k, you could expect they'd already be caucusing for Ron anyway."
****************

Under the 4,000 student scenario, you would not at all expect that they'd be caucusing for Ron Paul. I'm talking about the 4,000 students who "like" Ron Paul. They're easy to find. Most 18-29 year olds like Ron Paul the most. Polls leading up to the Iowa Caucuses did not have Obama over Hillary with the commanding margins with have with 18-29 year old males. They like us.

But it is just flat wrong to assume that they're going to caucus just because they like us.

What we are doing, is GOTV. The exact type of GOTV we need to be doing. We pretty much have to have something. Some type of system to bring large numbers of 18-29 males generally alienated from the political process. This is one type of system. We get their data.

How to get tons of kids - One shift - $20. Only one shift. Finding a new person - $5.
So you get one kid in one high school to do one shift and tell him that he gets $100 if he brings 20 kids. And all the kids get $20.
And you get all their data. They are now our workers. We want them to tell their friends to caucus.

All of those things wouldn't be happening if we just gave the money to the USPS.

***************
If they're not already supporters, then you'd have the issue of convincing them to take 50 brochures each and go talk to people about a candidate they just heard about. If they're going door-to-door with the lists of registered Republicans, that could easily take 2 hours, so they'd only be making $10/hour.
*****************

Well, these are people who like Ron Paul. They might or might not have caucuses. The goal isn't necessarily to talk to people, but just to deliver the lit. I really don't know about the economy. I hear it's bad. I hear that teenagers have fairly high unemployment rates. I hear the minimum wage is $7.25. So, you might be right. Walking around, or driving around, dropping off lit at peoples houses for a couple hours for $20, especially if you're unemployed, might not be a bad deal. I don't know. $10 an hour really isn't that bad. But, you might be right. Would you rather make $7.25 at McDonalds, or $10 going door to door?

There's another project out there - ads to colleges in Iowa. The Call to Action could include "paid canvass winter break in your Iowa hometown" So, that's a way to keep the college kids active.

And this is a question of the perfect being the enemy of the good. If we can say that they'll get $100 cash money for doing this for 10 straight hours, that should be enough money to motivate. If we can't fill the slots, we make adjustments.

**********************
they'd have to stick it somewhere else and I just find that looks tacky.
***********************

Oh, you'd be wrong about that. That's the most common result of door to door. Usually there's no one there and you leave your lit. That's fine and dandy. You also can use the box for the newspaper. I was in NH last time. One of the days we walked a route. We talked to no one. Actually one person, and I think we went to the wrong address. We were there during the day until dark. About 4 hours maybe? Maybe longer? But you wedge the thing in the door and go on to the next one. Being there to deliver something is better than mailing it (I'm guessing?). It says, if nothing else, someone supporting Ron Paul was here.

**********************
And if you mean just canvass whoever they can find, there's no real guarantee they'll make efficient use of the brochures, or even do what they're supposed to do.
***********************

Well, you have a point there. When I was in New Hampshire last year, one of the days everyone got a walking route. I finished my walking route with the person I was with. We dropped our lit. No one else did what they were supposed to do. Some people thought it was best to heckle Hillary Clinton. They got talked to by Secret Service. Others thought that streetcorner arguments were the way to go. For reliability, I would take workers getting paid pretty well over poorly supervised Ron Paul volunteers from out of state. They're likely smart enough to do the job you give them. But that is a bit of uncertainly. Let's just assume that people won't violate the terms of their contract.

*************************
Not to mention there's no guarantee at the end that they'd find they liked Dr. Paul enough to caucus for him.
*************************

Exactly right. No guarantee with any of these kids. We have to work our asses off to get these kids to the polls.
This is exactly what this plan is. The idea is that this money pushes everyone in the right direction. Someone who was a strong Ron Paul
Supporter who was certain to vote for Ron Paul now is fully networked in with all the other people. He will call them, and his friends to go to the caucus. The person who was apathetic, but liked Ron Paul is a little bit more likely to go to the caucus.

What would be happening if we DIDN"T do this? The money either goes to the Federal Government USPS, or to 4000 Iowa kids. How does giving the money to the federal government guarantee that those 4000 Iowa kids will go to the caucus? The goal is to build a strong ground game. This works to that.

****************************
And even if they were Paul supporters, how would the 4,000 of them be contacted?

We get what we get. If we get 3K we get 3K, 5K if the minimum was lowered to $10.

Are they spread out evenly across the state?

We're talking about 2 different things here. You were looking at my math. That's simply the best case scenario. I never thought there would be a truck involved. Anyway, the idea is that, where available, the canvasser model replaces the USPS model. The math works for the 4000 Iowa kids. But demography and geography don't always work. But, assuming perfect conditions, that's the math. Extremely rural districts might not work for high school kids going door to door. The idea is to think of ways to get the money where it should go.

Would the truck with the brochures have to make a stop in each county to deliver them to each supporter or what?

No truck. But if there are going to be DVDs that aren't yet made, they should be sent directly to Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Manchester.
Someone will be using a truck. And you do have a good point. Someone could save money on shipping.

Aand who would be in charge of all this? RevPac? RonPaulProducts.com?

RonPaulProducts.com. They have a solid precinct system. All they have to do is say yes and the *
and explain that * means delivered by canvassing. RevPac would continue to raise money, perhaps applying that money to get precincts done. But it's a system that could grow to that.

See? It gets really complicated, unless of course I missed something that would make all of this much easier. But right now, that's why I think either this project or the free brochures to volunteers are the closest things you'll get to what you're asking for.

I just don't think it's that complicated. Finding someone who wants to do it that way on the ground in Iowa and ronpaulproducts saying they'd do it that way. And then you wait for someone to buy that precinct, Ron Paul Products sends the right size box for the precinct, including the data for the supervoters, and the money, and the guy in charge on the ground figures out what he wants to do. One of the things he could do is figure out how much money he has, gets the right number of high school students, tells them what to do and they do it, and he takes their data and pays them. He tells them to tell all their friends about the caucus, and that the campaign would be contacting them, as well as other people. And all of those people have money in their pockets. Job well done.

Our People have the money in their pocket, not Fed Gov. That's a positive good in and of itself.

[overcastpatriot]

Just bought this one, for 55 voters.

IA-Clay Precincts:LAFR
Item #: LAFR
$29.15 USD

There are movements to cover the Huckabee counties and the major population centers, but I chose a precinct in a county that has so far received no mailings. This is a different strategy and hopefully these voters will be easier to sway since they will be largely ignored by the other candidates. It might also spread some word of mouth in an otherwise rural and forgotten part of the state.

[Eric21ND]

Just bought this one, for 55 voters.

IA-Clay Precincts:LAFR
Item #: LAFR
$29.15 USD

There are movements to cover the Huckabee counties and the major population centers, but I chose a precinct in a county that has so far received no mailings. This is a different strategy and hopefully these voters will be easier to sway since they will be largely ignored by the other candidates. It might also spread some word of mouth in an otherwise rural and forgotten part of the state.
Outstanding! Another good strategy would be to attack the northwestern part of the state, especially Sioux county. That's a big republican stronghold up there and it has seen little attention in terms of brochures.

[deadfish]

Thanks for your order

Your payment of $55.00 USD is complete.

[kusok]

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb235/kusokosla/Picture6-1.png

[Lavitz]

Thanks for your order

Your payment of $55.00 USD is complete.


http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb235/kusokosla/Picture6-1.png

Both +repped