Question about canvassing....

[Marc3579]

If I were to go to a shopping mall what would be my best plan of attack to try and talk to people? Should I just print out fliers and stick them in peoples windshields... Hand out slim-jim cards or what?

[mmink15]

Not sure, but someone with more knowledge than me should address the issue of soliciting. I'm not sure if you can just go to the mall and start dishing anything without getting kicked out. Maybe a sign at your feet saying, "Are you an undecided voter?" would be effective so you at least got people who are mildly interested in the voting process. Slim Jims are good and also there are plenty of sites that have free printable fliers, check the Campaign Materials section of the forums.
Hope that helped

[Laja]

You probably won't be able to do your literature thing inside the mall like mmink15 mentioned, but maybe you could talk to people outside the mall. You'd need a lot of slim jims to cover all the cars in a mall parking lot, but I don't think it would hurt to do that. What about on a busy street corner?

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck with your efforts!

[krott5333]

putting slim jims on cars is not even half as effective as talking to people and handing them the slim-jim

[TonySutton]

Call the Mall and ask what their policy is. Malls are private property.

[jblosser]

Stop going after random people. They don't vote. Talk to people on the lists in your precinct.

[Marc3579]

Just getting ideas of what to do when I go out and canvass over this coming weekend. I agree, that putting slim-jims on the car rather than talking to a person won't be as effective. I'm also, not big on just walking up to people and talking about politics with them. So, I'm trying to find that happy medium... :S

[Marc3579]

Ok jblosser I know I've got one person on my precint list switched to RP at least I think I do. It's my bro's g/f and last time I checked they are both coming to our caucus with me. I'll hit up the list again in a bit. Another question, what about phone calls? Cold call people or what?

[jblosser]

Hi my name is Marc and I'm a volunteer distributing some information about the upcoming Presidential election. Have you had a chance to look at the race yet? What issues are important to you?

[jblosser]

Ok jblosser I know I've got one person on my precint list switched to RP at least I think I do. It's my bro's g/f and last time I checked they are both coming to our caucus with me. I'll hit up the list again in a bit. Another question, what about phone calls? Cold call people or what?

Phone calls save time but you can't leave a DVD over the phone. Which way people are more willing to talk to you depends on the person. I prefer face to face to start with... once you get them voting for us you need their contact info correct so you can call them near the election and make sure they turn out.

[krott5333]

Ok jblosser I know I've got one person on my precint list switched to RP at least I think I do. It's my bro's g/f and last time I checked they are both coming to our caucus with me. I'll hit up the list again in a bit. Another question, what about phone calls? Cold call people or what?

how many people are on your list?

ive got 69 pages

[Marc3579]

I've got some where around 40 pages or so. My precinct is rather large geographically. It's about 30 city blocks or so... I wouldn't mind walking around town, I may do it tomorrow and face to face is easier to do than phone. Also, that makes it more personal I'd think...

[Cyclone]

I have about an 80% conversion/interest rate over the phone. Meaning that when I am done people either say they will vote for him or go look up his policies to see if I was telling the truth.

However, I can spend up to an hour with someone on the phone, so I don't know how effective I am. I don't get to talk to too many people in a day.

I just start with, hi, I am one of your neighbors, I am calling about politics. If you don't want to talk, no problem, I won't bother you. About half are willing with that opening. I have also tried, Hi, I am very terrible at this, I am terrified and an unpaid volunteer who wants to talk to you about Ron Paul, is that ok? That works when I am calling outside of my neighborhood. I think people respond well to the I am terrified part. I have had lots of people tell me they would have hung up on if I had not said that. But you gotta mean it. I do, so it is easy.

I am too sick to go door to door. I also would not be comfortable with that. I think different things work for different people. But I can tell you that one on one conversations work the best because you can answer their questions.

I always then go on to ask them what issues they care about so I won't bore them with a whole bunch of stuff about RP they won't care about. Then I get them talking and I can tell which side of an issue they are on and I try to match something Paul has said that addresses those worries.

It helps though if you have read a lot of Ron Paul's writings.

You can go to www.ronpaullibrary.org to find a whole bunch of stuff to read to help you get more informed. Or you can spend hours watching videos of Paul's speeches. Either way.

But even the folks who won't vote for Ron Paul, I thank them very much for not being too mean to me (that makes them laugh) and I tell them what a pleasure it was to hear their opinions and I always remind them of the Ron Paul Library's website. They may look it up later, you never know.