You're heading into the final weeks of the campaign, that special time in a campaign: GOTV. Yeah! Team Blue! You expect it to feel like
And although you put on a brave face when people ask if you're ready, deep down you feel like
Because you know that even though you've prepared for months, everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
But you shake off that feeling. Instead, you focus on training, trying to explain the GOTV onslaught to your most faithful volunteers.
And you're so tired that your field pitch is falling apart.
And you have so many staging locations to manage that you're getting...creative about recruiting new volunteer leadership.
In your "spare time," you're trying your best to look presentable. Vaguely.
No matter. It's all going to be okay. Until your phone bank shift starts, and your phone bank captains tell you the phone script you sent out is WRONG.
While you type away furiously, you turn around to your printer and your turf... It just. Won't. Print. Fast. Enough.
Wait, HQ is calling...
They tell you they just updated the GOTV targets in VAN...and you need to reprint all your packets.
And that one volunteer chooses now, OF ALL TIMES, to ask what your plan is for "holding signs at the polls."
You take a deep breath and go to sleep. For a few minutes, at least.
NOW IT'S ELECTION DAY!
Apparently, although it's still dark outside.
You've been waiting for this day for a while. So you rise to the occasion, of course.
You can hardly believe it. After all of this work and preparation, the polls are almost open!
You dutifully call through your staging location captains, who are all really excited to hear from you.
BOOM! First canvass shift out! But you're needed back at the office...something just happened.
You employ your understanding, soothing tone of voice to calm down the phone bankers, who say EVERYONE THEY'RE TALKING TO has received multiple calls.
You stop by one of your remote staging locations to check, and everything seems to be going well.
But wait! You get a call 10 minutes before polls close: one last voter needs a ride!
POLLS ARE CLOSED! Well done! You've made it.
No matter what, tonight you're going to get your party on.
And you know that tomorrow, if anyone asks you to do anything you can say...
By Marlon Marshall (270 Strategies), Amanda Coulombe (NGP VAN), and John Brougher (NGP VAN)
Marlon Marshall is a founding partner at 270 Strategies. Marlon has held numerous key positions in national Democratic politics, most recently as Deputy National Field Director for the 2012 Obama Campaign.
Amanda Coulombe is the Product Director for Field and Volunteers at NGP VAN. She also recently worked as the GOTV Director for Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Ed Markey in her home state of Massachusetts. She loves field, Democrats, and the Boston Celtics.
John serves as the Vice President of Marketing and Nonprofit Community for NGP VAN. John also founded and manages the MaleFeminists.com blog that strives to be a strong ally in the broader fight for equality. In 2008, he helped run point for twelve counties in southeast Indiana for the Jill Long Thompson for Governor campaign.
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