Only by achieving the most votes at the local level can candidates win elections. To achieve this goal, the most important action is to identify like-minded voters in your neighborhood and assure they vote in elections. This systematic methodology in politics is called Neighborhood Organizing and consists of walking the precinct, calling these registered voters, or holding meetings for these voters. Voter Records, available from local county Boards of Elections, are used to target registered voters who are most likely to be like-minded and willing to vote for the preferred candidate. The power of Neighborhood Organizing is evidenced by the fact that Democrats won the key, pivotal states of Ohio and Minnesota in 2008 with only ten additional Democratic voters per precinct.

Neighborhood Organizing not only will Get-Out-The-Votes (GOTV) for elections, but with it you can recruit new volunteers for your organization and improve public visibility of the “Tea Party” movement. Importantly, statistical analysis have shown that voter mobilization campaigns have enduring effects, with 33% of those mobilized for one election continuing to vote in subsequent elections. While Neighborhood Organizing used to be the “bread and butter” of campaigns, they are no longer pursued as much by parties since they want centralized control of campaign resources and the message. Additionally, campaign consultants profit more with brokered mass media advertising, professional phone banks, and direct mail.   

Using a football analogy, while “Tea Party” rallies are analogous to pep-rallies prior to a game where attendees are excited and motivated by speakers, the actual football game, though, is what decides who ultimately wins. In politics, this “game” is called Neighborhood Organizing and it is the only means to win elections! Fortunately, the “Tea Party” movement is well equipped to play this “game” of Neighborhood Organizing. It plays right into the “Tea Party” movement’s strengths of having many passionate and well informed volunteers, while mitigating its greatest weakness of not having much money. While Napoleon states “The morale is to the physical in war as three is to one", Heinlein states in his book, Take Back Your Government , that “In politics the ratio expressed by Napoleon is nearer ten to one.” Consistent with this observation, passionate volunteers can each generate 50-150 new votes, while paid, professional precinct workers on average will not deliver more than 10-50 new votes. Experienced volunteers are only slightly more effective than newcomers.

To get started with Neighborhood Organizing you need a “Precinct Map” and “Voter Registration Records”, both of which are available from your county Board of Elections (See website “Tools” tab), either free or for a nominal fee. From the “Voter Registration Records”, you can create a street-level walk-around list or calling list which, depending on the county, includes resident information such as name, address, phone number, party affiliation, and when they last voted. This information is used to narrow the number of contacted registered voters to a more manageable number. For example, in the general election volunteers primarily focus on conservative voters who failed to vote in their primaries and all members of minor parties and all unaffiliated, independent voters. Known members of the opposition party can be ignored, as well as all conservative voters who voted in the primary.

Given that about 76% of registered voters are either conservative or moderate and who are upset with career politicians who are bankrupting our country, finding these like-minded voters and assuring they vote in elections should be fairly easy. This non-partisan concern will have broad appeal across party lines, which is important in states with ever increasing independent voters such as Ohio with close to 60% of independent voters. Analyses have shown that in Get-Out-The-Vote efforts, campaigns that were strictly non-partisan were neither more nor less effective than campaigns that organized around an issue or a candidate. Asking citizens if their vote can be counted on or providing citizens with the location of their polling location further improve Get-Out-The-Vote turnout. Voters living at the same address also tend to mobilize each other. The Voices of America website provides suggested scripts and “best practices” guides for how to best engage constituents with a non-partisan, Constitution-based approach. Details to “Get-Out-The-Vote” for elections are also provided, along with how to leverage mail-in voting (absentee ballots) and early voting to maximum effect. (See “GOTV” website tab)

It is important to recognize that to win in your precinct only requires that your efforts surpass those of rival precinct organizations. Additionally, a passionate and informed volunteer can easily surpass other organization volunteers and most definitely professionals who are just doing it for the money. A well organized Neighborhood Organizing effort will not only affect Presidential elections, but can even more easily impact state and local elections. Most people seem to regard the office of president as the only one of importance and the presidential election every four years as the "main" election. Nothing could be further from the truth. The most important office in a democracy is the local city councilman or selectman; the most important election is the local caucus or primary and so on up to the "major" offices and the "major" elections. "Minor" candidates have a way of becoming presidents. Chances are better than two to one that any future president will make his start in one of the minor, local offices which the politically naive hold in contempt. Consequently, if you want to affect the destiny of this your country, take over your own neighborhood precinct with your friends and elect the local officials.

Long term, The Voices of America methodology can become a sustainable “We the People” methodology which keeps politicians’ “feet-to-the-fire” in an effort to assure that our government is once again “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. All the political lobbying, advertising, and candidate money can't buy this capability!