This has been a difficult year to find resources for independent get out the vote (GOTV) campaigns. But with your help, Penn ACTION has brought in almost $130,000 to do work in Southeastern Pennsylvania, focused on Patrick Murphy’s district. (All of this work is carried out independently of Congressman Murphy’s campaign.)
We have a full scale canvass operation knocking on doors in on the Bucks County portion of Congressman Murphy’s district as well as a paid phone bank, all targeting infrequent voters. (The photo on the left shows our canvass director, Crystal Martzall giving last minute instructions to our canvassers as they prepare to hit the streets.)
Each day between 20 and 30 canvassers hit the streets in three van, under the direction three field manages. Many of our canvassers are new to politics, but they are all committed to the reelection of Congressman Murphy. They are talking to voters about the critical issues we face in this election–jobs, health care, wall street reform, and Social Security. They are encouraging 13,000 voters to come to the polls and trying to figure out who actually will come out to vote.
Our canvassers will begin round two of the canvass on Monday and continue through election day. They will go back to people who said that they were likely or definitely voting for and, also, houses at which not was home in the first round. The second round of calls is quicker–our goal is to strongly encourage the people who said they would vote for Congressman Murphy to actually do so.
People often don’t understand why all this work is so important. Those of us who are politically engaged, almost can’t imagine not voting. But many Americans are less engaged politically, and they need to be reminded that elections are important and that, when they come to the polls, they are part of a broad movement that can actually change the course of our country.
Canvassing is difficult work. But it is really rewardedin too.
Ray Torres, one of our canvassers—and a long-time volunteer for HCAN and other progressive groups—says this about his work
“I’ve canvassed for Patrick Murphy a few times this week. It’s been a great experience. People are glad we are there and eager to show their support for Congressman Murphy. And it’s in the center of Lower Bucks County and an easy drive to the Penn ACTION office from Philadelphia, and good exercise, too!”
You can see many of our canvassers in the slide show above. If you want a little better sense of what a canvass operation is like, look at the behind the scenes pictures in the slide show below.
We also are a running a great radio advertisement in the district. Click here to listen to it.
You can still join the Bucks County canvass on Monday or Tuesday. Call Crystal Martzall at (717) 572-8288 or email her at crystal.martzall@pennaction.org. Our office is at 8612 New Falls Road, Levittown, PA.
In addition to the paid c4 canvass, Penn ACTION is running a second c3 canvass in Northeast Philadelphia that will target about 2500 people.
We are also running two paid phone banks. Both of them target infrequent voters in the rising American electorate–African Americans, single women, and young people 30 and under. We are calling about 8000 people in North Philadelphia about 12,000 people in Bucks County.
And finally we are doing volunteer phone banks at both an office in Philadelphia and in your homes all over the state. Our volunteer phone bankers joined with people from other c3 organizations in a joint PA Voice phone bank last week.
A behind the scenes look at the Bucks County canvass office: