10 Steps to Organizing Your Block

One of the fundamental challenges the liberty movement currently faces is getting individuals to put down their protest signs and stop attending rallies in favor of instead picking up a clip board and getting to know their neighbors.  We have all heard about the importance to door-to-door campaigning for candidates; what you might not have been told is that you should organize your own area.

We must be responsible for our own neighborhoods, blocks, and precincts.  Understanding who lives around you, targeting them to learn what issues or values they care about, reaching out to them about upcoming events (perhaps a tea party or campaign fundraiser?), and talking to them about candidates you support or issue petitions you’re working on will help you to radically change the makeup of your community and state.

So where do you start?

1. Know your terms.  What’s a precinct?  A precinct is the 10-block radius around your polling place, or where you vote.  Precincts are the most local level of government organization in America.  In some areas of the nation, precincts are referred to as wards.  On average across the country, precincts tend to have about 1,100 voters, and a statehouse district is generally made up of 15-25 precincts.  Make sense?

2. Now we know what our precinct is, let’s figure out the dynamics of our particular precinct.  Go to your local county clerk or board of elections.  Ask for the voter registration list and historical voting totals from 2008, 2006 and 2004 for your local precinct.  This part is important: Ask for it on disc.  This will not only save you money and time because the staff don’t have to print it all out, but it will also allow you to manipulate the data and have a lasting database of your area.

3. Look at the numbers.  Try to identify what you can learn about your precinct.  Which candidates did your precinct vote for in 2008, 2006 and 2004?  What were the overall voter turnout numbers?  By what percentages did your type of candidate win?

4. Determine your goal.  I strongly believe that we must have a goal in mind if we are ever to achieve it- so what is your goal?  Are you going to survey the voters in your precinct to understand the issues they support or care about?  Do you want to talk to everyone in your neighborhood about a candidate you support?  Are you going to flyer each door in regards to an upcoming event, maybe a candidate BBQ you’re holding at the neighborhood park?  Determine your goal.  Then make it happen.

5. Start walking- or calling, depending on your physical limitations.  Knock on doors, explain that you live down the street, or across the road, and tell them what you’re working on.

6. Make notes!  This is the real key, and where many people fail to pay attention to detail.  Look around as you walk up to a house- is there Americana decor on the front porch?  Kiddie toys in the yard, which would indicate a young family, whose voters would likely care about different issues than, say, a senior citizen?  What about bumper stickers on the car?  Anything you can see that gives you a personal insight into the life of that voter, make a note of it on your notepad.

7. Talk to the voter- ask them some “yes or no” questions.  Do you believe that your property taxes are too high?  Do you believe that increased education spending will lead to better test scores?  Know your goals and that will help you determine what your questions should be.  Make notes about the voter’s response- not just the “yes” or “no” answer, but if a particular issue excited them or got them going.

8. Victory is in the margins- and here is where it matters: go home and input that information and all your notes into your database that you got from the county clerk/board of elections.  Now you know something about most voters in your area- something about them on a personal level.  You know whether they’re registered to vote or if the database is up to date.  You know what issues they care about most…

9. Now what do you do with all that information?  Make yourself valuable to a candidate who you trust by offering that information to the person you are supporting.  Engage people in your neighborhood who agree with your values by inviting them to events you’re holding to meet candidates in the area or to join your tea party group.  Make a call list of the voters who are most like you and take it upon yourself to call through the list in the days and hours prior to election day to make sure they remember to vote, or to offer a ride to the polls.

10. Keep it up!  After election day, keep in touch with people who agree with you on the issues.  Is there a bill in the state legislature dealing with this issue?  Make sure they know about it and have their representative’s contact information.  Is there a townhall meeting scheduled for your congressman or senator?  Put a flyer on everyone’s door inviting them to join.  Keep them engaged in the process. Use your database as a tool to reinforce accountability amongst elected officials.

Does this sound like campaign work to you?  Well, in some ways it is.  But if change begins on the state and local level- and I firmly believe that it does- then shouldn’t we each be responsible for our own community?  Take these tips and go, make a difference!  It’s time to take back our nation.