For Liberal Democrat campaigners ‘Working Hard All Year Round’ is so much more than a slogan; it is how activists, candidates and councillors are hitting doorsteps, making calls and delivering Focus leaflets whatever the weather.
Throughout 2017, we will be providing you with a few of our tips to help you get the most from each month’s campaigning.
In partnership with Election Workshop, we have released a year-long campaign plan which is full of templates and print offers. You can use it to plan your local copy and photo deadlines to ensure you design your leaflets in good time for print deadlines. Then you can work out the cost of your campaign so that you can raise the funds.
Download the Year of Campaigning Guide and Planner.
February will see our next Postal Vote Action Fortnight. Experience has shown that postal voters are significantly more likely to vote than ‘regular’ voters – particularly in local elections – and it is important to make it easy for our supporters to use their vote.
What is the postal vote?
The ‘postal vote’ is the votes of people who have opted to vote by post in an election. Any elector can choose to register for a postal vote – either permanently or for a specific election.
The proportion of postal voters varies from area to area, but it is typically around 30% of the total electorate.
Why is campaigning to win the postal vote important?
Postal voters are crucial in elections as they are significantly MORE likely to vote than other voters.
Crucially postal voters vote early. This helps us as we can campaign early with postal voters – sometimes enabling us to gain an early advantage against the other parties.
Polling day is often won and lost on the number of helpers – so if we are short of people, winning the postal vote can help balance out the advantage the other parties might have there.
How do I fight to WIN the postal vote?
- Get as many Liberal Democrat leaning voters to sign up for postal votes
- Get these Lib Dem leaning postal voters to send in their votes
- Target a specific campaign at postal voters and build a long-term relationship with them so that they support you on polling day
Why this action fortnight will help
The action fortnight is designed to help you maximise your recruitment process, knowing that you will be joining other campaigners from around the UK in the same exercise.
We want to help you maximise the number of Liberal Democrat votes in the ballot box and that is why you should be recruiting all known supporters on to postal votes.
We’re asking members to lead the action fortnight in your area from Saturday 25 February onwards.
Our partners at Election Workshop can print the template letters, postal vote forms, DL insert and enclose it in an envelope for you. They will also print and mail merge the knock up leaflet. Both items will cost 20p per elector (including VAT). Purchase them here.
If you would like Election Workshop to design the items for you using the ALDC template they can do that for £49 plus VAT. All you need to do is supply the photos and words.
Please note the postal recruitment bulk buy deal with Election Workshop ends on Friday 10 February. So act fast to take advantage of this great deal.
The staples you need for the year ahead include canvass calling cards and letterheads. In partnership with Election Workshop, we are offering a programme of bulk buys:
- 2017 Calling Card Full Colour – PagePlus and PDF
- 2017 Calling Card RISO – PagePlus and PDF
- Letterhead RISO – PagePlus and PDF
- Letterhead Full Colour – PagePlus and PDF
You can order Letterhead and Calling Cards in the ALDC campaign staples page here.
We also think this is a key time to get your message across about what you are campaigning on locally if you have elections (and equally on Brexit for some areas too).
Postcards are a good and different way to get your message out at relatively little cost if delivered by hand, but ensure your message is really nailed down to just a few sentences.
The deal is available here.
This month also sees many areas get going with their cream and blue envelope writing. ‘Blue ink letters’ are a technique Lib Dems use to contact voters just before they vote with a personal
(usually hand written) message.
They are usually hand addressed, during March, for that added personal touch. We have arranged a bulk deal with Election Workshop, which need to be ordered by Friday 10 February (for delivery by Friday 24 February:
Blue and cream C6 envelopes at a cost of £12.50 per box. Envelopes and their delivery are liable to VAT at 20%. Envelopes are available here.
This February, we’ve launched a new series of ALDC webinars – a great chance for you to train and get advice online.
To coincide with our Postal Vote Action Fortnight, February’s webinars will be on ‘Winning the Postal Vote’ with 15 spaces available for each webinar.
Each webinar will be a maximum of 45 minutes in length and they’re free for ALDC members.
Here are this month’s dates and times:
- Monday February 6th at 12 noon (45 minutes)
- Sunday February 12th at 12 noon (45 minutes)
- Thursday February 16th at 6pm (45 minutes)
We want you to use this month’s suggestions to develop your campaign plans. Your plans should set out what you are aiming to do on a monthly basis until at least the next set of elections.
Do let us know what works for you and what else you would like to see.
Happy Campaigning!