Ask Ructions-How Do I Spend the Last Week of the Campaign? With Updates.
Dear Ructions,
I’m running for office in my town for the first time. I have been knocking on doors, attending events, raising some money, keeping up with Facebook, and getting spots for signs. What should I be doing in the last week before Election Day?
Sign me,
Eager and green
Dear Eager,
What an exciting time for you. This is the week to tie all together your work of the last few months. If you kept lists of the voters you met, send them a card reminding them you enjoyed your contact and that Tuesday is Election Day. For voters you missed when you knocked on their door, tell them you look forward to seeing them at the polls. Narrow your focus. Concentrate on voters who have voted in previous local elections and people you know but typically skip municipal elections.
If you have voting age children put one of them in charge of making sure their friends vote. You will note an uptick in interest. People will ask how they can help. Put them on phones and the doorsteps to contact the voters you have identified as supporters. Also have them review voter rolls from 2017. They will find plenty of people they know but didn’t vote in your last local elections. They can be one of the few rich veins of adding to turnout. So can voters who are new to your town, though most Connecticut communities do not have a lot of those.
Assign someone clever to monitor social media to douse outbreaks of its particular ugliness. Do not touch an absentee ballot application.
UPDATE: A reader write candidates and their campaign volunteers should text family and friends at midday to ask if they have voted and remind them one more time that it’s important and if they have not they still have time.
UPDATE: Another reader would like to remind candidates that the campaign ends on Tuesday at 8 p.m., not Monday not. Keep making the personal ask. “May I, please, have your vote?” Also, don’t drink for the next week. Alcohol weakens the filter and can cause candidates to say stupid things on social media.
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