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Canvassing

June 18th, 2005 · Posted by Skuds in Politics · No Comments · Politics

“We only ever see you lot at election time!”

Thats something that political activists are always hearing. In a way its true, because we are more active and more motivated as elections draw near, and we get a lot more help, but in another way its far from true: there are party members out most weeks, but they can’t cover that much ground.

Yesterday I went out knocking on some doors in Ifield. I had been looking forward to a quiet night in, but when Jayne picked me up from the station she asked if I was joining the others at Ifield for canvassing. That was the first I had heard of it. I umm-ed and ah-ed a bit and she said “it shouldn’t be too bad. There will be a big crowd so you’ll get it all done in no time.”

I figured that, as deputy chair of the party I ought to make the effort, so I went and (you have probably guessed where this is going) I was the only person there apart from Keith, who is regional organiser (or area organiser or whatever) based in Brighton.

We did the whole of Warren Drive, and had a great time. We were only calling on known Labour voters. Partly to make sure they would not be saying they only see us at election time, but also to see if any might just be interested in joining. Most felt that they were far too old to start joining things, but all were friendly.

I took a couple of clipboards and membership forms from Keith so that Jayne and I can do our own thing in Broadfield. It hardly seems worth waiting for an organised event if we are likely to be the only ones turning up anyway…

“We have never seen anyone from any party down our road”

Thats another thing people say to us. I wonder if they are the same people whose doors we knock on but nobody answers, even though we can hear a TV somewhere in the house? I’m sure that when we get spotted approaching the door with a clipboard we get mistaken for debt collectors, energy salespeople, or other such undesirables, so people hide until we have gone, and then get back to writing a letter to the Crawley News saying how none of the political parties ever knock on their door!

But again, there is some truth in the accusations. Political parties have all sorts of information, including marked registers. When we see that the inhabitants of a particular house have never voted at all, we know there is not much point in knowing which way they would vote.

Of course those are the people we should be talking to, to find out why they won’t vote, and see if we can persuade them to not only vote but to vote the right way. But we put that off to the end: we will call on people who do actually vote first and then mop up the non-voters afterwards.

The thing is, if most members don’t turn out for canvassing we are never going to get to that point.

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