First Time Canvassing
Last night was my first time out canvassing for the Conservatives ever. It was survey canvassing, so we knock, say:
Hello, sorry to bother you. We’re doing a resident’s survey on behalf of the Wimbledon Conservative party, and I was wondering if you had a few moments to give us your opinions on a range of local issues in this questionnaire.
Although the first time I tried it, it was more like:
hellosorrytobother youwe’redoingaresident’ssurveyonbehalfoftheWimbledon
ConservativepartyandIwaswonderingifyouhadafewmomentstogiveusyouropi
nionsonarangeoflocalissuesinthisquestionnaire.thanksverymuchbye.
Some observations:
- Although terrified of knocking on a stranger’s door at first, by the end I was perfectly happy with it all. The two ladies I was out with - one a councillor - were very nice and supportive.
- There are more ingenious ways than you might think to hide or disguise your doorbell.
- In the two streets we were canvassing roughly one gate in five worked properly. This despite being a ten minute walk from a B&Q and in a fairly well-off area in Wimbledon.
- A well-kept garden is no guarantee of niceness.
- Don’t do streets at the same time as carol singers - people get confused.
I look forward to picking it up again after the new year.
James Hellyer said:
Dec 15, 05 at 8:09 pmAnd where were you before the general election?
Some of us have years of experience of doorstep shenanigans. I remember back in ‘97 when I was canvassing in Cambridge for David Platt, at one house I came to, the relious nut who lived there told me I was going to hell for supporting the evil party. So I put them down as an “A”.
Administrator said:
Dec 15, 05 at 8:17 pmActually I feel kind of dumb about that now. I booked a holiday in the week of the election, and - not knowing much about anything - assumed that meant I would miss most of the canvassing and stuff.
Of course, now I know I could have been working flat out right up to the moment I went away.
–
I suppose “A” stands for “big fat no”?
James Hellyer said:
Dec 15, 05 at 9:22 pm“A” = Against
“S” = Socialist
“C” = Conservative
“P”= Probable
.. and so on if you’re using the standard election canvassing forms.
Cavassing’s fun. You get to justify policies that were announced the week before, and which you don’t agree with, while fending off accusations of racism (thank you Michael Howard).
Most people are fine really though.
Administrator said:
Dec 15, 05 at 11:29 pmThat’s a bit of an odd classification scheme… Why those particular options?
I would have expected something more like
“Are you (1)not at all likely, (2)possibly, (3) quite likely, (4)very likely to vote for the
(a)Conservative Party
(b)Labour PArty
(c) Lib dems
etc…”
??
James Hellyer said:
Dec 16, 05 at 11:14 amI didn’t come up with the coding!
It may help though to see that the standard canvassing wording runs something like this:
“Good morning. I’m calling on behalf of Geoffrey Cox, your Conservative parliamentary candidate. Could you tellme how you intend to vote in the General election?”
You then note their response as above (as I’m in a Con/Lib marginal, we also have an “L” for Liberal option).
Of course, the aim of canvassing appears to be locating your support rather than winning people over.
Administrator said:
Dec 16, 05 at 1:36 pmSure. On the questionnaire the other night it was:
“Who will you vote for:
(1)Cons
(2) Possibly Cons
(3) Labour
(4) Possibly Labour
(5) LDs
(6) Possibly LibDems
”
The only thing I find a bit odd about your scheme is that there is a box specifically for Socialist. I suppose it stands in for Labour, but why not say so?
James Hellyer said:
Dec 16, 05 at 1:49 pmIf I were to hazard a guess, I’d say it’s because it allows the answer to also cover the likes of Plaid, SNP, SSP as appropriate.
Unless CCO have changed the canvas forms they’ve sent out since the election, I’d also guess that your survey materials were produced locally. Did they have the electoral roll and previous voting intention details?
Administrator said:
Dec 16, 05 at 7:03 pmOK, that makes sense. They were local ones, they were all about Wimbledon Park stuff for the council elections. I don’t remember what was on ours, we weren’t the ones filling them out in this case. Just drop off and collect.
zan said:
Dec 18, 05 at 3:53 pm“A†= Against
“S†= Socialist
“C†= Conservative
“Pâ€= Probable
Why is there no “F” for Kindly go away and cease bothering me?
Biodun said:
Dec 19, 05 at 8:35 pmOoh random.
You live just down the road from me… (ish).
I live in the Wimbledon constituency area, so Stephen Hammond is my MP. I thought that since we already have a conservative MP, there was no work to be done unlike in Mitcham and Morden where the McDonagh sisters are getting way too comfortable.
Since I live on the border, I was actually hoping to join the Mitcham and Morden conservatives until I discovered there wasn’t one.
What else do you guys do over at Wimbledon Conservatives?
Gavin Ayling said:
Dec 23, 05 at 9:47 pmAll Conservative Associations would be grateful of any help - there’s plenty of work to do even in a safe seat for your MP - parts of the constituency may not be as strong as the whole Constituency so District and County Councillors can always do with the help (though your MP should be supported too - no seat’s that safe!)
And if your neighbouring constituency is not safe, there’s often assistance offered to neighbouring constituencies by your local party.
Cllr Iain Lindley said:
Jan 01, 06 at 4:32 pm“S” just stands for Labour rather than “Socialist”, to distinguish it from “L” for Liberal (Democrat). Technically fringe groups should be marked as “I” for Independent/Other unless they are UKIP which is “K”.
I wouldn’t worry about the codes too much though, as long as you identify the Conservatives, the likely Conservatives and the definitely-not-Conservatives.
Gary Monro said:
Jan 04, 06 at 10:20 amMy local candidate started canvassing a year before the election (we’re in a strong Labour seat). I started canvassing for about 2 hours after I joined the Party - they were that desperate.
So I only covered the last month but we were out doing something seven days a week. I’m standing as a councillor in May so have already done some door-knocking…
Happy new year…
James Hellyer said:
Jan 04, 06 at 12:27 pm“S†just stands for Labour rather than “Socialistâ€, to distinguish it from “L†for Liberal (Democrat).
“S” is used to represent Labour, but is used because it stands for “Socialist”.