Two things I'd change, based on canvassing this year: 1. Qualitative methods training for canvassers (eg, rapport-building, probing, fieldnote writing) 2. A text box in the app to share open-ended insights (for qualitative analysis later) A short 🧵 1/ - ThreadSky

jessicacalarco.bsky.social • 113 days ago

Two things I'd change, based on canvassing this year:
1. Qualitative methods training for canvassers (eg, rapport-building, probing, fieldnote writing)
2. A text box in the app to share open-ended insights (for qualitative analysis later)

A short 🧵 1/

Comments

profmarylewis.bsky.social•112 days ago

This whole thread is super interesting. As someone who has canvassed a ton, I see a tension between training & just getting people out there b/c you learn by doing. Ideally, people would do a zoom training the evening before, & not spend precious daylight canvassing hours on in-person training.

profmarylewis.bsky.social•112 days ago

But the training should be more about engagement and conversation. Not scripts!

looly.bsky.social•112 days ago

the problem is that the product is designed as if the most important thing was capturing polling data instead of persuading, building bonds, and increasing enthusiasm/GOTV.

mayaenaise.bsky.social•112 days ago

📌

thereunderneath.bsky.social•112 days ago

📌

wikisteff.bsky.social•112 days ago

📌 for a follow-up weak signal

jasoncdaniels.bsky.social•112 days ago

1 and 2 are always a must. At every job I've had where there's been a feedback page and they gave only trivial amounts of space for said feedback, it always turns out they're not truly interested in qualitative analysis.

luftkraftpikk.bsky.social•112 days ago

While I appreciate your well-versed take on how to fix canvassing. Doesn't it end up as the old figure of speech: "You can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink"?

(I go by Politifact, candidate comparison, and debate(s) to see which one is more truthful and relatable. I #VoteBlue.)

marloquells.bsky.social•112 days ago

I was a canvasser for Kamala this election cycle!

jcreisen.bsky.social•113 days ago

We had training in active listening, empathizing, and personalizing and addressing their concerns with a story of our own. But none of it mattered, because no matter what they said it was all code for “I’m not voting for a woman and especially not a black one.”

leftspace13.bsky.social•112 days ago

this is stuff lots of people in field have talked about for a while, and great to read more support. there is a lot of inertia in changing how we do this so hopefully some big changes can be made - side note: i've always left notes in miniVAN but i also know most of them are ignored. cont...

leftspace13.bsky.social•112 days ago

it's both a scale problem and tech problem - so much to go through for usually overworked staff, and the apps don't boost notes to either data people or canvassers.

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•112 days ago

Thanks for these thoughts! Unless I missed it, the version of Minivan I was using didn't have space for notes (is it possible for organizers to turn that feature off?). Alternatively, I might have missed it, because there were so many checkbox questions for each voter (like well over a dozen).

leftspace13.bsky.social•112 days ago

not sure, this cycle the campaign i helped on did have a miniVAN notes button tucked into a menu that could've been easily missed, which, yes, another problem.

edukas1.bsky.social•113 days ago

I'm curious if the objectives of canvassing can be better focused and prioritized to improve the effectiveness.

Without "fixing" the questions to attain certain objectives - determine what are any of the qualities that are being sought for further discussion and what can be deferred for later.

mevarinavalo.bsky.social•113 days ago

The 'interest rate' thing is by far the biggest factor I think.
There's a lot of people who feel that the economy is worse for them since a few years ago. They don't particularly understand WHY it's worse, other than inflation, it just is. And they think Biden and liberal policies are to blame.

mevarinavalo.bsky.social•113 days ago

Of course, it doesn't help that there's a lot of media out there with an agenda to make the liberals seem guilty of all their economic woes. One could argue that there wasn't enough attempt to address these woes on the democrat's side, but it's not like these people would have heard it anyway.

seansatori.bsky.social•113 days ago

So there are two solutions to this: 1) Policy that cures the economic woes; 2) Information that clearly lets them know why they have the woes. Democrats only try to solve the problem, they utterly fail at explaining why the problem exists.

seattlelife.bsky.social•113 days ago

I think we would also need to answer the big question of how you actually disseminate that information to these types of people -- both in a way that they believe and understand (especially when they're not already actively trying to find that answer). But obviously we need to go deeper

seansatori.bsky.social•113 days ago

1) Short form; 2) Visual; 3) In a manner that doesn't conflict with their priors. The last one is important because confirmation bias is a helluva drug.

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

I'd add: stories. Real-life narratives give people a way to make sense of complex ideas.

yougottavote.bsky.social•112 days ago

For #2 a guy who is interesting, fun, upbeat & cuts to the bottom line of all things finance/economy is @kairyssdal.bsky.social Kai Ryssdal. NPR weeknights called @Marketplace. Google the schedule of the program. Such a delight. Super upbeat, timely, witty and VERY instructive. #MakesYouSmarter

sarahrosenberg.bsky.social•112 days ago

I think this discussion is really interesting and gives me a little hope something can be improved, but I’m wondering — how do we compete on explaining why when Rs (usually false) explanations are so much simpler?

sarahrosenberg.bsky.social•112 days ago

Same is true for the solutions, tbh. “tariffs, China pays for it” “deport them all” “Fire Powell”. “Cut taxes”. There, I’m done explaining Trump’s economic plan.

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

Exactly!!! This kind of data could lead to more effective voter education.

buffy71.bsky.social•112 days ago

Not if they only listen to FoxNews.

nilsdavis.bsky.social•112 days ago

I just wrote a mini-thread on this - https://bsky.app/profile/nilsdavis.bsky.social/post/3laftjxuivi2k

ichatterjea.bsky.social•112 days ago

Thank you for spelling this out.📌

lynnais.bsky.social•113 days ago

As a lay person, I get the gist of what you're saying. For future canvassers, if that is ever allowed again, it needs to be simplified, which I suspect that you would intend to do.

siebznet.bsky.social•112 days ago

The app (MiniVAN) has an open-ended text entry function. Most campaigns disable it because volunteers abuse it and the data you get back is next to useless for sentiment analysis (I've tried)

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•112 days ago

Yeah, this is why training on how to write effective fieldnotes and memos is really important for usable data.

siebznet.bsky.social•112 days ago

I think maybe it's time for me to get back on my soapbox about how our "field" operations have become a purely quantitative exercise increasingly divorced from any theory of persuasion or social change

gretafied.bsky.social•112 days ago

The Dems discarded the farmer laborers years ago and the 4 year bandaid from Biden did not heal deep wounds. I doubt few of you understand how much Blue Collar hates white collar. Especially when being told from white collar anything. The hatred IMO is decades old.

mbhastings.bsky.social•112 days ago

I like this, but I am finding that increasingly, people don’t want to have those conversations. They shut down or don’t answer the door.

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

For context, I'm a Sociology professor, ethnographer, and interviewer. I've been teaching qualitative methods for more than a decade and coauthored a book on Qualitative Literacy. 2/
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/qualitative-literacy/paper

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

While canvassing, a couple I talked to said they wouldn't pick Harris "because of the interest rates." Probing, it was clear interest rates have little impact on them. It's just a concept that resonated with their sense money isn't as easy for them as they felt it should be. 3/

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

This couple also told me at first they hadn't decided who to vote for. If I'd stopped there and not probed any further, I wouldn't have found out that they actually had zero interest in voting Harris. They just weren't sure whether to vote Trump, third party, or not at all. 4/

doctorscience.bsky.social•112 days ago

ISTM that if they had *0* interest in voting Harris & were just flailing around to put a name to why, the real reason was 1 they didn't want to articulate (prob even to themselves), just a "gut feeling". Which means the reason is misogynoir.

doctorscience.bsky.social•112 days ago

This is America, and the default answer to any "Why?" question is ALWAYS "Racism." *Always*. In this case, +bonus amplifying sexism.
Sometimes there's another answer, but if you don't start w/racism(/sexism) you're automatically dodging the hard bits in the question

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

It's a case of exactly what Tressie McMillan Cottom described on @thedailyshow.com. People use the language we give them (eg, inflation, interest rates, the economy, undecided), but they're not using it literally. They're using it figuratively. Which changes how we should react. 5/

fplynch.bsky.social•112 days ago

If you didn't see it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nno64FGj8d0

welcome2absurdia.bsky.social•112 days ago

Such a useful explanation and I think 100% right. People with all kinds of fears voted for the guy who made them feel he was going to fix everything bad.

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

Qualitative methods training, coupled with a way to report back qualitative insights, and with a team of qualitative researchers to analyze the resulting data, could uncover these mismatches in meaning sooner and make it easier to respond effectively. 6/

nilsdavis.bsky.social•112 days ago

You know who is good at this? Right wing messaging people.

They *know* what people mean by these terms - partly because they *taught* them.

I.e., "interest rates" doesn't mean literally interest rates, it means "things the elites have kept high to hurt you."

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

Of course, this is a lot. But there's a lot at stake here. And I'd bet that there are a lot of qualitative researchers who would be happy to contribute with methods training and data analysis (myself included). 7/

maryinthegarden.bsky.social•112 days ago

I'm so interested in this. When politicians refute misconceptions based on language which has been absorbed from political conversations but applied somewhat imprecisely, it wouldn't reassure. It would probably feel alienating and dismissive, because the concern wasn't fully understood or addressed.

patois42.com•113 days ago

Given my experience the last three weekends in Reno and Winnemucca, I have two big suggestions on canvassing:
1. Get canvassers to practice performing for all the Ring cameras.
2. Give us space on the collateral material to write a personal message.

reallymrst.bsky.social•112 days ago

Interested in all of this for upcoming school board election. We struggled with canvassing last time and I think training would help. Also our slate will be countering the same type of fear and misinfo as general election. We need better tools to fight.

reallymrst.bsky.social•112 days ago

📌

genevievef.bsky.social•112 days ago

Before training canvassers, we've got to get a message out that information is good. Doesn't matter how good you are at asking the right questions if people refuse to answer the door for strangers

loudanduniformed.bsky.social•108 days ago

The 5 Whys is a common paradigm I use in my work to understand why a customer is doing a certain thing, reacting a certain way, etc. I do not know enough about focus group message testing, but I am curious is the same concept of trying to drill down why a group is reacting a certain way is applied.

loudanduniformed.bsky.social•108 days ago

When a message is tested and returns as “too negative.” Do they keep drilling down on why or is it just taken at face value and then the message is recrafted?

tnfalpha.bsky.social•113 days ago

Love. It. Could we teach journalists as well? It seems so many articles stop at the phenomenological, recording what people say without any probing, even when what was said either doesn't make sense or is entirely factually inaccurate.

iramona.bsky.social•113 days ago

In mini van?

habibs1.bsky.social•112 days ago

If I could change the way canvassing looked, I'd build a small sect of canvassers to specifically canvass unions. They are THE working community with 14 million members. An important aspect of unions: the social, economic, and racial solidarity. A collective voice fighting for the same thing.

sejarzo.bsky.social•113 days ago

Never been approached by a canvasser in 35 yrs here. Town on IL/IN line of 5000, purple in 1989 has grown to 25000, full of disgruntled Trumpists from IL and now no Dems bother to run for town office. Anyway, if you saw 5 signs in my yard all for Dems in red area, would you even come to our door?

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

As a canvasser, I was given lists of people they'd identified as undecided or low propensity voters. The goal isn't to talk to those you already know will vote a particular way. But to gather info on and maybe persuade those you don't. So, in that case, you wouldn't likely be on the list.

flyovercountry76.bsky.social•112 days ago

It seems like turnout of LIKELY voters is the challenge for our Dems.
People so apathetic that they don't even have an opinion aren't going to be persuaded by a message of hopefulness, justice, or equality.

sejarzo.bsky.social•112 days ago

I am still incredulous at the overall low turnout, because lines were long here and registrations were up massively. I am pissed that some are speaking of a real red shift, but that's based on %s and not total numbers. Apathy is real, and that's precisely the goal of the right.

sejarzo.bsky.social•113 days ago

Thanks. I always wondered why we've never been approached, even in the days when we were independents and had no signs in the yard suggesting any particular leaning.

jenniewren.bsky.social•113 days ago

In the UK the most effective campaigns have useda) ethnography - actually going into working class communities and listening closely and then develop slogans (2019 Tories) b) data driven targeting of resources to target constituencies (2024 Labour). Ideally you want A to lead to policies + slogans

codepwnie.org•113 days ago

Less facts, more vibes?

codepwnie.org•113 days ago

Fewer facts. Ugh.

jessicacalarco.bsky.social•113 days ago

: ) Still facts, just what I'd call social facts. In that qualitative data captures people's understanding of the world. But to get at that understanding, you have to interpret what people say, not take it at face value.

codepwnie.org•113 days ago

Fair, and I wasn’t really being facetious. I think part of Trumps success is that he stands for nothing and it therefore a tabula rasa that people can project themselves onto. Which led to people voting against their own self interests. Making voters feel like Dems “get” them has to be the strat.

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