Does door-to-door canvassing make much difference?

Borstal Boy

For all you political hacks out there, I have some questions about canvassing.

I just posted to another thread saying how I thought a particular candidate (Shay Brennan) was much more impressive on the doorstep than he is in the media. But I wonder, how much of a difference does canvassing really make to a campaign? Is it possible for a candidate to canvass every house?

Can anyone tell me how many houses are in Dublin South? How many houses can a candidate canvass during an election campaign?

How do you canvass apartments? Do people canvass during the day or just in the evening?

Agent Smith

Borstal Boy wrote: »

For all you political hacks out there, I have some questions about canvassing.

I just posted to another thread saying how I thought a particular candidate (Shay Brennan) was much more impressive on the doorstep than he is in the media. But I wonder, how much of a difference does canvassing really make to a campaign? Is it possible for a candidate to canvass every house?

Can anyone tell me how many houses are in Dublin South? How many houses can a candidate canvass during an election campaign?

How do you canvass apartments? Do people canvass during the day or just in the evening?

How many houses are their in south Dublin? Lord knows. tbh

Canvassing Apartments can be very difficult. Anyone who isnt out morning noon and night for the following week is living in a dreamland.

How effecting is canvassing? Say for every 100 houses you knock at, you get 11 votes (just an example) thats 11 more votes then you would have before you went out.

Joey the lips

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=17987

Interesting thought and a couple of things spring to mind the link above says it works but can not find any "Irish" research. Red C polls suggest it does work cause the polls effectivly make those aware of the campagn which is why they dont call on the same batch of people twice for before and afters in election results

1. The majority of vote comes from middle aged family men/women usually in there 40's. These are highly unlikely to be in apts but a 3 bed house in subburbia!

2. The greatest turnout comes from pensioners. i know is there a contradiction in 1 and 2. no! there is more middle aged in society at the moment then elderly!

3. The lowest turnout comes from working class areas! There is a strange irony to this as these are the mass of votes and the people who need the help the most!

4. Many apartment contain the young and the non registered voter! These are the hardest to get because of access! I know of partys that ask can they speak to residents through there association and management companies. Ballymun flats proved one of the most difficult tasks for many of the parties but as sinn fein and labour use to show in the area. There is no better place to canvass on a rainy night!

So clearly canvassing is aimed and most probably taken advantage of by the middle class vote as the fact that the partys in power at the moment apeal to these voters.

Lockstep

door to door canvassing is apparently where you get all the votes.
Flyers and leaflets are binned as junkmail and it seems ingrained in the Irish psyche to vote for Joe the Man You Know.

When canvassing it's amazing how many people will change their tune when they see your connection to a local person who's well known.

6th

I've had alot of people call to the door. I had one of them stand out on the road while her dad came to my door ... she was just standing there.

The independent who is getting my number 1 vote got bumped up from number 3 because of how good he came across in person.

Burial

Door-to-door canvasing puts a real face on the policies that people see on signs and get in the post and gives the voter a chance to ask questions on issues that effect them. If the person canvassing gets across the message to the voter of what they are going to do and the voter agrees with them, they're more likely to get that persons vote, and quite possibly make that voter more likely to turn out on voting day

So yes, it does make a difference

is_that_so

A friend of mine who has a very dim view of politicians voted for a candidate in the last GE because he showed up at the door three times and talked to him. People like to meet the person and as long as they are civil and reasonably presentable they are in with a shout of a vote.

Borstal Boy

Thanks for all those posts. All very informative.

Anyone have any idea how long it would take for a single candidate to canvass a constituency like Dublin South? Or even how long it would take, on average, to canvass an estate of a hundred houses?

Pythia

Borstal Boy wrote: »

Thanks for all those posts. All very informative.

Anyone have any idea how long it would take for a single candidate to canvass a constituency like Dublin South? Or even how long it would take, on average, to canvass an estate of a hundred houses?

They wouldn't canvass it on their own so it would just depend on how many team members they had out with them and also what time of day it was.

aidan_walsh

In Cork city centre I have yet to have one knock on my door, and I've been out of work early this last month. The most I would hear is someone at the letter box and a flyer on the floor. Seen a few outside the local church on a Saturday evening but other than that I wouldn'y know them except for their mugshots on the lightpoles.

mikemac

Do you check the electoral register to maximize your use of time?

I work & live in a constituency but I'll be voting in my home area, not in this place
So why are local election candidates and their teams putting leaflets in my letterbox?
There is nobody here that can vote for them

They can certainly call around for a chat if they want but if they checked the register they might save some time and only go to places where the voters live

nkay1985

mikemac wrote: »

Do you check the electoral register to maximize your use of time?

I work & live in a constituency but I'll be voting in my home area, not in this place
So why are local election candidates and their teams putting leaflets in my letterbox?
There is nobody here that can vote for them

They can certainly call around for a chat if they want but if they checked the register they might save some time and only go to places where the voters live

This is difficult to implement. The register that candidates have doesn't contain people registered after a certain date. So for the sake of the extra couple of seconds it takes to knock on someone's door, it's worth it in case they're on the supplementary register. Or, like happened to me the other night, I got a house where the owner's mother answered. That same woman had been out of her own house the night we called and when she found out who my father was said she'd be voting for him.