As noted, nonpartisan "get out the vote" efforts and partisan ones will have a different message.
Political campaigns are urging voters to vote for a particular candidate.
Oftentimes, campaigns will include a persuasion message in the GOTV contact as well.
The script for a campaign might look something like this: "Thanks for your support for Smith for Mayor.
The election is this Tuesday and we need all of Smith's supporters to vote because our city needs fiscal discipline...
continues" There are also other organizations that will reference candidates in their GOTV script such as labor unions and 527s.
On the hand, issue advocacy groups will mention a specific issue and encourage voters to make their decision based on that issue: "Be sure to vote on Election Day, this Tuesday, because the environment needs an advocate.
The town's factory is spewing waste into the river without regulation, so we need you to come out and vote to protect our waterways...
continues" Another important difference between these types of GOTV programs is the universe they target.
A political campaign will only contact known supporters.
If a candidate hasn't identified more than 50% of likely voters as supporters, a campaign will also include voters that they haven't identified but will likely support the candidate.
If the candidate is a Democrat, for example, he might include undecided Democrats that they didn't get a positive ID for.
Membership organizations, however, will target their members such as issue advocacy groups and unions.
527 groups will focus on people who care about the particular set of issues or political philosophy.
Non campaign groups will also target in other ways such as focusing on certain media markets and people who fit certain demographic profiles.
Finally, "get out the vote" campaigns differ between campaign programs and non campaign programs by their length.
A political campaign has a much shorter GOTV effort because it is maximizing the time that it has to persuade voters.
Outside of a campaign context, there isn't the need to persuade voters.
Most of the time, the support for the cause is known so those groups can spend more time focusing on getting those people out to vote as opposed to educating them on the issues.
While it is difficult to flesh out all of the differences between GOTV campaigns from candidates and on other sources, since there are so many types of nonpartisan "get out the vote" efforts, these three differences are usually stark and make it easier to differentiate between the types of programs.
Political campaigns are urging voters to vote for a particular candidate.
Oftentimes, campaigns will include a persuasion message in the GOTV contact as well.
The script for a campaign might look something like this: "Thanks for your support for Smith for Mayor.
The election is this Tuesday and we need all of Smith's supporters to vote because our city needs fiscal discipline...
continues" There are also other organizations that will reference candidates in their GOTV script such as labor unions and 527s.
On the hand, issue advocacy groups will mention a specific issue and encourage voters to make their decision based on that issue: "Be sure to vote on Election Day, this Tuesday, because the environment needs an advocate.
The town's factory is spewing waste into the river without regulation, so we need you to come out and vote to protect our waterways...
continues" Another important difference between these types of GOTV programs is the universe they target.
A political campaign will only contact known supporters.
If a candidate hasn't identified more than 50% of likely voters as supporters, a campaign will also include voters that they haven't identified but will likely support the candidate.
If the candidate is a Democrat, for example, he might include undecided Democrats that they didn't get a positive ID for.
Membership organizations, however, will target their members such as issue advocacy groups and unions.
527 groups will focus on people who care about the particular set of issues or political philosophy.
Non campaign groups will also target in other ways such as focusing on certain media markets and people who fit certain demographic profiles.
Finally, "get out the vote" campaigns differ between campaign programs and non campaign programs by their length.
A political campaign has a much shorter GOTV effort because it is maximizing the time that it has to persuade voters.
Outside of a campaign context, there isn't the need to persuade voters.
Most of the time, the support for the cause is known so those groups can spend more time focusing on getting those people out to vote as opposed to educating them on the issues.
While it is difficult to flesh out all of the differences between GOTV campaigns from candidates and on other sources, since there are so many types of nonpartisan "get out the vote" efforts, these three differences are usually stark and make it easier to differentiate between the types of programs.
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