Progressives Canvas!
The new Biden administration is in the house and working hard undoing the Trumpster Fire. There is no time to rest on our laurels, we have lots of leg-work to do, and we don’t want this done by corporations this time.
The layout of Congress is too tight to actually get sweeping change and the Republicans are not having it. Their game plan is to stymie success for the Democrats so they can sweep up in 2022 like they did in 2010. Senator Bernie Sanders thinks so too. And here is what we are going to do.
Canvas our Asses Off.
What is a canvas, you ask? A canvas is a database or spreadsheet of all addresses in a particular geographic area known as a precinct. Each address has some identified voters, voting record, and preferences. Those addresses without registered voters are offered the chance to register and later, offers a bulwark against voter purges as the precinct officer can spot changes in the voting record and alert voters.
Our job in this year of our lord 2021 is to take on the task of canvasing at least ten precincts per person. That equates to about 7000 people (700 * 10). Work smart and stay safe.
First you assess your community for size and accessibility. Many of you may live in very urban areas where a whole apartment building might be one precinct. And some might live in a small town where there are just a few precincts where homes are far from each other.
Next you contact your county elections office to request (or download) voter lists by precinct of your entire community. If there are too many to fathom, build a team to spread out the workload.
Get an accurate address list from the Post Office or from the city or county. All this is public record.
Build your initial database/spreadsheet. Once you see how many addresses do not have registered voters, you will begin to see more clearly the rest of your job — to fill those gaps with intelligence.
Why are we doing this?
We Progressives are looking at 2022 to win huge wins against two major enemies — fascist Republicans and Corporatist Democrats, both heavily funded. Our campaigns MUST arise from the grassroots through sweat and grit. Canvasing flushes out amazing leaders, creates new voters, and develops a base of information about the electorate much earlier in the election season which Progressive candidates can use quickly to target base voters, on-the-fence Independents, and potential contributors. The more accurate the canvas is, the faster the Progressive candidate gets to the head of the polls before the primary. From this canvas, we can recruit and develop Precinct leaders to manage each precinct through the years. These Committee(men/officers) are essential to provide strength within the county/district party systems. Power bubbles from the bottom up. This is what happened in the 1930s.
The bottom-line
A canvas is money in the bank — huge value without spending money.
