New Fla Demo Strategy: Bonuses To Those Who Best Turn Out Votes
BY SAM FIELDS
Once again the Democrats ran the wrong kind of race. Whether you are talking about Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Charlie Crist in 2014, Democrats erroneously and overwhelmingly put their money into persuasion rather than Get Out the Vote.
What I propose is injecting a little good old American capitalism in the Democratic GOTV. Let’s start paying bonuses to those in select precincts who do the best job getting Ds to the polls.
Consider the following facts:
In 2014 when Charlie Crist lost by 66,127 votes, 283,161 (52%) Broward Democrats did not bother to vote.
In 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost Florida by 119,770 votes, 155,615 (26%) Broward Democrats did not bother to vote.
Extrapolated statewide, there was something close to a million Democrats who did not vote in 2016 and two million who did not vote in 2014!
Statewide, where we have 6000 precincts, squeezing out another 66,127 Democrats in 2014 meant only another 10 votes per precinct!
In 2016 that number was only 19 votes per precinct!
Yet these no-show Democratic voters were largely ignored. Crist and Clinton spent upwards of 80% of their bottomless bank accounts with mail and TV ads to persuade the 10% of voters who claimed to be “undecided” right up to Election Day.
If they did nothing, Democrats would have probably gotten 33% of the “undecided”. Nevertheless, between 2014 and 2016 Democrats spent north of $200 million on the so-called “undecided”.
It makes no sense to spend all that money on a couple of hundred thousand “maybe” votes when you are leaving one or two million “yes” votes on the table.
Consider Broward precincts R 23, 24, 25 and thirty other precincts I looked at. They voted 95% for Clinton but only averaged a 60% turnout. In some other Broward precincts, Democratic turnout was over 75%.
Add in Dade and Palm Beach and we are talking about a couple of hundred strong Democratic precincts with lousy turnouts.
Had Broward Democrats turned out 75% in 2014, we would have put Charlie Crist into the Governor’s mansion. Throw in Florida’s other 1000 strong Democratic precincts and in 2016 Hillary sweeps the state.
Pay Precinct Workers
I believe Florida Democrats need a precinct-by-precinct GOTV run on a for profit basis. Now before you think I am about the break the law let me explain the relevant law.
Back in the day politicians regularly and legally plied voters with booze and other things—think George Washington running for the Virginia House of Burgesses. It’s now against the law to pay a person to vote or vote a particular way.
It’s NOT against the law to pay people to increase the voter turnout, whether in a precinct or an entire state. It is not against the law to pay them a success bonus.
That’s the crux of my plan and here is how it would work.
- Identify Florida 1000 precincts that had high Democratic performance, but a turnout rate at least 10% below the average.
- In each precinct establish a base number using the previous turnout. For the 2018 gubernatorial race that would be the 2014 election. For the 2020 race that would be the 2016 race.
- Identify a responsible person who resides in the precinct who will be paid $10 for every Democratic vote cast above their precinct’s base number.
- Administer a training class to explain to them what they can and cannot legally do. You would teach strategies based on maximizing Absentee and Early Voting.
- To assist them they will be given an iPad loaded with up-to-date Democratic precinct data—name, address, voter history, etc. When voting begins they will be sent a daily updating crossing off those who have voted.
- A prize/slash bonus will be paid to the top producers. Statewide I would suggest $25,000, $15,000 and $5000 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Assume we start off targeting 1,000 low performance Democratic precincts and they average 200 voters above the baseline. It will cost about $2.5 million to produce an additional 200,000 Democratic voters. That’s more than enough to elect Crist in 2014 and carry Florida for Hillary in 2016.
If that seems like a lot of money it’s not. Taken together, this October and November, Florida’s Democratic candidates were spending that much every day on television ads! Put another way, it is less than 2% of what Democrats spent in the 2016 election cycle.
Will some be offended by my idea? Sure.
On the Democratic side my idea will disturb companies, groups and people that are foolishly getting paid to repeat their failed GOTV.
On the Republican side, those upset will be the same people that had no problem voting for a guy who is a racist sociopath, tax cheat and brags about his sexual escapades.
For different reasons, both should be ignored.
December 8th, 2016 at 12:58 pm
Good idea. I know several hard working volunteers who took time off from work to get-out-the-vote. Of course, pay them. Employees must have a proven track record in the party to qualified.
December 8th, 2016 at 1:15 pm
A UAW business agent who was Dem County Chair in NJ used to get UAW checks for us college kids to register voters. Uniin Local n factory are gone.
December 8th, 2016 at 1:28 pm
Your solution is 100% right…
It will never happen because consultants make better kickbacks from the mail people and/or percentage off the media buy. There is a reason for the most part that while the candidates change the consultants remain the same.
The biggest example of the epic failure you have pointed out is in the black community. For years many in this community were legally hired to help turn out the vote. Then all of a sudden campaigns like Crist and Hillary had money to fly in rich kids from all over the country to campaign but there was no money for anyone in the minority communities. Why? because of the faulty belief that blacks came out for Barak the Democrat for free, they would do the same for Charlie and Hillary and they did not.
FROM BUDDY:
You are absolutely right.
December 8th, 2016 at 3:52 pm
If this works, expect the Republicans to do it. With their money and their bigger grass roots organization, they will smother any Democratic effort.
December 8th, 2016 at 4:23 pm
Mr Nevins did u see the Alcee Hastings Events for Crist on Sistrunk when I was the only White person NOT on the payroll and the only LOCAL White resident? I could have puked
December 8th, 2016 at 5:16 pm
If Trump is able to cut the welfare rolls like he says he will over the next 8 years and get the slackers to work again, there will not be enough people to call on that can get off work to “get out the vote”.
We need America to work for a living and not vote for a living.
Let’s make America great again!
December 8th, 2016 at 7:06 pm
Just simplify. Pay voters for their votes. It works in some communities in south Broward! Especially when absentee ballots are involved.
December 8th, 2016 at 11:07 pm
Yeah, you can do all that or you could nominate a candidate you weren’t ashamed to vote for.
December 9th, 2016 at 11:57 am
Herb- Why not give it a try? Some would work harder than they did, if they could have just covered the cost of gas.As an “old Lady”,I put in about 100 hours,and there are a lot of my friends who did much more. Those who can’t afford transportation & child care cost could really help with just minimum wage. Who gives a crap what the repubs do? That’s their campaign.
December 9th, 2016 at 3:33 pm
What I saw in this campaign for President and even for Senate is the same thing I’ve seen virtually in every prior election, taking for granted the base you need to win an election with.
It is generally assumed that minorities will vote Democrat, and to a great extent this is true. However, the problem is not getting to vote Democrat, but getting them to vote. Those not voting are lost votes.
I’ve had talks with other leaders in the area, and they agree that those seeking Governor, Senate and the Presidency ignore personally visiting this constituency.
You can pay whomever you want, but the people want to see the candidate.
As an example, Central Broward County, Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, votes Democratic 95% of the time. Yet, except for an unannounced visit to the Lauderhill Mall by Hiliary right at the end, no presidential candidate has ever visited the area and still have they ever held a rally in the area.
And no, Ft. Lauderdale is not the same. It is two different groups.
No Senate or Governor candidate has ever visited the area either.
Yet, Hiliary held rallies in Ft. Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs, Coconut Creek among other areas, but never in Central Broward.
I estimate in Lauderhill alone she lost 3500 since people stayed home.
So if Democrats want to win they better start shoring up their base and motivate them by personally meeting them. Otherwise enough of them will stay home and not vote.
December 26th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
MS NBC n NYT Israel bashing if not outright anti-Semitism lead to the stabbing in the back by President Obama at the UN. Really helps Dems in Florida