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"Get out the vote," sometimes "GOTV," is a term used to describe two categories of political activity, both aimed at increasing the number of votes cast in one or more elections.

Impartial contexts

In impartial contexts "Get out the vote" is a slogan (and "get out the vote" is a generic grammatical predicate) used by non-partisan organizations, such as the League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote and Women's Voices that are nominally or sincerely motivated by the belief that failure of any eligible voter to vote in any election entails a loss to society, rather than by a desire to assist a particular party, candidate or campaign.

Campaign contexts

In contexts of the efforts of candidates, party activities and ballot measure campaigns, "get-out-the-vote" (or GOTV) is an adjective indicating having the effect of increasing the number of the campaign's supporters who will vote in the immediately approaching election. (As a noun, "get out the vote" or GOTV is shorthand for either "get-out-the-vote activities" or "the previously planned get-out-the-vote portion of our campaign".)

GOTV generally is distinguished from preliminary activities necessary to carrying it out. That is, GOTV includes telephoning known supporters on the day of the election (or occasionally in the last few days before it to remind them to vote, and providing rides to the polls to known supporters), but the process of identifying those supporters is generally described as a separate part of the campaign, voter identification ("ID-ing") -- the major focus of canvassing.

Other GOTV activities include literature drops early on election day or the evening before and an active tracking of eligible voters who have already voted.

The terminology reflects a distinction of GOTV from the complementary strategy of suppressing turnout among likely opposition voters. Political consultants are reputed to privately advise some candidates to "go negative" (attack an opponent), without any intent to sway voters toward them: this plan is to instead increase the number of eligible voters who fail to vote, because their tendency to believe "politics is inherently corrupt" has so recently been reinforced. Such turnout suppression can be advantageous where any combination of three conditions apply:
  1. The negative campaigning is targeted (by direct mail, telephone "push polls," or the like) on likely opposing voters, reducing the collateral damage to supporters morale.
  2. The side going negative has an advantage in its supporters being steadier voters than those of its opponent.
  3. The side going negative has an advantage in doing effective GOTV, so that its campaign workers can get a GOTV "antidote" to more supporters "poisoned" by the negative campaign, than the opposing campaign can of their own supporters.


The importance of get out the vote efforts increases as the total percentage of the population voting decreases. For instance, with only two-thirds of the population voting in a Canadian election it is often far easier and more cost effective to ensure that a hundred supporters show up on polling day than it is to convince a hundred voters to switch support from one party to the other. This has also tended to polarize electoral politics. A 90% turnout from a party's radical base is often better than a 50 percent turnout from both radical and moderate supporters.

GOTV can also be extremely important in high turn-out elections when they are extremely close. In these elections turnout can be critical in determining the election results.

See also

References

External links

political campaign is an organized effort which to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referenda are decided.
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Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious
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  • Campaign finance
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Opposition research
Political consulting

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  • Campaign finance
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Opposition research
Political consulting
  • Campaign message
Campaign advertising
Canvassing
Election promise

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Episode no. Season 6
Episode 121
Guest stars Marlee Matlin
Annabeth Gish
Sam Robards
Steven Eckholdt
Karis Campbell
Evan Arnold
Bill O'Brien
Frank Kopyc
Written by Eli Attie
Directed by Christopher Misiano
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Political consulting is the business which has grown up around advising and assisting political campaigns, primarily in the United States. As democracy has spread around the world, American political consultants have often developed an international base of clients.
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campaign advertising is the use of paid media (newspapers, radio, television, etc.) to influence the decisions made for and by groups. These ads are designed by political consultants and the campaign's staff.
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worldwide view.


  • Campaign finance
  • Campaign management tools
Opposition research
Political consulting
  • Campaign message
Campaign advertising
Canvassing

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Lawn signs are one of the most visible features of an election campaign in some countries. They are small signs placed on the lawns of a candidate's supporters. Signs are also often placed on lamp posts and larger signs may stand next to busy intersections.
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Negative campaigning is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies.
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attack ad is an advertisement whose message is meant as an attack against another candidate or political party. Attack ads often form part of negative campaigning or smear campaigns, and in large or well-financed campaigns, may be disseminated via mass media.
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push poll is a political campaign technique in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll.
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smear campaign or smear tactic is a deliberate attempt by an individual or group to harm another individual's or group's reputation. This tactic is also colloquially referred to as mud slinging.
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Voter suppression is a form of electoral fraud and refers to the use of governmental power, political campaign strategy, and private resources aimed at suppressing (i.e. reducing) the total vote of opposition candidacies instead of attempting to change likely voting behavior by
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For other uses, see candidate (disambiguation).
A candidate is the prospective recipient of an award or honor or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:

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campaign manager whose role is to coordinate the campaign's operations. Apart from the candidate, they are often a campaign's most visible leader, However, modern campaign managers, particularly at the presidential level, are mostly concerned with executing strategy, not setting it.
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staff of political campaigns are the people who formulate and implement the strategy needed to win an election. Many people have made careers out of working full-time for campaigns and groups that support them, in other campaigns much of the staff might be unpaid volunteers.
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Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s.
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League of Women Voters of the United States

Nonpartisan Political Organization
Founded 1920
Headquarters Washington, D.C.

Key people President: Mary G.
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Rock the Vote
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Political consulting is the business which has grown up around advising and assisting political campaigns, primarily in the United States. As democracy has spread around the world, American political consultants have often developed an international base of clients.
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A consultant (from the Latin consultare means "to discuss" from which we also derive words such as consul and counsel) is a professional who provides advice in a particular area of expertise such as accountancy, the environment, technology, law, human
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Negative campaigning is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies.
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political corruption is the misuse by government officials of their governmental powers for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, like repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption.
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push poll is a political campaign technique in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll.
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Democracy

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PIG is an electoral technique commonly employed in the United Kingdom, consisting of three steps:
  • Persuade — in which the organisation concerned convinces the public to support them—usually a political party attempting to solicit votes.

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