How to Run a Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Operation

What GOTV is (and what it isn't)

Every phase of a campaign has a different job. Early on, you're identifying voters: figuring out who's with you, who's persuadable, and who you can't win over. In the middle, you're persuading: talking to undecided voters and moving them toward your column. In GOTV, the identification work is done. You know who your supporters are. The only remaining question is whether they vote.

That shift changes everything about how you run your operation. Voter contact becomes all about persistence, logistics, and efficient time management. Your goal is to make sure people who already intend to vote for you actually get to the polls, following up repeatedly with anyone who says they will but hasn't yet.

GOTV is also the most resource-intensive stretch of the campaign. Election day requires more volunteers than any other single day, because more contacts need to happen in a shorter window (and more tasks need to happen around the edges). More things can go wrong, and there's no time to recover from problems you didn't plan for. A well-run GOTV operation is a planned one.

What GOTV is not: a time for persuasion, new volunteer recruitment from scratch, or broad outreach to people outside your identified supporter universe. Every hour spent on those things during GOTV is an hour not spent making sure your supporters vote.

Building your GOTV universe

Your GOTV universe is the list of people you're going to contact. It's drawn from your identified supporters – everyone in your voter file who you've marked as a supporter based on ID conversations, strong support scores, or other signals.

Who belongs in your GOTV universe

• Confirmed supporters: Anyone who expressed direct support in a canvassing or phone conversation
• Committed early voters: People who told you they plan to vote early, if early voting is available in your jurisdiction
• Absentee ballot requesters: Voters who requested a mail ballot but haven't yet returned it (tracked separately if your jurisdiction provides that data)

As the GOTV period progresses, your universe shrinks. Every time a supporter votes, they come off your active contact list. In jurisdictions where same-day early vote data is available, you can use that data to reprioritize every day during GOTV. Poll watchers – volunteers who keep track of who has turned out at polling places and report back to your campaign – are also an invaluable resource both during early voting and on election day itself.

The GOTV timeline

Some campaigns treat GOTV as a single election day sprint, but the most effective operations begin earlier. The table below outlines a general GOTV timeline; your specific schedule will depend on whether your jurisdiction has early voting, vote by mail, or absentee options.

Early voting and absentee GOTV

In areas with early voting or vote-by-mail options, your GOTV operation can and should start before the final week. The goal is the same – make sure your identified supporters actually vote – but the execution looks different.

Early voting programs

If your area has an early voting period, identify which supporters are likely early voters (either because they've voted early in past cycles or because they've told you they plan to). Contact these voters before election day, ask them to vote early, and ask them to tell you when they've done it.

Once a supporter has voted, remove them from your active contact universe. Every contact you avoid making to someone who has already voted is a contact you can make to someone who hasn't.

Absentee and vote-by-mail programs

In vote-by-mail jurisdictions, or for voters who requested absentee ballots, your focus shifts from "get them to the polls" to "get them to return their ballot." Many elections offices provide data on which absentee ballots have been returned; if yours does, use it.

Contact absentee supporters who haven't returned their ballot and remind them of the return deadline. In some areas, campaigns can arrange to collect completed ballots (check local rules carefully). At minimum, make sure your supporters know the deadline and how to return a ballot if they're unsure.

Absentee GOTV can start several weeks out in heavy vote-by-mail states, which means it often runs concurrently with your persuasion phase. Plan your calendar and your contact universes accordingly so the two efforts don't interfere with each other.

GOTV voter contact

A GOTV conversation is simpler than an ID or persuasion conversation. You're not asking someone what they think; you're making sure someone you already know is a supporter follows through on voting. The ask is specific and the message is brief.

What a GOTV conversation should accomplish

1. Confirm their plan to vote. Ask when they plan to vote and how. A specific commitment ("I'm going Saturday morning") is more reliable than a vague one ("I'm planning to").
2. Remove any obstacles. Do they know where their polling place is? Do they need a ride? Do they have their ID if required? Handle these before election day, not on it.
3. Record the outcome. Log whether the contact was successful and what the voter said. This data drives your chase program, allowing you to follow up with supporters who haven't voted as the day progresses.

On election day, as real-time vote data comes in via poll watchers and direct voter contacts, your operation should continuously update its target list. Supporters who have voted get removed. Those who haven't get contacted again.

Contact methods for GOTV

• Door knocking. The most effective GOTV contact method. In-person contact produces the highest rates of follow-through. Prioritize doors in precincts with high concentrations of your supporters.
• Phone calls. Effective for supporters you can't reach by door and for chase calls on election day when canvassers are in the field. Calls from a real person outperform auto-dialed calls.
• Peer-to-peer texting. Particularly effective for GOTV due to high open rates and fast turnaround. Use it for same-day reminders, polling place information, and chase outreach.
• Bulk email and bulk text. Lower response rates than one-to-one methods, but useful for broad reminders to your full supporter list before the final push and for reaching supporters you haven't been able to contact personally.

See contact methods for detail on each method, and talking to voters for conversation scripts and approaches.

Recruiting and deploying volunteers

Election day requires more volunteers than any other single day of your campaign. The specific roles you need depend on the size of your race and how many precincts you're covering, but you'll almost certainly need more people than you think.

Volunteer recruitment for election day should be underway well before the final week. If you're scrambling for volunteers during GOTV itself, you've started too late. Use your volunteer path (the system you've built to move supporters from initial interest to active participation) to identify people who've already shown up and ask them to commit to election day shifts.

Planning volunteer shifts

Election day is a long day, and few volunteers can commit to 14 hours on their feet. Build your schedule around shift blocks (morning, midday, and evening) and plan your staffing so there's overlap at transitions. The periods right when polls open and the two hours before they close are typically the most important, so make sure your strongest volunteers are in place at those times.

Brief every volunteer before their shift, not just on their specific role, but on where to go if something goes wrong: who to call, what HQ number to use, what decisions they're authorized to make on their own and what needs to go up the chain. A volunteer who doesn't know who to call when a problem arises may either make a bad call independently or waste time trying to reach someone.

Preparing your logistics

Election day is not the time to be printing walk sheets or hunting down extra pens. Anything that can be prepared ahead of time should be. The more administrative work you've completed before election day begins, the more your team can focus on what actually matters: talking to voters.

What to prepare in advance

• Walk lists and call lists. If you're using paper sheets, print more than you expect to need. If you're using apps, make sure you have plenty of lists pre-created and ready to assign. Running out mid-day and having to create more on the fly is a real and avoidable problem.
• Campaign literature. Candidate lit for canvassers and visibility volunteers. Know the rules in your jurisdiction about what can be distributed near polling places.
• Supply kits. Per-precinct kits with snacks, water, sunscreen, pens, extra printed materials, and any tech accessories (battery packs, charging cables) your team needs.
• Volunteer contact lists. Printed rosters for each precinct captain with the names, phone numbers, and roles of every volunteer on their team, plus the HQ number. Not on phones only, because dead batteries and spotty service are risks on a long day.
• Polling place information. Address, hours, and parking notes for every polling place your team is covering. This is also what you share with voters who need it.
• Legal reference sheet. A one-page summary of the rules your team needs to know: setback distances from polling places, prohibited conduct, who to call if there's a problem. Check with your party, a local election lawyer, or your state's election authority for jurisdiction-specific rules.

The election day tick tock

An election day tick tock is a detailed schedule showing where every member of your team (including the candidate) will be throughout the day and what they'll be doing. Think of it as an hour-by-hour operations plan for the most important day of your campaign.

The tick tock serves two purposes. First, it forces you to think through the full day in advance and identify gaps or conflicts before they become problems. Second, it gives your team a shared reference point so people aren't calling HQ to ask basic logistics questions in the middle of a busy day.

What the tick tock should include

• Opening shift: who's where at poll open, canvassing assignments, HQ team roles
• Candidate schedule: where the candidate will be and when, optimized for visibility and any media opportunities (coordinate with local reporters about when they'll be at polling places)
• Midday shift change: handoff protocols, re-supply logistics, updated contact universe based on morning vote data
• Chase schedule: when and how your team will cross-reference vote data and adjust contact priorities
• Final push: closing shift assignments for the hours before polls close; this is typically your highest-intensity canvassing window
• Closing: who's at what polling place for the final hour, when to pull canvassers, where people go after polls close
• Contingency contacts: who's responsible for handling problems (legal issues, volunteer no-shows, data system failures) and how to reach them

Assign leaders strategically. No precinct or volunteer team should be unsupported. Your most experienced field staff should be placed where the most votes are, not stuck managing logistics at HQ.

After the polls close

Win or lose, there are a few things to handle after polls close.

• Thank your volunteers. Immediately and specifically. People gave up a full day for your campaign (and often a lot more than that over the course of the election), and that deserves recognition that evening, not a form email three days later.
• Secure your data. Make sure contact records, voter universe data, and any other campaign data are backed up and properly stored. If there's a recount, you'll want clean records.
• Prepare for a close result. Recounts are rare but not unheard of, particularly in local races decided by small margins. Know your jurisdiction's recount rules and have a plan in place before you need it.
• Document what worked. After the results are in, capture what your GOTV operation did well and where it fell short. That institutional knowledge is valuable whether you're running again, supporting future candidates, or passing it on to your local party or network.

Next steps

• Build your GOTV universe. Filter your supporter list and confirm it's clean and up to date well before your GOTV window begins.
• Check for early voting and absentee options. Know what's available in your jurisdiction and build an early GOTV program if applicable.
• Plan your volunteer roles and shifts. Map out every role you need filled and start filling them now, not during the final week.
• Prepare your logistics. Walk sheets, supply kits, contact lists, legal reference sheet – everything that can be done in advance should be.
• Know the rules. Look up your jurisdiction's election day laws for volunteers, poll watchers, and campaign materials near polling places.
• Build your tick tock. Write a detailed hour-by-hour schedule for election day before election day arrives.