What is canvassing?
Canvassing is the systematic contacting of individuals in a target group, often in a particular geographic area. It is commonly used before or during elections by political campaigns. Similar techniques are used by non-governmental organizations, labor unions, churches, poll takers, and even commercial enterprises (such as encyclopedia or vacuum salespeople). A “canvass” can be organized with different desired goals: Identifying supporters Distributing information Persuasion Fundraising Signing up new members Voter registration Encouraging people to vote (Get Out The Vote, GOTV) In some cases a given canvass will attempt to achieve outcomes across some combination of these goals. For example a canvass focused on persuading people to vote for a particular candidate or ballot issue may also solitcit funds and sign up new members to an organization. A key concept in canvassing is to target the population that is being contacted. For example if the goal of a canvass is to turn out voters o
