Campaign management

Election campaign management (candidacy decision)

The first step is to research and gather information

The candidate and his team must conduct research to know where to start and when to take into account the differences and characteristics of each campaign, and here is the point of the horse, because it gives the candidate the opportunity to review how different his situation in reality is, the first step for developing a successful strategy must start from a realistic evaluation of the political ground on which it will be conducted. Election Competition It goes without saying that you will not be able to know everything about the district or about competitors and voters.

Factors that you must fully understand
What kind of election will you run? What are the rules and laws used in it?
What are the distinguishing features of the circuit?
What are the defining characteristics of voters in the constituency?
What happened in the previous elections?
What are the main factors affecting this election?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your candidate?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of all vital competitors?

Election rules

It is important to determine which type of elections you will compete in, as well as the rules for those elections. Many of these key strategic issues are dependent on this information. Are you determined to enter the competitive race for a legislative or executive seat? Do you need a majority of the vote (i.e. 50% of the vote plus one weighted vote) to win? Or is it dependent on you obtaining the majority of votes, regardless of their percentage? Who sets the legal rules and who will work to implement them to ensure the conduct of this electoral process? Who has the authority over the conduct of the electoral process and the announcement of its results? Are there historical precedents for electoral fraud or irregularities in the district or region?

Circle

As long as you have defined the main legal rules used, then you only have to gather as much information as possible about the district and its voters. What is the size of the district in which you will compete? What kind of areas and terrain are you required to cover during the campaign? What types of transportation will you and your voters use? How has (in the past period) changed the composition of the population and the residents of the district? How is the economic situation in the department? Has it improved over the past years? What is its relationship to neighboring regions? What are the main industries in the region? What are the other economic resources?

The electors

You have to divide the population in your district into groups that can be known and managed. This is the basis you will use later to develop a strategy to target specific constituencies.
Here are some questions that you may consider: What is the demographic composition of the electorate? That means what are the voters ’income levels, educational levels, profession, age, and gender? Where do voters work, shop, and spend their free time? What are the geographical divisions of the electorate? What is the proportion or number of people living in the city and in rural areas or small villages? Do voters live in separate homes for each family or do they live in apartments? How would you describe your supporters or the voters you hope to persuade to support you?

Previous elections

You can often get vital and valuable information about the current election by giving you information about previous elections. Who entered the election contest for the same seat and how were the election results? How many voters participated in the similar ballot in the past? How many votes were the most likely to win? And you can use this information to predict and anticipate the voting voters, as well as anticipate the basic levels of support in the current elections. How did the candidates with similar backgrounds and similar messages work in those previous elections? You will need this information to determine what works for them, and what the candidate should add and do differently to achieve better results.

The current elections

You should learn about the factors that will affect the current elections: What are the local, national, and national issues of concern to the voter? What motivates the voter to go to the polling station?
How do you describe the mood of the voter? If elections were held today before campaigning, who would succeed?
What other electoral competition will be on the same (polling list)? Will the contenders in those other elections add to your campaign or harm it? Do you and the different campaigns have opportunities to work in a coherent and harmonious manner and what effect will these different campaigns have in the elections? Does your relationship with your political party and the candidates on the same list affect the strategy?

The candidate

In the meetings held for strategic planning should be judged honestly and frankly what are the weaknesses and strengths of the candidate? Then try to look at him from the angle from which his opponent looks at him (it is possible that what you see in your candidate of young blood and new ideas that the competitor may see as a lack of experience and deficiencies in experience).
Upon discovering weaknesses in the early period, the campaign will be more prepared to deal with them and ready to answer the allegations that may appear late in the campaign. Many candidates lost the race because they refused to address their mistakes that occurred in the past until they were surprised by the competitor’s accusations that presented their previous mistakes in the form of It is neither desirable nor acceptable.

Strong competitors

After you have identified the strengths and weaknesses of your candidate, the next logical step is to repeat the same process with the competing candidates, and if you are facing several competitors, you should determine who are the strong competitors who might flock to you to gain the loyalty and confidence of the voters? Alternatively, you can organize your calendar in different parts and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the competing candidates.

As openly as your candidate does, competitors will not provide information about themselves and their experiences as it is with your candidate, and you may need to search deeply to find some reasons why voters may vote for your candidate instead of the competition candidates.

The second step is setting goals

What does the total population mean in the district?

Total population We mean here all the people living in the constituency. This term includes children and boys who have not reached the legal voting age and who are not registered in the constituency. The total statistical number of the population is greater than the total number of voters in the same district.

What does the total number of voters mean?

(Total Number of Voters) is all eligible voters in a county and can vote in this election.

What does the electorate mean the electorate?

(Potential Voting) means the votes expected to be cast in the electoral ballot, as not every voter casts the ballot or cast his vote. In most cases, you can know the number of voters who will vote in exchange for similar previous elections. If the voter turnout was 35% in the last elections and no new factors were added in these. Elections to change the course of the situation there. You can expect that the percentage of voters may reach 35% in the current elections.

How many votes are needed to win?

(This is an estimated statistical number) We mean by looking at the total number of voters required to ensure victory in the electoral competition. If you need a majority of voters to win, then this means achieving 50% of the total voters in addition to one weighted vote in most cases you need a majority The votes of the voters or the majority of votes for your candidate to exceed the votes cast for competitors in the multi-candidate election race. You may be able to win 30%, 35%, 25% or less of the votes of the voters. We would like to point out the importance of converting these percentages into real numbers. How many actual votes will you win? You should be conservative – making mistakes by increasing the number of votes needed is much better than lowering them.

How many families include these voters?

Again this segment can be reduced and let’s say that there are roughly two voters on average per household. Some families may have three or four voters living together in the same dwelling and some of the voters may be independent bachelors who live alone. Now if you see that the husband and wife will vote for the same approach, you can To assume (more generally) that only speaking to one voter in the family gives you the voice of the other voter.

The third step is to target voters

How do you target your voters?

There are two methods for determining this, which are geographic targeting and targeting according to demographic characteristics, or so-called demographic targeting. Most of the campaigns target both methods.

Geographical targeting

By it, we simply mean determining who will vote for your candidate according to your residential location. High-performing constituencies contain your potential supporters, and in theory you should not spend campaign resources on them. Accordingly, it does not make sense to try to convince a voter who has already voted for you. Despite this, most of the candidates spend some Resources in areas with a well-versed history of voting for their party’s candidates in order to strengthen the support bases for them to become more solid before contacting potential supporters. It is true that your campaign spends more resources in the constituency with the highest vote.

Demographic targeting

It means dividing the voter sector into several groups or sub-segments that can be divided according to age, gender, income level, profession, ethnicity, religion, or any other characteristics. It is often used to define individuals themselves. The purpose of dividing the population in that way involves To say that every similar group of voters will likely have similar interests and thus will vote for the same candidate in an election.

The fourth step is the electoral program

Defining the electoral program

It is the candidate’s reformist vision (locally – socially) that seeks to convince the voters of his ability to implement it if he achieves success and gains the confidence of the voters.

The candidate’s vision to deal with the reality of the surrounding environment, whether on the required, legislative or supervisory side.

Program configuration sources

Ideologies – Intellectual References.
The heavenly religions.
Social values.
The international bill.

When designing the program you must consider

What matters to the electorate.
Where do they get their information from?

Determinants of the electoral program

Candidate / competitor analysis.
District analysis.
Voter Analysis – Issues.
Parking lots.
Values.
Leadership qualities.
Social research.

Types of electoral programs

• Individual.
• Partisan.
• Local.
• Community.

Program implementation method

• Self.
• Collective (individuals – associations – societal forces).
• Mandatory measures for the executive authority.

Features of a good program

• Short.
• Honest and reliable.
• Targeted.
• Persuasive and important to the voter.
• Contrasted.
• Clear and smooth.
• Frequent.

Program presentation methods

• Mass conferences.
• Brochures.
• Data.
• SMS