Essential GOTV Resources
With Election Day fast approaching, campaigns are going full throttle on Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts. In close races, even a small increase in voter turnout–sometimes as little as 1-2 percentage points–can determine the outcome.
Research has consistently shown that specific tactics can make a measurable difference. For example, door-to-door canvassing has been found to increase voter turnout by 4-9 percentage points, as highlighted by MIT Politics. Similarly, relational organizing–a strategy that encourages volunteers to reach out to people they already know–can boost turnout by 6-8 points, according to the National Democratic Training Committee. Even simple reminders via text or mail can increase turnout by 1-4 points, as noted by the League of Women Voters.
Here’s a look at some of the most impactful GOTV resources and toolkits available today, helping campaigns make every vote count in these critical final days.
GOTV Toolkits and Resources
- Arena Toolbox – Arena’s suite includes 28 GOTV resources covering essentials like canvassing templates, digital outreach tools, and volunteer coordinating systems, specifically designed to streamline voter engagement and drive voter turnout.
- Analyst Institute GOTV Toolkit – Offers evidence-based recommendations, including strategies such as “What to Know about GOTV,” which are ideal for campaigns looking to optimize voter outreach. Their toolkit emphasizes evidence-based methods to enhance campaign and GOV efforts, ensuring tactics are grounded in proven results.
- Target Smart – Released their National 2024 Early & Absentee Vote Report powered by TargetEarly, a dashboard dashboard for exploring early in-person and absentee voting trends. Leading into major elections, TargetEarly is updated daily with new early and absentee voting activity collected from state and county election offices.
- Rock the Vote – Known for engaging younger voters, Rock the Vote provides interactive guides, voter registration tools, and resources tailored to new and first-time voters.
- MoveOn’s Action Hub – Digital organizing tools for grassroots campaigns, focusing on peer-to-peer texting, phone banking, and targeted ad campaigns.
- Swing Left’s Last Weekend Campaign – A national GOTV initiative that mobilizes volunteers for canvassing and phone banking in key swing districts during the final days before Election Day.
- Open Campaign – OpenCampaign is a free open source library with the best field-tested resources created by campaign staff.
- National Democratic Training Committee GOTV Guide – This guide covers various GOTV approaches, from voter contact and messaging to detailed planning for Election Day activities, focusing on early voting and vote-by-mail strategies.
- Social Movement Technologies GOTV Resources – Provides digital training and tools for GOTV, including strategies for text banking, digital ads, and organizing events on social media platforms.
- Haris Volunteer Dashboard – Learn how you can talk to the voters who will ultimately decide if Kamala Harris becomes our next President.
- Mobilize GOTV Opportunities – Check out the events, petitions, and volunteer opportunities near you.
Higher Ground Labs GOTV Tech
HGL provides a cutting-edge GOTV Toolkit to help campaigns effectively scale their voter outreach. Our portfolio includes innovative tools for fundraising, outreach, and voter mobilization, offering the resources needed to drive engagement and boost turnout.
Here’s a look at some of the key GOTV tools in our portfolio:
- Impactive: Allows anyone to plug into a Democratic campaign and see which of their friends are registered voters in the district. Check out their 5 Best Practices to Drive Voter Turnout.
- OpenField: Offers distributed, deep canvassing which lets you knock every door, on or off your list. Their recent integration with iwillvote.com allows canvassers and phone bankers access to a GOTV tab, which displays the contact’s Early Vote Location, Ballot Drop-off Location, and Polling Location.
- BallotReady: Provides a “2024 Key Dates and Deadlines” resource to help organizations keep track of critical election milestones, including voter registration deadlines, absentee ballot due dates, and Election Day.
- Relentless: Offers the “Rally the Vote” feature, which enables organizations to drive voter engagement by providing users with personalized voting plans. It helps voters confirm registration, find their polling locations, and set reminders for key election dates.
- Civitech: GOTV Toolkit provides digital-first solutions like text banking, data management, and precision-targeted digital ads, specifically designed to engage and mobilize underrepresented voter demographics.
- Daisychain: Text Charms are a powerful text messaging tool that enables organizations to send personalized and automated voter outreach messages. This feature includes customized scripts and segmentation to deliver targeted reminders for voting deadlines, registration, and polling information.
- SoSha: GOTV Toolkits are designed to amplify voter outreach through social media sharing. In September alone, their top eight GOTV toolkits generated 11,000 shares, helping organizations spread vital election information, encourage voter registration, and provide polling station details.
- Oath: GOTV efforts focus on empowering donors to support impactful Democratic campaigns and candidates, their goal is to maximize return on donations through an Impact Score.
- Clipbook: Offers automated media intelligence, providing customized reports from over 100,000 sources to help organizations track key election coverage. Their GOTV tools enable campaigns to monitor media mentions, track social media trends, and stay informed on critical election updates.
- Swayable: Ground Media worked with Swayable to better understand which advertising approach would most effectively shift voter opinion for the 2024 Presidential Election, especially among critical swing state voters essential to the Harris campaign. Check out the research.
These GOTV resources, ranging from traditional canvassing and relational organizing to tech-powered solutions, equip campaigns with diverse tools to engage voters and drive turnout effectively. In the final push before Election Day, leveraging these powerful resources can make a crucial difference, ensuring every vote is counted and every voice is heard.
Since 2017, HGL has invested in over 70 political technology startups and deployed over $53 million across four funds, supporting companies at the forefront of campaign innovation.
