If we had a NAR grant dollar for every time we said “Due to the pandemic,….”, a GAD would be able to assemble a decent sized campaign from those funds. Why specifically are we saying that? Mostly due to the Vote from Home movement occurring DUE TO THE PANDEMIC.

​

We are urging our clients as they consider their outreach plans to take into account NOW:

​

1. The changing rules and regulations around voting from home in their state. They are changing quickly. We at REAL Strategies, in partnership with NAR, are tracking this in every state, to help you with your campaign plans, but you need to also be aware of them so that the campaign and your outreach plan can be maximized.
    

2. The timing of your outreach considering the higher demand for voting at home.  We urge you to plan ahead for outreach for the general election – consider your state’s vote from home timeline. We want to have your mail hit early – when ballots are hitting mailboxes.

Speaking of maximizing campaign funds, REAL Strategies obtains frequent uploads from state and local governments with their person-level early vote data.  The updates typically occur daily with generally a one-day lag in the data.  We incorporate that person-level early vote data into our database and remove those records from our outreach activities, which can save your campaign thousands of dollars by not continuing to contact people who have already voted. Ads are only being delivered to the desired audience. For example, early and absentee votes are removed from digital audiences daily, as people are voting.

​

Speaking of saving you money, in our continuous efforts to predict voters’ behaviors for greater effectiveness, we are creating a PAT Model, which is currently in its research and development phase.  No, this is not from PAT on SNL, this is a Pandemic-Adjusted Turnout model. The model predicts the changes in turnout based on social distancing and likelihood to vote by mail.

​

Additional things to consider for you outreach campaigns:

​

• Include educational pieces that explain ‘voting from home’ procedures in your state.  These pieces could cover instructions on how to vote safely in your state in the 2020 election, including how to request a ballot and vote early or absentee.
   

• A reminder: This year we have a shortened election season  with a late Labor Day on September 7th and an early election day on November 3rd.  A full list of application deadlines can be found here. Please plan accordingly!

​