Phonebanking

Don't see your question here? Email gabriel@centerforcommonground.org or join our slack channel.‍

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Reclaim Our Vote?

Reclaim Our Vote (ROV) is a volunteer-driven, nonpartisan voter-outreach campaign led by the 501(c)3 Center for Common Ground of Virginia, working in states with a history of voter suppression to empower under-represented voters.

I've tried political phone banking and have found it to be an uncomfortable; could I just write postcards?

Postcarding opportunities are limited in 2021, so we seriously need phone bankers. Phone banking for CFCG has proven very effective! Most of our volunteers consider CFCG phone banking relatively low-stress. We are not persuading anyone to vote a certain way; we're simply offering people tools and information to facilitate political engagement. When we call, we leave LOTS of pre-written voicemails (and sometimes texts), which have proven effective at turning out our voters, or motivating them to call their elected officials on proposed legislation.

Where can I find the phone banks? Or how do I get involved in phone banking?

Please read our Center for Common Ground Phone Bank Guidelines for directions on accessing our phone banks. To join a guided phone bank event, please view the calendar section, where you will see a list of upcoming events. Our nationally guided phone banks sponsored by CFCG that are open to anyone nationally or abroad and have training included. We also offer a rolling calendar of local organizations opening their weekly phone bank training up to those who would like to join their calling volunteers.

When can I make calls? Must I join a scheduled phone bank?

We highly encourage you to come to at least one of our many weekly phone banks initially to understand our approach, techniques, tools and daily updates. Once you have been trained, you are welcome to call on your own. You do not need to join a phone banking event to make calls, you can make calls on your own time, 9 am-8 pm within the target state’s time zone (no Sunday mornings as that is the time when many of our voters go to church). The guided phone bank events hosted by us and other organizations are simply there if you prefer phone banking with others.

Where is the script?

It’s important to read our Phone Bank Guidelines before beginning, there you will find all the answers, such as how to access the script (hint: you must make a CallHub account first). We recommend you follow as close as is comfortable the script provided as the request to the voter needs to be clear and concise. Feel free to add a sentence or two to relax and engage the voter so they are open to hearing your full message and request.

Shouldn’t we be focusing on the broader federal bills of HR1 and S1? Why state bills?

HR1/S1 will fix many things about federal elections, but does not have jurisdiction over state-run elections. There will still be many ways for states to suppress voters, even if S1 passes. The overwhelming majority of voting rights organizations are focusing on S1 at the expense of defending rights at the state level, making it all the more vital for our opposition at the state level to supplement these national efforts. Activating communities at the local level also has more long term impact, and can be more effective especially for voters from the south who are often bombarded with asks for national legislation or candidates and then feel their local needs abandoned.

How do you decide state priorites?

We take our direction from the Board of Directors, which includes national partners such as the NAACP and Mi Familia Vota, and prioritize states that most align with our mission statement, which is to empower underrepresented voters to fully participate in elections. Because of this, our upcoming campaigns are always subject to change.

Where can I find updates in bills or focus? Will the updates be reflected in the phone banks?

We update our phone bank scripts multiple times a day to ensure that you will never be making outdated calls. If a bill has passed, we will immediately delete the relevant phone bank, so rest assured that the phone banks we have up do accurately reflect our current priorities. That being said, you can join our Slack Channel here to receive more detailed updates, including rationale for our current focus.

Where do I go when I am making calls on my own and need help?

There are two ways you can get responsive support. Join our Slack Channel here. You can also email any questions to gabriel@centerforcommonground.org

What’s the deal with “teams” on callhub?

Teams is an optional way of affiliating your calls with a particular organization, and can be both fun and effective for that organization to mobilize more volunteers. It is by no means mandatory, and if you are a “solo” volunteer, feel free to ignore this field. However, if you’d like to be added to a team after the fact, or change teams, you cannot do so yourself, but if you email gabriel@centerforcommonground.org we will be very happy to change the team for you.

Do you have a track record of success? I'd like to see some statistics about your impact.

Center for Common Ground reached out to 13,740,224 voters between Jan 1, 2020 - Jan 5, 2021 in our eight target states: 9,081,627 postcard addresses distributed, 2,918,374 text messages, and 1,740,223 phone calls.

‍Phone bank results - Of 174,000 voters we contacted for Georgia’s November 3 election, 121,000 voted - 70%!
Of 79,000 voters we contacted for Georgia's June primary, 73% voted, almost 1/3 were first time primary voters, and almost all of them voted early/absentee and avoided the long lines on Election Day!

47% of Texas voters we contacted voted November 3. 85% of our called voters (live contacts and voicemails) voted in Alabama's December 2017 special election.

‍In the Georgia 2018 mid-term election, in collaboration with our partner group Black Voters Matter, we made 185,000 calls (live contacts and voicemails). About 65% voted.

‍Postcard results - Of the 142,727 voters we postcarded for voter registration in rural and Black counties in Georgia, Feb-Sept 2020, 3.27% registered to vote. 20 to 25% of the de-registered voters we postcarded in one county in North Carolina's 3rd Congressional District registered to vote before the September 2019 special election in that district.

Troubleshooting

I am having microphone problems with CallHub

Check out this detailed document

Red box appears saying “Not Allowed” when you try to sign in

The microphone for your browser needs to be enabled. On Google Chrome, this is in Settings > Privacy and Security > Permissions

CallHub says “Cannot connect to campaign. Please refresh and try again”

The campaign is likely being edited. This should last no longer than a few minutes, so try refreshing your browser after waiting a minute.

I accidentally hit “save” prematurely, and now it won’t let me change my coding. Can I reset?

The only way to do this is by hitting “redial” and immediately hanging up before it calls the voter again. You will then be able to code the voter in the drop down menu at the top or bottom again.

Where do I go when I am making calls on my own and need help?

There are two ways you can get responsive support. Join our Slack Channel here. You can also email any questions to gabriel@centerforcommonground.org

Phone Banks

Current Campaigns

Quick Links

Campaigns

Virginia

Mission - Get Out The Vote!

Get Started Calling - With PDI

Arizona

Mission - Freedom to Vote Act

Get Started Calling - With CallHub

Calendar

Group Events

Frequently Asked Questions