Our Core Strategy
Activating 5%-10% of the Voter Base
The full program of The People Speak is based on activating 5%-10% of the voter base in support of strategies by The People Speak to uphold higher standards of campaigning.
Deploying a Rapid Response Field Team
The enrolled voters for The People Speak program will be supported by a rapid response field team deployed during the peak season of a contested election to carry out the full program of The People Speak.
Convening a “Community Court of Public Opinion”
A “Community Court of Public Opinion” will provide a grassroots process for deliberating about campaign accusations/attacks to arrive at a nonpartisan “Sense of the Community” statement about such accusations/attacks.
When fully implemented, The People Speak program will also include three other elements:
Civic Leaders Take a Stand: A broad spectrum of civic leaders publicly endorse the call for higher standards of political campaigning.
Higher Campaign Standards Defined: Higher standards of political campaigning are clearly defined, reflecting both what the community wishes to see upheld and what it does NOT want to see occur during a political campaign.
Media Co-Sponsors Enrolled: Key local-regional media outlets are enrolled as partners with the community to uphold higher standards of campaigning.
Activating 5%-10% of the Voter Base to Disrupt Negative Campaigning
The full program of The People Speak calls for methodically enrolling and continuing to grow a base of voters in support of higher standards of campaigning, with a strategic goal of enrolling a minimum of 5%-10% of the voters (or more precisely, 5%-10% of the projected voter turnout for a given election).
When the full program of The People Speak is activated, a 5%-10% margin of the voters, called “Frontline Voters” in this program, will have the capacity to immediately give voice to their displeasure when attack-style negative campaigning hits home in violation of clearly set standards for political campaigning.
They’ll be able to post personal rejection messages with The People Speak for a potent public display of voter sentiment, and also add their name to a growing number of voters publicly rejecting a campaign message that violates higher campaign standards. This will be leveraged by rapid response community actions catalyzed by the field team of The People Speak.
As voter feedback accumulates, a non-compliant campaign or independent expenditure committee will be shown the evidence that their campaign resources were not only wasted with this crucial base of Frontline Voters, but they also incurred voter distrust and risked rejection of their candidate and cause.
The People Speak will spotlight voter comments and then avidly pursue and heavily publicize a response from a noncompliant group. Silence from a noncompliant group will constitute a dismissive and disrespectful message to the voters, which The People Speak will ensure is fully communicated to its base of voters in real time.
A noncompliant campaign group will be able to course-correct and align itself with the community in support of higher campaign standards. Alternatively, it can put its cause even more at risk, because The People Speak will ensure the violation of higher campaign standards stays in play through ongoing communications with both its voter base and the perpetrators of attack-style campaigning.
Activating this voter feedback in real time on the campaign field can potentially disrupt negative campaigning. It will be a relatively immediate communication loop that has not existed before between voters and political campaign operatives.
Please note that even modest levels of initial voter response will confirm a stirring among voters/Frontline Voters that is strategically indicative, similar to how small percentages of voters enable opinion polls to extrapolate and profile voter attitudes.
Ultimately the intent of activating 5%-10% of the voter base is to generate enough uncertainty so that campaigns and independent expenditure committees have to reassess their risk of potentially alienating the Frontline Voters of The People Speak and other voters, especially in a heavily contested race where small margins of voters can and do determine the outcomes.
Read about Frontline Voters.
