Poll Worker lit handout strategy.

There were four or five of us working the poles handing out literature, particularly sample Democratic ballots. We would say different things, like

- would you like some information

Or

-Sample ballot?

And most people would accept them paper and walk into vote.

But then I changed my message to

--would you like a democratic sample ballot?

And a response changed with remarkable. Instead of people just nodding and accepting it they would smile and their eyes would light up and they'd give a big thank you and then some when they walked out would thank us too which was not happening before.

The difference is when you say you're handing out the Democratic sample ballot, you're letting them know that you're part of the Democratic Party working to make a difference. Just adding that one word creates branding for all the people out there so that the voters realize that they have a team who are spending their time working on getting Democratic goals achieved. That's a lot more important than just handing out literature with the sample ballot.

From the point of the view of the poll workers, changing the wording slightly gets a much warmer friendlier response from everybody and that makes a real difference when you're putting in 10 or 12 hours working the polls in one day.

When you offer it to someone who's a Republican they usually say I already know what I'm going to do. Rarely they get nasty for example, one called me a Dumocrat. But they say the same thing even if you don't mention that it's democratic literature.

It's amazing it's such a simple word change makes the job so much more pleasant and more effective. Do you have winning strategies that make a difference when you are doing poll work?