Supermajority in all eight wards

How I helped the Make All Votes Count DC campaign pass Initiative 83 with more than 70% of the vote.

The problem

We needed to convince DC voters to support a ballot initiative that was opposed by the local political machine.

The opportunity

The campaign had a great team of employees and volunteers willing to canvass the district and talk to their neighbors.

My role

I was hired as the Website Product Lead and to serve on the campaign's leadership team. When I joined, the campaign already had a WordPress site. While it worked well as a website builder, it lacked the volunteer tools we needed to organize our field team.

After we attracted some donations, we used some of it to pay for a NationBuilder plan. I migrated the site from Wordpress to NationBuilder and set up the email, event, and volunteer tools we needed.

I was also hired to canvass and help gather the signatures we needed to get Initiative 83 on the ballot. I collected 370 verified signatures from a variety of wards. This field work was crucial to my understanding of our target audience and the messaging that resonated most with them. I used my newly acquired knowledge to update our web copy.

Collaborators

• Campaign steering committee
• Campaign leadership team
• Social media lead
• Volunteer coordinator
• Field team (employees and volunteers)

Results

• 26,719 views and 16,383 active users on our website during the month leading up to the election
• 1,985 people joined our email list
• 545 volunteers signed up to canvass
• Initiative 83 was passed by voters with more 70% of the vote in all eight wards. (Source)