In 2013 when Lib Dem turn out was so low across Somerset John Dyke’s result was achieved by galvanising the postal voters – especially before the UKIP ‘bubble’ hit.
There are 2,099 postal voters in Crewkerne County Division in south Somerset – 30% of the electorate – with a significant amount of those as supporters.
Cllr John Dyke for many years has been ruthless in signing up postal voters. He believes it will be the biggest electoral legacy he will leave as his time as a councillor. The results in Crewkerne are a testament to his hard work in doing this so effectively.
John Dyke targeted his canvassing to areas at a fair distance from Polling Stations but also those “unknowns”, particularly on new housing estates. Effectively those residents who had completed forms from the council when sending back Council Tax documents, which is something South Somerset District Council do. John signed many postal voters up during the PCC elections in October 2012 too.
The bad weather was used not as an excuse to avoid going out and sign people up, but as a reason why people should complete the form – playing on the fact that the weather was so unpredictable etc.
Having recruited so many he targeted existing postal voters in his canvassing getting the unknowns down to 270. During the 2013 campaign alone John’s team think they recruited 250 extra supporters to postal votes.
Having recruited so many the task was then to get them out to vote.
- First there was a post voter target mailing that was hand delivered on the eve of PVs being delivered to all households
- John then targeted his Postal Vote knocking up – on the doorstep – with the attached A5 flyer. He specifically looked to go to those households who did not return their PV in the District Elections in 2011 first.
- His team also completed some telephone knocking up of Postal Voters.
Knowing that Crewkerne had such a large number of Postal Voters meant that the literature plan had to reflect this. The final A3 Candidate Leaflet, in the case of Crewkerne, had to be delivered before the Postal Vote reminder letters. The importance of explaining this to deliverers and making sure that there was capacity to deliver two separate things within a quick time frame needed particular forwarded planning
At the Postal Vote opening on the first day, Crewkerne had seen a return of 596, with 288 on the following day. These figures are significantly higher than else where.
The Result:
John Dyke Liberal Democrats 1329 Elected
Marcus Barrett Conservative 716
Sidney Hamlin UKIP 570
Ben Hartshorn Green 140
Joe Conway Labour 136
Crewkerne has the advantage of being a strong area of Lib Dem support, but so do many of the seats we are defending in May 2014 . But John’s determination not to be complacent about this but utilise this advantage meant that he had won this election long before the 2nd May 2013.
What was good about John’s campaign:
• There was evident long term emphasis on postal votes.
• We got the percentage for supporters with postal voters up to 65% of all postal voters
• We added over 250 Lib Dem postal voters in the 2013 campaign alone.
• Getting the number of postal voters we did not have voter ID on down to 13%
ALDC members can access further files and support by logging in to the ALDC website and clicking the links below:
Crewkerne’s PV target mailing that was hand delivered on the eve of PVs being delivered to all households – PDF of the covering letter for mailmerging – PDF of the insert
Crewkerne’s PV knocking up – on the doorstep – PDF A5 flyer.
Other ALDC articles and support on postal votes here
Templates can be found in the File Library Template Postal vote section