ThruText and Vote Tripling

Many voters have a friend, family member, or neighbor who may need an extra reminder to vote. Vote tripling is a friend-to-friend voter turnout strategy that asks supporters to encourage three people they know to cast their ballot. In ThruText, you can use this strategy to collect vote tripling pledges, record the names or nicknames of the people each supporter plans to remind, and send a timely follow-up message before Election Day.

Vote tripling is a commit-to-vote tactic with two main steps:

1. Securing a supporter’s promise to encourage three people to vote.
2. Following up with a timely text reminder to that supporter.

This tactic is based on behavioral science research and has been studied as a way to increase turnout at a lower cost than some other voter contact methods. It is helpful  supporters who may vote but do not regularly volunteer for campaigns. Asking someone to remind three people they already know can be a manageable way for them to take action.

This guide walks through how to use ThruText to collect vote tripling pledges, track supporter responses, and send reminder messages before Election Day.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Prepare Your Group And Campaign
• Build Your Replies And Survey Questions
• Send Messages And Collect Responses
• Export Responses And Create Your Follow-Up Group
• Send Your Reminder Texts
• Tips And Best Practices
• Want To Learn More About Vote Tripling?

Prepare Your Group And Campaign

• Create a group for the supporters or likely supporters you want to contact. Use a clear naming convention so your team can identify the vote tripling list later. 
• If your organization uses VAN, map VAN IDs when you upload the group. This allows your team to sync vote tripling data back to VAN later, if needed.
• Next, create a new ThruText campaign for your vote tripling outreach. Use a campaign name that matches the group name or clearly describes the purpose of the outreach.
• Use a dedicated phone number that you can reuse later for the reminder messages.
• In the campaign description, include a short explanation of the goal for your texters. For example: A reminder from a friend can help someone make a plan to vote. Ask supporters if they can remind three people to vote, then collect the names, initials, or nicknames of those people so we can send a personalized reminder before Election Day.
• Your initial message should clearly explain the ask and make it easy for the contact to respond. Example initial message: Hey %FirstName%! It’s %SenderFirstName% with %OrgName%. A reminder from a friend can help someone remember to vote. Can we count on you to remind 3 friends to vote? Reply STOP to opt out.

Build Your Replies And Survey Questions

• Recommended replies help texters respond quickly and consistently. For this workflow, create replies that help texters collect the names of the people a supporter plans to remind and respond to common concerns.
• Create a recommended reply to ask for the names of the people the supporter plans to remind.
• Supporters can provide first names, initials, or nicknames if that is enough for them to remember who they plan to contact.
• Create a recommended reply to thank supporters after they provide names. Example: Awesome, thank you! We’ll send you a reminder before Election Day so you can remind them to vote.
• You may also want to create replies for common hesitations:

• After you create your recommended replies, create survey questions to record the contact’s response during the conversation. For this workflow, use survey questions to identify vote triplers and record the names of the people they plan to remind.
• Create a Freeform survey question for the names of the people the supporter plans to remind:
• If your organization uses VAN, create or import the survey questions and activist codes your team wants to sync back. Common response categories may include Vote Tripler, Wrong Number, Republican, or Not Interested. Choose the categories that match your organization’s data tracking needs.

Send Messages And Collect Responses

After your campaign is ready, send the initial pledge message to your supporters or likely supporters.

When a contact responds positively, send the recommended reply asking for the first names, initials, or nicknames of the people they plan to remind. Texters should also complete the survey questions during the conversation. This helps your team identify which contacts agreed to vote triple and who they plan to remind.

During the sending period, remind texters to be clear and direct with the ask. Supporters should understand that you are asking them to remind specific people to vote. If a supporter is unsure or hesitant, texters can use the recommended replies to offer a lower-pressure option, such as providing initials or naming one or two people instead of three.

Export Responses And Create Your Follow-Up Group

After your team finishes sending messages and collecting responses, export your survey responses. The survey export will include the results from your survey questions. Use this export to identify contacts who agreed to vote triple, the names or nicknames they provided, and any response categories your team tracked.

If your team wants to store the names of the vote tripler’s friends in VAN, you will need to manually upload that information into the Notes section in VAN.

Before creating your follow-up group, create a custom field for the names of the people each supporter plans to remind. Suggested custom field name: Vote Triplers’ Friends’ Names

Next, use the export to create a new CSV for your follow-up group. The CSV should include the three required fields for a ThruText group upload and a column for the names, initials, or nicknames of the people the supporter plans to remind. Upload the CSV as a new group. This group will be used for your reminder message.

Send Your Reminder Texts

Create a new campaign on the same dedicated number to remind committed vote triplers to contact the people they named. Example follow-up message:

Hi %FirstName%! It’s %SenderFirstName% with [Candidate] for [Position]. Election Day is tomorrow! Can you remind %CustomFieldCode% to vote?

Replace bracketed text with your campaign or organization details before sending. Replace %CustomFieldCode% with the custom field that contains the names, initials, or nicknames the supporter provided.

Send the reminder close enough to Election Day that the supporter can take action while voting is still top of mind.

Tips And Best Practices

• Be clear and direct with the ask.
• Let supporters provide first names, initials, or nicknames.
• Answer survey questions during the conversation so your team can export accurate response data later.
• Use a consistent naming convention for groups, campaigns, survey questions, and custom fields.
• Review your export before creating the follow-up group to make sure the custom field contains the correct names or nicknames.
• Schedule your follow-up workflow before Election Day so your team has enough time to create the reminder group and send messages.

Want To Learn More About Vote Tripling?

For more information about vote tripling as a voter turnout tactic, visit VoteRev’s vote tripling resources: https://www.voterev.org/tactics.