Election Efforts: COSF Reflection
Background
Historically, school boards didn't gain much attention outside of their communities. But over the past couple years, culture wars have disrupted school board meetings and undermined healthy local control of our schools. Across the country, school board members have come under attack for trying to do their jobs and run our schools well. In the short term, these outbursts are distracting, but their long-term effects are more troubling: They will change who runs for local school boards and who wins those seats—in many cases for the worse.
Challenge
COSF set out to develop an effective and replicable GOTV program that focuses solely on school board elections. These races have low turnout because voters tend to have difficulty finding useful information about the candidates. In order to ensure that we elect school board representatives who are focused on the real needs of our children, we need to be informed voters. And rather than come up every second or fourth November, school board elections can take place in any month during any year. The cycle depends on local laws.
Approach
Working on parallel tracks, but not in collaboration, COSF and COSF-AF created a holistic approach to school board elections. As a 501(c)3, COSF’s main objective was to increase pro-equity voter turnout. As a 501(c)4, COSF-AF set out to secure wins for pro-equity candidates. They could not intentionally target the same districts, and they were not allowed to know each other’s movements unless the information was publicly available. The approach from both sides can best be described as Learn, Leverage, and Launch:
Learn
Our best indicator of the key voters is past data on who has voted in previous school board elections. Understanding the demographics of who is and who is not voting—especially in the primary versus general election—allowed us to chart a pathway to victory that prioritizes education equity as a central issue for voters.
COSF and COSF-AF separately monitored boards and races around the country and identified key districts that were in danger of being overrun by extremists. Both organizations assessed the resources already available to pro-equity candidates and the existing support of pro-equity voters. COSF looked for opportunities to build movements that would last past the election cycle. COSF-AF looked for winnable elections in the short term.
Leverage
COSF and COSF-AF relied heavily on partners to produce effective GOTV programs. Partnerships provide local credibility and significantly expand a campaign’s reach.
COSF worked extensively to convene and train partners on the nuances of school board elections. In addition to live meetings and workshops, we created training videos and the Movement Playbook, a comprehensive guideline for how to effectively organize around school board elections.
Both COSF and COSF-AF relied heavily on partners to complete candidate assessments. COSF created and distributed a candidate guide, which provided unedited answers to several questions about policies and topics related to the district. COSF-AF worked with partners to develop an endorsement process that was both thorough and straightforward for candidates.
Launch
Taken together, COSF and COSF-AF’s election program worked general to specific.
COSF started with a statewide voter education effort. This included a registration component through national partners such as I Am A Voter as well as a social media and influencer campaign, regular email blasts, press outreach, and paid ads. The objective was to increase broad awareness of upcoming school board elections in order to provide context for the targeted and more in depth tactics that followed. Next, came distribution of the candidate guide through digital channels as well as direct mail. In select districts, we hosted in-person voter education events such as candidate forums, block walks, and Ballots and Bagels parties. Closer to Election Day, we conducted paid voter contact through text and phone banking, and we supported partner programs.
COSF-AF’s broad voter education efforts remained at the national level through the organization’s social media and press engagement. After we determined our endorsement slate, we promoted those candidates heavily on our social channels and conducted targeted press outreach within their districts. COSF-AF also leveraged its email list to promote candidates. Working with partners, COSF-AF placed digital ads in target districts and worked with independent expenditures to support the endorsed candidates.
Results
COSF
Guilford, CT: no one ran against incumbents because of the successful groundwork done in 2021
Lafayette, LA: no extremists elected to school board
Central Bucks, PA: flipped the school board
Pine Richland, PA: one pro-equity candidate , but increased voter turnout
Rockingham, VA: increased voter turnout by 24% and brought attention to District 4
COSF-AF
Endorsed a total of 23 candidates
83% win rate
Ohio: 2-1
Pennsylvania: 14-0
Virginia: 3-3
Spent $35K on independent expenditures
Blocked 70 anti-equity candidates from being voted in through efforts with partners
Lessons
Strategy
The top of the ticket has a significant impact on school board elections. If a high profile candidate leans anti-equity or makes culture wars a defining issue in their campaign platform, voters will look for school board candidates that reflect those views. In many districts, a simple GOTV program is not enough because voters don’t know anything about the candidates.
Even though school board elections are nonpartisan in most states, many people still view the candidates through a party lens. This is often because of the lack of information available to voters, but it’s also because the issues discussed and the policies proposed by candidates can reflect broader political ideologies. While candidates can take some actions to signal their party affiliation, a more effective tactic is to create slates of like-minded candidates in order to pool resources.
It is important to maintain year-round organizing and establish deep trust in a community. Low-information elections require multiple touch points with voters in order to give them the fullest pictures of the candidates. That type of regular engagement is only effective if the organization has strong ties with the community.
A 501(c)3 is most effective at trust-building and long term engagement, but at some point, voters just need the name of a preferred candidate. That’s why 501(c)4 efforts are critical. The c3 gets the vote out. The c4 gets the vote right.
Tactics
Phone Banks: Ensure volunteers are comfortable with both the content of the scripts and the technology being used. Every phone bank should start with a 15-20 minute training that includes a review of the script, a description of who you’re calling that day, and a space for tech questions. The first time you phone bank with a new group, assume you’ll spend 30-60 mins talking about the script and explaining the technology. Lots of volunteers fear the technology so it’s important to know the tech savviness of your group and adjust your training accordingly.
Voter Files: Be sure to have a plan for all of your technology before you settle on a voter file. It is ideal to be able to track your voter file, door knocking, text banking, and phone banking efforts in one centralized system that either runs everything or allows you to connect different platforms. Also, though the lowest priced voter file may seem best, determine whether there are hidden costs or logistical complications with connecting it to your voter outreach tools.
Scripts: It’s important to update your scripts based on feedback from the organizations and activists on the ground. We wrote the initial drafts based on the issues that folks on the ground said were happening in the community, took feedback from them during the initial training, and made adjustments. Partners and activists made a point to let us know that most national organizations don’t ask for feedback and they were grateful to be included. It’s essential to work with folks on the ground and respect the knowledge they have about their own communities.
Op-Eds: Recognizing that safety is an ongoing concern for parents and advocates on the ground, we need to find ways to ensure that potential allies feel safe to speak out about what’s going on in their community. This could come through connections to organizations that host online safety trainings or similar programs. Creating this safety allows us to engage with individuals who feel comfortable putting their name on op-eds/letters to the editor without fearing backlash.