Candidates compress campaigns for contracted canvass period

The upswing in early voting has candidates from Wrightsville Beach to across the county strapping on their campaign rockets, readying to boost their message to any undecided voter.
Close to 60 percent of voters marked their ballots before the 2008 November Election Day, meaning candidates have to push their campaigns forward this year if they are going to tweak the minds of the electorate.
There was a national, local and organizational effort to get the vote out early in 2008, forever changing the dynamic of campaigning.
Digging into the reasons behind the upswing in early voting, a call was placed to Bonnie Williams, director of the New Hanover County Board of Elections.
“I think a lot of people vote early for many different reasons,” she said. “One, it’s convenient; and two, it gives them more flexibility in scheduling their day or their week.
Some people believe that if they vote early, they don’t have to stand in line on Election Day, even though they’re might be a line at the one-stop voting site ... on the other hand, you have another group of people who are very traditional, and it’s just not the same type of voting experience if they vote early and they prefer to wait until Election Day,” Williams said.
The filing period for candidates this year lasted from July 6-17, about a week earlier than elections prior to 2007.
One Stop voting begins on Oct. 15 at the New Hanover Government Center off Racine Drive, near the intersection with Eastwood Road.
The earlier filing period helps a little, but the rise in early voting means that candidates still have to boost their campaign into full swing a couple of weeks earlier sooner.
“That changes the whole dynamic of campaigns,” said Walter DeVries, a candidate for the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen who has an extensive background in the world of politics and government.
“If you have a campaign plan then you have a timeline set for the campaign,” he said. “Well, now you have to move it back at least two weeks, which means that if you are planning ... to make your campaign peak by Election Day, now you have to do it by the middle of October.”
But it’s not as easy as it sounds.
“You run into a problem,” DeVries said. “If you push your campaign back to August, then a lot of people aren’t paying much attention yet.”
“What it does,” he said, referring to the shortened campaign period, “is it really compresses the campaign.”
Compressing the campaign has been made easier by the paralleled development of faster and more effective communication mediums like the Internet. In a small town, some candidates have been known to initiate person-by-person campaign strategies, which may prove more challenging than before the shortened campaign period.

—Brian Freskos