Philadelphia Turnout Pushes Biden To Victory

For months leading up to the 2020 General Election, nearly all of the progressive field infrastructure was left on the sidelines. Due to these precautions, no urban turnout infrastructure was in place by September of 2020.

In order to return to the field, our team worked tirelessly to set up protocols to keep our organizer and the community safe. All canvass operations would be conducted outside, with facial covering, and adhering to strict social distancing requirements.

Additionally, 2020 was the first year PA voters had the opportunity to vote by mail. With many changes to this procedure over the course of the year and even in the month ahead of the vote, many voters were left confused by the process safe. All canvass operations would be conducted outside, with facial covering, and adhering to strict social distancing requirements.

Strategy

Capitalizing on a long history of work in the Philadelphia community, the Field Strategies team was able to stand up a program in less than a week. In just 28 days before the Election, the team sent out 3,940 shifts and knocked on 336,787 doors throughout Philadelphia. Staging sites were kept small and spread out throughout the City to ensure Covid safety protocols were adhered to at all times.

In order to help voters navigate the vote-by-mail process, canvassers were trained on a complex script that assisted voters in making sure their ballot was returned correctly and in a timely manner to ensure their vote was counted.

Results

Philadelphia has a long history of turning out for Presidential Elections. Field Strategies has been proud to be a leader in these efforts in past Election cycles. Despite this high ceiling, voter turnout in the 2020 General Election was the highest in modern history with 749,317 Philadelphians turning out to cast their vote, surpassing even President Barack Obama’s historic 2008 victory.