Voting Resources

When the Greeks held their democratic elections a millennia ago, things were simpler. They held debates, talked with their local constituents and that was about it. These days, though, candidates and their supporters have elections campaigns down to a science. There are ads to buy, media to influence, and hands to shake at rally after rally. Every campaign management team is well armed with strategies and proven techniques for winning elections. Here are some of the ways they do it.

Paid advertising
Provided the campaign is well funded, this method is by far the easiest. Many TV stations, print media, and radio stations openly accept political advertising from almost all parties. Others ban political ads, but allow campaign groups to sponsor public service announcements with no partisan message. Still other media, particularly specialized magazines, openly support a certain candidate.

Publicity
While paid advertising does help to get the candidates’ messages out and make their faces familiar to the constituents, ads just don’t earn the same level of trust as free media coverage. Free publicity carries a lot of weight. Publicity is when journalists and editors choose which candidate to talk about and what to say about them. This type of coverage is generally free of the one-sidedness of paid advertising and therefore more valuable to readers and viewers.

That’s not to say candidates sit back and wait for the media to come to them. It’s usually just the opposite — many turn into “publicity hounds” who dog the media as much as possible hoping to get into the limelight. Of course, it doesn’t always work. Sometimes less aggressive methods, like holding public events, work better to draw media attention.

Mass meetings
It’s one of the hallmarks of democracy: the right to hold mass meetings. Needless to say, campaigning candidates make as much use of this right as they can, organizing supporters’ meetings, pep rallies with rousing music and whirling confetti, and in some cases, even protests.

One of the major benefits of meetings like these is that they increase supporters’ feelings of closeness to the candidate. Even when you support a candidate’s ideals, it’s hard to really get behind someone you’ve only seen in pictures. When you’ve had the chance to see them in person and maybe even shake their hand and ask a few questions, the candidate becomes more like a personal friend.

Another way in which meetings help the campaign is by showing visually how many people in the local area support the candidate. The turnout to the meeting provides clear social proof and helps convince attendees and anyone who hears about the meeting that mainstream voters support that candidate.

Campaigning for political office has become far more complex since the first political debates in ancient times. Working with the media and going out to meet the voters in person is critical to the success of election campaigns, but those are just some of the techniques for winning elections that are used today.