How to build a voting bloc

I’ve been going on about the whole Cathy Crowe thing for a while now (see this post and this post for background). I’d really like to see her win the by-election, but because I don’t live in her riding, I can’t vote for her. But I can encourage her constituents to vote for her, and so can you. In fact, it isn’t even that hard.

Building a voter bloc can be as simple as finding ten people who agree to vote your way, for example, and then asking them to find ten more of their own. A voting bloc can quiz the candidates on their promises and policies and decide who to vote for as a group – and because it has strength in numbers, the bloc’s decision can have a substantial impact on an election.

After my first post about Cathy’s candidacy, I heard from a number of friends who took the time to look her up and decided that she was definitely worth supporting. Now, I’m hardly under the impression that my little blog has millions or even dozens of readers, but it did manage to reach a few people. And if those few people passed it on, and those few people passed it on… Well, you get the idea.

Obviously, an effective campaign takes a little more focus. It helps to talk a candidate like Cathy up among people who are likely to back her, and it helps all the more if those people are actually voters in her constituency. But spreading the word in general is a simple but important step – and if it’s done properly, with some level of organization, it can be a very effective step.

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