Pence Corps website tracks, rewards campaign volunteers

As Election Day looms, campaigns are pulling out the stops, and the prizes, to motivate much-needed volunteers.

The Mike Pence for Indiana campaign recently launched Pence Corps, an online program that allows the gubernatorial candidate’s supporters to become “Neighborhood Captains” and compete against one another for stamps.

Once volunteers sign up on the Pence Corps website, they can download an “incentive card,” where Pence staffers place stamps. Stamps represent different volunteer activities. One stamp equates to 100 phone calls at a “Pence Victory Center.” Walking in a parade with “Team Pence” would garner five stamps.

Those stamps earn volunteers Pence gear, such as T-shirts, hats and messenger bags. Top earners are featured in a spotlight section the Pence Corps website.
After the election, the volunteer with the most points will be rewarded a lunch with Pence.

“As we near Election Day, we believe Pence Corps will serve as a way to harness our grassroots energy, engage new volunteers and reward our hard-working supporters for their efforts as they help to spread Mike’s positive, issues-based vision for Indiana,” Deputy Press Secretary and New Media Director Bridget Cleveland said.

The idea of rewarding volunteers with points and ranks isn’t unusual, said Andrew Downs, IU-Purdue University Fort Wayne assistant professor of political science and head of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics.

“Campaigns, no matter how much money they have, rely on volunteers,” Downs explained.

At this point in the campaign season, Downs said, the focus switches from identifying supporters to finding and swaying undecided voters. Promoting early voting is crucial to campaigns, Downs said.

“You can’t contact all of them with paid staffers. It’s just not possible,” Downs said.

Providing competition and inducement, whether in the form of T-shirts or a free meal, helps place volunteers in campaign headquarters when they’re needed most, Downs said. 

The phenomenon can be seen locally at the Rep. Todd Young, R-9th District, campaign headquarters on East Third Street.

Young runs local “Todd Squads” in every county in Indiana’s 9th District, including Monroe County.

They’re similar to “Pence Corps” in the way volunteers earn points and prizes and the kind of activities that are rewarded. The ultimate prize for a “Todd Squad” participant is also lunch with Rep. Young.

But while Young’s leaderboard is located in campaign headquarters, Pence’s online platform allows volunteers to see results from home.

It’s a social media trend that can also be seen from national candidates. The Mitt Romney campaign has launched a “With Mitt” iPhone application that encourages supporters to “customize photos with a variety of Mitt-inspired artistic frames, add personalized messages and then share with your friends via email, Facebook or Twitter,” according to its description in the Apple App Store.

But Downs also said sophisticated social media applications aren’t always a good return on a campaign’s investment.

On a basic level, what Downs refers to as “inducement” could take the form of praising a certain volunteer during a group meeting.

While Pence’s opponent, Democrat John Gregg, isn’t using a points system to reward volunteers, the campaign is relying on social media like Twitter and Facebook to involve supporters, Campaign Communications Director Daniel Altman said.

The Gregg campaign released its first television ad last week, and Altman said they’ve noticed an “uptick” in social media interactions since that time.

“Right now it’s just getting people excited and energetic about the campaign and getting them making calls and knocking on doors for us,” Altman said.