San Bernardino County

Get-out-the-vote canvassers are knocking on thousands of Inland residents' doors in the days leading to the Nov. 4 election as part of a study on how to increase turnout in low-income and ethnic communities.

Experts on voter mobilization will analyze the effectiveness of the techniques that volunteers in the Inland area and elsewhere use to get low-frequency voters to the polls, and then make recommendations to improve future get-out-the-vote efforts.

The study -- funded by the San Francisco-based James Irvine Foundation -- began in 2006, and what was learned in past elections is already being used in this year's canvassing. Nine organizations in Southern and Central California, including two in the Inland area, are part of the research.

Story continues below

William Wilson Lewis III / The Press-Enterprise

Francisco Nuñez, left, and his daughter, Erica Nuñez, right, precinct walkers with Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, talk to community organizer Carmen Segala. Their group is participating in research on getting low-frequency voters to the polls.

The goal is to increase the political sway that low-income and ethnic communities have, said Donald Green, a professor of political science at Yale University and one of three experts on voter behavior who is analyzing methods that canvassers use.

"When a group starts to vote at higher rates, public officials pay more attention to them," he said.

Whites comprise 47 percent of California's adult population but 70 percent of likely voters, according to an August report by the Public Policy Institute of California.

San Bernardino-based Inland Congregations United for Change has been working to increase voter turnout for more than 10 years, but the study helped the group realize that some of its methods were not as effective as once thought, said Tom Dolan, an organizer for the organization.

The group, which this year is targeting 2,400 residences on the mostly Latino and black Westside of San Bernardino, used to ask clergy to make get-out-the-vote announcements from the pulpit and got members of churches and synagogues to send election-time postcards to fellow congregants.

Story continues below

Erica Nuñez talks to Arnulfo Gomez, 44, right, while canvassing neighborhoods in San Bernardino County. Research has found that face-to-face efforts are most effective in getting people to vote.

The organization had the right idea: relying on personal relationships to get voters to the polls. But the James Irvine study concluded that face-to-face contact works best, with live phone calls an alternative if door-to-door canvassing is not feasible.

Melissa Michelson, an associate professor of political science at Cal State East Bay in Hayward and another researcher in the study, said many low-income and black and Latino people do not vote because they believe it doesn't make a difference. They see legislators and city council members come and go without improvements in their lives, Michelson said.

Television advertisements and political leaflets in the mail do little to challenge that cynicism, but when volunteers come to their doors and talk to them about how their vote can help lead to change, they are more likely to vote, she said.

"Now voting is a social event," Michelson said. "It's something you're doing as part of a community. It's not just an individual, isolated act."

The study also found that canvassing is most effective if it is done in the four weeks leading up to Election Day, and if it is conducted by members of the local community.

Story continues below

William Wilson Lewis III / The Press-Enterprise

Francisco and Erica Nuñez pass out leaflets while canvassing Colton neighborhoods and talking to residents Saturday.

The large majority of Inland Congregations canvassers go door-to-door in their own neighborhoods, meaning they can better relate to voters and answer questions about important local issues, such as schools, parks and youth-job programs, Dolan said.

When volunteers with the other Inland group involved in the study -- the Riverside-based Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice -- knock on doors, they ask residents to rate the performance of their city council members and invite residents to the center's meetings.

On Saturday, canvassers on San Bernardino's Westside were passing out leaflets for a meeting on rail-yard pollution.

Claudia Valdez, 20, said that, until she saw the leaflet, she did not know that the area around the nearby rail yard has the highest cancer rate of all rail yard neighborhoods in the state. She said she would attend Thursday's meeting.

She didn't need prodding to vote. Even though Valdez has never voted during the two years she has been registered -- she said she was too busy -- she was already planning to vote Nov. 4.

"I'm going to be a voter!" Valdez exclaimed as she jumped up and down after talking to canvassers Francisco and Erica Nuñez.

With the economy in crisis and U.S. troops still in Iraq, Valdez said this election is too important to miss. She watched the three debates and read through each candidate's Web site. Friends have told her it's a waste of time to vote, but Valdez said she realizes that her vote counts.

"It's so much more exciting voting this time, because of the economy," Valdez said. "Whoever wins, it will make a big difference."

Reach David Olson at 951-368-9462 or dolson@PE.com