Canvassing, Forums and the Media

Small races are won in conversations. A city council candidate who talks with 2,000 voters on their porches usually beats one who spent twice as much on signs. This lesson covers the ways you meet voters, from the porch to the forum stage to the local paper, and the rules for each. The rules are few and mostly federal, and the mistakes are predictable: the walk card in the mailbox, the text blast without consent, the volunteer with a clipboard 50 feet from the polling place door.

Door to door

What the law protects

In Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York v. Village of Stratton, decided June 17, 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court held that an Ohio village's ordinance making it a misdemeanor to go door to door promoting any cause without first registering and getting a permit violated the First Amendment. The case was brought by Jehovah's Witnesses, but the Court said the ordinance "unquestionably applies" to political activity as well, and that it would reach even residents "casually soliciting the votes of neighbors." Requiring canvassers to put their names on a public permit application, the Court said, ended the anonymity some speakers depend on. The vote to reverse was 8 to 1.

For an Idaho candidate, the practical meaning is that a city generally cannot require you or your volunteers to get a permit before knocking doors to talk about your campaign. Cities still have trespass law, and homeowners still control their own property: a resident who tells you to leave has ended the conversation, and returning is a different matter. If a city official tells you a permit is required, ask which ordinance, read it, and ask the city clerk how it applies to political canvassing. Course 46's Literature, Signs and Ads covers local solicitation ordinances in more detail.

What works at the door

Keep it short. Say your name, the office, and one sentence about why you are running. Ask one question: "What's the biggest issue for you with the city?" Listen. Then hand over the walk card, ask whether you can count on their vote, and write down the answer. The answer is the point. A campaign that marks each conversation as supporter, leaning, undecided or opposed knows by October whom to remind about voting and whom to leave alone.

Go when people are home: weekday evenings before dark and weekend late mornings and afternoons. Knock, step back from the door, and stand where you can be seen through a window. Take "not interested" gracefully. Never go inside a house. Two-person teams are safer, especially after dark and in unfamiliar areas, and a team can cover both sides of a street.

The mailbox rule

18 U.S.C. 1725 makes it a federal offense to knowingly and willfully put mailable matter on which no postage has been paid into a letter box established, approved or accepted by the Postal Service, with intent to avoid postage. A campaign walk card in a mailbox fits that description. The penalty is a fine under the general fine provisions of Title 18. Leave literature at the door instead: a door hanger, tucked into the screen door, or set under the mat with the name showing. If you are unsure whether a box or tube counts as a mail receptacle, ask the local post office before you leave anything in it.

Calls and texts

The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act governs campaign calls and texts, and the FCC's guide for political campaigns sets out the rules in plain terms:

Message	To a cell phone	To a residential landline
Live call, dialed by hand	Allowed	Allowed
Autodialed live call	Prior express consent required	Allowed
Prerecorded or artificial voice call (including AI voices)	Prior express consent required	Allowed without consent, but no more than three in any 30 days; caller must identify itself at the start and give a phone number
Autodialed text (robotext)	Prior express consent required	Not applicable
Text typed and sent by hand	No prior consent required	Not applicable

Some other points from the FCC guidance. Political calls and texts are exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry, but the TCPA rules above still apply. Consent can be revoked at any time in any reasonable way, such as replying STOP, and campaigns should honor it. And the FCC has ruled that AI-generated voices are "artificial" under the TCPA, so a cloned-voice robocall to a cell phone without consent is unlawful, a ruling that followed AI deepfake robocalls to New Hampshire voters in 2024.

Where do you get consent? From people who give you their number and agree to hear from the campaign: a sign-up form at a forum or on your website with a plain line saying so. The voter file has phone numbers for some voters, but a voter who listed a number on a registration form has not agreed to campaign robotexts. Keep a record of each consent. And remember the voter list limit from lesson 6: Idaho Code 34-437A bars using list information to deliver solicitations for money, so a text asking for donations should go to your supporter list, not to numbers pulled from the voter file.

For a local race, a few volunteers sending personal texts from a list of supporters, or making calls to voters who opened the door in September, will reach as many people as the campaign needs. Course 70's Persuasion, Ethics and Law covers the consent and disclosure rules for digital outreach more broadly.

Candidate forums

Who hosts them

In Idaho local races, forums are hosted by chambers of commerce, neighborhood associations, parent groups, service clubs, libraries, local newspapers and radio stations, and nonprofit civic groups. Some are recorded and posted; some are streamed by the city or school district. The format varies: opening statements, questions from a moderator or the audience, a lightning round of yes-or-no questions, closing statements. Ask the host for the format, the time limits and whether questions will be shared in advance.

The rules for nonprofit hosts

Many hosts are 501(c)(3) charities, which federal tax law bars from supporting or opposing any candidate. The IRS allows them to hold candidate forums as voter education, and two revenue rulings set the standards. Revenue Ruling 86-95 held that an organization holding public forums of neutral form and content during campaigns is not participating in a campaign. Revenue Ruling 2007-41 lists the factors the IRS looks at for a multi-candidate forum: questions prepared and presented by an independent, nonpartisan panel; a broad range of issues; equal opportunity for each candidate to answer; no request that candidates agree or disagree with the organization's own positions; and a moderator who does not comment on questions or signal approval of any candidate.

The ruling also covers the edge cases. A candidate who declines an invitation does not sink the forum, as long as the group treats the others neutrally and says so in its publicity. Inviting one candidate to a big annual banquet and the opponent to a sparsely attended weekday meeting would likely be intervention, even if both talks are neutral. Course 46's Nonprofits in Politics has a step list for nonprofit hosts. For a candidate, knowing the rule helps: you can expect fair treatment from a charity host, and you can point to the ruling if a format looks lopsided.

Preparing

Forum audiences are small and well informed: the people who come to a forum are the people who vote in local elections, and many will tell their neighbors what they saw. Prepare like it matters. Read the current budget of the body you are running for. Know the three issues that came up most at its last six meetings. Practice your two-minute answer, from lesson 6, until it fits in ninety seconds. Answer the question asked. If you do not know something, say so and say how you would find out; voters forgive that more readily than a bluff.

Questionnaires

Groups and news outlets send questionnaires to candidates: business associations, professional groups, issue organizations, newspapers building a voter guide. No law requires you to answer any of them. Answer the news outlets' guides, because many voters read them. For advocacy group questionnaires, read the questions first; some are fair, and some are built to produce an endorsement or a talking point. Keep a file of every answer you give, because your answers are public once they are published and an opponent will compare them. Give the same answer to every group on the same question.

Earned media and the local press

Earned media is coverage you do not pay for: a news story, a voter guide entry, a radio interview, a letter to the editor from a supporter. In a local race it often matters more than ads, and it costs nothing but time. Find out who covers your city, county or school district for the local paper, radio station and any online outlets. Send a short announcement when you file, with a photo and a phone number. Answer reporters' calls the same day. If a reporter asks for documents or numbers, send them; it makes the story accurate and makes you the candidate who returns calls.

Papers set their own rules for letters to the editor and endorsements, often with a cutoff date before the election. Learn them early. A letter from a respected neighbor saying why she is voting for you is worth more than one more yard sign.

Social media

A campaign page on the platforms your neighbors use, a simple website with your case and contact information, and an email list are the minimum. Post what you are doing: the doors you knocked, the meeting you attended, the budget page you read. Paid digital ads need the same "paid for by" line as print under Idaho Code 67-6614A, and the platforms have their own political ad rules. Course 70, Advocacy and Social Media Strategy, covers the craft, and its lesson on email lists explains why the list you own matters more than any platform's followers.

Signs

Signs need the "paid for by" line, the owner's permission on private property, and attention to the rules for public right-of-way, which differ between state highways and city streets. Many Idaho cities limit how early signs may go up and how quickly they must come down. Read your city's sign ordinance before ordering, and ask the city clerk how it applies to campaign signs. Course 46's Literature, Signs and Ads covers Idaho Transportation Department right-of-way rules, city examples and sign theft.

Near the polls and on election day

The 250-foot rule

Idaho Code 18-2318, last amended in 2024, applies "on any day that ballots are being cast in person for any election." Read plainly, that wording seems to reach early in-person voting days as well as election day, and the zone is measured from any "polling place or other voting location." That reading is this course's, not a settled one: this course found no court ruling or Secretary of State guidance deciding how the section applies at early voting sites. Ask your county clerk how the county applies it before you plan any activity near an early voting location. Inside a polling place, inside any building where an election is held, or within 250 feet of the primary entrance and exit voters use, no one may electioneer, circulate cards or handbills, solicit petition signatures, advocate for or against a candidate or measure, solicit votes, offer money or gifts, or obstruct the doors. Conduct on private property next to the polling place building is excluded. Election officials may remove materials, speak to people they think are electioneering, or call law enforcement. A first or second violation is an infraction with a $300 fine for each; a third is a misdemeanor.

The rule reaches your volunteers, your signs and your T-shirt. A candidate who votes in person should wear something without campaign insignia, vote, and leave. Volunteers holding signs belong outside 250 feet, and should stay on public sidewalks or on private property where they have permission. Measure from the door voters use, not from the edge of the parking lot.

Poll watchers

Idaho Code 34-304 lets a candidate, several candidates together, or a party authorize one watcher per polling place or central counting station. The authorization must be in writing, signed by the candidate (or by the county party chairman and secretary for a party), and filed with the county clerk no later than twelve days before the election. The clerk may not admit anyone who asks after that. Challengers, who may challenge a voter's eligibility, are authorized by parties in partisan elections. For a question on the ballot, one person supporting and one opposing may be admitted.

Watchers may observe everything at their assigned location and stay through the count. They wear a visible name tag with their title. They may not interfere with the orderly conduct of the election, and a watcher present during counting may not leave before the polls close. A good watcher brings a notebook, reads the clerk's instructions beforehand, and takes concerns to the election judge or the clerk, never to the voters.

What you may say about an opponent

Comparing records is the heart of a campaign. You may say your opponent voted for the water rate increase, missed eleven meetings, or proposed a budget that cut road maintenance, if it is true. You may say you think those were bad decisions. Voters need that comparison, and the law protects it.

Defamation and actual malice

The legal limit is defamation: a false statement of fact that harms someone's reputation. Opinions and accurate statements are not defamatory. For public officials, the U.S. Supreme Court set a high bar in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, decided March 9, 1964: a public official must prove the statement was made "with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not." Candidates for office are generally treated the same way. In Idaho, a libel or slander suit must be filed within two years (Idaho Code 5-219).

The protection runs both ways. Your opponent's supporters may say harsh things about you that are opinion or true, and you have no claim. And Sullivan's protection ends at a knowing lie or a reckless one. A campaign that prints a claim without checking it, when the meeting minutes would have shown it was false, is taking a real risk.

Idaho's specific rules

This course found no Idaho statute that makes a false statement about a candidate a crime or a civil violation in itself. Idaho does have specific rules for campaign communications. The attribution rule in 67-6614A requires the payer to be clearly indicated on advocacy communications. And the Freedom From AI-Rigged (FAIR) Elections Act, Idaho Code 67-6628A, added in 2024, lets a candidate whose speech or conduct is deceptively shown through synthetic media in an electioneering communication sue for an injunction and damages, proving the synthetic media by clear and convincing evidence. A disclosure saying "This (video/audio) has been manipulated" is a defense if it is displayed for the full length of a video in an easily readable size, or read clearly at the start and end of audio (and every two minutes if the audio runs longer than two minutes). Liability falls on the creator of the communication, not on the medium that carries it. A medium can be liable only if it removes the disclosure or alters the content so that it becomes synthetic media, and even that does not apply to a federally licensed broadcaster transmitting an ad subject to 47 U.S.C. 315. An online platform is not treated as the publisher of content others provide.