Precinct Chair Handbook
Legal Disclaimer
The materials in this Precinct Chair Handbook are intended to provide a general reference or resource only. The matrix of federal, state, and local laws governing elections and the two-party system are too complex to create a “one-size-fits-all” handbook. These materials are not to be construed as providing legal, or any other professional service or advice. We strongly advise that you work with experienced Harris County Republican Party (HCRP) legal counsel if you have the slightest concern on activities that may or may not be legal. If in doubt, ask.
It is necessary to update your precinct profile from time to time to reflect changes in the precinct demographics, voting trends, and state and federal legislation and redistricting. Precinct profiles change and, as a result, the Precinct Chair Handbook may not be completely accurate. In addition, your precinct may (likely) have significant differences whereby standard activities recommended for growth do not apply. Continuously challenge yourself in building new relationships in your precinct to make a difference.
Table of Contents
- WELCOME FROM YOUR HARRIS COUNTY CHAIR
- DOCUMENT PURPOSE
- Party Structure
- National Party Organization: Republican National Committee (RNC)
- State Party Organization: State Republican Executive Committee (SREC)
- County Party Organization: Harris County Republican Party (HCRP)
- Harris County Republican Party Officers
- Harris County Republican Party Committees
- Precinct Organization: Precinct Chairman and Volunteers
- Auxiliary Organizations
- Texas Republican Party Auxiliaries
- Harris County Republican Party Auxiliary Clubs
- Governing Documents
- Republican Party of Texas Platform
- Preamble and Principles
- Legislative Priorities
- Entire Platform
- Texas Election Cycle, 4 Year Overview
- Republican Conventions
- ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- GLOSSARY OF PARTY ACRONYMS AND TERMS
WELCOME FROM YOUR HARRIS COUNTY CHAIR
Thank you so much for volunteering to serve as a Precinct Chair for the Harris County Republican Party. As a former Precinct Chair, I know first-hand how important your job is to no only the success of our local party, but to holding fair and secure elections in Harris County.
Our local party has the opportunity in 2021 to engage, energize and expand the Republican Party in Harris County with your help. You and the other Precinct Chairs are the frontline warriors in our fight to take back the county and to be the firewall that prevents Texas from turning blue.
In 2021 we will be laying the foundation to start winning races again, but we need your help. I know that it will not be easy and will require a lot of heavy lifting from all of us. But there has never been a more critical time in our country’s recent history than the time we are currently living in. The push to the extreme left by the Democratic Party and their attempts to turn our country into a socialistic one is frightening. We must all fight to ensure that America continues to be that beacon of hope, freedom, and prosperity. That means taking the battle to the precincts to win back Republican votes and register new Republicans.
Thanks again for your service to the Harris County Republican Party and to our country. If you need to reach me with questions or suggestions, please give me a call at 832-865-5765. Together we will rebuild our party in 2021 and start winning again!
Warm regards,
DOCUMENT PURPOSE
It is our privilege to welcome you to the Harris County Republican Party (HCRP). We wish you every success as a precinct chair, and it is our goal to make you feel at home. This Handbook was developed to describe the expectations we have for all precinct chairs and what can be expected from the HCRP. We hope that your experience here will be challenging, enjoyable, and rewarding. Again, welcome!
This Handbook is designed to introduce you further to the HCRP, familiarize you with the organization structure, key leadership resources, provide general guidelines on a precinct chairs role and expectations. In addition, you will receive a Precinct Profile, which includes information specific to your precinct, giving you some guidance on setting up a strategy, goals, activities and tactics.
The HCRP reserves the right to modify any of our policies and procedures, including those covered in this Handbook, as party rules permit. We will seek to notify you of such changes by email and other appropriate means.
The HCRP Training and Development Committee will provide an orientation and training shortly after you take your oath of office. We encourage attendance in all cases, as a way to continue to learn better practices, share better ideas and continue to build relationships that matter.
Precinct Chair Role
A Precinct Chairman is the foundational building block in the Republican Party. As an elected official in the precinct, they assume roles and responsibilities to the precinct and the Republican Party. A Precinct Chairman is a great opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself, develop meaningful relationships that will last the rest of your life.
As a Precinct Chairman you will organize your precinct, help with elections, go to conventions, and become a member of the County Executive Committee.
Precinct Chair Responsibilities
- Time Discipline: Minimum Commitment, 2 Hours / Week
A Precinct Chair is a volunteer service role, but many are relying on you to cover your precinct. You will learn that your time will rise and fall with the election calendar. During elections you will be busier, than those months where it seems like there is less to do. Volunteering for committee work, poll worker, poll watcher, campaigns, would be in addition to these two hours, we are asking you to focus on a few meaningful activities each week. For example, spend about 15-30 minutes reviewing against your strategy and six-month plan and the remaining time working on 1-2 of those actions.
- Build an Active Precinct Team
Many hands make light work. Building a strong team and motivating them to help you strengthen your precinct is critical. These team members will help you with all your other activities like event planning, phone banking, block walking, social media, etc.…
- Identify, Register, Inform and Turn Out Voters
As Precinct Chair, you will want to work with your volunteers to constantly be working on a list of Republican voters, verify when new voters move into the precinct, engage them at meetings and other ways to get them involved. The election year calendar will segment out different activities to register, inform and get-out-the-vote activities.
- Participate on the County Executive Committee
The County Executive Committee is made up of the County Chairman and all the Precinct Chairmen in the county. As the representative of your precinct, you should make
every effort to attend each meeting. Your presence counts towards a quorum enabling official business to be conducted.
- Engage in your Local Elections
In addition to maximizing the Republican vote, ways to be involved include:
- Primary Election—Campaigning.
You should become knowledgeable about your local situation before publicly taking sides in a contested primary race. Contested races sometimes create hard feelings or damage relationships. Becoming involved in a campaign may include going door-to-door (“block walking”), making phone calls (“phone banking”) or handing out campaign material for a candidate.
- Primary Election—Working at the Polls.
In Primary Elections, County Chairmen (with approval of the County Executive Committee) appoint Election Judges for each precinct in the county, and the Election Judges appoint clerks to assist them. Some County Chairmen require that their Precinct Chairs fill these positions as it can be difficult to recruit all the volunteers it takes to setup, run, and tear down the polling places on Election Day. Working the polls is also a great way to ensure ballot integrity for our Party and to get to know voters in your area. Some Precinct Chairs appoint a strong Republican in their precinct to be the presiding judge, freeing them up to meet and greet, and recruit Republican volunteers to work the precinct.
- General Election—Campaigning.
Precinct Chairs should be eager to assist Republican candidates in any way possible. Becoming involved in a campaign may include going door-to-door (“block walking”), making phone calls (“phone banking”) or handing out campaign material for a candidate. It is particularly important for Precinct Chairs to be involved in these efforts as you know your precinct better than anyone.
- General Election—Working at the Polls.
In every precinct where our Republican candidate for Governor in a gubernatorial election wins, we are eligible to have a Republican Election Judge in the following General Election. Precincts where our candidate for Governor came in second are entitled to have a Republican as Alternate Judge. Your serving as Judge or Alternate Judge is very important to our Party’s ballot integrity and reduces the need to recruit ballot integrity volunteers. This is further incentive to get-out-the-vote!
- Participate on Republican Convention Process
As Precinct Chairman, you have responsibilities in the convention process, including: Precinct Convention, Senate District (SD) or County Convention and State Convention.
- Precinct Convention.
The Election Code designates the Precinct Chairman as temporary chair of the precinct convention. Instruction packets on running your precinct convention are provided by RPT prior to the convention.
- SD/County Convention.
Precinct Chairmen are encouraged to not only participate in their Senatorial District/County Convention (you must be elected at your precinct convention), but to volunteer to serve on one of the temporary convention committees (by contacting your County Chairman or Temporary District Convention Chairman who make these appointments).
- State Convention.
As grassroots leaders, a Precinct Chairman should try to get elected as a delegate to the State Convention at their Senatorial District/County Convention (you do NOT have to be a delegate at the SD/County Convention, but it often helps!). If you are interested in serving on a temporary convention committee, contact your SREC member who makes recommendations to the state chairman for appointments.
- Recruiting Neighboring Precinct Chairs
As you will learn, having strong, motivated neighboring Precinct Chairs, will become your best assets, and with some work, could become some of the best relationships you will have, hopefully lasting a lifetime. Stay available to support the vacancy committee proactively as possible, as having neighboring help is likely more a priority for you than them, so you do not have to wait for them to help find good candidates.
- Identify your Replacement
As your life changes, you may find you can no longer perform your responsibilities of a Precinct Chair, so we ask that you always be searching for viable candidates of interest and passion in the role, so you can plan a smooth transition so as not to lose the valuable work that you have done to build your precinct.
You are not expected to do all these things from day one. You are not alone, and have plenty of support and tools available, and constantly improving, to help make your job more exciting. The key is to have fun and focus on building relationships. From here, all other things will follow.
Precinct Chair Responsibilities
We understand a Precinct Chair is a volunteer role of service. To be successful in this role, it requires an amount of dedication and consistency among all members of the party. We rely on each other to do perform their duties, help others that need it, and let us know when you need it as well. A few best practices and minimum expectations include:
- Work with your neighboring Precinct Chairs – you cannot be an effective Precinct Chair in a vacuum, leverage those that have done this or that are also new and learn together
- Build a team, as above, covering several 1,000 voters effectively will require many hands
- Leverage social media. Like it or not, it can be your strongest tool for communicating important information in a timely way. It is not perfect but find a volunteer to take on this task to obtain the benefits. Hint: Tap into existing Facebook resources already active in your precinct, pull them into a private Facebook Group for Republicans in / near your precinct.
- Have fun. If you are not having fun, your volunteers will feel this. You may not have fun all the time, but you must have some fun some of the time. Find a volunteer that can help with some event planning type activities into the mix of things to do, build relationships.
- Join a committee, early. Committee participation, in any capacity gives you an opportunity to begin building your network as well as learning about party business. Not sure which committee? Ask members on what they do, find one you may gravitate too.
- Read the Texas Republican Party Platform
- Work with Excellence; Be as Consistent as Possible
- Be Available to your Precinct for Questions/Concerns
- Provide Reliable Contact Information to the Party and your Precinct • Return Calls / Email Correspondence in a Reasonable Timeframe
- Do Your Best to Support Party Unity (focus on principles)
- Communicate with the HCRP if I Cannot Fulfill your Duties
- Attend Executive Committee Meetings Consistently
- Reach out to the HCRP if I have Questions
- Build Relationships that Matter!
Stages of Development of a Precinct Team
Your precinct most likely contains enthusiastic citizens with special talents to help manage the needs of the precinct and increase the efficiency of the precinct team. The division of labor will make the work easier and more fun. It is your job to recruit and build that team. It is all about
building relationships with your neighbors. The table below shows how your precinct organization might develop over time as you build your team and experience.
Criteria Definitions:
- Block Captains: A volunteer willing to be responsible for several voters on their street or block. Target: approximately 100 voters per block captain.
- Volunteer: Willing to help with any of a variety of tasks needed.
- Precinct Activity: Holding events and becoming involved in Republican party activities.
- VDR (Voter Deputy Registrar): Voter registration official and voter registration efforts within the precinct.
- GOTV (Get Out The Vote): Activities that help ensure Republicans get to the polls, primary, general and special elections.
- Communication: Regular communications between the precinct chair and Republican precinct voters, including email, phone calls, social media, newsletters, welcome cards, etc.…
- Canvassing: Going door-to-door or phone banking in the precinct for different purposes, e.g., confirming Republican, understand issues and priorities
What would Precinct Team Members do?
As your Precinct Team matures, it is natural to ask this question: What should the Precinct Team Members do? Each Precinct Team will take in unique characteristics of the precinct, like majority party strength, number of core and top tier republicans, locality to nearby auxiliaries, help from nearby precinct chairs, etc.… Additionally, it is important to remember that these volunteer roles will take time to develop and it is quite likely the team members will change over time. It is important to try and assess what a volunteer has to offer in terms of time and talent and match them in a role they will feel they can make a difference. The following table includes examples Precinct Team Members:
| Team Member | Role Description / Example Activity |
|---|---|
| Street Captains | Probably the most important volunteer to help a Precinct Chair, Outgoing, maintain political relationship with the nearest 100 or so neighbors, Help distribute newsletters and door hangers, Help identify new voters on your street, Help with GOTV (Get Out The Vote) efforts during primary and general elections, Help identify and distribute political signs as elections near. |
| Microsoft Experts (Word and Excel) | • Maintain precinct database • Create lists (block walking, phone banking) • Add new data based on canvassing precinct, e.g., republican or democrat signs in yard • Updates to date based on voting in primary, block walking confirmations • Mail merge with Word for reports or block walking sheets |
| Volunteer Coordinator | • Recruits, helps train volunteers for various needs, street captains, help at meet and greets, help during election at polls, fold newsletters, etc.… • Help maintain a list of delegates for the precinct, senate and state convention that will represent the precinct |
| Election Integrity | • Volunteer to help maintain inventory of volunteers wiling to be election judges, poll workers and clerks and poll watchers • Maintain coordination on training requirements and schedule to ensure up to date training • Maintain geographic coverage attributes as many volunteers are needed to work outside their own precinct – this is really where the need is, as it is difficult to get republicans to work in democrat precincts |
| Legislative Coordinator | • Helps track important legislation as identified by the precinct and our republican party • Helps monitor and report on your representative’s positions and voting records • Helps rally with Communications at times when a call to action is necessary |
| Legislative Committee Chairs | • Committee Chair, leading a smaller group within precinct, on collective issues the community cares about, e.g., 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, Right to Life, Election Integrity, Property Taxes, etc.… • Coordinates with other issue-based organizations for research, materials, and calls to action • Coordinates with Communications for distributing information as well as calls to action within the broader precinct |
| Street Captain Coordinator | • Recruits, trains, communicates with Street Captains who will deliver newsletters, text to their neighbors, deliver new neighbor welcome packets |
| Welcome Packet Coordinator | • Research for new neighbors in precinct, creates Welcome Packets for distribution by Street Captains |
| Communications Coordinator | • Coordinator for communications like newsletters, email blasts, postcards, community publications • Social Media, e.g., Facebook, Next-door to post event and action information • Administrators to answer messages and requests received • Establish guidelines for posting • Ensure current by posting daily • Post on holidays, special messages to veterans etc. |
| Event Planner | • Events typically require detailed planning (sign in tables, decorations, greeters, podium, microphone, snacks, drinks, printed material, freebies), examples include: o Meet and Greets for Candidates o Speakers to cover policies/insight o Student Events o Outreach Events o Training Events: Voter Registrar, Red Dialer, Poll (Judge, Clerk, Poll Watch) • Even promotions, coordinate with Communications via precinct distribution lists, affiliate or auxiliary clubs, nearby HCRP events, etc.… |
| Home Meeting Hosts | • Volunteers that will avail their homes for meet and greets and other events/programs. Spread this opportunity for a variety of people to help. • One home can host several speakers with one in the family room, one in the game room and speakers can rotate. • Two neighboring homes that are next door to each other or fairly close. You could have several speakers/candidates rotate between the homes for one night of hearing from several speakers. |
| Community Outreach | • Coordinate larger events with neighboring precincts • Young Republicans - Work with volunteer parents to create events to engage future voters (high school) and present voters (High School Seniors and College Students), and establish Young Republicans chapters in high schools in your ISD • Veterans – identify those American Legion, and VFW posts near your precinct and align, as appropriate, with community events to help celebrate veteran events and thank them for their service. • Depending on demographics, may need volunteers for minority outreach like Hispanic, African American, Asian, etc.… |
