As Master Yoda would say: very pleased I am to report to you. We have built a very powerful headquarters operation in Novosibirsk, one capable of overcoming the “prohibitive barrier” of signature collection.
In order to get on the ballot for the September 13, 2015 election, we need to collect nearly 12,000 signatures across the region by July 18. This is an extremely difficult task, given the requirement to have signature collectors notarized, along with the tedious and labor-intensive procedure, etc.
We approved a signature collection standard (they have to be perfect) and set ourselves the goal of collecting 15,000 signatures by July 10, so that we could devote the remaining time to verification and rejecting invalid ones.
And together with volunteers, we launched the Kind Machine. The headquarters has 25 permanent staff: 4 lawyers, 6 coordinators for signature collectors, 4 data-entry staff, coordinators for the campaign cubes (street campaign stands), and so on. Some of them are volunteers, some are paid, but overall that is the size of the back office.
Yesterday in Novosibirsk, we collected 1,025 signatures for the first time since the start of the drive. In total over the past 7 days of signature collection, we have gathered 4,487 signatures.
Right now, we are collecting signatures in two ways: collectors going door to door, and collectors working at cubes (street campaign stands).
We devoted the first stage of the work to increasing the number of collectors and training them. We trained more than 400 people; many dropped out on their own, and many others we screened out ourselves. As a result, there are now more than 120 trained people working in the field.
Now that the number of collectors is in pretty good shape, we are focusing on improving the quality of their work. We identified the top 30 hardest-working and most outgoing collectors—they account for almost 70% of all signatures gathered—and we are interviewing them so we can spread their experience to everyone else. The best collectors also have a much lower rejection rate in their signature sheets, and they will teach others that as well.
A signature can be invalidated by all sorts of things. For example, writing “30.06.15” instead of “30.06.2015,” or “Novosibirsk Obl.” instead of “Novosibirsk Oblast.” The law is completely absurd and idiotic, but we have to comply with it.
And here is what that has produced:
In addition, it is very important for us to understand how and where each collector gathers signatures, so we control the issuance of route assignments, making sure a person goes only to the buildings we specify rather than just wandering around the city.
All signatures go through several stages of verification:
And only after that can we say that we accept the signature.
The eternal problem is the “artists.” These are collectors who are either sent in by the headquarters of other parties (or by the authorities/administration), or who simply want to make easy money; they fill out signature sheets themselves using the FMS database (Federal Migration Service database). With their right hand, with their left hand, asking grandma and a friend to help.
All of these tricks are well known, and we warn people right away: we do not just throw out such a collector—we hand them over to the police. The job of a collector is well paid, and they have a fully official, above-board employment contract that explicitly warns them of criminal liability.
This nice young woman forged signatures and left headquarters in a police car:
Those who collect honestly, meanwhile, earn very well.
You can follow our signature collection progress here:
So far, everything is going well: we are on track to collect the signatures on time, and soon we will invite all public monitors, as promised, to conduct an independent assessment of the quality of our signature sheets.
How can you help our campaign to collect 15,000 signatures in Novosibirsk?
If you are from Novosibirsk, become a volunteer or a signature collector.
If you are not from Novosibirsk, send a link to this post to people you know in Novosibirsk Oblast. For example, they can request a signature collector to come to their home.
And you can always support our campaign financially. We need the money very much, and as you can see, we are spending it wisely.