In all the 14 cities, two residents in every micro-geography would be recruited, trained and given a stipend to form a block team. The block team’s first step would be to connect with a member of every household on the block — going back to every door as many times as necessary to make contact. This introductory interaction would be an unhurried conversation about the block team and its goals of building power and turnout, and it would gather the names of all voting-eligible people living at the residence. This data would then be reconciled with the voter file to categorize every eligible black resident by registration status and voting history. Let’s say the block team has 100 black households with 200 eligible voters. Once the team gets good data, it can focus on deep canvassing — having meaningful conversations at the doorstep — with only the nonvoters or infrequent voters, maybe 80 people in all. In this conversation or future ones, block teams can help them register and make plans to vote, perhaps with a user-friendly tool like Map the Vote.

This is not the only model or necessarily the best one, but it does typify the big thinking required to match the size of the opportunity. There are many questions that need to be answered: How many block teams can a full-time organizer train and support? How large an area can a block team effectively cover? How often should block teams meet? Should they focus on hyperlocal, nonpartisan issues or national partisan issues? We can’t definitively answer these questions this year (maybe block teams should focus on 75 black households, instead of 100). But every year, there are two chances to continue refining the infrastructure. The 2021 municipal primary and general elections allow block teams to build on this year’s lessons. When the 2022 elections for senators and governors are in full swing, block teams will have been able to refine their strategies even further.