Committeepersons

The Committeeperson's Walking Kit: What to Carry and Record

A precinct committeeperson's walking kit comes down to three things: what you need to stay comfortable and reachable for a few hours, what you need for the specific job of the day (introductions, petitions, judge recruiting or turnout), and a way to record every door before you reach the next one. This checklist covers all three. Print it, keep it by the door, and run through it before each walk.

The recording section matters most. What you carry gets you through one afternoon; what you record makes every walk after it faster. For the role as a whole, see the Illinois precinct committeeperson handbook.

The everyday kit

Carry these on every walk, whatever the purpose.

• ☐ Phone, fully charged
• ☐ A small battery pack and a short cable
• ☐ Your walk list for today's streets, on your phone and a printed backup of the route
• ☐ Contact cards with your name, "precinct committeeperson," and how to reach you
• ☐ The phone number and website of your county clerk or board of election commissioners, for voters' questions
• ☐ Two or three pens
• ☐ A clipboard or firm folder
• ☐ Water and a snack
• ☐ Comfortable shoes you have already broken in
• ☐ Weather gear: hat, gloves or rain jacket, depending on the season
• ☐ A small flashlight for early evening walks
• ☐ A note of anyone you are walking with and which streets they are covering

Literature day extras

• ☐ Party or candidate literature approved by your county party
• ☐ Rubber bands or door hangers, if your literature is designed for them
• ☐ A plan for where literature goes at each door, agreed with anyone walking with you
• ☐ A count of how many pieces you started with, to check against "left literature" results at the end

Petition day extras

For the 2027 elections, filing is October 19 to 26, 2026 for the February 23 track and November 16 to 23, 2026 for the April 6 track. Confirm the rules for your candidate's petition with the election authority where it will be filed.

• ☐ Petition sheets on the official form, original copies (blank forms may be reproduced before circulating, but every signature must be original)
• ☐ Every sheet's heading filled in before you start, identical on every sheet
• ☐ Pens with dark ink (pencil is allowed but not advisable)
• ☐ A clipboard for signing; you will fasten the sheets properly before filing, since paper clips and clipboards are not secure fastening for a filed petition
• ☐ Only your own sheets: you must personally witness every signature on any sheet you sign as circulator, and a sheet cannot be passed to another circulator
• ☐ A plan for the notarized circulator statement at the bottom of each sheet, signed in front of a notary after you finish
• ☐ A quick reminder for yourself: signers must be registered at the address they write, must sign personally, and in a party primary may sign only for one party's candidates
• ☐ A target number above the minimum (many campaigns aim for 1.5 to 2 times the minimum; that is common practice, not law)

Our guide to circulating a nominating petition in Illinois covers each of these in detail.

Election judge recruiting extras

• ☐ A short, accurate description of what judges do, from your county party
• ☐ The name of the person at the county party who follows up with interested neighbors
• ☐ A way to note contact details for anyone interested

Most county parties ask committeepersons to recruit judges, because the chair is asked to list people who live in the precinct "insofar as possible" (10 ILCS 5/13-1).

Turnout extras

• ☐ The election date and early voting start date. For 2027: early voting from January 14 for February 23, and from February 25 for April 6 (March 12 where a February primary ran)
• ☐ Where voters can check their polling place: the county clerk or board of election commissioners
• ☐ Your door script for the turnout reminder

Need words for the door? See our door scripts for committeepersons.

Before you leave the house

• ☐ Route loaded and checked against the precinct boundaries
• ☐ Walk list synced to your phone, in case you lose signal
• ☐ Survey questions for today set up and the same for everyone walking
• ☐ Someone knows where you are going and roughly when you will be back
• ☐ You know which doors to skip (moved, deceased, asked not to be visited)

What to record at every door

Record the result before you walk to the next house. If you wait until the end of the street, details blur.

The result (one per door):

• ☐ Contacted
• ☐ Not home
• ☐ Refused
• ☐ Moved
• ☐ Deceased
• ☐ Inaccessible (locked building, gate, dog)
• ☐ Come back later (with the better time, if they said one)
• ☐ Left literature

For contacted doors, add:

• ☐ A 1 to 5 rating of how supportive or engaged they seemed
• ☐ Answers to today's survey questions (for example "signed: yes/no," "election judge interest," "voting plan," "will help: yes/no")
• ☐ Notes on anything you promised to follow up on
• ☐ Any new resident who is not on your list, flagged so you can add them

Never record:

• ☐ Anything you would be uncomfortable showing the voter
• ☐ Guesses presented as facts

How to record it

Paper works if you transfer it the same day. Many people do not, which is why notes get lost between cycles.

Build and route your walk list in a tool that records at the door. In Beacon, your walk list sits on a map, route optimization orders the stops, and you tap each result from the list above: contacted, not home, refused, moved, deceased, inaccessible, come back later or left literature, with a 1 to 5 rating, notes and survey answers you set up in the survey builder. Offline mode with sync means a dead zone does not stop you, and everything catches up when you are back in range. Territory management lets you split streets among the neighbors walking with you, and unlimited canvassers are included on every plan.

After the walk

• ☐ Sync your results
• ☐ Review "come back later" and "not home" doors and plan the next pass
• ☐ Follow up on every promise in your notes within a few days
• ☐ Pass election judge prospects to the county party
• ☐ For petition days: count signatures, keep sheets flat and dry, and arrange the notary
• ☐ Note how many doors you reached and how long it took, so you can plan the next walk realistically

Keep the kit, keep the record

The kit gets you through the afternoon. The record is what you hand to your party's candidates at petition time and, if you ever move, to the next committeeperson. Beacon keeps every door result with the precinct, on a map, with unlimited canvassers on every plan. See how it works for party organizations and their committeepersons, or start a 14-day trial and take it on your next walk.