Political Campaigns

How Many Doors Can a Village Board Candidate Knock by April 6?

A village board candidate knocking alone for about eight hours a week can realistically reach every door in a village of around 3,000 households once between now and Election Day on April 6, 2027, counting the doors knocked during petition season. With four volunteers giving three hours a week each after filing, the same campaign can cover the village twice and hold a real conversation with roughly half of all households before Election Day, with the first full pass done well before early voting opens on February 25. Your own numbers will differ, but the method for working them out is the same.

The rest of this post shows the math, step by step, using clearly labeled example assumptions. Swap in your village's household count and your own pace after your first few shifts, and you will have a door plan you can actually schedule.

The dates that frame your plan

Most nonpartisan village races in Illinois are on the April 6, 2027 consolidated election track (confirm for your village with your election authority). According to the ISBE 2027 Election and Campaign Finance Calendar, that track runs:

• Petition circulation began August 25, 2026
• Filing runs November 16 to 23, 2026
• Objections are due December 1 or 2
• The ballot is certified January 28, 2027
• Early voting opens February 25 (or March 12 where a February primary ran)
• Election Day is April 6, 2027

For door planning, three windows matter:

• Petition season, now through mid-November. Your doors are about signatures, and every one is also a first introduction. A nonpartisan village candidate needs signatures from 1 percent of the total vote for village president at the last election (65 ILCS 5/3.1-25-30); our post on how many signatures you need to run for office in Illinois covers the details.
• After filing to early voting, late November to February 25. About 13 calendar weeks, including the holidays and the coldest part of winter.
• Early voting to Election Day, February 25 to April 6. About 6 weeks when voters are actually casting ballots.

For the broader picture of planning a canvass, see our guide to political canvassing.

Step one: count your households

Start with the number of households in your village, not the population. Your voter file, grouped by address, is the best source, because it tells you how many doors have at least one registered voter behind them.

Example assumption: a village with 3,000 households that contain registered voters.

If your village is a different size, scale every number below in proportion.

Step two: set your pace

Pace is the number most candidates guess wrong. It includes walking between houses, waiting at the door, the conversation itself and a note about what happened.

Example assumptions:

• About 3 minutes per door on average, or 20 doors an hour, on a typical single-family street.
• About 30 percent of doors are answered by someone you can talk with (your contact rate).

These are illustrative planning figures, not measured facts. Dense blocks with short driveways go faster. Rural lots, apartments with locked lobbies and long conversations go slower. After your first three shifts, divide doors knocked by hours spent and use your real figure.

Under these assumptions, one full pass through 3,000 households takes 150 hours of door time and produces about 900 conversations.

Step three: count your available weeks

From the end of filing (November 23) to the opening of early voting (February 25) there are about 13 calendar weeks. From February 25 to April 6 there are about 6 more. That is 19 weeks in total.

Few campaigns knock at full pace every week of that stretch. Example assumption: you lose about 2 weeks to the holidays and another 1 to 2 weeks to severe weather, leaving roughly 15 to 16 productive weeks. Plan on 15 to be safe.

Step four: put it together

The candidate alone

Example: the candidate knocks 8 hours a week (two weekend afternoons, or one weekend afternoon and two weekday evenings).

• 8 hours a week for 15 weeks = 120 hours
• 120 hours at 20 doors an hour = 2,400 doors

That is about 80 percent of a 3,000-household village once. Add the doors you knock during petition season, and a disciplined candidate working alone can reach every household once before Election Day.

The candidate plus four volunteers

Example: four volunteers give 3 hours a week each, starting after filing.

• Candidate 8 hours + volunteers 12 hours = 20 hours a week
• 20 hours a week for 15 weeks = 300 hours
• 300 hours at 20 doors an hour = 6,000 doors

That is two full passes through the village. The second pass is where the plan pays off, because you do not knock everyone again.

What two passes buy you

First pass: 3,000 doors at a 30 percent contact rate gives about 900 conversations.

Second pass: return to the roughly 2,100 households where nobody answered. At the same 30 percent rate, that is about 630 more conversations.

Together, about 1,530 conversations, or roughly half of the village, with time left over. A sensible way to spend the remaining hours is a third, focused visit to households who told you they were undecided or asked you to come back.

Step five: sequence the passes around early voting

Early voting changes when your doors matter. Once it opens on February 25, some of your voters are casting ballots. A good sequence for an April race looks like this:

1. Petition season (now to mid-November): collect signatures and note every friendly conversation.
2. First full pass (late November to late January): introduce yourself at every door, record who you talked with and what they care about.
3. Second pass (February): return to not-home doors and to undecided households before early voting opens.
4. Early voting through April 6: focus on supporters and leaners, reminding them how and when to vote.

Winter afternoons are short, so many campaigns lean on weekend daylight hours in December and January and add weekday evenings as the days lengthen in March.

Step six: keep the record

The math only works if you know which doors are done. A second pass depends on knowing exactly which 2,100 households did not answer the first time, and a third visit depends on knowing who said "undecided."

This is the job a canvassing app does well. In Beacon, your village goes on a map as a walk list, with routes optimized so you are not zigzagging across town. Each door gets a result (contacted, not home, refused, moved, come back later, left literature and so on) plus a 1 to 5 rating, notes and survey answers. When you start your second pass, the not-home doors become your next walk list instead of a guess.

Unlimited canvassers come with every Beacon plan, so adding four volunteers, or fourteen, does not change your cost. A village whose voter list runs past the Starter plan's 2,500 contacts, but stays under 10,000, fits the Growth plan, which also adds live GPS and geofencing.

Adjusting the plan to your village

A few common situations change the math:

• A larger village. Double the households and you need double the hours. Recruit volunteers early, ideally during petition season, when people who sign your petition are already interested.
• A slower pace. If your real pace is 12 doors an hour, not 20, a solo candidate covers about half the village once. Prioritize the precincts with the highest turnout in past municipal elections.
• A short calendar. If you start late, skip the full second pass and spend your time on the households most likely to vote.

Start knocking with a plan

The candidates who do best at the door are rarely the ones who knocked the most hours. They are the ones who knew where they had been, went back to the doors that mattered and finished each street before starting the next. Our page on canvassing software for political campaigns shows how local candidates organize that work from petition season to Election Day.

To put your village on a map and start your first pass this week, start a 14-day Beacon trial. The routes and door results you build during petition season carry straight into your winter canvass.