Canvassing glossary

Plain-language definitions for door-to-door and canvassing vocabulary. Use these pages to align teams on turf, outcomes, and field workflows.

• Canvassing

  Canvassing is organized face-to-face outreach, usually along assigned streets or addresses, where teams record who was contacted and what happened at each stop.

• Turf cutting

  Turf cutting is the process of splitting a wider area—wards, ZIP codes, or corridors—into smaller walkable patches assigned to individuals or teams.

• Knock disposition

  A knock disposition (or door outcome) is the standardized label for the result of a visit: whether anyone answered, showed interest, asked not to return, and similar states.