A million doors

1. 1

   About 1.25 million more voters. Boric lost the first round to Kast by two points and won the runoff with 55.87%, in a country with voluntary voting.

2. 2

   “Un millón de puertas” (A million doors). Using first-round heat maps, the campaign sent volunteers to outlying neighbourhoods and to people who hadn't voted.

3. 3

   In a voluntary-vote runoff, those who haven't voted yet decide. Knock to listen, widen the message without dropping the base. Winning one election doesn't guarantee the next.

Copy summary

New to this? Start with the fundamentals: vote goal, audiences, message, measurement and what the research says. Read the fundamentals

The comeback had a small central campaign team and a crowd of groups that never asked for permission. These are the organisers whose accounts (in interviews, speeches and reporting based on conversations with them) underpin this playbook.

• Izkia Siches

  President of the Colegio Médico (Chilean Medical Association) until 23 Nov 2021; then Boric's campaign manager for the runoff

  Left the Colegio Médico two days after the first round and made a 12-day tour of the country, from Arica to Los Lagos, with her baby daughter, following the campaign's map of priority districts.

  Sources

• Karol Cariola

  Communist Party deputy, organiser of the “Un millón de puertas por Boric” tour

  Coordinated the national door-to-door campaign in 66 comunas (municipalities), with at least 45 “ambassadors” drawn from social movements, the arts, culture and politics.

  Sources

• Giorgio Jackson and Irací Hassler

  Deputy (Revolución Democrática) and mayor of Santiago (Communist Party)

  Led the start of door-to-door canvassing in the Santiago Metropolitan Region on 5 Dec 2021, with instructions to listen to people who had not voted or had voted for another candidate.

  Sources

• Matías Grau and Nicolás Cataldo

  Industrial engineer heading data intelligence; and the campaign's territorial coordinator (Communist Party)

  Grau and his data and polling team designed the new field deployment from heat maps; Cataldo coordinated the territory, divided by region and by priority outlying zones.

  Sources

• Sebastián Kraljevich

  Sociologist, chief strategist of Boric's campaign

  Explained after the victory that the first-round result showed the danger and got people moving, and that the candidate needed to reassure voters.

  Sources

• Tito Bofill and Nicole Otazo (Cooperativa Cuarto de Guerra)

  Copywriter and narrative analyst; general social media coordinator, in a cooperative of 11 young professionals

  Described how the digital campaign combined official channels with hundreds of self-run “xBoric” accounts, easy-to-reproduce materials and a framework of guidelines, with no bots.

  Sources

• Matías Toledo and the Coordinadora Social Shishigang

  Community leader in Puente Alto and his autonomous “Comandos por el Buen Vivir”

  Brought together assemblies, neighbourhood councils, football clubs and community soup kitchens in one of the comunas with the most new votes for Boric.

  Sources

• Gracia Ortiz (Kpopers por Boric)

  Designer and member of a small group of K-pop fans who campaigned in the runoff

  Organised online actions and in-person events, plus guides on voting safely and on reporting hate speech and fake news.

  Sources

• Javiera Cabello, Felipe Heusser and Nataly Campusano

  Campaign chief, head of communications and territorial lead in the primary campaign (July 2021)

  Built the primary campaign, with 357 self-funded territorial comandos and a franja, scripted by Pablo Paredes, that took almost half of the 87 million pesos raised.

  Sources

Paraphrases of interviews and statements by the organisers themselves. Short quotes are in quotation marks and translated from Spanish.

• He asked every supporter to knock on doors and win over a neighbour, and drew a contrast with his rival: “here we use real people, of flesh and blood”, not bots.

  Gabriel Boric, at the launch of “Un millón de puertas” — La Tercera, “Boric lanza campaña ‘1 millón de puertas’”, Dec 2021

• After the first round, the working question was a single one: “where are the people who could vote for us?”

  Matías Grau, the campaign's data intelligence lead — CIPER, “Una campaña territorial histórica”, 5 Jan 2022

• The campaign sent the heat maps, and the job was to go out and find the votes that were not yet theirs.

  Claudia Mix, deputy (Comunes), on Maipú — CIPER, 5 Jan 2022

• His verdict on the first round: “the campaign lacked street”.

  Matías Toledo, Shishigang (Puente Alto) — CIPER, 5 Jan 2022

Boric, a 35-year-old former student leader, won the primary against the Communist Daniel Jadue with 60.42% and reached the first round with a campaign that leaned heavily on social media. He lost it by two points. What followed was a different campaign, built in four weeks.

55.87%

for Boric in the runoff, 19 Dec 2021 (4,620,890 votes)official

+1.25M

more voters than in the first round (8,363,910 against 7,114,318)official

+2.8M

votes for Boric between the two rounds (from 1.8 to 4.6 million)official

58% → 67%

turnout among women aged 30 to 50, from first round to runoff (DecideChile)estimate

From the uprising to the comeback

1. 18 Oct 2019The social uprising begins against a Santiago metro fare rise. On 15 November, Boric signs, in a personal capacity, the agreement that opens the constitutional process, which costs him criticism and resignations in his own party.
2. 25 Oct 2020Plebiscite: 78.31% approve a new constitution, on about 51% turnout.
3. 18 Jul 2021Boric wins the Apruebo Dignidad primary against Daniel Jadue (60.42%). The campaign has 357 self-managed comandos; Jadue's had 1,200.
4. 21 Nov 2021First round: Kast 27.91%, Boric 25.82%, Parisi 12.81%. Turnout 47.33%. That same night, the Coordinadora Feminista 8M meets and calls an anti-fascist assembly that draws close to 2,000 people.
5. 22–23 Nov 2021Izkia Siches leaves the Colegio Médico and takes over as campaign manager. The campaign reorganises into three areas (politics, communications, territory) and the data team draws up heat maps.
6. early Dec 2021Launch of “Un millón de puertas por Boric” in Pudahuel, with a tour of 66 comunas, and of Siches's “Ruta de la Esperanza”, which sets off from Arica and covers every region down to Los Lagos in 12 days.
7. 5 Dec 2021The legal campaign period begins. Jackson and Hassler launch canvassing in the Metropolitan Region; Boric is in Biobío and Siches in Iquique.
8. 10 and 13 Dec 2021The only two debates the campaign accepts (Archi and Anatel). Kast criticises the small number of debates; the campaign replies that the priority is the territory.
9. 19 Dec 2021Boric 55.87%, Kast 44.13%, a margin of almost 971,000 votes. Turnout 55.64%, the highest since compulsory voting ended. About 100,000 people celebrate in central Santiago.
10. 11 Mar 2022Boric takes office aged 36, the youngest president in Chile's history. Siches becomes the first woman Interior Minister.

Three layers, one campaign

The comeback was not a single operation: it was three overlapping layers, each with a different degree of control.

• The central campaign teamSmall: data and polling, communications, and territory divided by region among party leaders, with mayors and councillors gaining weight. It set priorities, maps and message.
• Faces on the roadSiches in the north and the regions, Boric in the south, Cariola with 45 ambassadors in 66 comunas, Jackson and Hassler in Santiago. Every tour followed the map of priority comunas.
• The citizen overflowSelf-organised comandos, feminist collectives, neighbourhood councils, football clubs, artists, comedians and fandoms who ran their own campaigns, often faster than the official one.

Chile in 2021 was coming out of a social uprising (2019), a constitutional plebiscite won with 78% (2020) and a pandemic. Voting had been voluntary since 2012: half the electorate did not vote, and that is where the election was decided.

Platforms

Door-to-door and neighbourhood conversations

The heart of the comeback. With voluntary voting, the task was to find people who had not voted and persuade them to go; volunteers carried a script for abstainers and for voters of other candidates.

Regional tour (“Ruta de la Esperanza”, Route of Hope)

Izkia Siches travelled by bus from north to south, meeting small business owners, community leaders and health workers, in areas where Boric had done badly in the first round.

Twitter, Instagram and TikTok

Political talk and pop culture: memes made by supporters, fandom accounts (K-pop, Taylor Swift, anime), self-run “xBoric” accounts. Boric himself shared the best ones.

Facebook (ads)

In the last week, Boric spent about 35.8 million pesos on Facebook ads, against Kast's 137.9 million: the edge did not come from paid media.

TV franja and debates

Ten minutes a day of free TV airtime (the franja electoral), split between the two candidates, and two debates chosen by the campaign (10 and 13 Dec 2021).

Local radio and letters

Small comandos paid for programmes and spots on local radio; Unholster sent letters to 28,500 people who had voted in the plebiscite but not in the Constitutional Convention election.

Local conditions

• Voluntary voting with automatic registration: turnout was elastic (47.33% in the first round, 55.64% in the runoff), so mobilising abstainers was worth as much as persuading the undecided.
• The legacy of the estallido (uprising) of 18 Oct 2019: neighbourhood assemblies, feminist collectives, pandemic soup kitchens and groups from the constitutional process reactivated against Kast.
• An opponent who frightened people: among other things, Kast proposed pardoning elderly people convicted for Pinochet-era crimes and a trench on the Bolivian border; fear of losing rights mobilised women and young people.
• A fragmented first round: Franco Parisi (12.81%), who campaigned from the United States, won in the north; his voters were up for grabs.
• A short, regulated window: four weeks between rounds, and legal campaigning only from 5 to 16 December, three days before the vote.
• Past political-finance scandals had made voters sensitive to big-donor money. The campaign asked for donations on social media and in the franja, but by 10 December 92% of Boric's declared funds came from bank credit (940 million pesos, against Kast's 1.4 billion), according to Ex-Ante.
• Disinformation: in early December, fake news from Kast's circle circulated; fact-checkers, universities and supporters debunked it.
• A left coalition (Apruebo Dignidad: Frente Amplio and Communist Party) that, in the runoff, won the backing of the old Concertación, including Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet.

Nobody wrote a manual for the comeback, but the organisers' accounts show a clear pattern: diagnose fast, open the campaign to anyone who wants to help, and go after votes where they do not yet exist.

Three fronts

Go after the people who did not vote

Under voluntary voting, the reserve of votes lies with abstainers. First-round heat maps pointed to outlying neighbourhoods and priority comunas; volunteers and letters sought out those who had stayed home.

Open the campaign without controlling it

Self-organised comandos, collectives and fandoms ran their own campaigns with easy-to-reproduce materials. The central team provided a framework of guidelines, not orders.

Widen without abandoning the base

A change of tone and of clothes, public safety in the speeches, guarantees about what would not change, backing from the old Concertación, while keeping the causes that mobilised women and young people.

The four-week cycle

From the night of the first-round defeat to polling day, the campaign followed this loop, repeating steps 3 to 6 every day.

1. Diagnose In the same week, ask where the possible votes are: compare the first round with the plebiscite and the primary, by comuna and by polling table.
2. Reorganise Three areas (politics, communications, territory), a new face who widens the coalition, and named leads for each priority zone.
3. Map Heat maps and lists of priority comunas to steer the faces' tours and the comandos' canvassing.
4. Listen at the door A script that starts by asking and listening, with versions for people who did not vote and for those who voted for another candidate.
5. Let creativity loose Materials any group can produce and share: posters, songs, memes, cultural events, fan campaigns.
6. Widen the message Answer the fears the opponent stokes with concrete guarantees and endorsements from moderate figures, and answer your own voters' fears with what is at stake.
7. Protect the vote Observers at every polling table, information on where and how to vote, and a last turnout push.

And again.

What you need to attempt a runoff comeback (or any final stretch) with little money and lots of people. It works for a national election, a mayoral race or a referendum, as long as you respect the rules on this page.

Part of the comeback works anywhere; another part depended on voluntary voting and Chile's recent history. Separate the two before copying.

Choose your country

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit. Each one works on its own or combined with moves from other playbooks.

1. Heat map of people who haven’t voted yet

   In the week of the defeat, a small data team crosses polling-table results with earlier elections and draws heat maps of possible votes and abstention, which decide where volunteers and campaign faces go. In Chile the question was “where are the people who could vote for us?”, and outer districts such as Maipú and Puente Alto delivered tens of thousands of new votes.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works in a short final stretch with public results by polling table, when turnout is elastic or many voters switch sides.

   Don't use when

   It fails if the map stays at headquarters: without zone leads and volunteers who follow it, it’s just a pretty chart.

   1. Week −4 On results night, ask: where are the people who could vote for us?
   2. Week −4 Cross polling-table results with the plebiscite, the primaries and the last election
   3. Week −4 Draw heat maps of abstention and possible votes by neighbourhood
   4. Week −4 Set priority districts and neighbourhoods, each with a named lead
   5. Week −3 Send the map to every local comando and every travelling face
   6. Week −2 Update the map weekly with polls and field reports, and move volunteers
   7. Week −1 In the last week, focus reminders where the most possible votes are

   Team

   • Data intelligence: crosses polling-table results and produces the maps every week
   • Territorial coordination: links the map to the lead in each priority zone
   • Local comandos: go to the map’s zones and report back what they heard

   What to measure: Door conversations logged in the map’s priority zones as a share of all conversations; if most happen where the candidate already wins, the map isn’t steering the field.

   Risks to watch: Misused data breaks the law: work with public results aggregated by polling table, and contact people only with data the law allows; under compulsory voting, look for switchers, not no-shows.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

2. Door-knocking that starts by listening

   Volunteers and well-known ambassadors knock on doors in priority zones with a script that asks before it talks (with versions for non-voters and for people who backed another candidate) and ends with a voting plan. In Chile, “Un millón de puertas” (A million doors) toured 66 districts with at least 45 ambassadors; in Colbún, according to the local organiser, 1,500 of Boric’s 4,900 second-round votes were new.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when the election is decided among people who stayed home or backed someone else, and there are people willing to knock in their own neighbourhood.

   Don't use when

   It fails as a sermon or a door count: insulting the opponent or their voters shuts the door, and a knock without a conversation changes no votes.

   1. Week −12 Set up local comandos with contacts and consent, months before the election
   2. Week −4 Write the script with versions for non-voters and for other candidates’ voters
   3. Week −3 Invite well-known ambassadors from culture and movements to lead each district
   4. Week −3 Launch the door-knocking with a public goal in a priority neighbourhood
   5. Week −2 Knock every day in the map’s zones and log every conversation
   6. Week −1 Go back to the undecided and ask: where do you vote, at what time, with whom?
   7. Week −1 Before the campaign blackout, remind every contact of their polling place and time

   Team

   • Door-to-door ambassadors: well-known people who pull in volunteers in each district
   • Local comandos: choose the streets and go out as a group every day
   • Logging: keeps the sheet of doors, conversations and voting plans

   What to measure: Conversations with non-voters or other candidates’ voters that end in a voting plan (where, when, with whom), logged in the sheet, not doors knocked.

   Risks to watch: Logging data without consent or offering anything in exchange for a vote is illegal: note only what the person agrees to, and respect the legal campaign period and the pre-election blackout.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

3. Open kit for self-organised comandos

   Instead of demanding sign-up and hierarchy, the campaign gives any group (neighbourhood, collective, union, fandom) the map, the script, editable materials and a guidance framework, and the official channels share the best of what supporters make. In Chile the campaign already had 357 self-run comandos in the primaries, hundreds of “xBoric” accounts and a collaborative playlist of 307 original songs, with no bots.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when there is already a network of collectives and organised groups that want to help faster than headquarters can coordinate.

   Don't use when

   It fails without a guidance framework: hundreds of loose groups also produce risky messages, such as trying to “drown” the opponent’s hashtags.

   1. Week −12 Map the collectives, unions, residents’ groups and fan groups in your area
   2. Week −8 Prepare the editable kit (posters, symbols, songs) and the guidance framework
   3. Week −4 Publish a call to form comandos, with a form for group, zone and contact
   4. Week −4 Send every comando the map, the door script and the kit
   5. Week −3 Share the best supporter-made content on the official channels
   6. Week −2 Update the guidance framework whenever a risky action appears
   7. 1 week(s) after After the vote, thank the comandos and invite them to stay organised

   Team

   • Comms and open kit: writes the narrative and makes pieces anyone can adapt
   • Comando coordination: takes sign-ups and sends map and script to each group
   • Listening and response: watches social media and flags false news and risky actions

   What to measure: Registered comandos that reported at least one off-screen action: a door-knocking shift, an event, polling tables covered by observers; a comando that only posts doesn’t count.

   Risks to watch: Bots, fake profiles or hashtag hijacking hand the opponent a story: the framework bans all of them in writing, and comandos’ materials are declared as in-kind donations.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

4. Widen with an outside face and guarantees

   A respected figure from outside the coalition takes over the campaign and travels to the regions where the candidate did badly, while he answers fears with simple guarantees and moderate endorsements, without dropping the base’s causes. In Chile, doctor Izkia Siches crossed the country in 12 days, from Arica to Los Lagos; Boric promised his government would take nothing away from anyone and won the backing of Lagos and Bachelet.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works in a runoff or final stretch where the opponent mobilises through fear and the candidate is weak in whole regions or sectors.

   Don't use when

   It fails if the face is merely symbolic or the guarantees turn into a new programme: dropping the causes that mobilise the base loses the people doing the campaigning.

   1. Week −4 Choose a respected figure from outside the coalition and give them a real role
   2. Week −4 List the fears the opponent exploits and write one simple guarantee for each
   3. Week −4 Plan the face’s tour through the map’s priority districts
   4. Week −3 Hold small meetings with local business owners, community leaders and professionals
   5. Week −3 Show endorsements that reassure undecided voters, without hiding the coalition
   6. Week −2 Accept a few high-audience debates and explain that the priority is the ground
   7. Week −1 Repeat at every stop the causes that mobilise women and young people

   Team

   • Widening campaign chief: travels and talks to people the candidate can’t reach
   • Tour scheduling: plans the stops following the map of priority districts
   • Comms: turns each of the opponent’s fear lines into a short guarantee

   What to measure: People who signed up as volunteers or polling-table observers at each tour stop, logged by district, not the audience at the events.

   Risks to watch: Faces wear out, and campaign popularity is not governing ability: promise only guarantees you can keep, and never insult people who voted for the opponent.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

5. An observer at every polling table

   Accredited observers follow every polling table from opening to the count, with substitutes and a contact on the day. In Chile, a small comando like Colbún’s covered all its tables with 55 observers.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works in any election where the law allows party or candidate observers and you have local comandos to recruit them.

   Don't use when

   Never use observers to pressure voters or interfere with the vote: they watch and file complaints through legal channels, nothing more.

   1. Week −12 Recruit observers through local comandos, months before the election
   2. Week −8 Train the basics: opening, voting, counting and complaints through legal channels
   3. Week −4 Match the list of polling tables with available observers and flag the gaps
   4. Week −2 Recruit through door-knocking and comandos for every empty table
   5. Week −1 Confirm a lead and a substitute for every table, with a contact on the day
   6. D-day week On the day, follow from opening to count and send in each table’s result

   Team

   • Observer coordination: keeps the list of tables, leads and substitutes
   • Local comandos: recruit and bring the observers for their zone
   • Legal team: trains observers and handles complaints on the day

   What to measure: Polling tables with an accredited observer present from opening to count, as a share of all tables in your zone.

   Risks to watch: An observer who interferes with the vote becomes a legal case and a headline: accredited, trained people only, who watch and complain through legal channels, with substitutes for no-shows.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

The Chilean sequence, condensed into a checklist for a four-week final stretch. Adjust it to your calendar. Progress is saved in this browser.

Boric's campaign turned its refusal to use bots into an argument. The rules below apply to any final stretch.

Real people only

No bots, fake accounts, bought followers or undisclosed paid influencers. The Chilean campaign said publicly that it used “people of flesh and blood”. Coordinating real people to say what they think is allowed; what platforms punish is organizing likes, follows or hashtags to game the algorithm. X, for example, bans trading engagement and using a trending hashtag to manipulate the conversation.

Legal campaign period

In Chile, runoff campaigning was only allowed from 5 to 16 December. Check the dates and the electoral silence in your law.

Money in the open

Donations within legal limits and declared; comando materials recorded as in-kind donations, as in Chile.

Data and consent

Letters and messages only with data the law allows you to use, and with consent where required (GDPR, Brazil's LGPD or your local law).

Hashtags and platforms

Do not hijack your opponent's hashtags or organise fake mass reporting. Report hate speech through the platforms' rules.

Observers within the law

Accredited observers who watch and complain through legal channels; they do not interfere with the vote.

Transport without vote-buying

Helping neighbours get to the polling place is different from offering benefits in exchange for a vote. Check what your law allows.

Facts with sources

Answer fake news with verified facts; never make anything up about your opponent or their voters.

It depends on voluntary voting

The comeback rested on bringing 1.25 million more people to the polls. With compulsory voting (reinstated by a reform promulgated on 27 Dec 2022), turnout rose to about 85% and that reservoir disappeared.

Winning one election is not winning the next

On 4 Sep 2022, with compulsory voting and 85.84% turnout, the proposed constitution was rejected by 61.87%. A second proposal was rejected on 17 Dec 2023.

The same opponent came back and won

On 14 Dec 2025, Kast defeated the left's candidate, Jeannette Jara, with 58.17% and won all 16 regions; he took office on 11 Mar 2026. Analysts read the election as a plebiscite on Boric's government, whose approval fell to 27% in May 2025.

Fear-driven mobilisation is fragile

The campaign's strategist acknowledged that fear mobilised voters. Without an opponent who frightens people, the same energy does not appear, and critics point out that “not him” is not enough.

Faces wear out

Siches was the star of the campaign and, as Interior Minister, the lowest-rated member of the cabinet. She was replaced on 6 Sep 2022, in the reshuffle that followed the plebiscite defeat; months earlier she had retracted and apologised for a false accusation against the previous government. Campaign popularity is not the ability to govern.

No measurement of the canvassing effect

There is no verified total of doors or volunteers, and no study isolating the effect of the field work; endorsements from former presidents, the debates and the opponent's mistakes also counted.

Grey areas online

Some fan groups tried to “drown” the opponent's hashtags. It is a risky tactic that can be read as manipulation; do not copy it.

Overflow is also loss of control

Hundreds of autonomous groups bring energy, but they can also produce risky messages. That is why the campaign set a framework of guidelines.

Five questions to check the essentials. Each answer comes with an explanation.

Playbook built from organisers' accounts (interviews and reporting based on conversations with them), DecideChile/Unholster electoral data analyses, academic studies and press published between July 2021 and December 2025, and official electoral data. All pages were opened and read on 26 October 2026.

Updated 26 October 2026