Off the hook.
November 4, 2008 3:44 PM Subscribe
Has anyone here changed their mind after receiving a call from a campaign phone bank? Alternately, has anyone here who has worked the phone banks had a positive experience, feeling like they were able to connect with and influence one of the people they called?
I've received a very large number of political phone calls this year, to the point where they became absurd and depressing, a continual interruption. I initially had positive opinions of one particular local candidate, but that candidate ended up losing my vote after his volunteers called every night to ask for our support, sometimes multiple times per night.
In another bizarre instance, my partner went to phonebank for a different candidate. While my partner was phonebanking, another person at that candidate's same phonebank actually called to ask my partner to come phonebank. Afterwards, we received frequent calls from representatives of that phone bank asking for our support.
My reaction to these calls -- which I never cared much about in prior years -- has became extremely negative across the board, and I found myself giving preferential treatment to candidates who did not call me. My reactions have been so negative that I've begun to wonder if anyone has actually had a positive reaction to the calls -- on either end. This article on Salon makes it seem like the phone banks are a waste of time.
In your experience, have you actually had an experience with political phone banking that's been productive and/or positive?
I've received a very large number of political phone calls this year, to the point where they became absurd and depressing, a continual interruption. I initially had positive opinions of one particular local candidate, but that candidate ended up losing my vote after his volunteers called every night to ask for our support, sometimes multiple times per night.
In another bizarre instance, my partner went to phonebank for a different candidate. While my partner was phonebanking, another person at that candidate's same phonebank actually called to ask my partner to come phonebank. Afterwards, we received frequent calls from representatives of that phone bank asking for our support.
My reaction to these calls -- which I never cared much about in prior years -- has became extremely negative across the board, and I found myself giving preferential treatment to candidates who did not call me. My reactions have been so negative that I've begun to wonder if anyone has actually had a positive reaction to the calls -- on either end. This article on Salon makes it seem like the phone banks are a waste of time.
In your experience, have you actually had an experience with political phone banking that's been productive and/or positive?
I very nearly didn't vote for the candidate I planned on voting for because of the excessive phone calls I got from his campaign. And the way in which my contact information was obtained, which was ridiculously sneaky. Every single time I got a phone call from the campaign, I told them that I was dismayed that there was such a breach of their online privacy policy (on a website that was not obviously marked as affiliated with a candidate), and I said that I wanted them to stop calling. They always agreed, but they never did. I hope that the campaign practices won't be indicative of their presidency in any respect.
posted by Mael Oui at 9:09 PM on November 4, 2008
posted by Mael Oui at 9:09 PM on November 4, 2008
I worked for a state representative's campaign in Texas. He was a Democrat running in a newly gerrymandered Republican district against its first Republican incumbent.
I absolutely changed some Republican's minds after talking to them on the phone. It was very rewarding. He won, and with a decent amount of Republican support.
posted by Nattie at 1:51 AM on November 5, 2008 [1 favorite]
I absolutely changed some Republican's minds after talking to them on the phone. It was very rewarding. He won, and with a decent amount of Republican support.
posted by Nattie at 1:51 AM on November 5, 2008 [1 favorite]
I spent a lot of time phonebanking in this election and I'll relate my experiences:
1. Many phonebankers are just awful at it. I wanted to grab the director and say "Look, I'm sure that Bob and Betty mean well, but they're doing more damage than good."
2. We took the "do not call" requests seriously. Calling someone who requested a DNC will just alienate them. It's pretty simple logic and our campaign was pretty on the ball.
3. Phonebanking for 'Get out the vote' efforts are pretty successful. We called people who were party-affiliated and made sure that they knew the times and polling locations. We arranged rides for them if they needed it. We made sure people knew about same-day registrations and the requirements to qualify.
My local state rep won due to increased turnout and I like to think that I helped.
posted by unixrat at 8:24 AM on November 5, 2008
1. Many phonebankers are just awful at it. I wanted to grab the director and say "Look, I'm sure that Bob and Betty mean well, but they're doing more damage than good."
2. We took the "do not call" requests seriously. Calling someone who requested a DNC will just alienate them. It's pretty simple logic and our campaign was pretty on the ball.
3. Phonebanking for 'Get out the vote' efforts are pretty successful. We called people who were party-affiliated and made sure that they knew the times and polling locations. We arranged rides for them if they needed it. We made sure people knew about same-day registrations and the requirements to qualify.
My local state rep won due to increased turnout and I like to think that I helped.
posted by unixrat at 8:24 AM on November 5, 2008
I did some phonebanking this year, both earlier in the campaign and then yesterday. The first time, I thought it wasn't helpful in terms of changing people's minds, but it did seem to make a difference in terms of getting people excited about the candidate. A lot of the people I called seemed to really enjoy the opportunity to say, "Oh yeah. I'll be voting for him. Woooo!" and I shared a lot of nice moments. The people on the other side generally hung up on me. And the undecided people didn't seem any less undecided.
The calling I did yesterday didn't feel nearly as helpful. A lot of people were really irritated to still be getting calls and I was surprised how many of the numbers I called were wrong numbers or disconnected. I would have thought, by that point in the campaign, those numbers would have been weeded out by now.
So yeah, in the future I probably will phonebank again in the earlier stages of the campaign, but on election day I think I'll find another way to volunteer.
posted by missjenny at 11:40 AM on November 5, 2008
The calling I did yesterday didn't feel nearly as helpful. A lot of people were really irritated to still be getting calls and I was surprised how many of the numbers I called were wrong numbers or disconnected. I would have thought, by that point in the campaign, those numbers would have been weeded out by now.
So yeah, in the future I probably will phonebank again in the earlier stages of the campaign, but on election day I think I'll find another way to volunteer.
posted by missjenny at 11:40 AM on November 5, 2008
You should listen to This American Life's episode "Ground Game".
In my experience phonebanking has been of three types:
1. Get out the vote (GOTV) - Very easy and effective. No coercion because you are calling presumed supporters. If they aren't a supporter (determined by the first question in the script) then you say thanks and hang up.
2. Checking on Potential supporters - I don't know a better name for this. One calls registered Democrats, for instance, and asks if they are supporting the Democratic candidate. If yes, further requests for support are made. If no, then most likely it's just a thanks and hang up, but possibly a quick spiel to see if convincing is possible.
3. Push polling/Persuasion - This is a full-on persuasion with a universe of voters that includes everyone within a certain demographic, or possibly geographic, group, but not political party. This rarely happens I think. It's a lot of work for not much gain.
These lists are huge and there is no way to keep them all accurate. Hence, the wrong numbers and inadvertent double calls missjenny found. That's not to mention the various groups doing the same thing with the same set of voters and the potentially unreliable provenance of some of the numbers. (phone numbers obtained by volunteers that is handwritten, then entered into a computer, e.g.)
posted by HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal at 4:20 PM on November 5, 2008
In my experience phonebanking has been of three types:
1. Get out the vote (GOTV) - Very easy and effective. No coercion because you are calling presumed supporters. If they aren't a supporter (determined by the first question in the script) then you say thanks and hang up.
2. Checking on Potential supporters - I don't know a better name for this. One calls registered Democrats, for instance, and asks if they are supporting the Democratic candidate. If yes, further requests for support are made. If no, then most likely it's just a thanks and hang up, but possibly a quick spiel to see if convincing is possible.
3. Push polling/Persuasion - This is a full-on persuasion with a universe of voters that includes everyone within a certain demographic, or possibly geographic, group, but not political party. This rarely happens I think. It's a lot of work for not much gain.
These lists are huge and there is no way to keep them all accurate. Hence, the wrong numbers and inadvertent double calls missjenny found. That's not to mention the various groups doing the same thing with the same set of voters and the potentially unreliable provenance of some of the numbers. (phone numbers obtained by volunteers that is handwritten, then entered into a computer, e.g.)
posted by HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal at 4:20 PM on November 5, 2008
I felt helpful to some people who had questions about voting (rules for registering, where to go, college kids voting out of state, etc.) and feel that it might have helped them to show up. During the primaries I called someone who was a supporter but begged to get off the list because we had called 5 times already. I asked the staff where to mark it down and was told that it didn't matter. I think things got more streamlined a little later in the election.
posted by Bunglegirl at 6:47 PM on November 5, 2008
posted by Bunglegirl at 6:47 PM on November 5, 2008
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One of the 'supervisors' (not an Obama official or anything) told me that, despite the fact that I seemed to just be annoying people, no poll has ever showed that harassing people over the phone caused them to become less likely to vote.
I had a few good conversations with undecided voters, but it was probably different, as it was things like Democrats not sure if they preferred Obama or Richardson, so it was more talking up subtle differences as opposed to trying to market the polar opposite of what they want.
The unspoken second reason for calling, I think (this is MHO, not fact) is that it helps to 'hype' the candidate. If you get ten calls for Obama and one for McCain, you might intuitively think that Obama's much more popular and take the time to check him out. When I went door-to-door, I got a lot of people who made comments about how they were impressed with how motivated we were. This is pretty much impossible to objectively measure, I'd think, since it can be somewhat subconscious.
Of course, none of this changes the fact that I, too, am fed up with political calls... I figure it's like spam, though: maybe 1 in 20 calls won't hang up on you, and 1 in 10 of those will actually be good conversations. But done enough, that can add up to a number of votes for your candidate. Conversely, it would take an awful lot to get someone to vote against their preferred candidate just because of lots of phone calls.
posted by fogster at 4:11 PM on November 4, 2008