I’ve had several people tell me about “shady” treatment from Democratic party supporters, pushing HARD, working whole apartment buildings, posting notes on doors for people who have already voted. It’s quite the turn-off for many who are already planning on voting for her.
“Hi, this is so-and-so. Are you going to be voting for Hillary?”
“It’s none of your business” (this, apparently, is a big no-no in their scripting)
“So can I say it’s safe you’ll be voting for her?” (at this point in the retelling of the tale, I realize they’re looking to check a name on a list to show their company’s efforts are amaze-balls fantastic compared to everyone else)
“It’s none of your business”
“Do you know where to vote for her?”
“I know where to vote”
“So you’ll be voting for Hillary, then?” click
I can lend a little insight from the other side of this, but only based on the “training” (ten minutes of walking through the packet) as a canvasser.
At least here in VA, the DNC’s efforts have been focused on GOTV for persons that they consider “inconsistent Democrat voters”. What that means is that they (and the RNC) has a list of everyone that has voted in the last few elections, and these are folks that they’re pretty sure vote Blue, but who don’t always bother to get out and pull the lever. [As an aside, first-time voters do fall in this group too.]
So that’s the list that they’re looking at. If you’re on it, you’re either young or not particularly diligent in your voting habits. If you’re a regular voter, they probably did not dispatch anyone to your house; chances are you only got a phone call to verify you still live there. [Another aside, my wife and I always vote and we DID get someone come to our door… asking for my 19-year-old daughter.]
In the DNC’s view, annoying these people is worth the effort - given the choice between pissing them off and getting them out the door or not bothering them and having them sit on their asses, the Democratic leadership opted for the former. According to their data, people who got spiels like what Dan cites above are 8% more likely to vote than “inconsistent Democrat voters” who were never reached.
[quote=“Ginger_Yellow, post:18, topic:126736, full:true”]I know it’s not illegal, but it should be, if you’re on the national do not call list. The first amendment doesn’t give you the right to bang on people’s windows and shout at them day after day, which is what political cold calling basically is.
[/quote]
I live in Iowa, registered to a party, and have a landline. I am the perfect lightning rod of the political storm of cold calls. Comparing to “bang(ing) on people’s windows and shout(ing) at them day after day” is hyperbolic. Political calls were “exempted” from the Do Not Call list because political speech is at the heart of free speech. (I’m using scare quotes because it’s not that political speech is exempted, but rather that the DNC list only restricts commercial speech (look at which agency enforces it,) which political speech is clearly not.)
