A question about volunteering for a campaign.

[Kaleva]

As many of you are probably aware of, I'm not much of a people person but I'd like to do some kind of volunteer work for the Harris campaign.

Looking at the list of choices that are offered, I see sending out text messages. How does that work? Does the campaign send me a list of numbers I am to text to? I am on my step-daughter's family plan and I have unlimited text and talk.

[namahage]

1. You most likely won't be sending from your own number.

I would imagine you would use an app or similar that would allow you to send messages, then based on what, if anything, comes back you'd probably do followups or opt-outs, etc.

See this article for more on political campaign texting: http://time.com/5432309/politician-campaigns-midterm-election-text-messages/

[Kaleva]

4. Thanks for the link to the interesting article!

[frazzled]

2. That's a new one, and mixed opinions

We just went through primary and run-off races in Chicago for mayor and several other offices. I have to say, I was a little shocked to get a series of frequent text messages from one of the primary candidates. The first time this had happened to me. How did they even get my cell number, I wondered: it felt like a bit of an invasion, and after 20 or so of them, I had to text back STOP (since I wasn't going to vote for this candidate anyway, and certainly not after all these texts!).

When questioned about the practice during one of the debates, this candidate (a male, not one of the final two) said it was perfectly legal, since voters provide their phone numbers when they register to vote. Well, I think that's true, and that is how telephone banking has always occurred. But in my case (and I think thousands of others), I KNOW I did not ever give my cell number to the voter registration rolls. I never give it out, except to family and friends and occasionally when absolutely necessary, and it's mostly why we maintain a stupid landline still.

So I'd ask someone at the campaign, first, how they are collecting these numbers, and ask them about possible blowback from voters. People were pretty angry about it here in Chicago, and it caught media attention. Maybe it will become more commonplace, but it's still risky, imo. Mostly, people are just going to block you.

I have volunteered extensively for campaigns over the last several decades, but things are changing, largely because of technology. I definitely won't volunteer to do phone banking anymore, because the return on investment is so poor these days. You can go through a list of 80 or 100 names and be lucky to get three pick-ups. That would be okay, but in the last several elections I worked, they instructed us not to leave voicemail. I know I (myself) don't pick up unknown numbers, so if no message is left, they've missed a possible response. I am not at all unique in this. So I'd advise skip the phone banking. It used to be a useful task, but it seems not worth the time these days.*

The most positive type of volunteering I've done has consistently been canvassing (door knocking). That kind of one-on-one contact is invaluable, both to collect information on voters (the main purpose of canvassing) and to give a face to your candidate via your personal presence. This is the prime useful work volunteers can do (as well as data entry from the information canvassers gathered).

* Phone banking might still be useful if somehow campaigns could work it out so that instead of getting some random cell no popping up on someone's caller ID, the name of the campaign could appear ("Harris for President" ) . People might actually answer. That used to be the case, as late as the 2004 campaign, when you actually went into the campaign office where they had a bunch of landlines to use. Now, with everyone using their own cell phones to make calls, people don't respond.

[Kaleva]

5. It does look like texting will soon become the norm

Thank you for your first hand account!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Yes, the campaign has a list of numbers and often times a phone you can use.

It's ideal work for introverts and helps determine the "temperature" of people on the list. The work a campaign does on this now can help ID people who will do some of the harder work down the line.

[Kaleva]

6. I'll probably sign up for that later this week