As we approach the election, I find myself being interrupted multiple times an evening with annoying political robo-calls either for or against a random politician/ proposition. I often won’t answer them, or if I get tricked by a fake phone number or other gimmick, I always hang up before listening to them. Everyone else I know does the same thing, and these robo-calls are universally hated.
So where is the study that shows these calls have ANY effect on people voting?
Someone in another thread asked about the effectiveness of those inflated giant gorillas on car dealerships, but I would argue no one listens to these calls beyond the first word or two and even if they are for a candidate/proposition they support, I’m guessing they still don’t like it.
In fact, I bet I could run a more effective phone campaign. Simply ‘help your opposition out’ by running their annoying support phone calls to each household at dinner time/prime time and bed time. All you have to do is call each house five or six times in a row spaced out by a few minutes each time. I bet you could actually generate massive amounts of hate for this candidate and actually get your guy elected using this strategy. Has that ever been tried?
One particular type of call for sure is known to be effective: GOTV (Get Out The Vote) calls.
These are calls to people identified as supporting your candidate/issue, made shortly before Election Day, reminding people to get out and vote (and, often, telling them where they vote & how to register at the polls).
I’ve worked doing such calls. For efficiency, we used different call types for different groups of voters. [ul][li]For strong supporters/consistent voters, use robocalls. They don’t need much personal contact or persuasion, just a reminder. Often a recorded call from a known political personality (former President Clinton, a Senator from your state, etc.) gets an even better response. Modern technology allows inserting the voter(s) names into the message: “This is President Bill Clinton calling you, John and Mary, to remind you to vote …” – that gets an even better response rate. (But you better be sure you have a good data list, with correct first names!)[/li][li]Leaning voters get a call from a slightly trained real volunteer, who has info ready to do persuasion if needed. (Also the info on where they vote, how to register, etc.)[/li][li]Neutral or undecided voters get a call from a more trained/experienced volunteer, who can do tougher kinds of persuasion. [/li]But that takes more volunteer time, and you need to consider the trade-off: that volunteer might be able to talk to 3 leaning voters in the same amount of time they spend on 1 undecided voter.
[li] Leaning against us or strong opposed don’t get called at all.[/li][/ul]
I don’t know about other calls, but GOTV ones are definitely worthwhile. A good GOTV operation can make the difference in winning a close race!
There is also some evidence that robocalls to targeted affinity groups from a known personality often work. For example, robocalling a list of lesbian voters with a recorded message from Ellen DeGeneris. Again, this depends on having a valid data list to use. Otherwise you run the risk of offending non-lesbians who get such calls.