Upsetting the Electorate

Short rant. Elections today. Lot of calls to our home from recordings of politicians to get out the vote. Sometimes technology and automation work to the detriment of society. This is such an occasion. If we have a do not call registry for telemarketers, how come politicians can spam us? Is there a political do not call list? These guys can't be too bright. Wouldn't you want to check to see if someone is on a do not call list before ringing them. Kind of works against your purpose of encouraging people to vote for you. Just a thought...
(let me know if any of you know how to stop these calls)

Comments

[Mike Maddaloni]

Have an out of state mobile phone as your home phone... it worked for me. :)

[Charles Smith]

Almost all do not call lists have carve outs for politicians- they write the laws, they can call you!

[Jediah White]

Much like other intrusive advertisers, political consultants have determined that the net effect of automated calls is positive even though it does turn a few people off. And if they are worth anything, those consultants will have targeted their ads to households that are already leaning in their direction (to soften the nuisance of their call and to avoid invigorating the opposition). The more important question is, regardless of who called, did you vote?

[Terry Horner]

Isn't it better that you get calls from the campaigns or issue advocate groups themselves rather than taking some newspaper or other partisan group's opinion of what those campaigns and advocate groups are all about?

Most voters have limited resources to untainted information in this process and all of these new ways of communicating with the voters are improving the whole electoral process IMHO. Is it annoying to have people calling you all the time? Absolutely. Can I deal with it if it is something important like issues affecting my life? The answer there is absolutely as well.

The reason I don't subscribe to my local newspaper is for the simple fact that they have their own agendas when it comes to the process and skew the opinions in their favor. That plus it's all old news by the time you get it but that's besides the point. Local issues are the only reason newspapers exist anymore.

At least if the message comes directly from a group or candidate, you know it's real. You might not like their position or agenda but it gives you real information about who they are and what they stand for. I think the real problem is when they use these new mediums to mud-sling instead of explaining the issues or telling you where you can get more information about the particular message they're trying to convey. I agree with you whole heartedly if yours was an experience like this because nobody deserve intrusion like that. I guess it depends on how good these consultants really are as to if it works for one person or the next.

I'm not sure that mobile phones can hide for much longer either but everyone can dream can't they? :)

[mbmccall]

It would be interesting to see how big the delta is between the control group and the unfortunate group that was called. Did they vote more often (and vote for that politician)? I have a friend who has vowed on the next election to write down every person who calls so as to ensure they don't get her vote (subject to ideology constraints)...

Some of the collaborative news sites are interesting (like www.digg.com) as they tend to pull up articles as found of interest by the populace. Of course, it doesn't make it accurate, but at least it reduces the channel push bias (we are big and can push our position in front of you).