Are you ready to make some calls? Swing Left Tri-Valley is currently offering “Virtual” phone banks every Saturday morning 10AM-1PM. To receive zoom link please sign up at Mobilize. For more opportunities please visit our state websites.
Let’s face it, most people do not like making political calls. If you have made calls for any electoral campaign, you may have been yelled at or got hung up. It is tough not to take it personally. You may not like political calls you receive so you do not want to do it to others, or since you screen your calls and do not answer to strangers, you think nobody is going to answer. Why do we keep calling when we can text?
Let’s step back and see how electoral campaigns are carried on. Electoral campaigns have 3 phases:
1. Clean the lists and identify supporters
2. Persuade those undecided
3. Get Out The Vote (GOTV)
In every phase campaigns have to make voter contacts. And studies show multiple contacts with different people and platforms enforce the messages. Also different age groups and demographics, as well as where they live determine which platform works best. To identify supporters and to persuade we need to knock on doors, call and/or text to have 2 way communications.
Swing Left Tri-Valley started to make calls in March. Since Swing Left is candidate neutral before the primary, our calls were mostly nonpartisan GOTV. We called TX, WI, NC, and GA with multiple sources including the Reclaim Our Vote campaign (With the voice messages we leave, thousands of voters got information they deserve). We will make calls to GOTV through primaries.
Since 2019 we are making calls with ROV to inform voters of color about ever changing voter regulations in the voter suppression states, because without help many could simply give up on voting and improperly filled out ballots could be disregarded (Atlantic article Voter Suppression). Every vote matter and should be counted. (Oklahoma voters approved Medicaid expansion on June 30, 2020 by less than 1%-6488 votes.)
How effective is it? ROV made 79,000 voter contacts through phone conversations and voice messages before the June Georgia primary. 72%: 57,610 voters ROV contacted voted. Of those, 25,060 (43%) had not voted in the previous three primaries, while another 10,494 had voted only once in the previous three primaries. Providing critical information “how to vote” to voters of color work.
We are calling AZ state LD2 campaign since we know the candidates from 2020 campaign.