Election Day
Don't forget to vote.
Do you need resources for candidate statements, summaries of ballot measures, etc? Try typing into a search engine the term (name of your state) voter guide.
We lost our paper voter's guide, so I had to look online. Searching for [Mystate] Voter Guide got me some useful results.
May I just say that the phone calls that turn out to be recordings of candidates asking me to vote for them are driving me crazy?
###############
If a real candidate actually went to the trouble to telephone me directly, I would be thrilled. I would hear them out and ask questions. I'd be immediately very interested and prone to respect them, just because they took time to make a personal phone call. But a recording? Not so much.
I'm fine with advertisements in places like newspapers, television, radio and billboards. Those are places where I expect to see advertisements. They are public areas where I know there will be ads. If I don't want to see them, I don't have to watch, listen to, or read them. I can escape them, or choose not to put myself in a place where I'll be seeing them.
But when someone calls my home they are infringing on my personal space. They are interrupting my life in a way I did not choose, ask for, or expect. They may be waking the baby or interrupting my dinner. It's intrusive.
The fact that it's a machine makes it 10 times worse. Because they are interrupting my life without inconveniencing themselves a bit. They're willing to waste my time, but not their own. They are telling me that their time is more valuable than mine.
It makes me want to not vote for them. I immediately hang up.
If it's a volunteer calling, (for me, it's usually the Republican party because I'm registered as a Republican even though I don't necessarily vote Republican on everything) I don't hang up on them. I have been one of those volunteers, and I know it's not an easy job.
However, I still find it annoying. Not so much that they call (although sometimes that's annoying too), but what they say.
"Hello, this is so-and-so from the Republican party. I was just calling to remind you to vote, and to tell you to vote for such-and-such a candidate."
When I volunteered for Republican Linda Smith's campaign, we called people to remind them to vote. We didn't tell them how to vote.
We were instructed to introduce ourselves and identify the organization we were working for, remind them to vote the next day, and leave it at that.
If they asked who we were endorsing as candidates, then we were supposed to share information and tell them who we recommended that they vote for, and why. But not unless they asked.
Yes, we called only people who were registered as Republicans. We were interested in getting people who were likely to support our candidate to the polls more than getting likely opponents to the polls. Besides, the other parties would be calling the people on their lists of voters registered for their party.
We hoped the people we called would vote for our candidate, of course. But we felt it was unethical to make an unsolicited telephone call to someone the day before the election and tell them how to cast their vote.
It still seems wrong to me for people to call and tell someone point-blank how to vote.
I wouldn't have a problem with someone calling me and saying, "I'm working for such-and-such a candidate, and I was wondering if you'd like some information about them in order to help you decide how to vote. I'd like to tell you why I think this candidate is the best person for the job, if I may. And if you'll tell me what issues are most important to you, I'll be happy to tell you where this candidate stands on them."
But to have someone call and just say, "Vote for so-and-so," and expect me to vote on their say-so with no other information, just seems inappropriate to me.
I'm not going to vote for someone just because they had the most people calling me to order me to do so. I'm going to vote for them because of who they are, how they conduct themselves and how they stand on the issues that are important to me.
That's how I would hope most other people vote as well.
Do you need resources for candidate statements, summaries of ballot measures, etc? Try typing into a search engine the term (name of your state) voter guide.
We lost our paper voter's guide, so I had to look online. Searching for [Mystate] Voter Guide got me some useful results.
May I just say that the phone calls that turn out to be recordings of candidates asking me to vote for them are driving me crazy?
###############
If a real candidate actually went to the trouble to telephone me directly, I would be thrilled. I would hear them out and ask questions. I'd be immediately very interested and prone to respect them, just because they took time to make a personal phone call. But a recording? Not so much.
I'm fine with advertisements in places like newspapers, television, radio and billboards. Those are places where I expect to see advertisements. They are public areas where I know there will be ads. If I don't want to see them, I don't have to watch, listen to, or read them. I can escape them, or choose not to put myself in a place where I'll be seeing them.
But when someone calls my home they are infringing on my personal space. They are interrupting my life in a way I did not choose, ask for, or expect. They may be waking the baby or interrupting my dinner. It's intrusive.
The fact that it's a machine makes it 10 times worse. Because they are interrupting my life without inconveniencing themselves a bit. They're willing to waste my time, but not their own. They are telling me that their time is more valuable than mine.
It makes me want to not vote for them. I immediately hang up.
If it's a volunteer calling, (for me, it's usually the Republican party because I'm registered as a Republican even though I don't necessarily vote Republican on everything) I don't hang up on them. I have been one of those volunteers, and I know it's not an easy job.
However, I still find it annoying. Not so much that they call (although sometimes that's annoying too), but what they say.
"Hello, this is so-and-so from the Republican party. I was just calling to remind you to vote, and to tell you to vote for such-and-such a candidate."
When I volunteered for Republican Linda Smith's campaign, we called people to remind them to vote. We didn't tell them how to vote.
We were instructed to introduce ourselves and identify the organization we were working for, remind them to vote the next day, and leave it at that.
If they asked who we were endorsing as candidates, then we were supposed to share information and tell them who we recommended that they vote for, and why. But not unless they asked.
Yes, we called only people who were registered as Republicans. We were interested in getting people who were likely to support our candidate to the polls more than getting likely opponents to the polls. Besides, the other parties would be calling the people on their lists of voters registered for their party.
We hoped the people we called would vote for our candidate, of course. But we felt it was unethical to make an unsolicited telephone call to someone the day before the election and tell them how to cast their vote.
It still seems wrong to me for people to call and tell someone point-blank how to vote.
I wouldn't have a problem with someone calling me and saying, "I'm working for such-and-such a candidate, and I was wondering if you'd like some information about them in order to help you decide how to vote. I'd like to tell you why I think this candidate is the best person for the job, if I may. And if you'll tell me what issues are most important to you, I'll be happy to tell you where this candidate stands on them."
But to have someone call and just say, "Vote for so-and-so," and expect me to vote on their say-so with no other information, just seems inappropriate to me.
I'm not going to vote for someone just because they had the most people calling me to order me to do so. I'm going to vote for them because of who they are, how they conduct themselves and how they stand on the issues that are important to me.
That's how I would hope most other people vote as well.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted by purple_kangaroo at 12:01 AM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
I couldn't have said it better, the mailbox full of the same garbage annoys me as well. I think what is abosolutley horrid is when a certan canidate is promoted in church!!! Appalling. I think D and R's are about the same; they just wear different clothing. I've been know to vote for D;s before because they are better than R's ! I hate the "lesser of two evils" philosophy.
Amen, PK. Amen.
Yes, you are right on. This year we got recorded calls from a city council candidate. I couldn't believe it; we live in a small city that in most other places wouldn't even be considered a large town, and a city council candidate is paying for recorded calls rather than knocking on doors? It irked me in a big way.
And again, Amen.
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