Sunday, March 4, 2012

RoboCalls: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Ohio's March primary is Tuesday.

I already voted care of Ohio's early voting, but the robots that keep calling my  house don't know it, I guess.

I'll say the word on robocalls is mixed.  It's not all bad.

The Good:  I've volunteered with our local park district levy campaign this election.  I advocated for robocalls first to see where we stood with a poll, then to do voter identification and see where our undecided voters were, then, Monday, to try to get out the vote.   People say they don't like the calls, but they do listen and answer in pretty big numbers.

With the list of undecided voters in hand, my kids and I could go knock on doors in our Ward to try to turn some possible "no" votes into "yes" ones.  I'm proud to report, we did!

This sort of modern reconnaissance is pretty good stuff in my book.

The Bad:  My home phone has rung more times in the past month than it did in the past year combined.  That's partly because my house gets less phone calls since my teenager grew up and went to college.  While I sat and typed this on Saturday, I got three phone calls with voice messages left on my machine.

The Ugly:  I have to admit my annoyance at negative robocalls.  The volume of calls in Ohio is particularly high this year for two reasons.  For one, Ohio's presidential primary is actually one that matters this time for the first time in my adult life.  Secondly, Ohio's Republican Central Committee has turned into a race as well because of a ugly battle at the state level.  I may find myself ignoring the calls, but I'm extra annoyed at the negative calls.  Ugly indeed.

Did I say I already voted?

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