After seeing some interest in the POTUS BOWL thread, let’s roll and get on the phones/texting for the general election.
Before we do anything, we should decide who to do some work for. There’s Biden, but there are also some really important Senate or house races that could use our help. Suggestions are welcome, then I’ll post a poll.
I have some resources to connect with campaigns in order to get lists or specific instructions for how they’d like us to help.
So let’s do this. Post if you’re interested, and suggest races you’d be interested in helping.
I know ResistanceLabs has text campaigns going but I’m not 100% sure who they are for. One I saw was Black Voters Matter, so it may be broader issue based campaigns for now.
I’m down for texting or phone banking. I have phone anxiety despite being comfortable as a broadcaster talking to thousands of people at once, but I’ll power through it if that’s a better use of my time and speaking ability.
Biden in PA will be my main focus, but I’d also like to chip in on a few key Senate races. Gideon, Kelly, Hickenlooper, Cunningham. That’s the easiest path to 50 right? From there I guess IA, MT, GA special, GA regular?
Anyone know of any House candidates who don’t take corporate money who are in tough races?
Also is there anything more effective than phone/text banking that those of us in a swing state can do (without crazy COVID risk) or that those of us with various skill sets can do at this stage in a campaign?
I assume the answers are door knocking depending on risk tolerance and no, but figured it’s worth asking.
heh yeah, Ammar, but he doesn’t have texting online yet. Would have to be phones. I’ll see when they plan to get texting going, but they might not have the money. Texting costs campaigns money to use an app, plus money per text sent.
You can ask your local candidates if they have considered lit drops. We’re doing it every weekend for Ammar. It’s actually a really stress-free entry to volunteering, since you’re not interacting with voters at all (unless they happen to be outside).
There’s also visibility, which is sign waving on corners. That tends to be done by grassroots supporter groups. I’d say to look on Facebook for that kind of thing, because that’s where people organize stuff like that. Sorry.
I’ve canvassed one time. By myself. It sucked. Highly recommended doing it with a partner or group if you plan to canvass.
Lit drops sound pretty good though. I’d also consider doing a Philly area UP canvass/lit drop with proper covid precautions if cuse/Danspartan/any other non serial killers would feel comfortable with that.
Yeah definitely recommend this to those who want to do more than text/call but avoid in person interaction.
I’ve done it a couple times alone and got rained on both. It sucked because of the rain but other than that it was fine. Would’ve been a lot more fun with someone else but it was crunch time the last week and I was happy to be involved.
You log into an app that has a list pre-loaded. You don’t use your own number, they’ll assign you a number in the app. Then you just hit send a bunch of times on a form text and wait for replies.
Replies will show in the app, at that point, it’s up to each campaign how they want you to handle it. A lot of times they’ll have pre-written replies, but others will give you a little more leeway to have a conversation with the voter.
They’ll also ask you to record responses to questions like if the candidate is their top choice or in the top 3 for that voter, if they’d like to volunteer, etc. Depends on the purpose of the text bank. They are also used to build audiences for events.
Skydiver basically covered it, but I’ll add that depending on the program it may be down on your computer as well which makes it even easier. You just click send 300 or 500 or 1000 times, however many texts are loaded for that particular assignment. This is done because campaign texts can’t be sent by a robot, so a real person has to physically hit the send button. Then as you get replies you follow up with preloaded responses or alter them as needed and record the outcome right in the program. It’s super super simple after a brief training to get comfortable with the mechanics of it.
