A blog written by Manchester College students studying the 2008 presidential campaign.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Phones are Ringing Off the Hook!

With final attempts in motion, it is no wonder that both candidates are turning to the phones to reel in votes.  On the Obama homepage, they are celebrating the record breaking number of calls placed by volunteers in one day:    431,645.  Their goal for today is one million by 9 pm pacific time;  we'll have to see if they make it!  There is more than one reason for posting about this canvassing.  Firstly, it is living proof that Barack Obama has used his new media to capture the attention of voters.  By setting up his online voter contact tool, virtually anyone can make calls to anyone on behalf of the Obama campaign.  The prompt makes the call even easier to help.  

This leads to the other reason why I wrote about online voter contact calls.  As stated before, anyone can call ANYONE to speak to them about the campaign.  If you have not been living under a rock for the past few months, it is clear to say most know Indiana is quite possibly a swing state this year.  Because of it, other state citizens are calling Hoosiers to pursued them to Obama.  For example,  on Thursday, October 30th, I received two phone calls:  one from a volunteer in Fort Wayne.  Well, it was easy enough to tell them that I have already sent in my absentee ballot, thus, casting my vote.  The second of the calls was a 16 year old boy from Puerto Rico.  Not only could I not understand the young gentleman, but also paid for the conversation because he made it via collect calling.  To make matters worse, when I told him I had already sent in my absentee ballot, he began questioning me what an absentee ballot was and why i wasn't voting.  Needless to say, a few dollars and minutes later, the young gentleman, whom I learned was named Juan, got a very brief overview of absentee voting.

The situation of the random Puerto Rican boy calling has made me question if allowing "volunteers" to call and pursued people to vote for Obama may be opening a can of worms or worse.  I just hope he was one of a few who are not fully educated on voting issues and are canvassing for the candidates.  

1 comment:

eashbrook said...

I could not help but chuckle when I read this blog. I could just imagine the conversation and language barrier that probably took place. Your experience, though, highlights a flaw in the "make calls" system on Obama's website. With every new break through in technology and innovation, problems sometimes occur. Although allowing anyone to volunteer some time and make calls to voters has many advantages, such as reaching more Americans with no additional expense for the Obama campaign, someone does have to pay. Unfortunately, this may sometimes include those who innocently answer their phone.