Because of an injury this year, canvassing is not an option for me. I've been doing phone banking instead (for Webb).
Webb has a wonderful web-based (or is that Webb-based?) system where you can call from home; they give you the script and all the information you need to make calls quickly and efficiently.
The trouble is, I'm not really sure what good I'm accomplishing.
Like most phone-bankers, by far most of my calls reach answering machines, and I dutifully leave a message. In those cases I have no idea what kind of reception they get (if they're heard at all).
But when I do reach someone, without exception the person wants to get off the phone as quickly as possible, and is obviously not pleased to get the call. Like many of us, they are receiving tons of calls from various candidates and supporters, and view this call as just an additional annoyance.
This is not phone canvassing, where you engage someone and try to nudge them in the right direction; this is GOTV, which is supposed to motivate them to make that stop at the polls on the way home. But I don't see the motivation happening.
Yet every campaign does a ton of phone banking, and phone banking is always high up on the list for GOTV activities. Is this just CW that no candidate dare risk swimming against? Or is there any evidence out there that these quick calls actually get people out to vote who wouldn't otherwise do it?
I would appreciate others' perspectives.