I live in San Francisco and, as you might have heard, our state has some elections coming up. Your state does too? Wow, now there's a coincidence.
Anyway, I just got a call from a very nice volunteer from one of the state organizations. My question for those of you who do phonebanking - is there a nice way to say "please - skip me, I'm voting, I'm contributing... go on to the next call so you can reach someone who needs convincing." Because that's basically what I said, and it didn't seem to work.
I will vote next Tuesday. I know that everyone says early voting is the thing because it lets the GOTV volunteers focus on those who are on the fence - but I really truly love the experience of going to my polling station on election day and taking part. It gives me a warm-fuzzy civic-duty feeling that I'm not willing to give up just yet. What can I say? I like love to vote in person. I'm also contributing; I've done a fair number of online donations. Some are out of state, but some are here in CA.
So I tried to say to the caller, I'm voting - I promise I'm voting - so please put your get out the vote energy into someone who's not so motivated. She said they were also fundraising. I said I don't donate to anything or anyone over the phone, especially if it's someone calling me. That's just common sense. I told her that I've contributed a lot online, mentioned ActBlue and Orange-to-Blue (didn't mention Crashing Vor's birthday drive for Melancon though). Told her that I'm working on getting people around me to vote - people who've talked about sitting this one out.
I didn't want to be rude, but I didn't want to stay on the phone. Even more, I wanted the energy to go toward someone who still needs convincing. She was really nice, and she'd do a good job talking to a fence sitter.
So what's the nice way to say "Please don't waste your time with me - talk to someone who needs it" - as a volunteer, what would you respond to?
Let me finish with a big THANK YOU!! to all the phonebankers. You're the awesomest.
[Update] per healthy's suggestion, I'm adding a poll...