Hola, peoples!
So I was asked to write a diary about how I’ve been phone banking for Bernie Sanders lately and, given my own original skiddishness regarding phone banking, I thought maybe I had the potential to calm some fears while helping (and encouraging) other Sandernistas to do some serious phone banking for Our Man With a Plan! :)
I did a very small amount of phone banking for Barack Obama in 2008, but really none since then. This diary is specifically for Bernie supporters who want to help and think they can phone bank, but are too shy (or weirded out) to even start.
Feel free to stick around with me in the comments section, as I’ll try to get to as many questions as I have the time and energy for, k? K!
Alright. To start with, it totally helps to begin with a phone banking party. If you’re fairly active with a local Sanders group, you can simply find and network with folks who also want to phone bank, but are, essentially, too chickenshit to do so. There is safety in numbers, plus you can bitch and vent to your fellow Berners if you have a difficult call! I have found this to be extremely helpful, on a personal level.
Regardless of whether or not you begin phone banking with a party of people, a few friends, or by yourself, you need to go here to get (and watch and print) all the details. I found the notes to be overwhelming at first, but once I got into it, phone banking became quite plain and sometimes fun!
The above linked website is colloquially known as “The Bernie Dialer”. The Sanders campaign makes it extraordinarily easy for you to phone bank, as they go into tremendous specifics, including helpful tips and a must-watch (and make fun of, lol) video tutorial.
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Nevermind that last part. Since I saw the video two weeks ago, the Bernie national peeps have made it WAY more user-friendly and cut the time in half, thank all noodley appendages!
Important notes from the tutorial:
- You must have a phone (can be smart or dumb, cell or landline) AND a computer (either laptop or desktop) to access The Bernie Dialer.
Apparently, tablets and the Dialer do not go together. I must have gotten some bad info on this one, because a commenter below says that tablets work just fine. Huh.
- You must create a LiveVox account. The Sanders campaign will then email you the details, but your password will always remain bernie16.
- Print off a script for whichever state you want to call. At present, The Dialer has scripts ready for Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. The campaign wishes for you not to deviate from the scripts! (Also too: notice the difference between the scripts in caucus states vs. scripts in primary states. Interesting stuff.)
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Do not hang up your phone while you are phone banking! The Dialer will call for you, and as long as you’re in “Ready” mode, you will keep receiving calls.
- After canvassing or selecting an “other” allotment (Not Home, Refused, Moved, etc.), when you click Save, you end that call! Mucho importante!
- You can only use The Bernie Dialer during peak hours, and the original Dialer link (up top, first one) will show you when those hours are. Generally, on weekdays, they’re from late afternoon to early evening, stopping at 8:30 pm local time. The Dialer will not let you call during whatever it deems non-peak times.
- I haven’t done weekend Dialer calls yet, but my local Bernie peeps have indicated to me that folks aren’t super crazy about getting calls from political campaigns on the weekends. Just an FYI.
- You can call voters in early primary states manually but, honestly, I really don’t know how that works. Sorry. :(
- For real, they are not joking: your vocal intonation makes a difference. If you are calling voters and secretly hating it, they will know. If you are calling voters and are scared shitless, they will know. Speak to them like you just jumped out of bed because you were excited to start your day! ”Kill ‘em with kindness” is a saying for a reason. Use it. Do it. Don’t be Grumpy McGrumperson, nobody wants that.
- Most of your calls will be wrong numbers or hang-ups (“Refused”), and that’s alright. Note this in the LiveVox system, and the Sanders campaign will take that voter out of The Dialer. Always remember that, in the end, getting erroneous info out of The Dialer helps the Sanders campaign. This is your goal here!
- Several of your other calls will be committed Clinton supporters, and that’s alright, too. Always be nice, always be as helpful as possible, and never talk crap about another candidate!
- YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES! That is absolutely, positively okay! You are human, after all, and do NOT beat yourself up if you hang up on a caller that expressed major support for Bernie. Shit happens and, ya know, whatever the fuck.
In my Green Bay for Bernie Sanders group, we get together regularly to strategize, plan, and socialize/network in order to help Senator Sanders in whatever ways we can, either individually or as a group. This has lead to a good number of us becoming quite active, going to debate parties, printing flyers and other Bernie material, and helping each other overcome fears of activism that have hampered some of us over the years. Several of the folks volunteering in my group are Millennials who have never participated in the political process before. It’s helpful for me (and others who have volunteered before) to be as empathetic and as kind as possible. No one wins if you are a dick. This should be, like, the #1 rule from Jesus.
In the end, I just want potential Bernie volunteers to know that this isn’t rocket science, and it isn’t scary. It’s sometimes awful (like the guy who screamed “NO!” when I told him I was with the Sanders campaign, then hung up), or awkward (like the dude who said “This is the THIRD phone call I’ve gotten from you guys, and wtf, I’m a fan, but this is my work #!”), or seriously uncomfortable (like the guy who questioned my friend for five minutes straight about exactly how much Bernie was going to tax him), but it’s mostly interesting and unusually mundane. You get into a rhythm of how you talk to people, and you know which inflections to use, and how to communicate slowly and effectively, and you get really excited voters sometimes! That part is adorable! Like the 89-year-old woman who told me, “Oh, honey, I am so on your side! But I can’t volunteer anymore, because I can’t really walk.” Or the 26-year-old male who said, “HELL YEAH! I’ll volunteer for Bernie!” Or the middle-aged mom who asked, “Why does everyone think I’ll vote for Hillary just because I’m a woman?!”
I haven’t phone banked more than five hours yet (tomorrow will probably break that), but I’ve learned a metric fuckton these past few weeks. Activism is easy, not for the faint of heart, and something most Berniacs on this website should be engaged in!
DO IT, SANDERNISTAS! DON’T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE AND KICK YOUR ASS!
; )