I just called 20 potential voters for Jim Martin in Georgia, and let me tell you - these people are hard to contact. Now granted, several of the numbers ended up being busy or reaching voicemail, but the people I actually talked to were cranky and weird.
There's this big cultural thing with not even being able to ASK who the person is voting for. I was scolded and hung up on by a couple people for beginning the conversation by asking which way they were leaning:
Me: Hi, I'm calling on behalf of the Jim Martin Senatorial Campaign, are you aware there's a runoff election coming up on December 2nd?
Woman: Yes.
Me: Do you know which way you're leaning for the election?
Woman: How dare you ask me that question. The election has a secret ballot. Good night!
[CLICK]
And another thing, the list of contacts was nothing but seniors. I've made calls before for Obama in Indiana and North Carolina, and there was always a lot of variety in ages and everything. So I was really surprised to see no voter on my list younger than 45. I'm in my 20's, so I find it usually easier to relate to someone up to their 40's. Older than that, and I end up wanting to pull my hair out sometimes.
A lot of the answers were angry "I don't give out that information" as if I was prying into their purse or something. Is that something to do with Georgia history? I swear I've never heard that response once in all the calls I made during the presidential election. People were at least open to discussing the election.
I'm going to keep making calls (what else to do, I'm unemployed as of 2 weeks ago) but my god, I hope I'm even able to TALK to a couple people. I think I have good convincing skils, but usually only among people who I've already gotten into a friendly conversation with.
Do people have differing experiences?