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twitterELECTION 2008:
Stop calling already!
You’re sick of the ads, the calls, the visits. You’ve got company.
Fri, Oct 24, 2008 (2 a.m.)
Chris Morris
Reader poll
Sun Topics
Beyond the Sun
CARSON CITY — There are Obama voters, McCain voters, hockey mom voters, soccer mom voters and NASCAR dad voters.
Overlapping all these groups are Nevada’s weary voters, who’ve found that the price of living in a battleground state is enduring scores of door knocks by bright-eyed volunteers, ceaseless phone calls and mailers from campaigns, and a steady diet of campaign commercials. Early voting in Nevada, and throughout the country, has been at an unprecedented level. And while there are the rosy civic reasons — an engaged electorate, the most important election ever, distinct differences between candidates — at least some of the voters are simply sick of the campaign, which began here 21 months ago. They see the voting booth as an escape hatch from the ever-present election.
“I’ve had enough,” said Sharon Lanning, 68, who voted last weekend in Las Vegas. “I don’t want any more phone calls. At night I don’t answer the door.”
Jack Watson, 74, another early voter, said, “I won’t answer the phone anymore. You can only have so much of this.”
Signs are appearing on voters’ doors stating “I have voted,” a clear message for clipboard-wielding door knockers not to bother. (No one answered the door when a visitor knocked recently at one such house. Either no one was home, or a reporter was mistaken for a campaign volunteer.)
With Nevada’s early caucuses, the state has received more attention from national campaigns, and for longer, than ever before. For many, the novelty of having the next president campaign in the state wore off long ago.
The campaign for Democratic nominee Barack Obama, who will visit Nevada on Saturday for the 19th time, started organizing in February 2007, said Kirsten Searer, spokeswoman for the campaign.
“We tease voters sometimes that one way to stop getting phone calls and mail is to vote,” Searer said. “They can stop hearing about the exciting election.”
Both campaigns keep track of who votes and cross them off their contact lists.
Rick Gorka, spokesman for the McCain campaign, said, “It’s been a spirited election.”
But if you’re still undecided — really? — and don’t think robo-calls, or robo-calls attacking robo-calls, will help make up your mind, there are other avenues to cease, or at least stem, the tide of attention.
The secretary of state’s office has a Please Do Not Call list for political campaign ads. Because political speech is protected under the Constitution, campaigns only voluntarily agree to not bother those voters.
Secretary of State Ross Miller said 16,000 people have signed up. There have been no known complaints that people on the list are still receiving calls, so it seems that political campaigns are respecting voters’ wishes.
There is a more extreme measure available. Residents can sign an affidavit at their county registrar’s office that removes their telephone number and address from voter registration files. About 4,900 people have signed up for the “confidential voter” list.
But take solace, citizens. You are not the only weary ones. There are the weary campaign workers, weary volunteers, weary reporters, even weary pundits.
“That happened after the caucuses,” said UNLV political science professor David Damore, who had just finished being a pundit for Norwegian and Swiss reporters interested in Nevada’s political landscape.
“I think voters are getting fatigued. It’s one of the reasons there’s so much early voting,” he said.
Miller, the secretary of state, admitted, “I’m ready for the election to be over.”
At least, on Nov. 4, it all will be.
Unless, of course, it’s not.
“I say a prayer every night for a wide margin,” Miller said. “I don’t need CNN and Fox News sitting outside the Capitol on Nov. 5.”
Reporter Alexandra Berzon contributed to this story.
Discussion: 18 comments so far…
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The democrats calls against McCain are coming from Romania? What is happening?
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/...
And my IT support calls come from India.
Nobody cares neiman1.
FYI, the calls will stop coming if you vote. I did and they have.
Well, actually I do care about that. As I care that my IT support calls come from India and/or Canada. As I care that these [expletive deleted] companies get tax breaks to ship jobs overseas.
I don't care who's doing it; it's wrong.
That said, however, I'd sure like to have neiman revisit this story when some bona fide evidence is released rather than "charges" leveled by the disgruntled "R" candidate and a "voter" and a "private detective".
Do keep us informed, won't you?
"I don't care who's doing it; it's wrong."
I struggle with this. I'm just not sure that it's wrong to want to do things as efficiently as they can be done. Not that it doesn't bother me that the work isn't being done here, it does. But I think we have to find a better way to handle this than to demonize people and companies for wanting to be profitable where they can be.
I haven't heard any reporter as, and have heard no Repbulican answer, "Why is McCain falling behind in the various polls?"
Do the Republicans think voters are stupid? No that's not right, they say it's the Democrats who are elitist. Do the Republicans think they are just screw ups at marketing their own message? No, that's not right, they would never admit they are incompetent at marketing a superior message. Perhaps it's that either the message and/or the messengers are inferior to the competition. The latest claim from Palin (and Bachmann and Hayes): The Democrats, and anyone else who votes for Democrats, are not real Americans, they are Anti-Americans. Well, count me in.
Palin does deliver a prepared speech OK. She does her lines almost as well as Tina Fey. But when she's unscripted (like when asked what newspapers she reads, or what the Vice President's role is, or what "pre-conditions means"), she doesn't have a clue and rather than admit it, just makes something up. Who wants that one heartbeat away?
"The democrats calls against McCain are coming from Romania? What is happening?
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/...
Hey, neiman1, did you actually read the article? It doesn't say anywhere that they were calling "against McCain", they were calling against a GOP Senate district candidate in frikken' Billings, Montana!! It doesn't mention McCain anywhere on the article.
My wife and I voted early. We and millions of others are now utterly immune to the sleazy, desperate last-minute campaign attack ads. I will be so glad when this is over, and the dangerously unqualified Sarah Palin is sent packing back to Alaska.
I also care that I can't understand a word these IT people are saying and they don't understand a single American 'slang word'.
I read on Yahoo that Palin says that when she shops at home she's 'frugal' and that consignment shops are her favorite....and I say to myself - OF COURSE ! Aren't we all frugal on our own dime! Genius
Here's an idea. Most people signed up for the Do Not Call list because they don't want telemarketer calls from anyone....for me that especially includes political, charitable and religious groups. Why can't we opt out of getting calls from these folks on the Do Not Call list? When I get a call from a candidates supporters, I tell the caller to advise their candidate that I was going to vote for them, but because of the call I won't vote for them now. It's time to start flooding your Representatives ogffices about this and get the law changed.
Do Not Call list do not apply to political or non-profit phone campaigns.
They are exempt from the the Do-Not-Call laws.
Even though I voted already, I decided to politely listen to each and every live call (I hang up on the robo-calls from McCain). I figure they can talk till they are hoarse, even though they can't persuade me to vote any differently.
Besides, while they (especially the republican callers) are trying to sway my vote, they are not bothering anyone else.
As for the Do Not Call issue, non-profits and political parties were specifically not included in the law. No politician would ever vote to preclude calling voters.
WE NEED EXPERIENCE NOW. NOT ON THE JOB TRAINING. And the question is not is Obama a Muslim -- I don't care. The question is WILL HE PROTECT US? (Joe Biden doesn't seem to think so") OR WILL HE APPEASE? Obama's words and actions don't reassure.
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/arch...
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09112008/pos...
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas...
EUROPEAN WRITERS are way ahead of all you naive-lefty-liberal-let's-all-be-socialists-and-get-along on this subject. Bruce Bawer, author of "While Europe Slept" (http://www.brucebawer.com) says: "Europeans are, on average, more aware than Americans of the realities of Islam, no thanks to their media, but rather because they can see with their own eyes what's going on around them. Yet many of them feel cowed -- not only by Muslims but by politically correct politicians and media -- into keeping their opinions to themselves, and feel powerless to prevent what now seems to many of them, in any event, inevitable. In other words, fatalism has taken hold.
Hence the link between VOTING and FREEDOM has never been more grave. HERE'S THE REALITY of appeasement in Britain: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1... Check the BRITISH CITIZENS 390 comments after the article.
NOTE TO OBAMANIACS: No way am I voting for a man who thinks (or whose pastor thinks!!!) it's America's "fault" that 9/11 happened.
http://www.actforamerica.org/index.php/v...
sbnative - No way am I voting for a man who thinks (or whose constituents think) his opponent is a terrorist who hates America.
Real Americans have finally had enough of fear mongering fools who appeal to the lowest in humanity. It's not working this time. McCain is losing the battle, and mostly because he's worn out, angry, and offers nothing but the same failed policies we're already suffering with.
It says everything that sbnative quotes a SINGLE WORD of Obama's while wildly misrepresenting his actual words.
Since some are too cowardly to transcribe the whole quote, I'll take the pleasure:
"It isn't to say that there is a direct correlation, but what is absolutely true is that there has been a shift in Islam that I believe is connected to the failures of governments and the failures of the West to work with many of these countries, in order to make sure that opportunities are there, that there's bottom-up economic growth. "
"You know, the way we have to approach, I think, this problem of Islamic extremism ... is we have to hunt down those who would resort to violence to move their agenda, their ideology forward. We should be going after al Qaeda and those networks fiercely and effectively."
"But what we also want to do is to shrink the pool of potential recruits. And that involves engaging the Islamic world rather than vilifying it, and making sure that we understand that not only are those in Islam who would resort to violence a tiny fraction of the Islamic world, but that also, the Islamic world itself is diverse."
Seems some people are too simple-minded to understand context. Nowhere in that quote does Obama blame 9/11 on the United States.
That's just a desperate lie.
Why is it that SBNative and Johnevegas have to try to hijack every thread here that remotely relates to the election with their robo-falsity. Let it go guys -- we know where your heads are at about Obama, okay?
And, yes, while the people who knock on your doors are a little annoying, I think there's something terrific about people being willing to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to spend days and days for no pay just to try to get people to vote. I got a call from my neighbor yesterday -- he announced he was calling from Columbus, Ohio, where's he out there for two weeks to help make sure that there's no intimidation at the polls to keep people from voting. (The Republicans in various areas are hiring uniformed security guards to hang around polling places to make it uncomfortable for anyone with an outstanding traffic warrant to hang around the polls.) He's trying to get others of us to come out and help. I know another fellow -- African-American -- who's going back to his home town of Gary, Indiana to do the same thing, and be there when (knock, knock, knock) the election night celebration begins.
But, if you don't like 'em talking to you, please just go out and vote early. It's actually easier than on election day -- you can vote anywhere in the County rather than at your own precinct.
JayH - "Let it go guys -- we know where your heads are at about Obama, okay?"
Uh...are you seriously suggesting that we are the only people on this board who consistently repeat things??? Thanks for the laugh.
Oh, wait, let me put it words you might understand. Are you against free speech??? Hummm??? What are you, a terrorist?? You must really hate America and be glad about 9/11!!!!
ZZZzzzzzzzz.....
"But what we also want to do is to shrink the pool of potential recruits. And that involves engaging the Islamic world rather than vilifying it, and making sure that we understand that not only are those in Islam who would resort to violence a tiny fraction of the Islamic world, but that also, the Islamic world itself is diverse."
This is the only plan that will ever work.