Stop calling already!

By David McGrath Schwartz

Friday, Oct. 24, 2008 | 2 a.m.

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.