A productive day

[redbird]

My to-do list for today was to do some phone banking, and some of my PT exercises.

This afternoon's phone banking session was my most productive yet: I talked to four or five people, and got a few people saying they definitely support Sara Gideon and Joe Biden. Also one who said no to "can we count on your support for Sara?" and when I asked if she would list Gideon as her second choice said she was planning to do that. [1] She was lukewarm about Biden--she'll vote for him but isn't happy that he's the nominee. I said I understood, I was a Warren supporter, but since Biden is the Democratic nominee we need to support him. The other people I talked to included a man who had moved out of state, but said "yes" when I asked if we could count on him to vote for Biden. (This campaign won't be calling him back, because I checked the "moved out of state" button on the phone banking page.) One person was enthusiastic enough about the Democratic ticket that I asked if she'd like to volunteer. She declined because she's working at a food bank and as a guardian ad litem [to represent the interests of minor children in court]. I said that's important work, and thanked her for it.



I did some of the exercises I have flagged as priority, and a few lower-priority ones I hadn't gotten to in a while.

cattitude went to the farmers market this afternoon, and got several nice things, including scallops, which we had for supper tonight. Also, my post-phone banking snack was fresh local raspberries and homemade chocolate cake.

I did a little proofreading/light copyediting for a friend who has applying for an internship; this useful activity didn't require me to hang up rather than leave voicemail for a hundred strangers.

[1] If you live in Massachusetts, vote Yes on ballot question 2. If it passes, Massachusetts will use ranked choice voting, a.k.a. instant runoff, for most elections. Ranked choice means you can vote for a third party candidate without worrying that this will help the candidate you like least. Useful for those of us who agree that both major parties are too conservative and would like to vote Socialist, and equally for someone who dislikes both parties for how much they spend on the military. Maine has had ranked choice for a few years, as has Minneapolis. (For my fannish friends, this is used for the Hugo awards, where it's sometimes called "Australian ballot.") Thanks to julian for pointing out that I'd omitted the footnote.

Comments

[julian]

[Citation needed], or, rather, your footnote is missing. (I assume it was going to be about ranked choice voting?)

Am glad it was more productive than previous times.

[calimac]

How did you reach the man who had moved out of state? Were you calling his cell phone, or did he have an automatic forward on his old landline?

[redbird]

We're calling a lot of cell phones; I think there's a separate list of people who are known to have landlines.

[calimac]

Ah. While I will take friendly political solicitation calls on my landline, I do not like solicitation calls of any kind on my cell phone, because I have to pay for them, and I get very cross when I receive one.

[redbird]

Fair enough: a lot of people have plans that allow either unlimited calls, or so many that they never come close to the limit.

We're working off voter lists, which seem to be a bit out of date, but I think that if your landline number was available we'd use only that. Also, I don't think anyone outside California is calling California voters for this.

If anyone says "take me off your list," we do that, and people who don't answer calls from unknown numbers would just find "missed call from [phone number]" and no message, which may be annoying but shouldn't cost you anything.

[calimac]

I tend not to give my cell phone number out to businesses, even ones I'm doing legitimate business with, because then they bombard me with text messages, which are supposed to be helpful but which I find only irritating. "Your car is ready" (which I already knew), "How was our service?" (a question only asked if the answer is "just fine").