Phone Banking 101

[swilton]

In the interest of helping those who have never phone-banked, I've put together this list of what to expect in the hope that it breaks the ice to this initial form of campaigning. I'm certain I've left something out so for those of you familiar with the process, please contribute.


The different phone banking stages
First of all, there are different degrees of phone banking depending upon the stage of the campaign....At the very beginning of a campaign, I would call this 'soft' phone banking...The basic question to be determined is - Are you a Bernie Sanders supporter? At the later stages of the campaign - the list has been refined and refined so that in theory non Sanders supporters have been eliminated. The closer you are to a primary, you are supposed to be calling a list of committed Bernie Sanders supporters....Assuming all your names are Sanders supporters, you will be asking them/reminding them to vote on primary day...do you know where your polling place is, and what time do you plan to vote.

Having said the above, there are always mistakes on various lists. For example the first group is supposed to be likely Democratic voters and you may get someone who says - "no way will I vote for that commie SOB"....Or in the second group, you may get someone who says that they intend to vote for Hillary....

Equipment
The equipment also varies. Depending on your location, you may either want to bring your own equipment (a computer or cell phone) OR you may use equipment available at your phone banking location. There will also be different phone banking software, which is dependent upon the stage of the campaign and the urgency. I'm not a cell phone user and I had to employ the cell phones provided by the campaign staff. I also am not a touch-tone tablet user and I also utilized those provided by the campaign staff.

Phone Banking 'Party' Locations
Again a variety of choices. Early on in the NH campaign, the phone banking was done at volunteer homes because the office had yet to be set up. After we got into the campaign, there were 'parties' at homes and at the office. There is also a mechanism for remote phone banking where one can make out of state phone calls from one's home. If you think you'd like to host phone bankers at your home, equipment can be provided or you can ask volunteers to bring their own lap tops which people can call from. You will need internet connectivity - in areas of Vermont and NH this isn't always available.

Phone Banking Software
In all cases the campaign staff provides you with contact lists hard copy or the names will appear automatically on a computer. On the provided lists/computer, you have a series of questions to fill out to include those people whom you are unable to contact and you mark 'not home'. Initially, in the early stages of the campaign, you're basically just calling people to ask them if they're Bernie or Hillary supporters. In the final stages (days before the primary) you will rely on this computer program.

You log yourself into the lap top which makes a call to your cell phone. Push a button on the computer screen and it begins automatically calling people from a software program embedded in the computer. When you make a contact, the contact's record (name, age, gender, democrat, undeclared, address, polling location) appears. You try to answer questions (i.e., do you intend to vote for Bernie and do you have all the information you need to get to the polls, do you need a ride to the polls? etc.) and fill in the blanks on the touch-screen computer.

Not being a cell phone or touch screen operator, I found the process challenging, the most problematic was the touch-screen. Again, this was possibly because I was touching the screen with my right hand and I'm left handed. In any operation glitches happen. One of the glitches I found with the software was that people were becoming irritated for having been called so many times. One man told me that if he got any more Bernie Sanders calls he was going to vote for Hillary. I think I heard this was a software issue.

Respondents
Everything. The range is from people who don't answer the phone and you just mark 'not home', or 'wrong number' or 'refused'. In most cases people don't answer the phone and you just go down the names on your list. Some times people hang up or say take me off your list. In all cases you try to engage and be pleasant.....you are representing Bernie Sanders. I had a few people (forgot what they said) whom I remember noting as belligerent. As mentioned above, during the 'soft canvasing' the question you ask people is can we count on you to support Bernie Sanders? Depending upon their answer, you mark them as 'strong Bernie' or 'leaning Bernie' or 'leaning Hillary' or 'strong Hillary' or 'undecided'. Of those people who do answer their phones, some people won't tell you and you thank them and let them go....Others will engage you. During the intermediate stages of the campaign, of those people you talk to you try to get them to tell you what it is they like about Bernie....And then in the final stages, as described under software you get into the detailed questions of primary voting where and when.

This is intended as an overview and a heads-up. In every stage of the campaign there are people around to train you and help you with the soft ware or to get set up. They also provide lots of hard copy script write-ups that guide you on what to say. I've been told by campaign staff that phone banking is less effective than door to door canvasing. Yet it is very useful when the weather precludes going door to door.