how do the campaigns select the numbers they robocall?

[pstokely]

I've gotten calls from both Dems and Repukes on a landline I give for things that I think will sell the number, do they buy numbers in bulk? haven't gotten any on my cell?

[Fahrenthold451]

1. Random digit dialing. Which is legal for pollsters

[pstokely]

2. not very efficient

Last edited Mon Nov 7, 2016, 10:19 AM - Edit history (1)

you might be calling someone of the opposite party

[backscatter712]

5. Voter databases.

The Democrats have the VAN, which is their voter database software. First things first, every voter registration in the country becomes public information - they get your name, address, party affiliation, etc.

Also, when you sign up for events, or sign petitions on Facebook, or on various candidate or political cause web sites, some of that information goes into the VAN.

And I've used the VAN. You can select by geographic area (clicking to make polygons on a Google Maps map), you can screen by political affiliation (for example, add all Democrats, independents, weak Republicans), or by age, income, education, any of a thousand variables. You can create canvassing lists that sort by street and street number, with them subdivided further by even and odd street numbers, to make it easy to walk turfs. You can create phone lists that go to phone bankers.

Oh, there's also some laws involved. Landlines can be robodialed, which speeds things up whether you're robocalling, or passing the calls to human phone-bankers in a call center or campaign office. Cell phones, by law, need to be hand-dialed, so in many cases, organizers will pass up the cell phone numbers. And cell phone numbers frequently aren't in things like voter registration databases, but like I said, if you sign petitions online, or donate online to political causes, they'll ask for them.

Also, when canvassers and phone-bankers do their work they either check the boxes on the clipboard, or now, as I've done, they use a smartphone app, and report how people respond. And that all goes into the database. People who respond favorably get targeted more, perhaps asked to volunteer, while the ones that hang up or slam doors, or state they're supporting the other party get screened out

There's a million ways to do it.

[LisaL]

6. I am getting robocolls telling me to vote the way Jesus wants me to.

[MoonRiver]

7. Hahahaha!

And who's to say what that might be?

[LisaL]

8. I usually hang up when I hear that so I guess it will remain a mystery.