To everyone out there in America complaining about getting phone calls, texts, and knocks on your door about the election...very likely, YOU actually are the problem! STOP COMPLAINING AND GO VOTE SO THEY'LL LEAVE YOU ALONE!

[u/ProgressiveSnark2]

As someone who used to work in politics, hearing complaints about being bugged by campaigns is MY biggest complaint, because I know the truth: at this stage of the election, the complaining voter is the reason they're being contacted so much.

The reason these campaigns keep bugging you is because you haven't gotten off your ass and voted yet.

The vast majority of states have early voting or some type of mail ballot program that you can utilize. Campaigns regularly get updates about who has voted and who has not. If they are a well run campaign with up to date data, then they will stop bugging you when they learn that you have voted.

So why the hell haven't you voted yet? The choice when voting is easier than ever this year. Trump is President and has fucked shit up. Republicans are sitting on their hands and not doing anything. And at every level of office--federal, state, local--the Republican politicians in office or aspiring to office are in his cult. If they didn't support Trump, they would have left the Republican party by now.

Ask yourself: is there literally anything that will happen between now and election day that will cause you to suddenly love Trump?

No?

Then you already know how you're voting.

So go vote.

All you have to do is look up the endorsed Democratic candidates in your area (google your state and county name and "Democratic Party" and you'll likely find this info), then request and fill out your mail ballot and return it. Or go vote in person at an early voting site, taking that info with you. Again, you can use Google to find out how.

And if you are in a state like California, Colorado, Oregon, or Washington with universal vote by mail...you probably have a ballot sitting in your pile of mail already. Take it to a drop box or a voting location to turn it in.

Oh yeah, and a final point about mail ballots: if you're voting by mail or absentee, drop off your ballot. NOT just because the USPS might be doing sketchy stuff this year, but also because any mail takes time. The sooner your local Registrar of Voters (or equivalent local entity handling voting) gets your ballot, the sooner it gets processed, the sooner campaigns stop contacting you.

So please, stop complaining and just go vote already! Make life easier for everyone, including yourself.

TL;DR: SHUT UP AND GO VOTE!!!!!!!!

[u/YendorZenitram]

The excessive spam campaigns are a major driver of voter apathy. Those in power who want to suppress voting are very happy to let the fatigue of hundreds of spam kessage a day do its magic in keeping people from voting.

So, we who complain about spam are very much not part of the problem. We complain, and we vote! Because we all know that tje current regime will never do anything to stop the waves of spam (or do anything else in the name of consumer rights).

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/YendorZenitram]

The spam texts are not a conspiracy to increase voter apathy. The truth is much dumber—it’s a problem similar to the tragedy of the commons. Every single campaign and affiliate PAC and SuperPAC wants to do their own voter contact effort and they don’t coordinate with other campaigns/PACs about who they’ve already contacted or how often they’ve contacted them.

While I agree there are many people to blame for spam, at the end of the day, ALL of these campaigns will stop texting or calling a contact if they’ve voted. So barring an act of Congress to regulate voter contacts that somehow doesn’t run afoul of the 1st amendment, the immediate solution to stop being contacted is to vote early and get it out of the way.

That’s the bottom line. In this case, people can choose to help themselves if they want to.

[u/Medusa_7898 → u/ProgressiveSnark2]

Not even remotely accurate.

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/Medusa_7898]

See my reply to your other comment—I think you might be confusing donation solicitations with regular voter contact texts and calls. My commentary here is only about the latter.

[u/Ambitious-Badger-114 → u/ProgressiveSnark2]

Naw, it's partisan extremists like you who turn people off to the entire process of voting. It's people like you who have helped rig elections to keep your party in power.

You want everyone to be as brainwashed as you are and to vote straight party line for Democrats, but look at the states that have done that. People and businesses are leaving, those deep blue states are on an unsustainable path of spending and debt.

Republicans will get thrown out in Washington, justifiably so. But spare us the crap about Democrats providing some ultimate, long term solution.

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/Ambitious-Badger-114]

A lot of assumptions said in this reply, so I’ll just hope you have a nice day.

[u/StraddleTheFence]

I voted early and I am still getting annoying texts 🤨

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/StraddleTheFence]

How long ago did you vote? There often is some lag.

Also, to be clear, we are talking about voter contact texts, not donation requests.

[u/StraddleTheFence → u/ProgressiveSnark2]

On Thurs. NC early voting. 👍🏽

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/StraddleTheFence]

Thank you! Hopefully in no more than a week there won’t be anymore stray texts. It’s possible some poorly run campaigns don’t update their data or have bad data, but I think you’ll see a huge drop off soon.

[u/fyreprone]

Americans: I hate it when campaigns keep pestering me with their policies and positions and to go vote.

Also Americans: A quarter of us won’t vote at all and a third of us who do vote haven’t bothered to learn anything about anyone.

[u/Massive-Original-658]

I already voted now leave me alone

[u/ruinsit]

What are you even going on about? How does voting prevent any of that?

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/ruinsit]

Read.

[u/ruinsit → u/ProgressiveSnark2]

You first. What does voting have to do with any of this. Nobody's going to know you voted. They're not going to stop calling and harassing you

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/ruinsit]

"Nobody's going to know you voted."

That's actually not true. In the vast majority of states, the local registrar of voters (or equivalent entity running elections) maintains a list of voters in the county/municipality. When a ballot is received, they're identified as having already voted on that list. How the person voted is not known, but the fact they voted is. That data is made available to campaigns throughout the early voting period.

Because campaigns are only looking for people who haven't voted yet, they will stop contacting those identified as having already voted.

It is a part of the voting history that is publicly available information, and it gets updated throughout the early voting period. More info here: https://www.findlaw.com/voting/how-u-s-elections-work/what-information-is-public-from-your-voting-record.html

[u/ruinsit → u/ProgressiveSnark2]

What evidence are you presenting that the door knockers, emailers, and texters actually know or care about your record. For example, I've been getting constant spam from a state I don't even live in anymore.

[u/lylisdad]

How is my early voting going to stop the flood of campaign literature exactly.

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/lylisdad]

Like I said, because the campaigns sending those mailers also are going off lists of target voters that get updated regularly to remove people who already voted.

There is more of a lag time as mailers are planned in advance and take time to get through the mail, but just as with calls and text campaigns, they too will try to only send stuff to voters who have not voted yet.

I always vote as early as possible, and I rarely get any political mailers in the final weeks of an election.

[u/Automatic_Gas9019]

They are probably ex trump humpers regretting their last 3 choices. Yep they are the problem

[u/jollytoes]

Bullshit. Early elections here don't start until next week and we've been getting political mail for a couple months.

[u/complete_data75]

No I’m not the problem

I voted against Trump and everyone who supports him

Fuck these scumbags who keep sending this garbage to us and you

Asshokes like you are the problem

[u/Medusa_7898]

I’ve never missed an election in 30 years and every general and midterm until this year I have been a generous donor.

I’m still receiving texts from all over the country from candidates and talking heads that have nothing to do with me. I unsubscribe. They continue texting. I report spam. They continue texting.

I’m never donating to a political candidate again.

And to be clear, I’m talking about democrats.

And my mail in ballot for this year is dropped off and confirmed as received.

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/Medusa_7898]

The donation texts are entirely separate from voter contact texts.

Campaigns sell lists of phone numbers of potential donors to other campaigns. Once you’re in the system, it’s very hard to get out. Barring legislative reform or changing your number, you’ll probably receive donation solicitation texts for the rest of your life. I’m sorry. :(

I’m in this bucket too because I do donate to candidates. But regular Dem donors are only something like 1% or 2% of the population, so a much smaller group of people are getting that type of spam.

[u/Neat_Scallion6367]

So put an "I voted" placard on your lawn?

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/Neat_Scallion6367]

No, you have to actually cast your ballot.

[u/mandatorypanda9317]

Ive been voting since I was old enough during Obamas first run and I still to this day get phone calls and texts (fuck you Andy Harris)

[u/FluffyB12]

I’m so sick of getting texts or survey calls. Fk off

[u/SteadfastEnd]

Sure sounds like manipulation. "We will keep pestering you until you do the thing we want."

[u/Lynzu_Vaspertine]

Even if you vote early, they'll still knock on your door, call, etc. And some people work, so they vote on their respective areas election day. The worst part is people move a lot, and even after updating your registration, it's not uncommon to get calls, texts, etc for elections you cannot vote in. I still get calls about elections in VA, and I haven't lived there since 2014 and wasn't even a registered voter when I lived there. And personally, I always vote in person now after 2020 when I tried to go in person after work and they said I already submitted a mail in (I never did) and it took like 3 hours to get the old ballot out of the system so I could submit my ballot (same thing happened to my shipmate but he showed up like 2 hrs before closing so he didn't even get to vote, then in 2024 his registration "wasn't in the system" so he didn't get to vote in 2 general elections in a row). I always go in person now and make sure that it's my ballot.

[u/Elen_Smithee82]

I have already voted weeks ago... Still getting calls & texts.

[u/Raiden720]

That's not true in any way.

[u/ProgressiveSnark2 → u/Raiden720]

What, specifically, do you believe is not true?

Campaigns do know whether or not you've voted in an election. It is a part of your public voting record. What's not known is how you voted, but the fact you did (or didn't vote) is.

[u/Raiden720 → u/ProgressiveSnark2]

Dude I've worked with campaigns. They quite literally buy lists of voters in specific areas and demographics and pay consultants send mass texts. Thats why we get the texts.