Reaching out to undecided voters

Phone banking is a popular way for volunteers to help with a political campaign, especially with today’s technology allowing flexible hours.

By Samantha Downing


In the evening of almost every day of the week, the political action committee Virginians for Brian Moran holds a phone bank in Northern Virginia.

The volunteers call phone numbers obtained from lists of registered voters and explain why they support Moran for governor.

“There’s actually nothing more important in a campaign than reaching out to undecided voters,” said Jesse Ferguson, communications director for Virginians for Brian Moran.

Etenesh Brown, a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University majoring in religious studies, helped with President Barack Obama’s extensive phone bank last year, making calls to women in the Midwest.

“The Web site made it very easy to answer their questions,” she said, adding that the Web site had detailed talking points and a structure to follow. “‘If they say this, click here and say this. But if they say this, then thank them for their time and end the conversation.’”

Brown thinks that the way phone banks function now, through the Internet and cell phones, is much more efficient than the way they used to function.

Virginians for Brian Moran is using today’s technology to its full advantage.

“We do phone-from-home programs where students or any voter can work with our campaign,” Ferguson said.

Volunteers can sign up to participate in Moran’s phone bank via the committee’s Web site. Because of the use of cell phones and phone-from-home programs, they don’t have to meet at a set location. This makes it possible for more people to participate.

“Any volunteer can help out whenever they can, even if it’s only a few minutes a day, making a few calls a week,” Brown said.

Brown said the ability to use cell phones is not the only advantage to phone banks.

“I think one of the benefits of phone banks is the opportunity it gives the receivers to talk to a real person about any concerns or questions they have,” Brown said. “These volunteers are dedicated enough to this candidate that they will call a stranger. That itself says that this may be something worth at least hearing.”

Ferguson said that is the reason their phone bank has been so successful.

“People like to know…that the people who are reaching out on behalf of the campaign aren’t an army of paid staff,” he said.

Susen Wilcox, who worked with Dave Weldon’s campaign in Florida, said a big advantage to a phone bank is the ability to contact so many people in a short amount of time.

“You have the ability to speak to more people than you would if you were just going door to door,” she said.

In addition to the phone bank, the Moran campaign is actively seeking support in other ways, including through a social networking site called Organize Virginia.

“We are truly building a grassroots campaign,” Ferguson said. “That’s how we’re going to win.”