[68skylark]

This topic is interesting. In the past I've been a volunteer in the Republican 72-hour taskforce. Don't know if I helped sway any votes though. If I didn't know better, I'd speculate that getting a call at home within 1-2 days of the election might get someone so ticked off they'd vote for the other guy or just stay home. But in reality, the Republican party seems to feel that these calls help bring supporters out to the polls.

Okay, so in a spirit of good, clean fun, how to we start messing with the system? Say I give a small donation to a Democratic candidate -- would that mean they'll start expending some of their time and money trying to win more of my support?

[secretagent]

Software programs will enable us to have a "personal" conversation with the candidates.

[RandyRep]

Fascinating article -- thanks for posting it.

I'm wondering how they can identify people using the census data. The only data supposedly available from the recent censi are the demographic data - not individual families with names, ages, income, etc.

[Cicero]

I suspect this will be harder to do than they think. Hard to identify what people really think, and hard to pander to them without becoming vulnerable to the charge of pandering.

What it recalls to my mind is the two letters Kerry sent out to two constituents who wrote him about the recent war against Iraq. As Freepers will remember, one letter said that he was happy to have voted in favor of the war and the other letter said that he opposed the war. If you do that kind of thing too often, it might get you into trouble.

[diotima]

ping!

[gcruse]

I supported the RNC strongly during the Reagan years. One of the things I noticed was that they would send me a letter, asking me what issues it was I wanted the party to push most strongly.

It was not an openended question, however. It was ranking a list. I noticed not long after I submitted my wish list, the fund raising letters I continued to get from the RNC managed to hit all my hot buttons the hardest. Hmmm. They had me writing their spiel to use on me to get more funds.

These folks aren't dumb. Gutless, but not dumb.