“These callers are usually low-paid, casual employees. Given the passion of anti-Mormon sentiment in some religious circles, it’s not that much of a stretch to think there may be some telephone poll employees who feel a religious obligation to warn people of the evils of Mormonism, and are willing to risk losing the job in order to do that. It’s the sort of job that many people are only holding on a short term basis anyway (e.g. college students).”
Normally you’d be right, except:
1) Western Wats was started by a Mormon who is also a friend of Romney (though he sold the company in 2004)
2) Western Wats is in Orem Utah and has big offices there
3) Anyone at Western Wats who wasn’t aware of the company’s
Mormon roots would be nuts.
That’s why it’s difficult to believe:
1) an anti Romney campaign would use Western Wats
2) Western Wats accepted the poll in the first place
What I had suggested was that no such poll WAS accepted by Western Wats. They could well have been doing a perfectly ordinary poll for Romney and an individual employee went off on their own crusade. And anti-Mormon passion is very strong in Utah, since anti-Mormons there are confronted with a Mormon-dominated society at every turn.