I’ve Texted Thousands of Voters in Swing States
What I found surprised me
I’m not normally hyper-political. I vote, but I don’t knock on doors. I’ve never been to a protest, and I don’t make angry calls to Congress. But recently, I realized that I had to be more involved if we want democracy to survive this bruising year, so I signed up to text voters for the DNC’s coordinated campaign.
You might expect that, texting random strangers in these tense times, you’d get a lot of abuse. And true to that expectation, one of my first text exchanges began this way:
Me: Hi, I’m Addie, volunteering with the Ohio Democrats. Is this Barry*?
B: Go f*** yourself how do you like that???
But you might also assume that a conversation that starts this way can continue in only one direction: vitriol and mutual disgust. But there, you’d be absolutely wrong.
Let’s back up: here’s what it’s like to text for the DNC
The DNC’s text team is a well-run operation. You just sign up here and take a short webinar on how to use their texting technology (you text through a computer program, not your phone, which makes it a lot easier to respond quickly and meaningfully to voters). The campaign has scripts for common questions, so you’re not totally on your own, but you’re encouraged to be real and use your personal stories to connect with voters. There’s only one real rule: always be respectful and positive, no matter how the voter treats you.
Your assignments range from reaching out to potential volunteers to texting random folks on voter rolls to see if their number is correct. You communicate with the team via the campaign’s Slack channel where, contrary to popular belief, people don’t actually talk about Trump that much—they’re mostly feeling inspired by enthusiastic supporters and celebrating the wins of connecting with undecided voters.
Of course, most people ignore your texts, and those who respond are often just doing so to tell you that you have the wrong number. (I get that—I’m volunteering for the DNC, and I still don’t respond to all the messages I get from them.) But for the ones who do talk with you, the conversations are fascinating.
People are better than you think
On the whole, digital canvassing has been way more rewarding than I ever imagined. This isn’t because it’s always easy—it’s not—but because I’ve discovered that I’m not as helpless as I thought. I had assumed that no one is persuadable anymore. I thought we were all just stuck in our little bubbles, and I’d either be preaching to the choir or wasting my time on someone whose mind I could never change.
This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
It’s surprisingly easy to bring out the best in people.
Let’s get back to Barry. Again, this is how we started our conversation:
Me: Hi, I’m Addie, volunteering with the Ohio Democrats. Is this Barry*?
B: Go f*** yourself how do you like that???
I could have just opted him out and moved on, but instead I said this:
OK. I’m a volunteer. Just a teacher and a mom, trying to do my part. Please let me know if there is an issue you care about or are willing to discuss—I enjoy building bridges and making connections with other people. Otherwise, have a great rest of your day!
I braced myself for another round of profanity-laced insults. But instead, what he said was this:
Well unfortunately they don’t give us good choices this election so I’m not sure who or how I’m going to do.
Suddenly, I was talking with a different guy. No more cursing, no more name-calling. Just a man who was disappointed in our political system. He wasn’t angry at me because I was a Democrat. He was angry at politics, generally, and I just happened to get in the line of fire. Given the last four years, I couldn’t really blame him.
When you’re kind to people, you often get the same reaction from even the most hard-core MAGA fans: they don’t want to be rude. They don’t hate Democrats. They do love their President, but they want America to come together, too. Here’s an example from a fellow texter of the kind of conversation that happens all the time:
The voter goes from “TRUMP 2020!!!” to “We may not agree on all things, but we’re all Americans and regardless of what happens we all need to learn to work together.”
America, there’s hope yet.
It’s also easier than you think to persuade undecided voters.
After Barry and I moved past his initial anger, we actually got into a long and friendly conversation about politics, healthcare, and taxes. Though he didn’t end firmly in the Biden column, he expressed interest in lot the information I shared and a willingness to keep the conversation open. We came a long way from where we started; he ended the conversation with “thanks for talking—have a great day!”
Stories like this abound in the text team’s Slack channel, and some are far more extreme. Here’s another one:
Here’s the text:
Talked to a voter who called me an a****** and a fool for thinking anyone is undecided. I told him that hadn’t been my experience, and I’d recently helped and an undecided soldier and an undecided farmer make a decision for Biden. I also asked why anyone would both bickering with a sincere volunteer instead of just saying no thanks. Go enjoy September! He apologized and admitted he is actually an undecided Libertarian who thinks both candidates are not up to the job. We ended up having a great conversation…he decided to support Biden and said our conversation made him hopeful that as a country, people who disagree are going to be able to come together.
Of course, not every conversation ends this well, but enough of them do to give me hope. Moving our country forward will take work—a lot of it—but it can be done if we commit to having conversations like this with each other.
But there are other things that worry me
No matter how sure you are that you’re ready to vote, you really need to double-check your paperwork.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from voters who are sure they’re registered, or sure their absentee ballot request has been received, only to check and discover the opposite.
Don’t let a trivial paperwork problem steal your vote: check your registration right now at iwillvote.com. If you vote absentee, use your state’s tracking system to make sure your absentee ballot request has arrived. After you send an absentee ballot in, make sure it gets there, and make sure it’s counted (right now, Black voters’ absentee ballots are already being rejected at four times the rate of white voters’ in North Carolina—so follow up.)
Conspiracy theories are not fringe. We need to take them seriously.
I will not repeat the insane theories that appear in my inbox every day, but I will tell you that they appear often, and fervently, and they are the main reason many voters have decided to oppose Biden. These wild theories are wreaking havoc on our political landscape; we will not move forward as a country until we address them head-on.
Helping people realize that these theories are false is incredibly difficult and, in some cases, impossible. But, MIT’s Technology Report has some great advice here for how to make the attempt. It’s well worth the read—and well worth the attempt.
In short: we all need to talk to more people.
How often do you reach out to someone who doesn’t share your political beliefs? How often do you listen respectfully to someone who vehemently disagrees with you? It’s time to start doing it more.
It works, even in this dystopian political climate.
Look through your phone contacts (the Vote Joe app makes this incredibly easy), your social media feeds, your neighborhood: start these conversations now with the people you know. Together, we can bring democracy back from the brink, one person at a time.
*I’ve changed all names to protect voters’ identities.
