I’ve never felt so loved

[Amethyst]

I live in PA. I feel like Joe and Kamala’s best friend. 8 - 10 emails a day! So many phone calls! So many texts!!  How are you Florida/Michigan/ Wisconsin peeps feeling?

[Ali in OR]

We don't get any love on the West Coast.

[Ausmumof3]

Oh dear... 

[stephanier.1765]

I'm in Florida but the phone has been quiet and my e-mail spam free. But the mail box...I don't how the mail carrier shoves all the crap in there.

[purpleowl]

4 minutes ago, stephanier.1765 said:

I'm in Florida but the phone has been quiet and my e-mail spam free. But the mail box...I don't how the mail carrier shoves all the crap in there.

Similar here (also in Florida), though I've had some emails. 

[Pen]

LOL except for ads on YouTube quite ignored. Not considered to be a swing state. 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Pen

[Pen]

19 minutes ago, Ali in OR said:

We don't get any love on the West Coast.

 

Is it whole west coast ignored?  I guess that makes sense.

[Wheres Toto]

Pretty ignored here in Jersey too.   Nothing but local stuff and not that much of that.

[Ottakee]

I have 11 messages on my answering machine 

[Denise in IN]

Feeling so unloved here in Indiana.  😉😂

[Guest]

Tell @regentrude! She wants some emails, calls and texts! Maybe she can sign up if she hasn’t already! 😉😄

I live in a non-swing state. One side of the aisle barely bothers...

[Sneezyone]

I’m feeling very loved and I don’t even vote in this state. We have two competitive house races nearby. 🤣

Edited October 31, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Amethyst]

1 hour ago, Ali in OR said:

We don't get any love on the West Coast.

I heard a segment in NPR and some young guy from mid west  (always red state) said he didn’t want the electoral college eliminated because then his vote wouldn’t count. But it seems to me that if you know your state is going to be always red or always blue then the feeling of why bother to vote would be quite common. Here in PA I feel like it really matters. 

[HS Mom in NC]

In NC.  I'm getting texts and calls daily. I have an AZ phone number, so I'm getting it from candidates in both states.

[catz]

 I am in Minnesota.   I don't know why we have been labelled a swing state this time because we are typically not but I'm feeling the love/stalking from all sides.  LOL.  I'll just say I live urban and one side  clearly does not have someone very smart working on their marketing budget with almost daily snail mail things showing up in our box.  🤷‍♀️  Lots of e-mail/texting stuff too.

One thing interesting is my young voter college student has gotten more than any of us.  Much of it non-partisan and just encouraging him to vote (which he did - at college in a swing state).  

[happi duck]

Our state is so solidly one color that we don't hear from either side!

 

[medawyn]

I’m in NC.  Lots of calls and texts.  And also from IA where I lived last year.  None from OK where my phone number is from.  There’s not a lot of question about that last one.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Amethyst said:

I heard a segment in NPR and some young guy from mid west  (always red state) said he didn’t want the electoral college eliminated because then his vote wouldn’t count. But it seems to me that if you know your state is going to be always red or always blue then the feeling of why bother to vote would be quite common. Here in PA I feel like it really matters. 

I have said that before in my solid state. At this particular time, though, I feel like it all matters. 

[Pawz4me]

I'm an unaffiliated voter in NC, so I get the texts, calls, emails and snail mail from both sides.

Joy.

[katilac]

I'm in Louisiana. No one cares about me. 

[Pam in CT]

re how to share the love

2 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I heard a segment in NPR and some young guy from mid west  (always red state) said he didn’t want the electoral college eliminated because then his vote wouldn’t count. But it seems to me that if you know your state is going to be always red or always blue then the feeling of why bother to vote would be quite common. Here in PA I feel like it really matters. 

Right - if the outcome actually depended on one-person-one-vote...

 

1 hour ago, Pawz4me said:

I'm an unaffiliated voter in NC, so I get the texts, calls, emails and snail mail from both sides.

Joy.

... every.voter.in.America would get as much love as Pawz does! 

(And more seriously, every vote would "weigh" as much as every other. When ~40 states' EC delegates are already certain, the effect *will be* to make a lot of folks in those places feel like our votes don't much matter.)

[Terabith]

15 minutes ago, katilac said:

I'm in Louisiana. No one cares about me. 

And that's the issue with the electoral college.  Nobody HAS to care about anyone who doesn't live in a swing state.  The parts of California that were on fire are largely Republican, but they are written off because California is a blue state.  Democrats take it for granted, and Republicans feel no need to try to fight for it, because it's a lost cause.  

[katilac]

8 minutes ago, Terabith said:

And that's the issue with the electoral college.  Nobody HAS to care about anyone who doesn't live in a swing state.  The parts of California that were on fire are largely Republican, but they are written off because California is a blue state.  Democrats take it for granted, and Republicans feel no need to try to fight for it, because it's a lost cause.  

I really do not understand the 'winner takes all' aspect of the electoral college. If you get 20% of the vote in California, you should get 20% of California's electoral votes. If the point of the electoral college is to make sure everyone's vote 'counts,' then a proportionate method would make that even more so. 

What are the potential flaws of a proportionate method? 

[Amethyst]

Just now, katilac said:

I really do not understand the 'winner takes all' aspect of the electoral college. If you get 20% of the vote in California, you should get 20% of California's electoral votes. If the point of the electoral college is to make sure everyone's vote 'counts,' then a proportionate method would make that even more so. 

What are the potential flaws of a proportionate method? 

I agree!!!

[Alte Veste Academy]

I live in Arizona but lived for years in Texas, which is where my area code places me. I'm getting love from their reps in both states! 

Edited November 1, 2020 by Alte Veste Academy

[SpecialClassical]

Oh, yeah.  My 16 yr old heard from MoveOn. They let her know how important it was to vote for Biden.  I received a text from Ohio (I’m in MI) telling me they could see I hadn’t voted and they needed me to vote for Joe and could help me figure out how to get my vote in.  
 

The Republicans And NRAare calling us on the landline.  They really need to up their game. 😁

How did we get on all these lists? 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

 

[SanDiegoMom]

We were Florida residents for 20 years while military living in Virginia for the last six years and just moved and registered in CA.  We have people from all three states calling or texting us - not sure how the Virginia got our number.  CA is for mostly local elections.  Florida is for national election.  

 

[katilac]

31 minutes ago, SpecialClassical said:

I received a text from Ohio (I’m in MI) telling me they could see I hadn’t voted and they needed me to vote for Joe and could help me figure out how to get my vote in.  
 

How very stalker-ish of them. 

[gardenmom5]

5 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

We don't get any love on the West Coast.

I don't know - my phone has been ringing off the hooks with numbers that bypass the robocaller block.  All of them are from out of state.  I've pretty much been ignoring my house phone.

[WendyLady]

We are in Nevada and have received more voter info than I have ever seen, include an in person visit (in a gated community with serious rules about soliciting, so not sure how that was allowed). a previous renter in our home must not have voted since he lived here 8 years ago. We received his ballot, a page with all of his voter information from each year and nonstop suggestions for how and who to vote for.

We vote absentee in another state so we are worthless in Nevada. 

[gardenmom5]

5 minutes ago, katilac said:

How very stalker-ish of them. 

I recall a  couple cycles ago, there were a couple people going up and down the street trying to get people to register and vote for their preferred candidate.    (they came clear onto my property to the side of the house where we were working -  we were NO WHERE near the front door.)  I told them I was registered - and when they didn't immediately leave, I told them to get off my property.  they still wouldn't leave, and insisted on checking out everyone in the household (I told them every adult was registered and, again, to leave) -  I turned away from them and went back to what I was doing with shovels.  If they'd pushed harder - I would have called the cops. I don't think they liked my shovel.

 

[Carol in Cal.]

5 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

We don't get any love on the West Coast.

Yup, they take us for granted out here.

[Pam in CT]

re disadvantages of moving to a fully proportionate EC allocation

16 minutes ago, katilac said:

I really do not understand the 'winner takes all' aspect of the electoral college. If you get 20% of the vote in California, you should get 20% of California's electoral votes. If the point of the electoral college is to make sure everyone's vote 'counts,' then a proportionate method would make that even more so. 

What are the potential flaws of a proportionate method? 

Maine and Nebraska already do split their EC votes. But at a bigger scale, you can't really get there from here -- while it certainly would be fairer to all the millions of red voters in CA and blue voters in TX whose votes are disappeared under winner-take-all allocation... and would likely alleviate the discouragement many voters feel that our votes don't matter...

...it would be GOP suicide for TX to make the change if CA did not, or vice versa for the Dems if CA made the change when TX did not.  While each state is free to choose how it allocates its EC votes on its own, the disruption on one party or the other's ability to get to the 270 needed to win the EC would be so massive -- it would effectively cede any prospect of winning.  (That's the logic that underpins the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would create a way to get from here to there.)

But even more fundamentally -- the winner-take-all allocation structurally benefits the GOP, and as demographics shift such that older/white voters comprise a declining % of the electorate, the GOP (specifically) is highly unlikely  to give up what amounts to a mechanism by which a minority party can still manage to win the Presidency.

[Katy]

I've lived in 8 states. Three of which are Florida, Iowa, and Wisconsin.  I'm getting calls, texts, emails, and flyers in the mail for candidates from all those states.  And a guy who rented our home in Iowa before we bought it is getting calls and texts to my number too.  Oh and social media has been bugging me for months to volunteer as a poll worker, to register to vote, to vote early, etc, for all of those states (I don't have that information in my profile, but apparently I have enough friends in each place for them to be sure I live in ONE of them.

This week DH started getting texts for an elderly male with a different name to help him sign up for a health insurance plan.  Sigh.  It's surprising how often data tracking backfires.

[SpecialClassical]

1 hour ago, katilac said:

How very stalker-ish of them. 

My S-I-L is an election official.  I was shocked when she told me it was legal for anyone to check to see if someone has voted yet. Then I realized this will never change because it’s the lawmakers who would have to do it and they are the ones benefiting from it. 

[bibiche]

6 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I live in PA. I feel like Joe and Kamala’s best friend. 8 - 10 emails a day! So many phone calls! So many texts!!  How are you Florida/Michigan/ Wisconsin peeps feeling?

I wonder if I talked to you today. 🤪

[LAS in LA]

Someone (on NPR? in WSJ?) pointed out that the electoral college protects against election stealing by making it difficult to predict where extra ballots are needed. In a popular vote system, ballot stuffing is effective anywhere it's done. In an EC system, ballot stuffers have to work harder to produce the desired outcome. (Or something like that. It was a new idea to me and I thought it was interesting).

[easypeasy]

2 hours ago, katilac said:

I really do not understand the 'winner takes all' aspect of the electoral college. If you get 20% of the vote in California, you should get 20% of California's electoral votes. If the point of the electoral college is to make sure everyone's vote 'counts,' then a proportionate method would make that even more so. 

What are the potential flaws of a proportionate method? 

I so agree with this!! I don't understand it either - a proportionate method seems like it would fix a LOT of the issues.

7 minutes ago, SpecialClassical said:

My S-I-L is an election official.  I was shocked when she told me it was legal for anyone to check to see if someone has voted yet. Then I realized this will never change because it’s the lawmakers who would have to do it and they are the ones benefiting from it. 

Yes - you can look it up. Before internet was a thing, it was a fiasco to get that information, but possible. But now it's a simple lookup to see years of a person's voting history. The politicians have even more information on each of us saved in their databases (I know this because I used to work for a politician and entered that information in! lol)

As far as political SPAM goes, we have three registered dems and one registered repub in the house. The R is my husband, who just couldn't be bothered to change his affiliation after the 2016 election (when I did).

The girls are getting double the amount of snail mail. DH is getting WAY more SuperPAC mail and texts than we are.

We always use MY phone number for ordering/filling any information out, so I'm getting texts and calls for ALL FOUR OF US. I currently have 89 UNREAD TEXT MESSAGES on my phone from Friday and today (because deleting them is a 2-3 step procedure, I just do it once every other evening).

All I know is that Covid isn't gonna just "go away" on November 3rd, but all these SPAM messages and snail mail sure will!!! I cannot wait!!! 😄

[Spy Car]

8 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I live in PA. I feel like Joe and Kamala’s best friend. 8 - 10 emails a day! So many phone calls! So many texts!!  How are you Florida/Michigan/ Wisconsin peeps feeling?

I'm actually relieved to hear it. LOL.

Bill (unloved in CA)

[rebcoola]

My state is solidly blue and I am getting tons of spam mail from the blue side.  Not really sure why, I am in a red county. I typically vote third party because I am so sure of who is getting my states votes.  So it feels like my vote counts more trying to get a third party to 5% and on the path of breaking up the duopoly.

[Frances]

8 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I heard a segment in NPR and some young guy from mid west  (always red state) said he didn’t want the electoral college eliminated because then his vote wouldn’t count. But it seems to me that if you know your state is going to be always red or always blue then the feeling of why bother to vote would be quite common. Here in PA I feel like it really matters. 

Exactly. I’m so jealous of all of my family in the Midwest that their votes can actually make a real difference. And it was very exciting when I was in college to have all of the candidates visit, even the president. In my current state our primary is so late that usually it’s a done deal and we are solidly blue for the presidential election.

[Pawz4me]

4 hours ago, rebcoola said:

My state is solidly blue and I am getting tons of spam mail from the blue side.  Not really sure why, I am in a red county. I typically vote third party because I am so sure of who is getting my states votes.  So it feels like my vote counts more trying to get a third party to 5% and on the path of breaking up the duopoly.

That's not really possible for POTUS as long as we have the EC. It wasn't designed with more than two viable candidates in mind. Currently there's a total of 538 electoral college votes. Splitting those between more than two viable candidates would make it almost impossible for anyone to reach the magical 270.

(And IMO that's another reason to get rid of the EC.)

[Pam in CT]

re ease of ballot-stuffing

9 hours ago, LAS in LA said:

Someone (on NPR? in WSJ?) pointed out that the electoral college protects against election stealing by making it difficult to predict where extra ballots are needed. In a popular vote system, ballot stuffing is effective anywhere it's done. In an EC system, ballot stuffers have to work harder to produce the desired outcome. (Or something like that. It was a new idea to me and I thought it was interesting).

Super curious about who is furthering the idea that "ballot-stuffing" is done anywhere in the US, or even possible. I subscribe to WSJ and listen to NPR regularly and have definitely not seen anything of the sort.

[LAS in LA]

4 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

re ease of ballot-stuffing

Super curious about who is furthering the idea that "ballot-stuffing" is done anywhere in the US, or even possible. I subscribe to WSJ and listen to NPR regularly and have definitely not seen anything of the sort.

I think they were talking hypotheticals.

[theelfqueen]

12 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

re how to share the love

Right - if the outcome actually depended on one-person-one-vote...

 

... every.voter.in.America would get as much love as Pawz does! 

(And more seriously, every vote would "weigh" as much as every other. When ~40 states' EC delegates are already certain, the effect *will be* to make a lot of folks in those places feel like our votes don't much matter.)

No it wouldn't. No candidate would ever leave or campaign outside the populous cities. 

[lmrich]

Our son lives in PA.  When he was visiting back in mid-October he showed us how many voice mails and texts he got daily. 

We are in GA which is now becoming a battleground state. I have not had an uptick in texts and phone calls.  Lots of mail. I wish I could let the candidates know that my ballot was submitted weeks ago. 

[Lady Florida.]

Mine (Florida) have slowed down but I keep opting out each time. I might have finally opted out of every group that was texting me. I thanked them for their patriotic work and told them I wasn't one of the people they needed to reach. Thanks, bye. 

[Lady Florida.]

13 hours ago, katilac said:

I really do not understand the 'winner takes all' aspect of the electoral college. If you get 20% of the vote in California, you should get 20% of California's electoral votes. If the point of the electoral college is to make sure everyone's vote 'counts,' then a proportionate method would make that even more so.

I agree. The electoral college system as it stands is outdated but going strictly popular vote isn't the answer. We need a complete overhaul of the EC but since the states are in charge of their own system that's difficult. That link from @Pam in CT looks promising. 

 

11 hours ago, SpecialClassical said:

My S-I-L is an election official.  I was shocked when she told me it was legal for anyone to check to see if someone has voted yet. Then I realized this will never change because it’s the lawmakers who would have to do it and they are the ones benefiting from it. 

I'm just using your post for reference. A lot of people, including here on WTM wonder how "they" get your number and why you keep getting contacted after you told them to take you off the list.  As your SIL said, it's public information. I posted this in another similar thread but I know these threads move fast. I apologize to those who might be reading it again. 

I've been working with the local office of my chosen political party. I'm one of the people sending the love to voters in my county. 🙂 I'm just going to copy and paste because it easier but I'll delete parts of the reply that were specific to that thread where I posted it. 

 

There are many different groups texting and calling. There's the county party's office (the one I'm involved with), the state party's office. the national party, the specific candidate - who could be running for a national, state, or local office, and there are legitimate PACs. 

If your state requires a party affiliation and you're registered as an Independent or NPA (no party affiliation) you'll get calls from both sides. If you're registered for one of the two major parties you'll probably only get contacted by your party, though some groups are contacting people regardless of party.

How do they get your information? I can only speak to Florida but it could be the same for other states. We and all of the groups get names and numbers from our local Supervisor of Elections office, which are public records. If someone tells me to opt them out I do, but I explain that they'll only be opted out of our specific group. If they want to stop all contact they need to take that up with the SOE. Often I get "This isn't Robert and this isn't his number. I don't know a Robert. Why do you keep texting me?" I explain how we got the information. I don't know why their number showed up as belonging to Robert but I can't fix that. I can only opt them out. Also, even if a wrong number person says "Yes, I'll vote for Candidate A!" I have to opt them out because they aren't the person we were trying to reach. 

Political parties and groups, like charities, are exempt from the do not call list. The only way to stop the calls is to individually opt out each time someone calls or texts you, or find out how they got the number (we always explain but I don't know if every group does that) and get opted out of all calls at the source - probable your SOE (or BOE as some are called). If you block a number it won't change anything. For one, it isn't the person's actual phone number. I don't know what number shows up when I text, but it isn't my number. I don't even text from my phone. I text from a computer program, and some do it from an app on their phone but the app still doesn't use their number.

I hope this explains some things, even if you didn't like the answers. 

[sassenach]

18 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

We don't get any love on the West Coast.

We're the wife at home. Swing states are the other women.

[Amethyst]

Ok here’s a new one that I’ve never seen before. When phone calls, texts, emails, snail mail, door knob hangers are not enough. I saw this today...