All You Have to do is ASK!

In 2004, why did Jim Mergler, a Columbus Ohio resident who voted for Al Gore in 2000, make get out the vote calls for the Bush campaign? Answer: Because they asked him to!

No, this is not a joke, it is the true story of many Ohio voters. Well unfortunately the joke was on the Democratic Party.

The article "Fighting for Every Last Vote" from CNN.com reports on the efforts of the Bush and Kerry campaigns to reach voters in Ohio before the 2004 election. Both campaigns focused on using yard signs, leaflets, and GOTV phone calls, to spread their message to voters. But it was the Bush campaign that was ultimately successful in making their presence known throughout the state. They were able to get out the vote.

As the number of true battleground states continues to diminish, campaigns are putting all of their resources where they feel it will do the most good. According to the article, the Bush campaign had volunteers making more than 30,000 phone calls a night to Ohio residents. Jim Mergler received one of those phone calls and soon he was working for the Bush team. All they had to do was ask!

This made me think of a discussion we had in class about how campaigns could use Instant messaging. On many volunteer sign up sheets, campaigns asked for among a lot of other personal information the person's IM name. I think this could be a very useful tool for campaigns and here's how:

• Campaigns should IM people and ask if they would like to volunteer
• Campaigns should divide the screen names by regions. A member of the campaign can then IM everyone on their buddy list from a certain region when an event is coming up that is close to them.
• Campaigns can IM people before the election to remind them to go vote.
• Voters can then IM the campaign if they have any questions

IM could be a very useful tool especially to reach younger voters. Maybe more people will be like Jim and help out a campaign if they are just asked!