Well, with all of the hullabaloo following the presidential election of 2016, you would have thought that political rallyists and volunteers would have done more to predict an outcome closer to what occurred. Political views aside, you might argue that this or that was tampered with, or that everyone thought it was a solid win, so it was not necessary to do everything possible to make a Democratic win a reality. If you are currently running for office of this or that, you should take some notes from this recent major election. That said, here are the benefits of automated polling prior to your own election.

Automated Polling Feels out the Constituents 

Just after you announce that you are running for office, use automated polling to feel out the constituents. What do they feel about your jumping into the ring? Are they likely to vote for you, or are they quietly watching from the wings to see how your campaign plays out? It helps to know how constituents are thinking and leaning as this whole campaign begins, as well as how they feel each month as the election draws near.

Automated Polling Finds Your Swing Voters 

Some people are neither die-hard party voters; they are swing voters that choose whom they like better. These swing voters can change their minds at any time during your campaign. Polling often helps you find out if you suddenly have a pile of the swing voters on your side. It also helps determine if there are common threads among your swing voters that you can play to to get them to vote for you.

Automated Polling Finds the Housebound

Many elderly voters, people without transportation, or those with intense social phobias are housebound. They do not get out much, if at all. There is no way for you to reach these constituents unless you spend every waking moment personally knocking on doors and offering them help to get them to get out and vote. Instead, automatic polling finds these voters and makes certain that they can vote from the safety and comfort of their homes via early voting and mail votes.

Your Campaign Staff and Volunteers Spend Less Time on the Phones and More on Your Campaign

When the election starts heating up (usually along month six of the campaign trail), you need all hands on deck. All of your paid campaign staff and all of your volunteers have to push it into overdrive. Delegating tons of people to doing personal polling calls to constituents just is not feasible if you want everyone to be working on other things. This is where automated political polling really shines because the automated calls are doing the work of the volunteers while the volunteers are working on other aspects of your campaign (e.g., rallying people to vote, doing demonstrations and collecting signatures, etc.).

The Cost for Automated Polling Is No More Expensive Than Adding a New Phone Service Product

Your campaign manager, fundraising manager, and campaign treasurer will be very pleased with you for selecting automated polling. The reason for their happiness is that automated polling is no more expensive than adding a new phone service product (e.g., three-way calling, voicemail, etc.) to an existing personal phone line. It is a very reasonable expense to reach hundreds, even thousands, of constituents in your area.

Get Connected Right Away

You should get connected with automated polling almost as soon as you have established your campaign office and announced your intentions to run. You need to be on track with the vital stats and constituent communications within the first month. Then you need regular follow-ups to make sure your volunteers and campaign staff have done an excellent job of reaching everyone they could and verifying the expected number of votes headed your way. Automated polling can do all of the above, when used in the most effective ways and hits the constituents in the best way possible.

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