As we get down to the last weeks of the election, the most crucial part of the campaign kicks in: Getting as many voters as possible into the booth. Get out the vote operations are enormous. Every vote really does count, and they want to get your vote any way possible. Even if that means confronting you with what you watched yesterday under cover of darkness.
Here, have a big fat dose of creepy courtesy of the New York Times:
In the weeks before Election Day, millions of voters will hear from callers with surprisingly detailed knowledge of their lives. These callers — friends of friends or long-lost work colleagues — will identify themselves as volunteers for the campaigns or independent political groups.
The callers will be guided by scripts and call lists compiled by people — or computers — with access to details like whether voters may have visited pornography Web sites, have homes in foreclosure, are more prone to drink Michelob Ultra than Corona or have gay friends or enjoy expensive vacations.
How did they get this information? Please, how do you think? Facebook will sell you in bulk, and if you’ve got a tracking cookie on your computer, both campaigns probably have a detailed history about you and it probably cost them a buck.
Oh, and in case you you weren’t troubled enough by both campaigns taking your psyche apart just like gigantic corporations, here’s another fun excerpt:
“I’ve had half-a-dozen conversations with third parties who are wondering if this is the year to start shaming,” said one consultant who works closely with Democratic organizations. “Obama can’t do it. But the ‘super PACs’ are anonymous. They don’t have to put anything on the flier to let the voter know who to blame.”
All of this is to coerce what the campaigns term “low-propensity voters” to turn out and go for their guy. Personally, we just wonder if that will do anything other than inspire “low-propensity voters” to move.