Hatrack River Forum: Election Law Question

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Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :

Today I received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Republican party. He asked for my husband and when I said he wasn't here, he said he was calling to find out if he'd received his mail-in ballot. He then said he hoped he had considered Republican candidates.

I didn't think much of it until my husband came home and I relayed the conversation to him. He brought up an interesting point: How the heck did The Republican Party know he had requested an early voting ballot?

It seems to me that this is not information they should have had and I was wondering if anyone knows what the law has to say about it.

Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :

Is he a registered Republican?

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

The natural responses to "Did you receive a mail-in ballot?" are:
1) No, I don't intend to vote.
2) No, I intend to vote at the polls.
3) No, they haven't delivered it to me yet.
4) Yes, I've already filled it out and sent it in.
5) Yes, but I haven't filled it out yet.

A person who would answer "no" without further comment would be unusually taciturn. So asking "Did you order a mail-in ballot?" is an unnecessary question under most circumstances.

Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :

No, we're independents.

Ahhh..so you're suggesting he didn't have the information, it was just a way of phrasing the question to get the full answer in fewer steps. That could be it. It just seemed like somehow he knew we'd ordered one, although that could be because we did. [Smile]

Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :

I believe it is public info. I remember when I requested my ballot, there was a slot for my e-mail on the form...but it had a warning that whatever I gave would be part of public records, so don't give an e-mail that I didn't want published.

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

I suspect the operation would be even more efficient.
The salesperson assigned the "Did you receive a mail-in ballot?" question is there to pitch woo only to mail-in voters.
And the phone number of any person answering "no" or "no..." would be automaticly transfered to a contact list for other branches specializing in recruiting the "no" and "no..." folks.