Despite attempts to reach out to Athen’s residents, both the Office of the Democrats and the Republican Call Center’s efforts bare little fruit.
Both political parties hope to influence voters as they make their way to the polls on Tuesday, so volunteers on both sides have been picking up their phones and making more calls.
But few answer their phones — and are willing to talk.
Democrats and Republicans have made extensive efforts to contact residents throughout the 740 area code in the past few weeks. But response rates have been low.
The Athens County Democratic Party estimates that 33 percent of its phone calls are answered; Ohio University College Republicans estimate a 10 percent participation rate.
OU College Republicans runs their own operation, while OU College Democrats work in conjunction with the county party.
Local Democrats
Athens County Democrats spend hours making calls daily, usually reaching up to 500 people during that time.
Katie O’Neal, who serves as coordinator of the office of Democrats, said they make calls to inform residents about events the office holds or to encourage citizens to vote.
They’ll particularly try to inform voters about lesser-known candidates.
“In a day, I’ll have about five volunteers,” she said.
Volunteers are typically given about six phone numbers to call, O’Neal said.
When volunteers don’t reach someone, they leave a message. Out of those six, O’Neal said they typically reach an average of two people from the sheet, resulting in a calling rate of about 33 percent.
Some calls might not be answered because the recipient doesn’t recognize the incoming number, a consequence that can be counteracted by abandoning the phone calls and campaigning door to door.
This week, O’Neal said they have 15 volunteers walking the streets of Athens doing just that.
Each individual is responsible for 40 households — collectively reaching 600 households in the final week before the big election.
“It’s so important to vote because this is our peaceful revolution,” O’Neal said.
Local Republicans
On the other hand, the Republicans are running a very different operation.
Not all OU students are apathetic to the political atmosphere. According to OU College Republicans Vice President Anna Lippincott, some even spend all day working to get their party’s representatives in to office.
At the Athens County Republican Party Headquarters at 80 E. State St., student volunteers congregate around three tables of phones to shoot the breeze, eat some snacks and call thousands of Athens residents and remind them to vote Republican.
By Lippincott’s count, the Republican Party’s completely student-run call center makes anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 calls a week.
“We average about 100 calls an hour,” Lippincott said, adding that a volunteer will usually spend about an hour or two each day making calls, except for when they have a “Super Friday or a Super Saturday” whenever they feel like they need a catch-up.
On those days, a volunteer will spend an entire day making calls, Lippincott said, though it isn’t required of all volunteers.
“Our biggest day was Reading Day,” Lippincott said. “We made over 10,000 calls (that day).”
The Athens call center is the second-best performing Republican call center in Ohio only after Columbus.
Nevertheless, the call center reports a low answer rate on their survey to gauge Republican interest — about 10 percent — which is about average for the state.
Despite the low numbers, the Republican call center plans to push on, hoping to make over 110,000 calls by the time the polls close Tuesday evening. As of Monday afternoon, the center placed about 100,000 calls this election season.
@emilybohatch
eb346012@ohio.edu
@Fair3Julia
jf311013@ohio.edu
