So anyone received a phonecall from one of the 15 full time ‘genuine Libertas volunteers‘ (free lunch provided!) doing phonebanking and making calls to 100,000 households?
I know it’s been underway for a few weeks but wonder what the pitch is now as we are well into the campaign? Any Dublin Calls being made or is it specially targetted at the East constituency? Stories welcome!
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I got one. She started off her prepared script, asking me to vote for Ray O’Malley to protect jobs in Ireland. I stopped her at that point and asked her why, if Libertas wanted to promote employment at home, they had no candidates running in the locals or by-elections. Her script didn’t have an answer to that question but she offered to call me back or email an answer. Since I’ve no desire to be added to their database, I declined the offer.
By the way, do the maths. If there are 15 “volunteers”, they have to make 6666 calls each. Say they have six weeks to do it, that’s 1111 calls a week. That comes to 222 calls a day. Assuming an eight hour day, that’s 27 calls an hour. Just over two minutes per call, and the phone-bank software will have to do callbacks to any number with no answer if they’re working 9-5 and want to hit their 100,000 target. If they really want to reach people, they’re going to have to call more numbers, or have those volunteers work late hours to catch people in the evenings.
One more thing. My number is ex-directory, which means the Libertas phonebank is cycling through every possible number combination. That’s going to make for a lot of pissed off small businesses.