Hello, it's the Governor calling

Now I know that the election season has really begun. I received my first automated phone call yesterday from former Governor Jeanne Shaheen. She was reminding me to vote today in the city election.

Of all the modern political campaign strategies, I find this the most annoying. During the last presidential primary, we would come home at night to find our answering machine loaded with up to 30 messages from hollow voices, urging us to vote for this candidate or that. We even had one from former President Bush, urging us to vote for his son! (My oldest daughter is a registered Independent; that's the only reason I can think we were on THAT call list!).

Some volunteer from the State Democratic Party had the mis-fortune to call me asking for money soon after that barrage. What they got was a piece of my mind, not a chunk from my checkbook.

Have the political pundits really studied the effectiveness of these sterile phone calls and determined that they make a difference in terms of voter turnout? To me, it's a major annoyance and a waste of good donations. My strong feeling is that these tactics turn more people off than turn them on to getting out to vote. I wonder if there are more people out there who agree.

So much for me climbing up on a soapbox. Now I need to get out the door a little early this morning to go vote. It was something that I had planned to do long before the phone call from Jeanne Shaheen.