Democrats vs. Republicans On Voter #Privacy. Who Wins?

Here is a question for you. Which political party respects voter privacy more?

The basic answer is that nether political party really cares what the voter thinks about privacy very much. They care about winning and winning a majority; as they should.

In fact, both parties are willing to send robocalls into your home all day long without respecting either the Federal Do Not Call Registry or the non-partisan National Political Do Not Contact Registry. (which I run - the NPDNC registry is a non-partisan non-profit organization that provides a free service to voters who want to get off political call lists and candidates who wish to respect the privacy rights of voters)


This election cycle, however, both parties have recently released their version of the "phone from home" volunteer phone applications. The Democrats have their "2010 OFA Call Tool" where they are hoping to have volunteers make 15 million phone calls. The GOP has their new "Call From Home" tool at 40PhoneCalls.com.

     
Both tools have the same purpose:

To allow volunteers , from the comfort of their home, to call voters to get them to vote.



Neither party has an "opt out" mechanism clearly available on their website for voters to request to be removed from call lists. Neither tool seems to have an option or call resolution that allows voters to request to be removed from call lists in the future.

So, which party respects the privacy of the voter more?

The GOP or the Republicans. It is not even close.

Why?

The GOP 40PhoneCalls.com application has two very important features that the "2010 OFA Call Tool" does not have.

Volunteer caller ID protection > Since the GOP system makes the phone call using "click to call" technology the volunteer's actual home number is never shown to the voter. Instead, and this is very smart, the actual state GOP party phone number is displayed in the caller ID for the voter.  

Why does this mater? This is HUGE. Imagine I'm making phone calls from my home phone here in Virginia to Ohio. The voter in Ohio 1) doesn't recognize the 703 area code so probably won't pick up 2) if they miss the call and see the number on their caller ID list they may call me back wondering why I was calling them in the first place. I remember doing these calls in the 04 and 06 cycles and having exactly this issue occur. I'd call into rural Ohio, leave a voice mail, and a few hours later get a call from a pissed off voter wondering why I was calling them.

Voter phone number protection > The 40PhoneCalls.com application never displays the actual phone number of the voter being called. This is great for protecting the privacy of the individual voter.

In addition, the GOP tool does not display the Gender, Age, and Party affiliation of the voter.
In contrast the "2010 OFA Call Tool" does the following:

The Full Voter Information File is shown to the volunteer caller:

Full nameFull phone numberGenderAgeParty IdentificationCaller ID Protection Does Not Exist
Volunteer's make the calls from their own telephones. Their personal caller ID will be displayed on the voter's caller ID.

No registration is required at the Democrat's website so the Democrats DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO IS MAKING THE CALLSThis, also, is HUGE. The Democrats, in the interest of lowering the barrier to calling allows ANYONE to start calling voters.

Seriously.Really.Here are some screen shots:

The 40PhoneCalls.com site from the GOP is here:

NOTE:

The voter's phone number is not displayedOnly my phone number is displayedThere is no gender, age, or party identification displayed



Contrast the GOP site with the Democrats:

NOTE:

The voter's name and phone number are displayedThe location is displayedThe age, sex and party identification is displayed



I wonder when political parties will realize that voter privacy is an important issue? Will protecting voter privacy win an election for a party or a candidate? I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that those candidates that respect the privacy rights of voters have a better chance of looking at themselves in the morning and feeling good about themselves.

Shaun Dakin is the CEO and Founder of the National Political Do Not Contact Registry located at StopPoliticalCalls.org. Mr. Dakin has testified at the US Senate and is widely recognized as one of the leading advocates for voter privacy rights in the United States. He is the founder, as well, of the global series of un conferences called PrivacyCamp. He is also the recipient of the 2008 Mashable.com Open Web Award for non profit social media activism. He lives in Falls Church, VA with his family.

While working on voter privacy issues he tweets at @EndTheRoboCalls
You can find his email here.