Pull up a chair, and let me tell you about what elections were like in the olden days…
Now, this was way back in the 1990s, before the internet and cell phones. The Simpsons was still relevant social commentary. Ice-T and LL Cool J were rappers and not TV actors playing cops. People were dancing the Macarena unironically (right up until the moment the Democrats killed it off… here.)
Heck, Joe Biden was still only in his third decade in the Senate.
But they still held elections back then, and somehow, we figured out how to “get out the vote.”
Here’s how we did it:
- We’d send a volunteer to each precinct armed with our GOTV list and a pencil.
- As voters came in, the volunteer would cross the voter’s name off the list.
- Throughout the day, runners would pick up copies of the list from each precinct.
- The runners would deliver those lists to what we used to call a “phone bank.”
- Volunteers would then call any voters whose names hadn’t been crossed off.
If that sounds mind-numbingly labor-intensive, that’s because it was. It was miserable.
Kids these days have no idea how good they’ve got it – what, with all of these “cell phones” and “text messengers” and “robot calls.”
These days, you can even “download” a list of people who have already voted and have the computer figure out a way to make sure they don’t get called.
Now, a few years back, some of us old folks got together and said to ourselves: “We should start a company and put all of our Election Day experience to work. We’ll specialize in old-fashioned get-out-the-vote campaigns, but we’ll use the very best of this new-fangled technology. That way, the next generation won’t have to spend Election Day with paper and pencils and phones that need to be plugged into wall sockets.”
And thus, Ascent Strategic was formed. You’re welcome, Gen Z.
So if you need last-minute text messages, robocalls, live-operator phone calls (just like the old-fashioned phone banks), give us a call.
