@PatriciaMazzei
Catching our eye amid the piles of political fliers in the Florida governor's race was one by Democrat Charlie Crist geared at Spanish-speaking voters.
"Hundreds of your friends and neighbors have already voted. Have you?" the flier asks.
Then, it makes this unusual point: "Whom you vote for is always private, but whether you vote or not is public record!"
Seems like the Crist campaign is using that tried-and-true strategy, familiar to anybody who survived middle school, of peer pressure to drive voters to the polls. Everyone will know if you don't vote, the flier implies.
Few people actually check public records to see if their friends and neighbors voted. But political campaigns have long known that people are more likely to vote if they're shamed into doing so by their peers. That's why they push supporters to post on social media -- think Facebook and Obama in 2008 -- once they've voted, to pressure their friends and family to do the same.
This time, it's a flier, not a Facebook Wall post.
Democrats have been cutting into Republicans' statewide lead in pre-Election Day ballots cast. But they still have only a slight advantage in Democrat-rich Miami-Dade.
Comments