I have noticed something odd that I do not understand. I work from home and have a good view of the atreet outside. I see canvassers going up and down either delivering leaflets or knocking on doors. However not all of them stop or put a leaflet though every door. Yesterday for instance I saw someone delivering Labour Leaflets. Out of the houses I could see, he visited 3 out of 8, popped a leaflet through the door and carried on. FWIW, I have a postal vote and have already voted, but its not that simple because other of my neighbours have too, and they have not been visited.
Conversely on other days I have seen canvassers going round delivering leaflets but not coming to me (I am not complaining about this!).

What is going on? Is it being targeted, and if so how? Cambridge Analytical type assessment?

I’m not sure it’s that scientific.

We’ve been polled a few times by various parties, Mrs basically told them if Satan himself came strolling down the street laying waste to souls left, right and centre she’d still vote for him if he had a Labour rosette on, but we still get leaflets from them.

TBH it seems every other party has given up on us, even the Tories who only lost by 5% of the vote last time and have held our seat have put up a bit of a Paper Candidate, he’s London based (we’re Cardiff) and apart from a FB page we’ve not heard a peep from them, there aren’t many if, any Tory placards even, even my Wife’s Aunt (who is a former Tory councillor) hasn’t got one.

I was deliberately not targeted by the Labour canvassers. I also work from home, and my desk has a view out onto the drive. The Labour pamphlet-pusher and his mate walked to the bottom of the drive, pointed at my car, made a comment to his mate, and continued to next door.

I’m obviously not a Labour supporter because I don’t have two of them.

Supposedly they have an App which gives details of the residents and any feedback / info they have on them. So if they have you down as a sure thing or a Tory, they’ll just skip and focus on undecideds etc.

Although doesn’t seem to stop our household being targetted with loads of leaflets / direct mail all of which get binned unread. We have a Libdem flag poster thing up in the front garden, but still they shove Labour leaflets through the door, which seems rather inefficient to me.

Nah, I reckon they can’t drop every house with their vile bile… so they just randomly pop into a random number of houses in any given street…

Unless you are a supporter (by that I mean paying member) in which case they may have you address and just dropping in those houses that are on the register.. in the vein hope that the “member” does indeed remember which party they are a “member” of.

IMO

There are two purposes to canvassing – trying to convince people to support your party, and trying to ensure that those who are likely to support you actually use their vote. If they knocked on your door last time and you gave them an indication of who you supported, that will have been recorded and may influence targetting.

Hmmm, never gave any information out in previous elections to canvassers or pollsters, and not registered with any parties. Maybe it is as simple as my car and the state of my garden relative to neighbours!

If they had a detailed database there would be GDPR issues for them

If they had a detailed database there would be GDPR issues for them

If you mean by issues they would have to manage it according to the current legislation, which wouldn’t be that difficult…

If they had a detailed database there would be GDPR issues for them

I made this argument a couple of years ago, objecting to Garage and his cronies having access to my info. Apparently the parties have legitimate access to the electoral roll for canvassing / mailbombing purposes.

I’m in a fairly “non-tory” area in a marginal town still split 3 ways.

Probably everyone but (excepting Scots, Welsh, NI) yet not even received a Labour poster, let alone canvasser.

Still I received a UKIP poster…several LibDem and a Greens and a Tory one.
I was at a local meeting on Satursday (gave up riding) and despite Labour councillors being invited only LibDem and Greens showed up….
Tory’s were invited but not realistically expected to show up ..

“manage it according to the current legislation”

Which would include notification to the data subject, rendering this thread moot. Must be one of the most widely ignored bits of GDPR.

Labour seem very active locally, they send a team of about a dozen people to canvass each street, more than I’ve ever seen before. It’s a safe non-Tory seat as well, so they don’t really need to bother.

Which would include notification to the data subject, rendering this thread moot. Must be one of the most widely ignored bits of GDPR.

I assume there are exceptions for the electoral roll and elections…

They have access to the electoral roll so can see how often you vote. They also have access to the previous results from your polling station / ward so what you get will be determined by the results in your ward, ratio of voters: non voters and if you’ve given them info previously about your political views and then some socio economic stuff about your street. They know your age so that leaflet / canvasser may only be targeting a certain age group.

I’ve only had the SNP so far (ex council estate) but 500m away the houses are 5-10x the price and you’ll see the Tory canvassers.

I think you might be on to something wwpaddler. I’ve voted every time since I was eligible to vote, but never given any details of my political views to anyone in that type of role. I’m not active on social media So I guess the discriminator could be age based

I’ve never had a canvasser come around. To be fair, I do live up a reasonably unlit dirt road, I wouldn’t come up either. I’ve had Labour, Tory and Lib Dem so far through the post

My understanding is that if you build a database on the general public you need to tell them you are holding information and provide a copy if asked

Holding a copy of the electoral roll is not a GDPR issue, adding information about specific individuals is

Certain information is held. People may be targeted with particular campaigns, e.g. you may have one leaflet going to everybody in some areas, a more targeted leaflet* going to only those you believe fit in a particular group (usually based on how they have said to canvassers they will vote, or whether they’ve said they will vote).

Often the targeting will be broader, e.g. if a seat is marginal, party activists from adjacent areas may all swarm in to try to convince as many people as possible in person.

*I am assured by those in the know that at least Labour doesn’t send out different leaflets to different people in the same constituency saying opposite things, but it would be technically possible based on what they believe/judge your views to be. I would most certainly do this if I was trying to get elected. “Vote phil for Turkeys” to the Turkeys, “Vote phil for Christmas” for the Christians, etc. Just call it fake news when you get caught.

I’ve never had a canvasser come around. To be fair, I do live up a reasonably unlit dirt road, I wouldn’t come up either. I’ve had Labour, Tory and Lib Dem so far through the post

My source has spent a lot of time trying to work out where the **** houses like yours are in his area, when they have had a targeted drop to do! If they thought it was important to find you, they almost certainly would.

What is going on? Is it being targeted, and if so how? Cambridge Analytical type assessment?

Not sure but since the ballot paper has number address to you (I was a former postal voter) so how does that stop determine people from matching your ballot paper with your voting choice?

I have a foreign name so naturally all I get are leaflets from Green, Lib Dem and Labour … nobody canvassing here as this is a Labour stronghold.

p/s: I am not voting for any of them including Conservative. Saw my MP in the city centre last few months by herself or with her partner. Wonder what she thinks of all the empty shops ….

So I guess the discriminator could be age based

Two very interesting graphs…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hX7jMY]Voting intention vs age[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hX3Mpz]Voter turnout by age[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

https://www.ft.com/content/3f444d34-1806-11ea-9ee4-11f260415385

The young do themselves a great disservice by not voting….

When you vote, your name is cross referenced on the electoral list for that particular polling station.

Records are kept of who has voted, and obviously those who didn’t.

Political parties have access to this list of the people who did vote.

All the parties will target anyone who has bothered to vote, as they see this as being the most productive form of canvassing.

Makes sense really, no point in wasting time and energy on people who won’t vote at all.

That’s an interesting idea, Denis! If true it would mean a very large proportion of my neighbours have not been voting…

It is true, I am involved with our local Green Party, I have forgotten the official name of the list, but it is available for a small fee to all the registered political parties.

Not sure if it indicates postal voting records though.

Makes sense really, no point in wasting time and energy on people who won’t vote at all.

It was challenging that thinking that helped Brexit and Trump win votes. You can spend your money and effort on trying to convince the middle few percent that the other guy is wrong, or you can go after the huge proportion of people that perhaps already share your political opinions but haven’t been convinced that you share theirs so have never voted.

I knew the ref was checked off “in case of fraud” or clarification later.
I wasn’t aware this was available and thus indicated likely voters (us) or not (not sure).

We’ve been door-to-door canvassing but only knocking on specific doors where there is some information that the residents have either voted Labour in the past or have been a ‘maybe’, so as others have said earlier it can be just a few houses in a street or the majority. The intention is to try and get information on their voting intentions, remind them to vote (lots haven’t in the past), try to persuade any waverers and people who are thinking of moving away from Labour to rethink, and give out leaflets and posters. It’s useful for the parties to know how many people are going to vote for you, and also follow up with the waverers perhaps by getting contacted personally by the candidate. The key is to get as many people who might support you out on polling day

We’ve been door-to-door canvassing but only knocking on specific doors where there is some information that the residents have either voted Labour in the past or have been a ‘maybe’, so as others have said earlier it can be just a few houses in a street or the majority. The intention is to try and get information on their voting intentions, remind them to vote (lots haven’t in the past)

Is this information on a database? Are you gathering more information for this database?

Do you tell people they are on your database?