Background

When a congressional candidate fails to even qualify for the primary election, they usually leave the race with a whimper. But after Charlie Wilson’s campaign mistakenly included constituents from his state senate district, which happened to sit outside of Ohio’s 6^th congressional district, on his ballot petition, the campaign and its allies found a way to keep aggressively campaigning through a write-in effort.

The Need

Ohio’s new vote-by-mail program made it possible, though still difficult, to reach voters and send them a write-in ballot. The AFL-CIO, a key ally of the Wilson campaign, needed a cost efficient way to reach members and encourage them to use their vote-by-mail ballots to write-in Charlie Wilson.

The Solution

Zata|3 followed the AFL-CIO’s mailing of the ballots with a series of coordinated and sophisticated calls designed to engage and persuade ballot recipients to not only use the ballot, but also to write-in Charlie Wilson.

An early call alerted union members of the vote-by-mail ballot a week before it arrived in their homes. The calls explained the unique situation and urged union members to write-in Charlie Wilson, a fellow union member. Zata|3 followed with a second round of calls, just one day before the deadline. The call reminded members to write-in Charlie Wilson and send the ballots to the County Board of Elections. Members were also told that they could still write-in Charlie Wilson at their polling place if they could not make the deadline.

The Results

Even though Charlie Wilson failed to qualify for the ballot, he won the primary election. And in November, he was elected to Congress.  Zata|3 worked with the AFL-CIO to push a candidate to a primary win when he wasn’t even on the ballot. The call program required sophisticated instructions that needed to persuade and explain the write-in. This required more than a short phone script, but patient and clear instructions, a rarity in a campaign season. Zata|3 created the right script and called at the right time to inform and urge voters to work a little harder to elect the right candidate.