The Good, the Bad, and the Spam

This past election saw a dramatic increase in the amount of emails that the candidates used to reach their prospective voters. According to PC Magazine, "more than 1.25 billion political spam messages will [have reached] registered voters before the fall [2004] elections." Be it messages that say they are sent from a candidate or his wife, or simply polls that are sent via email to try and estimate the political climate, potential voters and supporters alike were bombarded by their candidates. One of the most interesting conflicts that occurred after Howard Dean announced his departure from the race was the fight over his email database, which contained over 700,000 addresses (Meadows). The Kerry camp wanted Dean to either give them the addresses or send an email to his supporters asking them to give money to the Kerry campaign.

Rhett Francisco explains the good and bad of email and campaigns:

E-mail is an extremely effective political tool -- if it is used properly. It enables politicians to deliver communications expeditiously, avoid costly postage, receive timely feedback and rapidly mobilize supporters. On the other hand, e-mail also enables politicians to deliver unsolicited advertisements, receive adverse publicity and alienate constituents.*

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Updated May 18, 2005