Targeting the Regulars

6 min readMar 15, 2023

March 14, 2023, 10:22 pm
Filed under: Healthcare, voting | Tags: blood, blood donation, canvassing, elections, First timers, regulars, voting, Zephyr Teachout

Last year, I wrote about my experience of giving blood for the first time. I read it again in the process of preparing the 2022 zine — and it made me think about what has happened since. You may remember how genuinely terrible the blood donation folks were at welcoming me, a newcomer. It was clear they were set up for regulars. As soon as I donated, the one time, it was clear that I was now a regular in the system’s eyes. Whereas, before I donated I never heard anything about blood donation, now that I was a regular, I hear from the blood center several times a month. I get more messages and phone calls from the blood people than I get from my family and friends. It’s wild. Having donated one single time, I, along with anyone else who’s donated, am expected to solve the citywide blood shortage. I suppose they figure they got blood out of you once, they’re going to get it to happen again. And I will say, I would like to donate again. I really do want to help. It will happen eventually. But the more they harass me, the more guilt trips they employ, the less likely I become to respond. This may work with some people but for me, the surest way to get me to drag my feet in calling someone back is to call multiple times or say something like, “I need you to call me back right away.” I mean — I’ll probably call you back eventually but it’s going to be a long long while. The blood folks have triggered my foot dragging self and none of us are pleased about it.

The thing of it is, (aside from how just damn inconvenient it is) part of why I haven’t returned to donate is knowing how little effort they’re putting in to expanding their donors. They’re wasting enormous resources on me, trying to get me to come back, trying to make me believe the entire blood crisis is falling on my miserly blood-hoarding shoulders, trying to convince me to return — when they could be using those resources to make blood centers more accessible, open more often, available to just pop in and donate in more locations. It seems to me that rather than hiring people to call me up every week, they could hire people to recruit and welcome new donors, to expand the pool of people who can help.

There’s something so macabre about an institution that once it gets a taste of your blood, just can’t leave you alone until you give up more of your blood. We are literally talking about blood. I mean I’ll give it to them when I want to give it to them but it’s really pretty shocking to me how poorly organized this system is in getting such a necessary resource.

I suspect part of it has something to do with systems and software. It makes me think of canvasing software for elections. A few years ago, I did some canvassing for Zephyr Teachout’s campaign for Attorney General of New York. My canvassing partner had this software for our door knocking where we had the names and address of all the people in the area who were registered democrats and had voted in previous elections. We didn’t knock on anyone’s door who was an independent and we didn’t knock on anyone’s door who wasn’t a regular voter. We were essentially only harassing the people who had donated blood before. And it is very logical. Of course voters are more likely to vote. Of course you’ll be able to check the box of “Yes, voting for her,” or whatever information you need, in a pool of people more likely to vote. It allows for politicians to make sure their polling reflects well on their progress. I know this is how it’s done now.

As someone who votes in every single election, no matter how silly, I am a prime target for every single democratic or progressive candidate using this software (and they all use this software). They can often see how often I vote in their apps. (I mean, I once went in to vote for a candidate who was running unopposed in a primary — a candidate I didn’t even like — so when I tell you I always vote, I’m not kidding.) But it really feels like a terrible waste of resources. As much as I enjoyed meeting our future city council member at our door, I think her time could have been more productive in the long run. We were already fans of hers. Wouldn’t it be more useful to go chat with someone who hasn’t voted in city council elections, partly because they don’t know anything about them? No one needs to convince me how important local elections are. I know. I know who the DA in our county is and I know who would have been a better one (that city council member, actually). But for someone who just votes in, say, Presidential elections, a conversation with a hopeful city council member about our local issues might shift their voting patterns entirely. We have abysmal voting rates in this country. We have abysmal voting rates in this city, too. The canvassing apps only exacerbate this already problematic situation. I understand why they make things easier. It’s a lot smoother to talk to registered democrats about an election they’re already aware of than to talk to someone who might be hostile to the candidate or the ideas or the political party. It does make sense. But it narrows the field. And that narrowing surely plays a part in the polarization of our current political situation.

But for the numbers, of course, the limited set of people makes sense, because of course, those who have voted before are the most likely to vote again, even if it’s not for your candidate and those who have donated blood are the most likely to donate again — just based on the numbers. But we’re not just trying to reach the most likely candidates for this stuff, I hope.

Both blood donation and voting are things that we should get the maximum number of people to do and that means expanding our reach to everyone, not just the regulars. And THAT’S why the blood center should chill out on calling me all the time. Maybe just stay open for a few more hours in the afternoon on the one day they collect blood in this neighborhood every four months or so. Or they could open in the evening! I’d love to pop in on the way to dinner.

Meanwhile, just today a canvasser came to my door to remind me to vote on June 27 th. That’s three months away. That’s a lot of lead time and effort to remind me to do something I’m definitely going to do anyway. With this much lead time, they could get tons of new people to register to vote for the first time! I wish they’d do that instead!