CLARKSTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — By now, you've probably dealt with election-related text messages as the push to secure votes intensifies. But one voter says the canvasser who came to her home in Clarkston took that push a little to far.
"We were really taken aback and uncomfortable with it," Virginia said.
Ring camera video captured by Virginia in Clarkston showed an interaction between her boyfriend Jason and a canvasser that starts off with the canvasser saying his name as soon as he opened the door.
The canvasser appeared to be going door to door to collect information on how certain people were voting and keeping track of it on an iPhone.
The canvasser asked at one point if Jason was refusing to vote or undecided.
"I'm not refusing to vote. I’m just not disclosing it to a random stranger,” Jason replied.
"She proceeded to be quite pushy with him and informed him that his vote wouldn’t count,” Virginia said.
Hear from political expert Dave Dulio on the push ahead of Election Day in the video below:
The word Virginia says best describes the interaction would be aggressive. It's something she says is more common this election. She wants others to be aware and know that they don't have to respond.
"People are more aggressive and it's disheartening to see," said Virginia, who also talked to her neighbors about the situation.
"They felt the same way. It made us all feel uncomfortable."
With all the focus on this election, they aren't the only one's feeling the "pushy" politics.
"It’s been a lot, actually. The people at work were just talking about that how you’re just constantly getting blown up,” Oakland County voter Jonathon Young said.
Oakland County voter Amy Kedzior says it's taken away from her ability to center in.
“I have gotten a lot of text messages, a lot of emails. Had a lot of conversations with friends that have been bombarded in different ways about the election,” Kedzior said.
The Michigan Secretary of State’s office says it is legal for campaigns and organizations to canvass door to door to ask voters whether they have voted, how they voted or how they will vote. They added that voter intimidation is illegal and it’s illegal for anyone besides the voter or a member of their household to collect or return absentee ballots.
Political expert with Oakland University David Dulio says the practice of collecting data and polling voters — specifically known supporters — door to door is normal.
"This election is going to be so close that the campaigns and their allies are chasing down the supporters to make sure that they’ve turned in there ballot, and that’s really a tried and true method of campaigning that goes back decades to help candidates and campaigns know where they stand and whether they have work to do,” Dulio said.
Dulio says campaigns generally do a good job training their volunteers and sometimes paid staffers in dos and don'ts of canvassing and what they should talk about when they go door to door. Sometimes, they have a script. Some of it is app based, so that data can be recorded for campaigns to analyze.
“Only the potential voter who answers the door can really decide what’s too far and what’s not. That line is likely to be different for a lot of people, and even approaching the door is a no-go for many people and rightly so,” Dulio said.
