How Do Voters Want to be Contacted and Are Parties Listening? Evidence from a Recent Election in Wales

Abstract

Content, messages and the way voters are contacted are all increasingly tailored to the individual. But are voters really contacted in the way they prefer? What actually drives campaign preferences? Who are parties tailoring these preferences to? For the first time, we address this gap in the literature. Our findings suggest that there is considerable heterogeneity in voters’ contact preferences. While some voters prefer not to be contacted, those who do prefer traditional methods (leaflets) and, in some cases, more personalised modes such as doorstep canvassing. Preferences are primarily driven by previous exposure to the mode, political interest, having an extraverted personality and age. We also examine preference ‘matching’ and find that parties are no more likely to ‘match’ a voter’s specific preference if they have contacted them before. Preference contact matching is significantly more likely to be targeted at women, middle-age voters and especially weak or nonpartisans.