I was at a city council campaign meeting on Tuesday for Reinette Senum. When we got to the “Mailers” agenda item, one of the team members said, “I hate getting those mailers from candidates. They are a waste of energy and resources. Why three?” My ears perked up as I tend to agree with his complaint. The most experienced of the group, “Jen”, explained that the first is an “intro” piece and the others are meant to remind voters to vote for the candidate. These are mailed right before 1. absentee voters get their materials and 2. the election. Hence, three mailers in the plan.

After about five minutes of talking in circles between voter perception and “what wins elections”, someone finally asked, “does each voter get both reminder mailers?” The light bulbs went on in Jen’s head. “No!” she exclaimed. “Voters get one reminder mailer based on whether they are an absentee voter or not. I didn’t even think to clarify that!” So voters get two mailers, not three. For some reason, that felt much more reasonable. We had a laugh and moved on to the next agenda item.

Ask the simple questions first. They usually clear things up.