Campaigns and volunteers
Political Dialer for Volunteer Phone Banking From Personal Phones and Shared Lists
A political dialer lets volunteers work through a call list without typing numbers. The Auto Dialer does it with live calls only, from each volunteer's phone, and keeps every answer for the campaign.
This is general information, not legal advice. Election and calling law differs by country and, in the US, by state; a campaign should get its own legal review before calling.
Political dialer for phone banking
The Auto Dialer suits the volunteer phone bank: a coordinator with a supporter or voter list, and a few dozen people who will make calls from home on their own phones. The coordinator imports the list from a spreadsheet or a Google Sheet, assigns blocks of numbers to volunteers, and each volunteer presses start. The app rings one number, the volunteer talks, and a short sheet records the answer: supporter, undecided, opposed, call back, wrong number or do not call. Nothing is ever played to the person who picks up; there is a human voice on every call. That one design choice matters legally in the United States, where 47 U.S.C. 227(b)(1)(A)(iii) makes prior express consent a condition for reaching mobile numbers with an artificial or prerecorded voice or with an automatic telephone dialing system. Whether a given dialer is such a system is a separate question, covered on the autodialer TCPA page.
Political dialer campaign workflow
| Moment | What the campaign team does | What the app does |
|---|---|---|
| List arrives | Coordinator cleans the file and removes anyone who has asked not to be called | Imports it as one list, drops duplicate numbers and handles country codes |
| Before the session | Coordinator splits the list between volunteers | Gives each volunteer a pending queue of assigned leads |
| During calls | Volunteer follows the script and listens | Dials the next number after the set gap and shows the last remark |
| After each call | Volunteer taps the answer and adds a note | Saves status, remark and any callback reminder to the record |
| Someone says stop | Volunteer marks it at once | The number can go on excluded numbers, out of all automation |
| End of evening | Coordinator reviews progress | Team call log and status filter show who was reached and how they answered |
Volunteer lists often arrive as messy spreadsheets with mixed number formats; tidying one before import is covered in how to call a list of numbers.
Political dialer calls to cell phones
Mobile numbers are where US campaigns need the most care, because the consent rule in 227(b)(1)(A)(iii) applies to calls to a "cellular telephone service" made with a prerecorded voice or an autodialer. The Auto Dialer removes the first trigger entirely, since it cannot play a recording. The second depends on the statutory definition, which the Supreme Court interpreted in Facebook v. Duguid in 2021. This page says nothing more about US election law, and does not say whether the national do-not-call rules reach political calls, because we have not researched those questions.
- Canada. The Telecommunications Act exempts calls by or for registered parties, their candidates and contestants, and their electoral district associations, from the National Do Not Call List orders. Such callers must state the purpose and on whose behalf they call at the start of the call, and maintain a do-not-call list of their own.
- Australia. The register's own guidance lists registered political parties among the organisations that may make certain calls without complying with the register.
- United Kingdom and India. Not researched for political calls; take local advice. General calling rules are on the auto dialer UK and auto dialer rules in India pages.
Political dialer on volunteers' own phones
Calls go out from the volunteer's SIM, so voters see the volunteer's real number, and some will call it back days later. Volunteers on dual SIM phones can make their second SIM the default for campaign calls and keep their personal number private. The iPhone version does everything except read the handset's call history. Getting a volunteer's phone ready is walked through in the auto dialer setup guide.
Political dialer example
Round-number illustration only, not a real campaign.
A field organiser for a city council candidate in Winnipeg has 2,000 supporters who signed up at events and online, and 20 volunteers free on Tuesday evenings. Each volunteer takes 100 names. At roughly 15 conversations or attempts an hour, a two-hour shift covers 30 each, so the list takes a little over three Tuesdays. Supporters who say "do not call again" leave the list that night, and anyone who offers to deliver leaflets gets a follow-up reminder for the organiser.
Political dialer limits
The Auto Dialer cannot send recorded messages to thousands of voters or leave voicemails, and it does not check anyone's consent for you. Campaigns that need recorded calls should read about voice broadcasting and its consent rules first. For registers country by country, see the national do-not-call lists page, and for the US basics, auto dialer rules in the USA. Commercial sales calling is a different job, covered under dialer for telemarketing.
Political dialer FAQ
11 questions, answered
What is a political call?
A political call is a call made by or for a party, candidate, campaign or cause to persuade, inform or mobilise voters: canvassing, volunteer recruitment, event invitations or reminders to vote. It can be a live conversation with a volunteer or a recorded message, and the rules treat those two very differently.
Are political robocalls legal?
In the United States, a call to a mobile number using an artificial or prerecorded voice, or an autodialer as the statute defines it, needs prior express consent from the person called, emergency calls aside. Other rules may apply that this page does not cover. The Auto Dialer never plays a recorded voice.
Can a campaign call cell phones?
Live calls from a volunteer to a mobile are not covered by the US consent rule for prerecorded voices. The consent rule for autodialers turns on how the equipment generates numbers, which is explained on the autodialer TCPA page. Ask the campaign’s lawyer before calling mobiles at scale.
Which political dialer lets volunteers call from their own phones?
The Auto Dialer lets each volunteer dial an assigned list from their own Android phone or iPhone, one live call at a time, with the result saved after every conversation. Coordinators see all calls in the team log.
Is The Auto Dialer a political dialer?
It can be used as a political dialer for live volunteer phone banking. It is not a robocall or voice broadcast system and cannot send recorded messages, and it does not check whether a campaign is allowed to call a number. That check is the campaign’s job.
What is phone banking?
Phone banking is a campaign’s organised round of calls to voters or supporters, usually by volunteers working through a shared list over an evening or a weekend. The aim might be to identify supporters, recruit helpers, invite people to an event or remind them to vote, and each answer is recorded for the next round.
How do you phone bank for a candidate?
Get a list and a short script from the campaign, then call one person at a time: say who you are and on whose behalf you call, ask the scripted question, listen, and record the answer before dialing again. With The Auto Dialer, the coordinator assigns your block of numbers and the app dials it from your phone.
Are political calls exempt from do-not-call lists?
In Canada, calls by or for registered parties, candidates, contestants and electoral district associations are exempt from the National DNCL orders, but the caller must state the purpose and hold a list of people who asked not to be called. Australia’s register guidance names registered political parties among permitted callers. Whether US do-not-call rules reach political calls was left unresearched. This is general information, not legal advice.
What should a political phone banking script include?
Keep it short: who you are, that you are a volunteer, the campaign you call for, one question, and a clear close. Leave space to listen and record the answer as supporter, undecided, opposed, call back or do not call. A volunteer who reads every word sounds scripted, so practise it aloud once before the shift.
How does a coordinator see the results of a phone bank?
Every volunteer’s calls roll into the team call log, and the shared filter shows how many people sit at each answer status. The filtered view exports to CSV for the campaign’s own records, and anyone who asked for a callback appears as a dated reminder on the volunteer’s phone.
Can volunteers send a WhatsApp message after a phone bank call?
Yes. A message can be set for missed, outgoing and incoming calls, for example an event link for someone who did not answer. It can go out automatically via the Business API, or open WhatsApp with the text filled in for the volunteer to send, and quiet hours keep messages out of the late evening. Check local rules on political messaging first.
Running a volunteer phone bank?
Trial the app with a few volunteers and one supporter list before the busy weeks.