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JLeslie's avatar

How does TN have my home phone number in FL as part of their call list for polling?

Asked by JLeslie (65743points) October 4th, 2018 from iPhone

I assume I’m still a registered voter in TN maybe? I shouldn’t be, but some states never remove you, or not in a timely fashion anyway.

What I find odd is, how would they have my new FL phone number that has never been given to the state of TN?

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12 Answers

zenvelo's avatar

You may have used it for something like a bank account or some other business in TN, and it cross referenced in a database.

JLeslie's avatar

@zenvelo I can’t imagine that I did, unless my husband did?

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

The state government of Tennessee is phone polling?

ragingloli's avatar

Anything once give out to anyone will at one point end up everywhere.
Your phone number is probably in a central database somewhere.

JLeslie's avatar

@Call_Me_Jay No, Marsha Blackburn, the congresswoman, her people called one time. A few days later whoever called just said they were polling TN residents, I’m not sure who was conducting the second call.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

With cell phones, it’s really common to have an area code which does not match your location.

Out of curiosity, I looked through my contacts at people who have lived in my building in the past ten years. I see area codes for:

Illinois
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Michigan
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Ohio
Maryland
Massachusetts
Florida
Colorado

JLeslie's avatar

^^It’s my landline. It’s a number I created after I left TN. I do still have the same cell phone number the last 28 years.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

Ahhh, a Florida area code, thank you. I did not understand.

Interesting. Then I guess the polling company grabs any number associated with a person associated with Tennessee, regardless of area code. Because of cell phones.

It’s mass marketing. They don’t have time and money to make it more exact. A local campaign can’t have a huge budget. Making extra calls is cheaper than filtering more carefully.

JLeslie's avatar

^^What do you mean because of cell phones? Do you mean the area code is ignored now, because cell phones can basically have any area code? Even though in this case it’s a landline?

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

because of cell phones

Because of cell phones, they don’t bother filtering by area code.

JLeslie's avatar

Makes sense. I just find it odd that my phone number is attached to my name like that.

snowberry's avatar

I suppose it also has something to do with the fact that you can forward calls from any area code to another number. So I suppose landline or not, in their minds it doesn’t matter. Except of course they are wasting their money by not bothering to check.

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