The voter calling operation is a traditional tool of any political campaign. In the old days, and still in many races, this practice looked a lot like a boiler room operation. But in this first primary season in which the Internet is truly an indispensable part, the boiler room has become the living room, the bedroom, the laptop and the cell phone of every candidate supporter.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe emailed supporters asking them to sign up to call voters in West Virginia. He wrote: "Hillary is within striking distance of winning the popular vote nationwide -- a key part of our plan to win the nomination. That means we need every last vote we can get in West Virginia on Tuesday and in the races to follow."
 
I was curious about how this works so I went on the Clinton campaign site and signed up to make some calls. They've got this down pretty well, considering it's basically a self-directed exercise with no real oversight.

When you log in, you get a page with a name and phone number, and a script to read. The script covers what to say in the event the person answers, someone else answers, or you get voicemail. If you do get the person, there are two main goals -- first to find out whether they are likely to vote for Clinton, and second to try to get them to recruit other votes in their hometown.

I did wonder if any Republican (or Obama) operatives would think to exploit the potential, by, say, calling all these voters on the list and annoying them just enough to keep them from voting for Clinton. A more subtle approach would be to simply sign up for a bunch of names, say you called them, and fill out the results form incorrectly. I don't see any way the campaign would be able to stop it.

I'm not sure how large the last-minute-call-from-complete-stranger-decided-my-vote block is in West Virginia, or any state. But one thing that's fun about the Internet is that its interactivity is compromised (from the perspective of a disciplined, hierarchical campaign) by its autonomy and relative anonymity.

Or let's say you are a die-hard Clinton supporter, but also a bit lonely and with a lot of time on your hands. What if, instead of staying on message, you stray from the script and find yourself talking to some McCain or Obama supporter and decide at the end that there's no savior in politics, only people who can't live up to the rhetoric.

I called a lady named Judith, in West Virginia. She wasn't home. I checked the box for "left a message" on the script form. I didn't though. Judith, I figure, probably doesn't need my help deciding who to vote for.