With less than a week before Michigan's Aug. 4 primary election, political campaigns are making their final push to get supporters to the polls.
Adrian Hemond, CEO of Grassroots Midwest, said the closing days of a campaign are largely about turnout rather than trying to persuade undecided voters.
"Getting their people to the polls," Hemond said. "There are a lot of different tactics that go into a successful get-out-the-vote effort. Some of it's on the phones. Some of it's with door knocking. Some of it's text messages. Some of it is traditional paid media like TV and radio advertisements. But at this point, while there are still undecided voters out there, that number is dwindling by the day and has been for a week or two, and now you're just trying to find your people and make sure that they vote."
Hemond said campaigns are still willing to reach undecided voters, but by this stage of the race, most voters have already been exposed to the candidates and their messages.
"There's not more information that you can give an undecided voter to help them make up their mind," he said. "They just have to make up their mind if they are going to support one of these candidates and if they're going to vote. And so, if you're in a position right now where you're trying to persuade large numbers of undecided voters, it's because you're losing."
As Election Day approaches, voters can also expect to see an increase in campaign advertising across television, radio, mail, text messages and digital platforms. Hemond said those ads are carefully targeted using voter data and online advertising tools.
Even my 10-year-old son recognized that political ads were showing up while he was watching YouTube, but why?
"The children get targeted with these political ads when you're trying to reach women," Hemond said. "Political operatives like myself know that you, as a mom, are going to be keeping relatively close tabs on what's going on on your kids' YouTube... and so I know that I can reach you right then, and I've got a captive audience."
For voters who are only beginning to pay attention to the election, Hemond said last-minute decisions are often driven more by emotion than by new information.
"Most voters that are making a late-breaking decision, which is definitely what this is a week out, they're not looking for information," he said. "They're going to vote based on a feeling about a candidate, whether it's a positive feeling about a candidate they end up voting for, or a negative feeling about a candidate that they want to see defeated."
Hemond said campaigns are also closely tracking who has already voted, particularly as more Michiganders cast absentee ballots or take advantage of the state's nine-day early voting period.
"We also, based on the last expansion of the franchise in Michigan, have a mandatory nine days of early in-person voting in each jurisdiction," he said. "In a Democratic primary, about half the votes already in."
For voters hoping to avoid the flood of campaign messages in future elections, Hemond offered simple advice.
"The advice that I always give to people who are sick of seeing political advertisements is to vote as early as possible, because competent campaigns are monitoring who has voted, and as soon as your ballot's returned, the good campaigns are going to stop sending you mail, stop serving you digital ads because the election's over for you."