Party political leaflets addressed only to DH

[TheBitterBoy]

We have had mailings in the last week from all three main parties, and all three of them were addressed directly to DH. I am on the electoral register too, in fact alphabetically I am above him in the list (same surname, my first initial is before DH's in the alphabet). I wouldn't even mind if they were addressed to Mr & Mrs ..., but for my existence to be completely ignored has actually wound me up today. Completely apart from the fact that DH has little to no interest and is just as likely to vote for someone if they have a funny name or look a bit like one of his mates (he has done both of these things) and I am actually the one who is politically engaged and trying to decide who to vote for.

[FuckingLiability]

I'm not sure it's deliberate - we've had them too and they've been addressed some to DH and some to me. We got two from Labour and Greens addressed to each of us.

I'm more irritated by them using the electoral register to send junk mail when we have opted out.

[TheBitterBoy]

I suppose to me it feels deliberate as there has been nothing addressed to me so far.

[anonymice]

Are you on Twitter? Tweet the candidates thanking them for your husband's leaflets and explaining that women can read too?

[museumum]

In our house i've been getting them and not dh. we have different surnames so it's quite obvious.
thing is, dh is the one who pays the council tax and utilities so i don't know how these things have ended up coming to me.

[LoveMyBoots]

I'm more irritated by them using the electoral register to send junk mail when we have opted out.

It all depends what you're being sent. If it's electoral communication from a candidate or party which is standing, that is allowed.

If it's random stuff like catalogues, general company mailings, then you need to ask the electoral dept of your council to make sure you aren't on the edited register. I heard that some people had been included in the edited register despite asking not to be, so you may be one of those.

[ThomasinaCoverly]

We have this too - DH has been bombarded, I haven't had a thing (apart from one leaflet from the Lib Dems). When it first happened I wondered if I'd get mine later in the campaign as we have different surnames and mine's alphabetically later, but he just got another round this week! Tempted to join Twitter just so I can follow anonymice's suggestion and tell them I can read and even have the vote...

[RoganJosh]

Whereas I've been bombarded and DH has only has a few. I think it's dependent on whether you've ever signed up to something relevant.

[RoganJosh]

*had a few

[Boobsofsteel]

My MP responds to my letters to him by addressing them to DH. I can only assume he feels that I might not fully understand his replies without DH's help.

[IKnowIAmButWhatAreYou]

All 4 of us have received them from all the parties in our house.

Seems such a waste of paper....

[thehumanjam]

It isn't deliberate. I've received all of them in this house, dh hasn't received any.

[TheBitterBoy]

I'd be interested to know what kind of mailing strategy they employ then, assuming they don't want to send individual communications to each person on the electoral role in a household. Maybe different constituencies use different systems?

[ChillieJeanie]

I'm not sure what would be happening in your specific case, but as someone who in years past has organised personalised mailings during elections I can give some general information on the strategy.

Every party putting forward candidates in a constituency during a General Election period is entitled to a freepost mailing delivered through the Royal Mail. There are a couple of ways this can be done:

Unaddressed mailing - one shot only. The freepost for this category is a single delivery per dwelling.

Addressed mailings - multiple shots. The freepost facility can be used to deliver a piece of literature to every individual on the electoral register in a constituency. It's best to use this to hit a dwelling more than once. Sending the same leaflet to, for example, four adults living in the same home is a bit pointless and, given the legal maximum that a candidate is allowed to spend on their campaign, rather a waste of money.

The way we usually did it was to send one leaflet addressed to the first named on the register in the household early on, timed to land around the time the postal ballot papers were issued. Later in the campaign a second, different leaflet would be sent addressed to the second named in the household. If there was time/money a third leaflet could go to the third/fourth/etc named on the register in the household, although numbers significantly decrease by this point.

Where it can sometimes fall down with addressed mailings is in the software used. Ours (pretty technologically elderly at that point, I must admit - it has got better since, I understand) tended to treat people with different surnames as being different 'households'. So if you have an unmarried couple in one house they would be picked out as two different households so would probably both get the first mailing. This is because we had no way of knowing whether it was actually one household or a house divided into flats, for example.

Since you are named above your husband on the electoral register TheBitterBoy what might have happened is that the first mailing has gone to the second named. I would be interested to see if there is a second mailing later on, possibly at the end of this week, addressed to you. That would mean the bigger hit, which would go to every home in the constituency, lands in the run up to polling day.

The strategy will change party by party and constituency by constituency.

[SpeverendRooner]

There was a similar thread in chat the other day. I think someone contacted their candidate, who said that mailshots were so expensive that they just mailed a selection of people. I guess they don't address Mr & Mrs, because they're a bit wary of assuming that two residents are anything more than housemates, even in cases where they have the same surname.

That doesn't mean that there isn't sexism in their selection process, of course. In fact, if it's based on any kind of model of "voters most likely to respond to a mailshot" rather than just random, then I'd be willing to bet sex goes into the model.

[SpeverendRooner]

There was a similar thread in chat the other day. I think someone contacted their candidate, who said that mailshots were so expensive that they just mailed a selection of people. I guess they don't address Mr & Mrs, because they're a bit wary of assuming that two residents are anything more than housemates, even in cases where they have the same surname.

That doesn't mean that there isn't sexism in their selection process, of course. In fact, if it's based on any kind of model of "voters most likely to respond to a mailshot" rather than just random, then I'd be willing to bet sex goes into the model.

[SpeverendRooner]

Sorry about the double post...

[TheBitterBoy]

That's really interesting Jeanie thanks for that. I suppose I wouldn't have thought anything of it, except I haven't had anything to me yet whereas DH has had mail from Labour, LibDems and the Conservatives so far.

[NoRockandRollFun]

I've got loads. None for DH, assumed it was because I completed the vote for policies not personalities ( or whatever it was called) questionnaire online.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

I've had loads from every party, DH has had none. I assumed it was because I had written to my MP before about something, but I am also first alphabetically on the roll.

[SweetAndFullOfGrace]

Don't assume that the process is automatically non-sexist. Last election we were living in a swing seat, and were heavily canvassed by both front running parties. One of them decided to send DH and I two different letters - his was about the economy and so on. Mine was about how I must be concerned about my family blah blah blah. I was furious about it.

[DuchessofBuffonia]

95% of the campaign post sent to my house has been addressed to me (from all parties) whereas DH has only had the occasional piece.

[DinoSnores]

To add to Jeanie's very helpful post, a friend who was a candidate told me that the reason that I got loads of mail and my DH didn't was likely because I must have given some indication at some point of being a floating voter or one willing to change (as I was) and he would have said that he was going to vote for a certain party more firmly so there was no point sending him as much.

They have a big database where they have characterised all the electorate in terms of expected voting intention or lack thereof so that marketing/canvassing can be targeted.