Candidate rep only asking for my DH

[NewtGuineaPig]

First time ever having someone come to the door before an election. The rep asked for my DH by name, asked if there was a good time to come back and talk to him later, very keen. No interest in me whatsoever although I'm on electoral roll too. Neither of us registered members of political party. Would you not be trying to get the votes of everyone living at that address? He was already at my front door! Just seems a bit bizarre.

I think it's silly to do this, unless they want to alienate every other voter in the household.

I did wonder if they were sometimes selecting from presumed age - can parties see which year people joined the electoral register?

More has come addressed to my adult DC than to me, and only one bit jointly to all three of us.

But the most has come for DS - so I think there's straight sexist assumptions about who is "head of the household" going on as well.

I've had 2x in person canvassers, who just talk to whoever opens the door

Which is asking to speak to the man of the house when an adult woman who almost certainly has the right to vote is literally standing right there.

Used to be a political activist so can explain this. It's called knocking up - on election day they have a list of people they have down as supporters (may or may not be accurate in my experience but someone may have canvassed your DH ages ago and thought he would vote Lib Dem). On the day they want to try and encourage him to the polling station - they are only interested in the people on that list as they will have a lot to get through. I'm not a Lib Dem but don't take it personally OP!

That's not the point being made.

Obviously there will be a reason why they targeted the OP's address. For some reason her husband has been identified as a potential Lib Dem voter.

But once the door is open it looks better to engage with whoever is on the doorstep, whether that person is the person on your list, or their wife/girlfriend/mother/miscellaneous support human.

My husband got a letter addressed to him only from Rishi Sunak. I didn't get one, so it seems all parties are at it.

We have this, often, from parties across the spectrum. We actually had a libdem communication addressed to me, DH and DS1, this time, though, but that might be because our Libdem is one of our local councillors and hopeful of our support.

I’m also an occasional door-knocker. This is correct. Your DH is on some database as a potential LD voter. The door-knocker’s job is to contact people on the database. Don’t take it personally.

Separately, on election day they target people who haven’t voted yet. So it could even be that you and DH are both on the same database, but you’ve already voted and he hasn’t.

Do they know in real time who has voted and who hasn't?

Only if someone consents to giving their name at an exit poll.

No exit polling at my station when I went to vote

Have you already voted OP?

Yes I have although I had not yet voted when he came to the door. This constituency is very up for grabs at the moment between Lib Dems, Labour and Tory so I'm just surprised he didn't even ask how I was voting.

Yes it's weird. Someone sticking very closely to instructions but so weird to not talk to you about it.