Is a Canadian firm conducting robo calls on R-71?

Monday night I received a phone call in which I was asked a handful of questions including my position on Referendum 71.

Did you get such a robo call? Any reaction?

The automated voice of the unidentified male said the 60-second survey was being conducted on behalf of "FPIW Watch" which is short for Family Policy Institute of Washington. This group put up $200,000 last week to convince voters to reject the referendum. Some of the money paid for radio ads.

It looks they may be separately paying Innovative Research, which I believe is the Canadian company described here. to conduct the phone survey.

I hung up thinking it was a poorly done poll then realized it was really about mining data for the organization's use now and in the future.

Why?

There were no questions on whether I was registered to vote or had already cast a ballot. They knew the answers already.

On the referendum there were but two questions - did I know about it and what was my position. Mu choices were approve, reject or skip to the next question. I skipped. (Of course the questions were asked with a tone representative of the FPIW view that the measure is giving homosexuals unprecendented rights etc.)

There also were questions on abortion, if I'd vote for a Democrat or Republican or Independent in the next congressional election and did I consider myself liberal, conservative or moderate.

Calls will be made this week only to registered voters. This info could very well be used to identify like-minded voters and make sure they cast ballots by the Nov. 3 election.